Music or Musak?
December 27, 2004
John Oxton ponders whether website is spelled out “website” or “web site”. I can relate, for the fact that there are a few words that perplex me as to which way they should be spelled or pronunciated. With that in mind I offer my list of odd words, pronunciations and misspellings:
Is it?
Road or Ro-ad? Chris Farley posed this question in Tommy Boy or was it Black Sheep?
Potato or Potatoe? The addition of an ‘e’ reminds me too much of toe and then I imagine potatos with toes and that’s just freaky.
Color or Colour? Granted, the difference in spelling depends on if you’re in Europe or Canada but for the life of me I can’t figure out which one is correct.
Music or Musak? I blame this on that wretched invention installed in office environments piping out the latest in Latin and 90’s street beats.
Christmas or Xmas? This reminds me too much of Kriss Kross and then I have nightmares of the pants backward rapping duo.
Television or Televizzle? Curse Snoop Dogg and his ghetto speak.
What do you think?
14 comments
Definitely colour, but for the rest… I daren’t say
by Rob Mientjes on December 27, 2004 at 12:58 pm. #
You say potatoe, I say… well Spud actually, what a brilliantly descriptive word! Though I believe from my days as a chef that it is actually potato unless there are more than one potatoes.
Being one of the worlds worst spellers, I rely on spellcheck (or should that be spell check) more than I should and one other little things that stumps me, is it realise or realize?
Colour is definitely colour though and Christmas, I’m just glad that chaos is over!
by John Oxton on December 27, 2004 at 2:13 pm. #
Rob: Colour, eh? I suppose that stems from Old English wherein words such as color and flavor as spelled here in the States was originally spelled out as “colour” and “flavour”. I’m not entirely sure why the Yanks at the time decided to drop the ‘u’, but seeing as though the Americans at that point in history were as rebellious as ever it doesn’t surprise me.
“Oh yeah? We’ll just take your words, drop the u’s and be done with it.”
John: Good to see you’ve stopped by for a chat. You saying Spud brings up an image of Spuds McKenzie, the Budweiser mascot of the 80’s. I think from now on I’ll use colour just to throw off the majority.
by kartooner on December 27, 2004 at 2:21 pm. #
Haha! I always say “ro-ad”!
by Charlie on December 27, 2004 at 2:46 pm. #
Erik, I guess it does the trick
I prefer the English spelling over the American spelling. I’m a linguist, so I love purity. And in that sense I prefer real English 
by Rob Mientjes on December 27, 2004 at 3:04 pm. #
Man I miss Chris Farley. I just watched part of Black Sheep the other night. Let’s see, I am a southerner (U.S.), so I regularly use words that really aren’t even words at all. My 2 year old son just used “fixin’” for the first time the other day; it almost brought a tear to my eye (for those of you who have no idea what that means, here’s an example: “I’m fixin’ ta go to the store”. Translates to: “I’m about to go to the store”.). My take is: Road, potato, color, music, Christmas, and television. You could always Ask Snoop.
by Chad on December 27, 2004 at 5:34 pm. #
Televizzle fo’ shizzle yo dawg!
by Hayo on December 27, 2004 at 7:26 pm. #
LOL @ “xmas” …
The Mac Dad will make you Jump! Jump!
The Daddy Mac will make you Jump! Jump!
by beto on December 27, 2004 at 8:40 pm. #
Hoz’pit’ol and Moko’cycle.….….….….enough said, these were words Erik used as a young lad.
See you in a week son,
Dad
by buds on December 27, 2004 at 10:59 pm. #
Charlie: Roadtrips are perfect for belting out “ro-ad”.
Chad: Yeah, I remember hearing about Farley’s death a few years back and just being floored over the news. He was without a doubt one of my favorite physical comedians, but sadly it didn’t last. I asked Snoop and he didn’t help, at all. Again, cursed Snoop Dogg.
Hayo: Yeahdizzle my fizzle.
beto: Thanks, now I’ve got that song stuck in my head and I’m here in the office (of all places) trying to reenact the jumping. It’s madness.
by kartooner on December 28, 2004 at 9:34 am. #
OK, here goes…
Road
Potato
Colour (I’m Canuck, so what can I say?)
Music
Christmas (and I’m with Oxton as well — glad the chaos is over…)
Television or Televizzle: neither; just plain old TV.
by Derek Featherstone on December 28, 2004 at 10:35 am. #
My question is, is it Erik or Eric?
Oh wait, that won’t work. It all comes out the same.
by Fernando Dunn II on December 30, 2004 at 12:41 pm. #
Fernando: Believe me, it mixes me up on a daily basis considering that my Boss and I share the same name but with different spellings.
by kartooner on December 30, 2004 at 12:47 pm. #
What is wrong with muzak? What other musical medium can make elderly women hum along to the melodic tones of Led Zeppelin?
by Tod on January 3, 2005 at 10:41 pm. #