Re: What is the language "British"?

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

 



On Tue, 29 Aug 2006, jdow wrote:

For the record I have several dictionaries here that show both spellings
with neither the preferred spelling. The "e" on the end has fallen off
potatoe only in the days since the Quayle tarring. I learned it with
the potatoe spelling when I was in school in the 40s. It was a "Toe May Toe" or "Toe Mah Toe" thing. Both looked (sounded) wrong to
about half the people.

My Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition (1970) lists "potato" as the only acceptable spelling (plural is "potatoes"). Same with my Random House College Dictionary Revised Edition (1972). I think it's safe to say those are pre-conspiracy. I already cited dictionary.com, but I'm sure that's post-conspiracy. wikipedia.org has an entry for "potatoe", which calls that variant "archaic" (the spelling, not SWMBO). It cites the OED, which lists the most recent usage as 1880 (eighteen-eighty--surely before Dan's and Joanne's time). Wikipedia also describes the Quayle incident and mentions that the flashcard was misspelled.

Wikipedia cites this description of the incident: http://www.capitalcentury.com/1992.html. Quayle's advance men were supposed to have checked the cards. I doubt Quayle was set up, but he was certianly victimized by the media (who show no favoritism when it comes to victimizing people for gaffes and soundbites--witness the apocryphal Al Gore "invented the Internet" quote).


{^_^}




--
		Matthew Saltzman

Clemson University Math Sciences
mjs AT clemson DOT edu
http://www.math.clemson.edu/~mjs


[Index of Archives]     [Current Fedora Users]     [Fedora Desktop]     [Fedora SELinux]     [Yosemite News]     [Yosemite Photos]     [KDE Users]     [Fedora Tools]     [Fedora Docs]

  Powered by Linux