Whenever I see espresso spelled with an 'X' a little part of me dies inside.

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Or like when someone asks for a mocha latte but pronounces it like "MOE-CHA-LAW-DEE". GRRRR.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 2 May 2003 13:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh yeah, so um, do you have any things you're irrationally put-off by?

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 2 May 2003 13:36 (twenty-two years ago)

(Oh fuck, remove one of the "s"s from the thread title...god, way to be the thing I hate!!!! GRRRRR!)

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 2 May 2003 13:37 (twenty-two years ago)

the pond

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 2 May 2003 13:39 (twenty-two years ago)

the way the tags on my underwear itch the top of my ass.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Friday, 2 May 2003 13:40 (twenty-two years ago)

mugaccino

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Friday, 2 May 2003 13:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Too many things to count. I get too wound up too easily.

― kate, Friday, 2 May 2003 13:43 (twenty-two years ago)

What Kate said.

Though, on the topic in questions, the phrase "and I'll have a biscotti please" - no, you poxy fule, they are PLURAL words, you ignorant fuck!! Viz also panini, though at least the Crane brothers seldom proffer this abomination.

And I get kinda annoyed by people who see my name written down in front of them (mainly my surname, though someone on this bitch did call me Marc the other day :)) and then don't have the courtesy to spell it correctly.

― Mark C (Mark C), Friday, 2 May 2003 13:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I laugh a haughty laugh at your misspelling, nick. Serves you right.

― Andrew (enneff), Friday, 2 May 2003 13:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah totally. Misspelling the very word you get infuriated over the misspelling of in random diatribe = FREUDIAN SLIP FO SHIZZLE.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 2 May 2003 13:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I got wound up about something of this sort yesterday to the point where HSA found it amusing how wound up I was. And now I can't even remember what it was. Typical.

― kate, Friday, 2 May 2003 14:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't see any problem with anglicising words that English has borrowed from other languages, personally. I am as anal and pedantic as the next person, but that is just what language does isn't it.

― Archel (Archel), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I really hate people who say "Suh-weeet", except if you starred in Dude, Where's My Car.

― Carey (Carey), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:07 (twenty-two years ago)

no problem there.. suh-weeet

― ashton kutcher (electricsound), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:08 (twenty-two years ago)

a few of my friends still do that stupid "Whazzzzzzup" thing. I want to tell them "Here's whats up!" And kick them in the genitals.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Aw, Carey, now I won't be able to come to your London FAP :(

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:08 (twenty-two years ago)

So what's the singular of "biscotti" then?

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Jerry, just let me get drunk and then tell me you were in Dude, Where's My Car.

― Carey (Carey), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:10 (twenty-two years ago)

I am giggling out loud at the thought of asking "Please, sir, may I have a biscottus?"

― kate, Friday, 2 May 2003 14:11 (twenty-two years ago)

archel - otm. maybe in 10yrs the only people that say 'espresso' will be total pedants, and even gastronomes like ed will say 'expresso'?

good example of folk etymology (well a bit like that anyway)

― ambrose (ambrose), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Biscotto? But if it never arises in singular form then you just have to ask for 'SOME biscotti', presumably.

― Archel (Archel), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Jerry, just let me get drunk and then tell me you were in Dude, Where's My Car.

Same here; I'd be all yours.

― Sean (Sean), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I say espresso. Does that really make me a pedant?

What is the correct pronunciation of "latte" anyway? I've always assumed that it is "Lah -tay", but only coz everyone I've heard talk abt it says it in that way.

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:15 (twenty-two years ago)

If this is folk etymology, it doesn't reflect very well on the folk. They just can't bother to spell things properly, it seems. Lazy folk. Stupid folk.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:15 (twenty-two years ago)

The 'correct' pronunciation of latte is whatever you want, since we have taken the word out of Italy and now we can abuse it as much as we like bwhahahahahahaha! (NB. this is not true if you go to Italy and order latte.)

― Archel (Archel), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, Archel totally OTM, and it's funny cuz I'm usually a big fan of (d)evolution-of-language, like when people complain about American southerner English and I think "well yeah, but geez American southerner English : "proper" English :: French : Latin" and then I think I should get over it.

And thus the "irrational" hatred of eXpresso. I should embrace it, but something about it...I. Just. Can't.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:21 (twenty-two years ago)

(note: this all coming from a person who lives in Kentucky where the town-name spelled "Versailles" is pronounced "ver-SALES".)

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:21 (twenty-two years ago)

If you go to Italy and order "latte" you'll get a glass of milk. Unless you order a laaaaah-tay, when you'll get a smack in the face for being an ignorant foreign ponce.

Biscotti, in coffee bars at least, are fairly sizeable biscuits, so people tend to order them one at a time. It should indeed be biscotto.

