Flower and flour

Photo by Mae Mu on Unsplash

For Mother's Day, get your mum some flowers. 

Or if she really likes baking, you could get her a variety of flours (which currently seem harder to come by).

The two words were in fact once the same. 

The Latin word for the prettiest part of a plant, floris, became flour in Old French (subsequently fleur). Very quickly it acquired another meaning: “the choicest part of a plant”. Applied to wheat, this was the part used for baking. 

For centuries, “flour” had both meanings in English, then we changed the spelling to “flower”. In the 18^th century someone had the bright idea to use one spelling for the wheat meal and the other for blooms.

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How wacky is English spelling?

Photo by Kees Streefkerk on Unsplash

Here's a challenge for you: how many ways can the syllable that sounds like “SEE” be spelled in English? Can you think of an example word to illustrate each of those spellings? Keep thinking! All will be revealed at the end of this article. Don't cheat by looking!

Because English speakers have been such enthusiastic borrowers from other languages throughout our history, our spelling is notoriously non-phonetic. It causes grief to both native speakers and second-language learners. But its sheer quirkiness has contributed to what we can only call a “language as parlour game” phenomenon: English speakers love to test their linguistic mettle (or is that “metal”, or “meddle”, or “medal”?) in games like spelling bees, and our many homophones make the language a fertile source for punsters.

(How are you doing on those “SEE” spellings? Are you up to 10 yet? There are more!)

English is a wacky language. Lunatic, even. Consider how many ways we can write the sound “TOE”.

In a sensible language, it would be written “to”. But no, not for us. The digraph “to” is pronounced “TOE” in some words, but when to is a word unto itself, it is pronounced “TOO”, not of course to be confused with two or too, dear me I am feeling faint.

pto ptomaine

tau taupe

teau plateau

teaux Saulteaux

tho Thomism

to potato

toa toad

toe toe

toh butoh

tot Pitot

tow tow

tto ditto

(12 spellings)

“Twelve spellings,” you think, “But that's ridiculous!” (By the way, how are those “SEE” spellings coming along? There are more than twelve!)

Okay, then. Or should I say, “Oqué!” Because, for the sound in “okay” we have:

ca caber

cai caiman

cay decay

cca occasion

cei ceilidh

cha chaos

k KO

ka kaolin

kay okay

ke kea

kei keiretsu

key Keynesian

kka Akkadian

qa qadi

qué appliqué

que quesadilla

quet bouquet

(17 spellings)

Seventeen??!! Surely there (not “their” or “they're”) can't be more for “SEE”!

Think again!

And while you're mulling on that, let's talk about homophones some more. Our old confusable friends affect/effect, desert/dessert, and principal/principle are problems for all English speakers. But what are homophones for Canadians are not necessarily homophones in other varieties of English.

For instance, khat (an Arabian shrub the leaves of which are chewed as a stimulant), cot, and caught are all pronounced the same in Canadian English but differently in Southern Standard British English (where, what's more, caught is a homophone of court, and khat is a homophone of cart).

A particularly interesting phenomenon occurs when a vowel precedes the letter “r”. For most Canadians the words harry and hairy are perfect homophones. Dictionaries from other countries would fail to warn you about this.

It's not just the vowels that are a problem, though. In North America we tend to pronounce the letter “t” between two vowels or before a syllabic “l” as “d”; hence it is possible to confuse tutor and Tudor or hurtle and hurdle. I once was very confused by a discussion with a lawyer where he seemed to be referring to the company infringing someone else's trademark as a "traitor". "That's a bit harsh," I thought, till I realized the word he was using was "trader"!

You might think, “Well, really, who would ever confuse tootsie and Tutsi?” But bear in mind that in a spelling bee, a contestant is given the word orally out of context, so they have no way of knowing, when they hear the sound “TOOT see” (there, I've just given you two spellings of “SEE”!), whether piggies going to market or African peoples are meant. There are many more homophones than you probably suspect: we identified 1800 of them in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary.

