Legitimacy of the word "imput"

Solution 1:

It is a typo. Not even a site like Urban Dictionary gives it any legitimacy. The only dictionary I could find that mentions "imput" is Merriam Webster, but the context for that is that the editors were seemingly hesitant to make prescriptive rulings against many expressions that are commonly seen as "nonstandard".

For context, when typing, it's an easy mistake to make because the m/n keys are right next to each other (at least on any modern English-language keyboard I've seen) and both letters look (and sound) similar, especially in the middle of a word.

In Google Books, every hit I was able to look at turned out to be an OCR error. There are also a few hits in COCA for this "spelling". Some of these occurrences are in comments and other contexts where English is fast and loose (as demonstrated by other aspects of the writing, such as lowercasing the pronoun i). And in some of the occurrences, the context even shows that this is not how the author usually spells input:

More important, the company acts on the imput. ... Knowledge is so specialized and information so widely dispersed in the contemporary corporation that everyone's input is needed. — Fortune Magazine

and

An SEO must follow any imput given to him by human beings, except where such inputs would conflict... — Moz.com comment

and

... being the result of the Butterfly effect, or the high sensitivity to imput conditions. However there are many systems that have high input sensitivity... — Schneier.com comment

Solution 2:

Imput is an error. It is a individual phonetic representation.

I checked the OED, and the word imput appears but only within examples of other words, with the meaning of to install (a person in a dwelling or object in a place) as the converse of "output" (to evict or to remove) and is obsolete Scottish English.

(From "output") 1563 MS Rec. Aberdeen V. 25 To imput and outpute the tenentis. [to install and evict tenants]

(from the entry on "remove") 1580 Dundee Charters (1880) No. 71 ...quhilkis thai ar to imput and place at the entrie of the said rever. [which they are to install and place at the entrance to the said river.]

How often it is [mis]used is a reflection of local or demographic educational standards.