― Mark C (Mark C), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:26 (twenty-two years ago)

You don't want to get my mum started on the "Dutch" placenames in upstate NY. Of course, my mum's Dutch is actually Afrikaans, which diverged from real Dutch (in the opposite direction) around the same time as New York stopped being New Amsterdam.

Cue my mum asking directions to "Hill-der-lund" or "Foor-hee-es-fille" and the locals having no idea that these refer to "Gill-duh-land" and "Vor-iss-ville".

― kate, Friday, 2 May 2003 14:27 (twenty-two years ago)

What really bothers me is not so much the spelling, but the lack of regard for the espresso itself. Nobody knows how to pull a nice, reddish, perfectly creamed and spotted shot anymore. And no one even knows how to steam milk. You know how sometimes in the coffee shop you hear them steaming milk, and it makes that horrible screaming sound? It shouldn't ever do that.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:27 (twenty-two years ago)

(Though I am in stitches imagining Kate ordering her snacks in Latin :))

― Mark C (Mark C), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:28 (twenty-two years ago)

mark - sorry i didnt mean that you (or i for that matter) are a pedant, i meant that maybe in the future we will say/write it as 'expresso' and not think anything of it. only people (the sort that say 'me-h-ico' for mexico...you dont do this do you?) that continue to say 'espresso' will be branded pedants in my hypothesis.

kenan - as far as i understand, the folk aspect is that people, trying to relate to the foreign word, connected 'espresso', with express, as in, served very fast, and so imagine that to be the root. ironically obviously bothe 'express' and 'espressere' (made that italian up) come from the same latin root, but the changes in meaning of the english (in that sense nayway) sort of sever the connection in peoples mind. i mean, i doubt people who ask for one are thing, 'oh yeah the water is sort of pushed out thru the coffee', hence espresso.

maybe it'll go the other way as more people consume/get used to espressos, and become more familiar with the original...

― ambrose (ambrose), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:30 (twenty-two years ago)

mark h - sorry i didnt mean that you (or i for that matter) are a pedant, i meant that maybe in the future we will say/write it as 'expresso' and not think anything of it. only people (the sort that say 'me-h-ico' for mexico...you dont do this do you?) that continue to say 'espresso' will be branded pedants in my hypothesis.

maybe it'll go the other way as more people consume/get used to espressos, and become more familiar with the original...

― ambrose (ambrose), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:30 (twenty-two years ago)

oh bollocks. sorry

― ambrose (ambrose), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I had never made that 'express' + 'espresso' = 'eXpresso' connection before, that really does put a neat spin on it...maybe I don't hate it so much after all.

No I still do.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I did some serious research on this eXpresso business. The following posters are guilty as charged:

* I sound like a yuppie or something but really i just love expresso...
-- g (graysonlaneNOSPA...), October 18th, 2002.

*sadly I only know a little about industrial expresso makers
-- alix (lixibel...), January 8th, 2002.

*Coffee for enjoyment, capuccino or expresso for an immediate burst of caffeine goodness
-- brg30 (brg3...), January 9th, 2003.

*Last time I arrived in new york I had expresso before getting the subway into town, a couple of large cokes and a couple of pots of expresso when I go to where I was staying...
-- Ed (dal...), December 16th, 2002.

*Expresso and Cappucino are two different things, aren't they. Expresso comes in those little cups.
-- Chris V. (formerlypoopsmcge...), January 8th, 2003.

Thank you. That will be all.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I simply misspell everything other than espresso.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Et tu, Ed? Et tu?

― buttch (Oops), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:56 (twenty-two years ago)

But Ed is one of the worst spellers in the world!

― kate, Friday, 2 May 2003 14:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Ed is one of the worst spellers in the world. Luckily I am one of the better spellers in the world so it all balances out.

Also Anglo confusion = Expresso Bongo.

― suzy (suzy), Friday, 2 May 2003 15:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Look at the size of Cliff's bongos!

http://www.leosden.co.uk/graphics/cr_expresso.jpg

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Friday, 2 May 2003 15:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I think if you asked for a biscotto in an American coffee shop you would get a very strange look.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 2 May 2003 15:21 (twenty-two years ago)

What's with the 'e'? Why not Xpresso?

― toraneko (toraneko), Friday, 2 May 2003 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah! That would be Xtreme!

― buttch (Oops), Friday, 2 May 2003 15:35 (twenty-two years ago)

I bet the Xmen and Xtina drink Xpresso.

― toraneko (toraneko), Friday, 2 May 2003 15:44 (twenty-two years ago)

At Xpressway Records.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 2 May 2003 15:46 (twenty-two years ago)

A) big ups to the HTML wizard what corrected the title of this thread...ME LOVEY YOU LONG TIME! :D

B) Xpresso - served to xstraight-edgex kids at X-Gameseses across the Earth! (wait, xstraight-edgex kids don't drink coffee...OH BOTHER!)