To keep you entertained while you're still working on your “SEE” list, here are some other syllables in English with wildly variant spellings:

The choux is on the other foot:

choux choux paste

sciu prosciutto

shoe shoe

shoo shoo

shu Shuswap

su sensual

tu punctual

xu sexual

(8 spellings)

Jai thee to a nunnery:

ha'i Baha'i

hai Haida

hay Haydnesque

hei heinie

heigh height

hi hi

hie hie

high high

hy hyacinth

jai jai alai

(10 spellings, 11 if we also count chai in l'chaim)

Heaving a sci:

ci cite

cy cyan

psi psi

psy psych

sai saiga

say sayonara

sci sciatic

scy scythe

si site

sig sign

sigh sigh

ssai assai

ssi Messiah

sy prophesy

xi xi

(15 spellings)

For a small phoe:

fae faeces

fe febrile

fea feat

fee fee

ffee coffee

ffei caffeine

ffi graffiti

ffy taffy

fi fiasco

fie fief

fil fils

fille fille de joie

filles filles du roi

fit confit

fj fjord

foe foetus

fy salsify

ghie toughie

ghy roughy

phae nymphae

phe phenol

phee biographee

phi morphine

phoe phoebe

phy philosophy

(a whopping 25 spellings)

But “SEE” trumps them all. This is your last chance. Exhausted all the possibilities you can think of?

There are THIRTY-ONE different spellings of SEE” in English!

From cey to coe:

c C-section

cae Caesar

ce cede

cea cease

cee Sadducee

cei receive

cey Ceylonese

ci calcium

cie policies

coe coelom

cy icy

sce scene

sci hyoscine

se sebum

sea sea

see see

sei seize

sey curtsey

si Tutsi

sie siege

sse Tennessean

ssee lessee

ssey odyssey

ssi lassi

ssie lassie

ssy sissy

sy hypocrisy

xe tuxedo

xi taxi

xie pixie

xy boxy

I can only conclude that all of us who have to write English, especially those of us who make our livings in the language industries, deserve a meddle, dammit, I mean medal for putting up with this chaos.

If you would be interested in taking my Rollicking Story of English course in January and February, please let me know (wordlady.barber@gmail.com). It would be a weekday morning or afternoon in Toronto (let me know which days and times suit you best). 9 weeks, $280. 

CSI: Spelling. What's wrong with rigour mortis?

Wait. Is that a.... spelling mistake? Why, yes, it is!

I recently saw  someone (no doubt a Canadian) write "rigour mortis" instead of the correct "rigor mortis". 

I suspect a Canadian because we Canadians have a very strong tendency to write "-or" words as "-our" just to prove we're not American -- even when "-or" is the correct spelling. See these posts:
http://katherinebarber.blogspot.com/2016/06/canadian-hypercorrection.html
http://katherinebarber.blogspot.com/2013/11/stupor-or-stupour.html
and for the explanation of the :-or/-our" split, see this post:
http://katherinebarber.blogspot.com/2011/07/discouver-vancouver.html

"Rigour" derives ultimately from the Latin rigor (unbending quality, stiffness, rigidity), but it came into English in the 1400s by way of Middle French, where rigor had morphed into rigour. British English and other varieties of Commonwealth English retained this spelling, whereas American English opted for "rigor".

"Rigor mortis", on the other hand, was borrowed directly from Latin in the early 19th century.  It retains its Latin spelling in all varieties of English.

And to make life more complicated, the adjective "rigorous" is also so spelled in all varieties of English.

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Perking up

Photo by Piotr Miazga on Unsplash

An avid Wordlady reader has inquired about the word "perks", i.e. side benefits associated with a job.

Where does this word come from? Are these ancillary benefits called this because they perk you up from your otherwise dreary worklife? Or are they somehow related to the reinvigorating effect of a cup of coffee (does anyone actually refer to "perked coffee" anymore?).

ETYMOLOGY
No, in fact "perk" is an abbreviation of the much more highfalutin word "perquisite", derived from Latin perquisitum (a thing acquired or gained, an acquisition, profit), from the same root as "acquisition". This word has had the meaning of "profits, benefits, etc. in addition to the regular revenue" since the 16th century. The slang abbreviation "perk" started to be used in the mid-19th century. I would say that "perk" has now become the neutral-register term for this concept, and that "perquisite" has become quite formal.

SPELLING
There is some early evidence of this being spelled "perq", because of its derivation, but current dictionaries list only "perk". Do not spell it "perq" unless you want people to think you are insufferably pretentious. 

OTHER PERKS
In reference to coffee, as in

‘I thought as I spotted the coffee perk, I need lethal doses of almost dangerously potent coffee.’

or as the verb

 ‘A pot of coffee already sat perking, filling the room with its rich aroma.’ 

"perk" is obviously derived from "percolate" and "percolator". And yet no one suggests it should be spelled "perc", hmmmm. These words come from Latin percōlāre to filter, strain, trickle through < per- through + cōlāre filter.

