Memo to the Serious Eats Team
To: everydamnbody@seriouseats.com
From: copydesk@seriouseats.com
Subject: Style Bites: "doughnut" vs. "donut"
Dear Serious Eats Team,
The difference between "doughnut" and "donut" is UGH. And you're gonna hear a lot of "UGH" if I continue to catch you spelling it "donut" under my watch.
Perhaps I have failed to mention, in my role as de facto copy chief of Serious Eats, that our official house dictionary is Merriam-Webster's 11th Edition.
Web lists "doughnut" as the first entry in its definition of this circular and singularly delicious treat. Although "donut" is the second entry, and therefore recognized as a legitimate spelling, it remains a bastardized variant in my eyes.
As John T. Edge says in his book Donuts [UGH!], "donut" appeared in the 1920s, when "the New York–based Doughnut Machine Corporation set its eyes upon foreign markets." To help foster proper pronunciation in different languages, the company introduced the marketing-friendly spelling.
Going forward, please avoid using "donut," "do-nut," "dough-nut" or anything that deviates from "doughnut."
I will add this to the style guide, posthaste.
Your resident curmudgeon,
Adam
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8 Comments:
So how do you weigh in on "damnit" vs. "dammit"? :)
Ovens2Betsy at 7:32PM on 06/01/07
Neither are right, damit.You're just trying to dam the damn thing up as though they give a damn about the dammed word, dammitall. I mean ... dam!
I hate when I see similar words that many times. After a while, none of them look right. ;-)
LunaPierCook at 7:57PM on 06/01/07
I just hope y'all get over this do(ugh)nut fixation soon. What a load of empty calories! What a waste of blog space! Get back to SERIOUS eats, please!
1stmakearoux at 10:14PM on 06/01/07
@1stmakearoux: We're done with doughnuts for the day! All will be back to normal Monday morning. Thanks for bearing with us.
Adam Kuban at 11:04PM on 06/01/07
@Adam: I promise you I did not read this post before I proclaimed myself "resident curmudgeon" on another SE post. I don't mean to presume, and I yield. Great post: when marketing people dictate how we spell, surely the terrorists have won.
Lou at 1:15PM on 06/02/07
i use the word doughnuts for doughnuts that i love, i.e. from the doughnut plant. all the rest are "donuts" to me.
abominations like krispy kremes, i think the word "doughnut" would be stretching it. so maybe we could reserve doughtnut for the sublime ones, and donuts for the crap.
eat 2 love at 6:21PM on 06/03/07
@Lou: You can still be the "resident curmudgeon." I'll come up with a different title for myself when going into "official" copy-edit mode.
@eat2love: You may be onto something there.
Adam Kuban at 3:11PM on 06/04/07
@Adam: thanks for the consideration. I suspect I'm much older that you are. I like "curmudgeon" because it sounds better than "dinosaur" (which I've been called for years). But curmudgeon though I be, I am not resident: the title is yours. Your posts are wonderful.
Lou at 6:33PM on 06/04/07