C) quoth the Harry Chronic Jr.-voiced character 'Dean McCoppin' from animated classic The Iron Giant: "I dunno kid, this is espresso...it's like coffeezilla."

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 2 May 2003 15:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I have this same reaction when I see "alot".

― luna (luna.c), Friday, 2 May 2003 16:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Physically able people who take the elevator down one floor annoy me.

― bnw (bnw), Friday, 2 May 2003 16:10 (twenty-two years ago)

oh god bnw - yahtzee

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 2 May 2003 16:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Skipping 127 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Maybe qy = "quixotically"?

Where I come from we say "undispensable."

― Redd Scharlach (Ken L), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 01:29 (nineteen years ago)

Not.

― Redd Scharlach (Ken L), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 01:30 (nineteen years ago)

oh right, well in that case it means "query: obsolete?" ie "this may be obsolete, guys -- anyone know different?"

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 01:31 (nineteen years ago)

It kind of stands to reason. Why would two negatively-loaded prefixes, added to an existing word with two meanings neatly evolve such that one prefix was understood to refer to one sense of it and one to the other. Language doesn't work like that!

This is from the Cambridge Guide to English Usage, fwiw:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/albaalba/yawn.gif

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 01:34 (nineteen years ago)

but then someone came along and said LET'S MAKE EM DISTINCT

Has this kind of thing ever worked? (I would qy like to know).

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 01:36 (nineteen years ago)

I love that "The files were kept open" in the Cambridge guide entry btw. It makes lexicography sound like a CSI offshoot!

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 01:39 (nineteen years ago)

i am tempted to argue that IN THE ORIGINAL LATIN dis- and un- have quite seperate prefix usages except it's late and i have no bulb in the passage and cannot find my latin dictionary to show if it's so in this case (it is in others but i can't remember any of em)

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 01:43 (nineteen years ago)

I'm sure you're right, but all this hinges on the two different (related) meanings of "interest", not the nuances of the prefixes.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 01:48 (nineteen years ago)

It is late though, and coincidentally, the bulb in my bedroom has just gone.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 01:49 (nineteen years ago)

bah there is only one (related) meaning anyway, they totally overlap

full divergence in latin is when differentiation tends to be fixed, but i'm not sure this was one

(why is there no word "unvergence"?)

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 01:51 (nineteen years ago)

the lights are going out all over europe -- i do not think we will see them lit again in our bedtimes!

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 01:52 (nineteen years ago)

Alba's link is entertaining. Some observations...

I don't think I've ever heard anyone, even on the BBC, pronounce "diphtheria" correctly.

Fillum for film is a British as well as an American regionalism. My g/f pronounces it like this.

I have mentally been pronouncing "lambast" wrong for my entire life.

I have never heard anyone say "spit and image" instead of "spitting image".

― Si.C@rter (SiC@rter), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 01:59 (nineteen years ago)

I have mentally been pronouncing "lambast" wrong for my entire life.

Me too, according to that page. But my dictionary gives both pronunciations and also two spellings (lambast or lambaste). Maybe it's another UK/US thing.

Fillum for film is a British as well as an American regionalism. My g/f pronounces it like this.

Fillum is mainly thought of as an Irish thing over here. Maybe Geordie too.

That page is WRONG about duck tape!

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 02:05 (nineteen years ago)

And diphtheria (in Britain).

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 02:08 (nineteen years ago)

Fillum for film is a British as well as an American regionalism. My g/f pronounces it like this.

Fillum is mainly thought of as an Irish thing over here. Maybe Geordie too.

Don't let her hear you say that. She's from Sunderland :)

― Si.C@rter (SiC@rter), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 02:13 (nineteen years ago)

I think I feel an almost irrational disdain for any family that has a family name sign on their door with an apostrophe-s used incorrectly, "The Dobson's" etc.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 03:11 (nineteen years ago)

Irregardless of what the usage notes say and what the rest of you choose to do, I personally am going to maintain the dis-/un- distinction.

― Redd Scharlach (Ken L), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 04:28 (nineteen years ago)

see further under dis

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 04:30 (nineteen years ago)

I could bring up a bunch of Jersey-specific examples, except that some of them border on charming.

For example, I've heard several people in offices I go to for my job refer to a "stapler remover." Does it remove staplers?

Once I was teaching an SAT class in Hamilton, NJ, and the word "spigot" was used in a question. An Italian kid yelled out "Mr. Saltzman, What's a spi-GOT?" I explained to the class that it was the thing on a faucet that turns on and off the water. "No," he insisted, "that's a spicket."