Perk up, meaning "become or make more cheerful, lively, or interesting." is unrelated, but of uncertain origin. It may be related to "perch".

Gorillas and guerrillas

Gorilla. Do not confuse with guerrilla.

There's been much in the news about gorillas lately, so of course you want to know why they are called that.  This is what the Oxford English Dictionary has to say:

An alleged African name for a wild or hairy man (strictly for the female only), preserved (in accusative plural γορίλλας) in the Greek account of the voyage undertaken by the Carthaginian Hanno in the 5th or 6th cent. BC; hence adopted in 1847 as the specific name of the ape Troglodytes gorilla (now Gorilla gorilla), first described by Dr. T. S. Savage, an American missionary in Western Africa.

Do not confuse gorillas with guerrillas. 

guerrilla /ɡəˈrɪlə/ 

▶

noun

(also guerilla)

• 1. a person taking part in an irregular war waged by small bands operating independently, often against a stronger, more organized force, with surprise attacks etc.: [also attributive] : guerrilla warfare.

 You will notice that the alternate spelling "guerilla" is given by dictionaries, but this spelling (which is also the spelling used in French) is MUCH less common than "guerrilla". 

The word comes from Spanish guerrilla, a diminutive of guerra (war), and was first used to describe Spanish fighters in the Peninsular War against Napoleonic occupation in the early 1800s.

Since then, this word has taken on a life of its own, and has since the 1970s become an adjective

"Designating activities conducted in an irregular, unorthodox, and spontaneous way, without regard to established conventions, rules, and formalities, as guerrilla advertising, guerrilla cooking, guerrilla filmmaking, etc."

Surprisingly, though, the first example of this adjectival usage is earlier than you would think:

1888   Polyclinic Nov. 134/2   The so-called pure pepsins..which, by a system of ‘guerrilla’ advertising..have been foisted upon the deceived medical profession.

 My favourite examples of this are:

guerrilla gardening  n. gardening on sites that the gardeners are not authorized to use (typically land which has been abandoned or otherwise neglected), esp. as a political or environmental statement.

guerrilla knitting  n. street art consisting of colourful knitted or crocheted items and motifs attached to public objects and monuments; the action of decorating objects or monuments in this way; cf. yarn bombing

"Who yarn-bombed that tree? Not moi!" *whistles nonchalantly*

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When you are mizzled by English spelling

We all know that English spelling and pronunciation do not match up very well.

A facebook group I belong to recently had a very entertaining discussion of words that its members had mispronounced for a very long time because they had only ever seen them written.
The culprits:

WORD	MISTAKEN PRONUNCIATION	CORRECT PRONUNCIATION
Placebo	PLACE-bo	Pluh SEE bo
Pinochle	Pin OACH'll	PEE nuckle
Epitome	EPPY tome	ip PITTA mee
Awry	AWEree	Uh RYE
Rely	RELLee	Ruh LIE
Asylum	ASSY lum	Uh SYE lum
Misled	MIZZ'ld, MIZE'ld	Miss LED
Underfed	Un DERFD	Under FED
Ascites	ASS kitties	Uh SITE eez
Whodunit	WODD you nit	Hoo DUNNit
Subunit	Soo BUNNit	SUB you nit
Fatigue	FATTY goo	Fuh TEEG
Anathema	ANNA THEEmuh	Uh NATH uh muh
Voila	VOYL uh	Vwah LA
Infrared	In FRAIRD	IN fruh RED
Flamingo	FLAY ming go	Fluh MING go
Sundried (tomatoes)	SUN dreed	SUN dried
Nauseating	NAW seeting	NAW zee ate ing
Paradigm	Para DIDGE um	PARA dime
Omnipotent	Omnee POTE 'nt	Om NIP uh t'nt
Redolent	Ree DOLE 'nt	REDDA l'nt
Picturesque	PICK chur skew	Pick chur ESK
Cesarean	Seez ur EEN	Suhz AIR ee 'n
Pseudo	Puh SWAYED oh	SOO do
Hyperbole	HIPE ur bole	Hi PURR buh lee
Colonel	Koe l'n ell	KER n'll
Bedraggled	BED ragg 'lld	Buh DRAG 'lld
Hitherto	HITHER toe	HITHER too
Indict	In DICKT	In DITE
Chaos	CHAY oze	KAY oss
Fajitas	Fuh JYE tiss, FADGY tass	Fu HEE tuhzz
Aspartame	A SPARTA mee	ASS purr tame
Inchoate	INCH oh ate	In KO uht, INKO uht

What words have you had this experience with?

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