The accidental or intentional repetition of letters, words, or phrases in written text, especially in historical manuscripts and early copying.
From Greek 'ditto' (the said thing) plus 'graphy' (writing). In paleography, it refers to the scribal error of unintentionally repeating text while copying.
Medieval manuscript scholars love dittography because it reveals the copyist's mind wandering—when a scribe repeated 'the the,' they literally blinked and missed a word, creating a timestamp of human attention!
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