Etaoin shrdlu in a 1903 publication of The New York Times (third line from the bottom)
A humorous and intentional example of etaoin shrdlu in a 1916 publication of The Day Book
The letters in the string are, approximately, the 12 most commonly used letters in the English language; differing sources do give slightly different results but one well-known sequence is ETAOINS RHLDCUM. ordered by their frequency.[4]
In the English version of Scrabble, the most common letters are E 12, AI 9, O 8, TNR 6, DLSU 4.
The letters on type-casting machine keyboards (such as Linotype and Intertype) were arranged by descending letter frequency to speed up the mechanical operation of the machine, so lower-case e-t-a-o-i-n and s-h-r-d-l-u were the first two columns on the left side of the keyboard.
Each key would cause a brass 'matrix' (an individual letter mold) from the corresponding slot in a font magazine to drop and be added to a line mold. After a line had been cast, the constituent matrices of its mold were returned to the font magazine.
If a mistake was made, the line could theoretically be corrected by hand in the assembler area. However, manipulating the matrices by hand within the partially assembled line was time-consuming and presented the chance of disturbing important adjustments. It was much quicker to fill out the bad line and discard the resulting line of text than it was to redo it properly.
To make the line long enough to proceed through the machine, operators would finish it by running a finger down the first columns of the keyboard, which created a pattern that could be easily noticed by proofreaders. Occasionally such a line would be overlooked and make its way into print.
The phrase has gained enough notability to appear outside typography, including:
Computing
SHRDLU was used in 1972 by Terry Winograd as the name for an early artificial-intelligence system in Lisp.[5]
The ETAOIN SHRDLU Chess Program was written by Garth Courtois, Jr. for the Nova 1200 mini-computer, competing in the 6th and 7th ACM North American Computer Chess Championship 1975 and 1976.[6]
"Etienne Shrdlu" was used as the name of a character in Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, touch-typing training software from the late 1980s.[7]
Variations of "Etaoin Shrdlu" are used in the title of some works, including "Etaoin Shrdlu", a 1942 short story by Fredric Brown about a sentient Linotype machine (a sequel, "Son of Etaoin Shrdlu", was written by others in 1981);[8] the 1945 whimsical short story "Etaoin and Shrdlu" by Anthony Armstrong which ends "And Sir Etaoin and Shrdlu married and lived so happily ever after that whenever you come across Etaoin's name even today it's generally followed by Shrdlu's";[8] a 50-year history of the National Press Club (USA) published in 1958 titled Shrdlu– An Affectionate Chronicle;[11] and The Best of Shrdlu, a collection by Denys Parsons of humorous misprints and double meanings from newspapers that Parsons ascribed to a mischievous character named Gobfrey Shrdlu, referring to collectors of them as Shrdlologists.[12]
Three pieces in The New Yorker magazine were published in 1925 under the pen name Etain Shrdlu.[13] At least one piece in The New Yorker magazine had Etaoin Shrdlu in the title.[14]
Etaoin Shrdlu is the name of a character in at least two Robert Crumb comic stories, including Weirdo.[15]
"Eotain" and "Shurdlu", using these spellings, are the names of two characters who make sporadic joint appearances in Phil Foglio's webcomic Girl Genius.
Etaoin and Shrdlu both appear frequently in the drawings of Emile Mercier as place names, racehorses' names, and people's names.
The rogue-like video game Nethack uses randomized names for unidentified magic scrolls; one of these names is ETAOIN SHRDLU.[16]
"Molten Fairies: Sprites of a Newspaper" appeared in Perth's "The Daily News" in 1922.[17]
James Schmitz uses the sequence as a swear-word in several of his pieces.
Music
Shrdlu (Norman Shrdlu) is listed as the composer of "Jam Blues", cut 1 on the 1951 Norman Granz-produced jazz album released in 1990 as Charlie Parker Jam Session. This appears to be a joke on Granz's part as Norman Shrdlu is credited in several Parker (and other) tunes that are jam sessions rather than compositions.
"Etaoin"[18] and "Shrdlu", written and performed by Dallas Roberts, are original musical pieces created for the soundtrack of the U.S. television series House of Cards, Season 2, Episode 10.[19]
"Molten Fairies". The Daily News. Vol.XLI, no.14, 787. Western Australia. 5 August 1922. p.11 (third edition). Retrieved 22 April 2023– via National Library of Australia.