Well, doesn't that just figure.
Private entries work now.
The culprit: (f a b) is, of course, not the same thing as (f b a). Yay, I rule. Bow to my ability to miss this one completely for quite a while.
(More evangelism) Other people have to write spellcheckers for their clients. Hmm. M-x flyspell-mode RET seems to do the trick... :)