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Is it doughnut or donut?

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  • Posts: 894 Member

    Krispy Kreme still spells it correctly! :tongue:

    edited to add - And they make a better doughnut too!!!

    Yes, but they are apparently incapable of spelling "crispy" or "cream" correctly. Just sayin'... (and they do make an awesome doughnut. I nearly cried when the one location where I live closed down).
  • Posts: 16,414 Member
    The notion that there is no correct spelling of any word only subjects language to further degradation.

    Are you honestly telling me that you will be okay if I "axe" you a question?

    Just because it is a commonly used substitution, doesn't make it right, nor should it be considered acceptable.

    You wouldn't even recognize English in its original form. It has evolved and continues evolving.

    "Axe" has not become correct because it isn't widely accepted and mostly it's a pronunciation issue rather than a spelling issue. I know many people who SAY "axe," but spell it "ask." (It still grates.)

    But, really, language evolution is fascinating and if you know a little about it, things like whether it's "donut" or "doughnut" or people making up words or changing the use of some words bothers you much less.

    There are correct spellings of words that we widely accept. That doesn't mean those spellings will always be what they are now and that eventually the new spelling will be correct and the current spelling incorrect. Standardized spelling itself is a relatively modern concept.
  • Posts: 55 Member
    Doughnut. And I am American. Born and raised in the South. Honestly, I have JUST started noticing this "donut" trend. I thought it was just an improper abbreviation like "drive-thru". It's not formally correct and it gets auto-corrected or marked by spell check. So, the answer is "doughnut" is the correct, formal spelling, "donut" is just an abbreviation.
  • Posts: 15,228 Member

    You wouldn't even recognize English in its original form. It has evolved and continues evolving.

    "Axe" has not become correct because it isn't widely accepted and mostly it's a pronunciation issue rather than a spelling issue. I know many people who SAY "axe," but spell it "ask." (It still grates.)

    But, really, language evolution is fascinating and if you know a little about it, things like whether it's "donut" or "doughnut" or people making up words or changing the use of some words bothers you much less.

    There are correct spellings of words that we widely accept. That doesn't mean those spellings will always be what they are now and that eventually the new spelling will be correct and the current spelling incorrect. Standardized spelling itself is a relatively modern concept.

    I don't know. Considering that the English-speaking population was once so illiterate and that most words were spelled phonetically, saying that "donut" is just as correct as "doughnut" seems a bit like a devolution of language rather than an evolution, as such.

    I'm sure I could write a whole paper around this opinion. Unfortunately, however, I am not an English major.

    *edited to add - I'm obviously not an English major with my craptastic grammar in this post. :grumble:
  • Posts: 16,414 Member
    I don't know. Considering that the English-speaking population was once illiterate and then spelled most word phonetically, saying that "donut" is just as correct as "doughnut" seems a bit like a devolution of language rather than an evolution, as such.

    I'm sure I could write a whole paper around this opinion. Unfortunately, however, I am not an English major.

    I am. :-) And an editor.

    To add to what I said above, I worked for newspapers for years. We mostly followed the Associated Press style guide, but we also had some variations that were our own style to use in our newspapers.

    What makes a style guide? It isn't because some on-high publisher or editor or Ph.D. said, "This is correct." The "style" comes from usage. Someone sits down and looks at how journalists are most commonly writing things and says, "Well, I guess we'll do it this way, then!"

    And even that changes over time. The AP Style Guide has changed its stance on certain things that were standard for many, many years. It changed because people in the profession decided to do it differently and the guide followed. Spelling and language is the same.

    If "donut" is devolution of "doughnut," then "color" is a devolution of "colour."

    Try reading Beowulf or Chaucer untranslated and you'll understand what I'm saying a little better.
  • Posts: 15,228 Member

    I am. :-) And an editor.

    To add to what I said above, I worked for newspapers for years. We mostly followed the Associated Press style guide, but we also had some variations that were our own style to use in our newspapers.

    What makes a style guide? It isn't because some on-high publisher or editor or Ph.D. said, "This is correct." The "style" comes from usage. Someone sits down and looks at how journalists are most commonly writing things and says, "Well, I guess we'll do it this way, then!"

    And even that changes over time. The AP Style Guide has changed its stance on certain things that were standard for many, many years. It changed because people in the profession decided to do it differently and the guide followed. Spelling and language is the same.

    If "donut" is devolution of "doughnut," then "color" is a devolution of "colour."

    Try reading Beowulf or Chaucer untranslated and you'll understand what I'm saying a little better.

    Oh I know what you are talking about. I'm just saying that "donut" is obviously the phonetic spelling, which for me, if phonetics is the most appropriate usage of a word, then we aren't evolving our language.
  • Posts: 16,414 Member
    Oh I know what you are talking about. I'm just saying that "donut" is obviously the phonetic spelling, which for me, if phonetics is the most appropriate usage of a word, then we aren't evolving our language.

    I don't see anything wrong with a word being spelled the way it sounds. Most languages work that way. English makes no blood sense in that way!

    And "doughnut" is also phonetic. It's a compound of "dough" and "nut." "Donut" is at least its own word.
  • Posts: 15,228 Member

    I don't see anything wrong with a word being spelled the way it sounds. Most languages work that way. English makes no blood sense in that way!

