Thursday, September 29, 2005

Mispronunciationalism

Eric Zorn points us to a list of the 100 most often mispronounced words and phrases. It's funny even if its not intended to be.

However, TEH friend RM notices something in the list:
Funny stuff, but the proofreader in me can't help it -- I already found an error there. "Duct tape" really did start out as Duck tape. It was a military invention to help keep powder and ammunition dry -- It repelled water, hence the "duck".

Take that, language snobs! Next up: nookular.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's duck tape, but not exactly for the reason you cite!

A seaman first class took a roll of duct tape, and threw it at a seaman second class who was working on some ducts. At the very last moment he yelled duck!

Thus a legend was born.

JeromeProphet

Anonymous said...

What I cannot stand and my wife is very guilty of this one is when one says: pitcher instead of picture by dropping out the 'c'.