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 04:32 (nineteen years ago)

see further under dis
This thread is starting to get a little long - I hadn't realized the enormity of it.

― Redd Scharlach (Ken L), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 04:37 (nineteen years ago)

I think I feel an almost irrational disdain for any family that has a family name sign on their door with an apostrophe-s used incorrectly, "The Dobson's" etc.

It might just be that part of the sign has fallen off, and originally it said "The Dobson's Door".

(Mind you that would still be wrong, as it's a family, not just one person, so it should be "The Dobsons' Door") (Unless, in addition to having a butler and a maid and a cook, this family have another domestic servant known as a dobson, and he alone may enter the house via this door)

― Tehrannosaurus HoBB (the pirate king), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 09:35 (nineteen years ago)

it should be "The Dobsons' Door"
Or even "The Gates of Hellgrammite."

― Redd Scharlach (Ken L), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 12:52 (nineteen years ago)

It was pointed out to me that the word "flaccid" is almost universally mispronounced as "flassid," when the correct pronunciation is actually "flack-sid." Since then I haven't been able to use the word. "Flassid" is just so much better. So much more flaccid.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 15:49 (nineteen years ago)

just say "can't get it hard".

― the kit! (g-kit), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 15:50 (nineteen years ago)

Do you have to use the word "flaccid" often, Beth :(

― Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 15:58 (nineteen years ago)

Staple remover:

http://www.cyberimport.com/image_o/office/stapler/staple_remover/srsr001.jpg

They work well.

― (jacob) (ockle boc), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 16:09 (nineteen years ago)

Disused vs. unused

― M. White (Miguelito), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 16:39 (nineteen years ago)

Do you have to use the word "flaccid" often, Beth :(

Yes, but only in reference to my own ability to tear myself away from the computer.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 17:34 (nineteen years ago)

Why has jacob posted a picture of a staple remover?

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 17:36 (nineteen years ago)

spitting image/spit and image - I'm not sure I've ever heard the latter, 'correct' version but then I have grown up in a post- rubber puppet world I guess.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 17:38 (nineteen years ago)

It's probably a bit like "all mouth and no trousers", which was once "all mouth and trousers".

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 17:39 (nineteen years ago)

(and still is, in proper Yorkshire places, I think)

Spit and image vs. Spitting Image vs SPITTEN Image

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 17:42 (nineteen years ago)

Spitten image makes sense. Also it sounds better than 'spunked image'.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 17:44 (nineteen years ago)

disgruntled vs ungruntled

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 17:57 (nineteen years ago)

disgusted vs ungusted

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 17:59 (nineteen years ago)

All mouth and no trousers sounds like an ideal night in.

― Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 18:35 (nineteen years ago)

suddenly i'm ungruntled AND ungusted :0

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 18:38 (nineteen years ago)

It's a most unturbing image.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 18:41 (nineteen years ago)

Cheaper than a hot dog with unmustard
I said your posts all soft and I'm ungusted

― Redd Scharlach (Ken L), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 18:42 (nineteen years ago)

I am glad that, after earlier attempts, by myself and others, to unravel the thread, it has raveled itself up again quite nicely.

― Redd Scharlach (Ken L), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 18:43 (nineteen years ago)

Is it time, yet, for someone to link to "How I Met My Wife"?

― Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 18:49 (nineteen years ago)

I don't know. Not if it includes reference to Barry being fellated.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 18:55 (nineteen years ago)

unfellated vs disfellated

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 19:02 (nineteen years ago)

It's a continuum.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 19:06 (nineteen years ago)

five months pass...

does anyone outside the u.s. northeast say "i was hysterical laughing" (as in "she told me this story last night and i was hysterical laughing")? it's not incorrect really, but it's a peculiar usage that i've only heard among white women of a certain age in new york and new jersey.

― rudy huxtable can't fail (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 4 August 2006 15:14 (eighteen years ago)

by that i mean working-class italian chicks in brooklyn.

― rudy huxtable can't fail (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 4 August 2006 15:22 (eighteen years ago)

OH MY GOD, JODY I raise that question all the time!!! My ex said it, he was from Rockland County (parents orig from Italian Bronx). And my Jewish boss from Rockland Cty says it, too. Normally it would drive me crazy but this phenomenon is so WEIRD I can only laugh (unhysterically).

― Laurel (Laurel), Friday, 4 August 2006 15:27 (eighteen years ago)

hahaha! no, it's definitely more widespread than just rockland county.

― rudy huxtable can't fail (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 4 August 2006 15:31 (eighteen years ago)

Hoi polloi upthread - winds me up when people say 'the hoi polloi' :(

― beanz (beanz), Friday, 4 August 2006 15:33 (eighteen years ago)

awesome

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 4 August 2006 15:36 (eighteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.