    And "doughnut" is also phonetic. It's a compound of "dough" and "nut." "Donut" is at least its own word.

    A word that uses silent letters... in the case of "doughnut" silent "ugh" is not phonetically spelt.
  • Posts: 16,414 Member

    A word that uses silent letters... in the case of "doughnut" silent "ugh" is not phonetically spelt.
    But it's a compound of "dough" and "nut." So someone just put two unrelated words together to describe something that, while it is "dough," is not a "nut." It doesn't make sense.
  • Posts: 6,256 Member
    When it looks like this:

    l_R093916.jpg

    It is spelled "T-A-S-T-Y"!
  • Posts: 16,414 Member
    And you're right, it's not technically phonetic. It's even less creative than that! lol
  • Posts: 296 Member
    Wahhhhh! Want doughnuts!
  • Posts: 9,377 Member

    that's my interpretation too.

    +1
  • Posts: 9,377 Member
    When it looks like this:

    l_R093916.jpg

    It is spelled "T-A-S-T-Y"!

    Holy mother of...MARRY ME!!!
  • Posts: 15,228 Member
    But it's a compound of "dough" and "nut." So someone just put two unrelated words together to describe something that, while it is "dough," is not a "nut." It doesn't make sense.

    Well... I could look up that history in Wiki, but I'm pretty sure the "nut" comes from it looking like the hardward component "nut". Or at least, that is what I've always thought.

    This is what Wiki says:
    The earliest known recorded usage of the term dates to an 1808 short story[7] describing a spread of "fire-cakes and dough-nuts." Washington Irving's reference to "doughnuts" in 1809 in his History of New York is more commonly cited as the first written recording of the term. Irving described "balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat, and called doughnuts, or olykoeks."[8] These "nuts" of fried dough might now be called doughnut holes. Doughnut is the more traditional spelling, and still dominates outside the US.[9][10] At present, doughnut and the shortened form donut are both pervasive in American English.[11]

    So basically, the first doughnuts were small balls that resembled nuts.
  • Posts: 16,414 Member
    Well... I could look up that history in Wiki, but I'm pretty sure the "nut" comes from it looking like the hardward component "nut". Or at least, that is what I've always thought.

    Oh, that does make sense.
  • Posts: 6,256 Member

    Holy mother of...MARRY ME!!!

    Well... I like you. And since that other woman didn't come through with the aspargus, brussels sprouts, and black licorice... You're on.

    ETA: Not that you were second choice. I just didn't know how to get out of that engagement made over a hasty food post.
  • Posts: 8,701 Member
    This topic is passé.

    Can we talk about Cronuts? I want one.
  • Posts: 6,256 Member
    This topic is passé.

    Can we talk about Cronuts? I want one.

    Those look good. How come I have never heard of them before now?
  • Posts: 2,608 Member

    Oh, that does make sense.

    Actually, it's because doughnuts were originally just balls of fried dough before the hole got added in some 50-60 years later. Which meant that, when fried up in the oil, their rough, brown, exteriors made them resemble the outer shell of a nut. So they were balls of dough that looked like nuts.
  • Posts: 16,414 Member

    Actually, it's because doughnuts were originally just balls of fried dough before the hole got added in some 50-60 years later. So, when fried up in the oil, their rough, brown, exteriors made them resemble the outer shell of a nut. So they were balls of dough that looked like nuts.
    Well, see then? "Doughnut" isn't even creative! lol
  • Posts: 3,472 Member
    Seriously...the answer is, was, and always will be..yes.

    Why is this continuing?

    Please...stop the madness.
  • Posts: 8,701 Member

    Those look good. How come I have never heard of them before now?

    They're relatively new concept, I think the guy that coined the cronut in NYC did it just in the past year sometime.
  • Posts: 9,377 Member

    Well... I like you. And since that other woman didn't come through with the aspargus, brussels sprouts, and black licorice... You're on.

    ETA: Not that you were second choice. I just didn't know how to get out of that engagement made over a hasty food post.

    YAY!!! We'll serve asparagus, Brussels sprouts and black licorice at our wedding! Then I'll smash one of those donuts in your face and lick it off. :bigsmile:
  • Posts: 1,329 Member
    homer-donut-machine-simpsons.gif
    tumblr_mhcj2jWAha1rgxdhwo1_400.gif
    8433d1137640877-free-doughnuts-really-homer.gif
  • Posts: 15,228 Member
    Well, see then? "Doughnut" isn't even creative! lol

    Yeah, I like my version of events better. :laugh:
  • Posts: 6,129 Member
    aspargus, brussels sprouts, and black licorice

    gag.gif
  • Posts: 9,487 Member
    I don't know. I don't care.

    What I do know its that its delicious!!!!! Mmmmmmmmmm.....Boston Cream

    Ohhhh my favorite!! Yum!
  • Posts: 9,377 Member

    gag.gif

    I know. It makes me sad. This is why we can never be together! :sad:
  • Posts: 2,712 Member
    Y'all do realize that "ask" is a metathesis of the "k" and "s" in "axian", right? We're the ones who've bastardized it with our insistence on "ask"...
    When it looks like this:

    l_R093916.jpg

    It is spelled "T-A-S-T-Y"!
    There are just no words... I am overcome with beauty!
This discussion has been closed.