"potable water"

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Hearing this phrase a lot on CNN re: New Orleans.

I always thought it was pronounced ala "potent" (as in "potent potables" on Jeopardy), but everyone's saying potable with a flat "o" sound (ala smoke some pot).

Which is it?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 19 September 2005 15:06 (twenty years ago)

Weird, I've always said it "po" as in "po-po".

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 19 September 2005 15:10 (twenty years ago)

It's the first, as in potion, from Latin potare (to drink). It infuriates me to no end to hear it pronounced "pottable".

― Jaq (Jaq), Monday, 19 September 2005 15:12 (twenty years ago)

And the dictionary agrees:

Pronunciation: 'pO-t&-b&l

(doesn't it?)

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 19 September 2005 15:12 (twenty years ago)

Huh?! As in "potent", for sure. I don't watch much TV news so haven't witnessed this travesty.

― Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 19 September 2005 15:13 (twenty years ago)

xpost - yes, long O sound.

― Jaq (Jaq), Monday, 19 September 2005 15:14 (twenty years ago)

POtable, like potent.

flat o like "smoke" "some" or "pot" ? ;-)

I heard it as pot-able recently. I guess people say it that way because you can safely put it in a pot.

― when something smacks of something (dave225.3), Monday, 19 September 2005 15:14 (twenty years ago)

TS: Cobble vs. KAH bull
TS: Exxon Val Deez vs. Exxon Valdez
(etc)

― PappaWheelie B.C., Monday, 19 September 2005 15:16 (twenty years ago)

it comes from the latin potablis meaning "for the table" or something like that. i really don't care how it's pronounced because it's a ridiculous work to use when you can just say drinking or drinkable and have everyone understand you.

― sfx, Monday, 19 September 2005 15:17 (twenty years ago)

it's a ridiculous word if you don't know how to pronounce it! otherwise i don't see anything wrong with it...

― Juulia (julesbdules), Monday, 19 September 2005 15:33 (twenty years ago)

Is potato water potable?

― M. V. (M.V.), Monday, 19 September 2005 15:36 (twenty years ago)

is pot-able water like bong water?

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Monday, 19 September 2005 15:39 (twenty years ago)

TV news doesn't always feature the brightest heads in the news business.

― Aimless (Aimless), Monday, 19 September 2005 15:42 (twenty years ago)

is pot-able water like bong water?

http://www.billrotelladrumbeatings.com/rimshot.gif

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 19 September 2005 15:44 (twenty years ago)

French pronunication would be pot (as in pot)- ahbleh. Roughly.

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 19 September 2005 15:45 (twenty years ago)

I've never heard it pronounced any other way than 'pot-able'; that might be a uk pronunciation though.

(latin 'potare' would be pronounced rather a lot like pot-are-eh as well. I think the -tion suffix rounds the o as an e would, which is why potent and potion have the same o vowel.)

― spontine (cis), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:00 (twenty years ago)

portable water.

― mike h. (mike h.), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:09 (twenty years ago)

I always mis-read potable as 'portable', for some reason.

HA! x-post!

― C J (C J), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:10 (twenty years ago)

What really is ridiculous is to think that words like potable are being lost simply because of weak vocabulary training and that skools and guvermint leeders think it is acceptable to graduate from high school without learning to read, speak and write above a third grade level.

― Wiggy (Wiggy), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:38 (twenty years ago)

sieg heil.

― seig heil, Monday, 19 September 2005 18:52 (twenty years ago)

That is not how you pronounce "potable".

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:56 (twenty years ago)

Um, you're supposed to to click your heels together when you salute.

― Wiggy (Wiggy), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:59 (twenty years ago)

Like Dorothy, in the Wizard of Oz?

― C J (C J), Monday, 19 September 2005 19:11 (twenty years ago)

They must've had a lot of guys like you around when they invented language. (You know for quality control and what not.)

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Monday, 19 September 2005 19:12 (twenty years ago)

_
o

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 19 September 2005 19:14 (twenty years ago)

Quotable potables.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 19 September 2005 19:36 (twenty years ago)

My sarcasm was apparently lost in translation, but truly although way OT, I really feel badly that so many good and descriptive terms are being completely obliterated from our language from what seems to be general laziness - both on the part of parents & teachers and more directly, government politics. Pretty soon we’ll be back to the caveman days, pointing and grunting at things. I think it is sad, but maybe I am just a dinosaur and should pepper my daily speech pattern with "ums", and "you know" say "like" before every other word I speak, and be very careful to speak in single syllable words exclusively. There are just too many words anyway, right? Let's keep it simple. Simple minds, simple pleasure. Maybe we should just burn all those dumb books in the library. Nobody wants to read them anyway, who can understand them with their fancy three-dollar words. See Spot run! Go dog, go!

― Wiggy (Wiggy), Monday, 19 September 2005 22:22 (twenty years ago)

jam. on. it.

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 02:41 (twenty years ago)

The problem, Wiggy, is that you don't have any proof that what you say is happening is happening. The odd thing about "potable" being mispronounced is that it has been pronounced on a famous television show for many, many years: I suspect many people who know the word "potable" first heard it on Jeopardy! in their "Potent Potables" category.

On the other hand, I was suspecting this would turn out to be like "harassment", where two pronunciations have been competing for well over a century, and the word's sudden prominence will allow the less common word to become common again. M-W only has one pronunciation for "potable", though.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 05:57 (twenty years ago)

but isn't it pronounced to rhyme with "potent" on jeopardy? otherwise why have that at all, other than to deliberately confuse people?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 06:00 (twenty years ago)

Uh, it's pronounced to be assonant with "potent" in the dictionary, too. It's just meant to be catchy.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 06:04 (twenty years ago)

Wiggly - um, if you don't stand up against the, you know, government we'll forget how to, like, talk.

This high school english teacher-ass point of view drives me, like, totally insane. Language didn't evolve because there were a few curmudgeons complaining about incorrect pronunciation. This should be obvious, but since it's not, get yourself to a linguistics book.

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 12:58 (twenty years ago)

I learned the word at French motorway services, where it's crucial vocab if you're thirsty.

― Mädchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 13:05 (twenty years ago)

See what I mean?
http://a.ccl.free.fr/actions/etapesliberte/05aire_essentiel/05-34.jpg

― Mädchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 13:07 (twenty years ago)

As far as I'm aware, UK pronunciation is something like pottible, but what do I know? I was the girl who said puheazents instead of fezzants.

― Mädchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 13:13 (twenty years ago)

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