# Perk, or perq?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 11, 2012, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418 "2012-10-11T14:22:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/1 "2012-10-11T14:22:30Z")
I often see people write that they receive ‘perks’. I never see them write that they receive ‘perqs’.
Is a perquisite a ‘perq’, or a ‘perk’?
(And is free office coffee a ‘perk perq’?)
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/2 "2012-10-11T14:25:42Z")
I’ve always seen it spelled as ‘perk’. I imagine a lot of people think it’s called that because it’s a benefit that would ‘perk you up’.
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/3 "2012-10-11T14:51:15Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> (And is free office coffee a ‘perk perq’?)
that would be a perc perk.
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/4 "2012-10-11T14:55:35Z")
perq for “perquisite”
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/5 "2012-10-11T14:58:50Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#):
>
> perq for “perquisite”
It comes from “perquisite”, but the usual spelling is with a K. In fact my dictionary doesn’t list “perq” at all, but has sense 3 of “perk” as “British informal, short for _perquisite_”.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/6 "2012-10-11T15:24:44Z")
I have never in my life seen it spelled with a “q” nor would I ever spell it with a “q.” “Perq” just looks stupid to me. “Perk” is how an English speaker would normally spell that word, and that’s what I go for. Just like “trank” is short for “tranquilizer.” (Although Scrabble will accept it with a “q”, it’s not the standard spelling, and not included in Merriam-Webster or American Heritage dictionaries.)
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/7 "2012-10-11T15:28:22Z")
Always “perq,” because it’s short for “perquisite.”
EDIT: I take that back. When I think about it, I use “perq,” but I think just writing along I probably use “perk.”
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/8 "2012-10-11T15:30:22Z")
Being from Cleveland, I favor “perq,” because the spelling with -\*k \*is a reminder of a 1970s mayor we’d like to forget.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/9 "2012-10-11T15:31:30Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#):
>
> Always “perq,” because it’s short for “perquisite.”
And I suppose you shorten “refrigerator” as “frig”? :dubious:
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/10 "2012-10-11T15:36:07Z")
Yes, it’s short for _perquisite_. It’s still _perk_.
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/11 "2012-10-11T15:38:41Z")
I’ve learned over the years that something is not correct simply because many or most people believe it.
The abbreviation for perquisite is “perq”. That is how it was spelled when it first started entering common usage. Now get off my lawn dammit and stop changing my language.
Most of those weird laws you read about are not laws at all. Notice no one can ever give you a citation for them.
Ditto those wacky law suit decisions. That meme can be tracked to a specific article in a law jounal.
Al Gore did not win an Academy Award. Davis Guggenheim did.
David Rice Atchison was never president, even for a day.
Cats do not spell “has” with a “z” nor do they substitute it for the phrase “have a”
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/12 "2012-10-11T15:45:25Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#):
>
> Cats do not spell “has” with a “z” nor do they substitute it for the phrase “have a”
Cite?
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/13 "2012-10-11T15:47:29Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> And I suppose you shorten “refrigerator” as “frig”? :dubious:
Some people do this. Drives me nuts as I always trip over that word spelled that way, unless it’s being used as a substitute for “fuck.” “Fridge,” people, “fridge.”
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/14 "2012-10-11T15:53:42Z")
> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> Some people do this. Drives me nuts as I always trip over that word spelled that way, unless it’s being used as a substitute for “fuck.” “Fridge,” people, “fridge.”
Yes, ‘fridge’ is the Mercan word for refrigerator. It’s worth 4 points.
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### Author:  [@Freakenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freakenstein)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/15 "2012-10-11T16:37:38Z")
I had no idea what ‘perquisite’ is so I checked it from My English-Finnish dictionary. It told me to look the first definition of ‘perk’…
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/16 "2012-10-11T16:51:43Z")
Here’s [another thread](http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=1001445) on the topic on a different board. Worth reading if only for post #4 and the francophobe post #6.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/17 "2012-10-11T16:55:46Z")
It should be “perq”, but you always follow a “q” with a “u” in English, and “perqu” would look damn weird, even if the “u” was silent, so “perk” it is.
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### Author:  [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/18 "2012-10-11T17:05:06Z")
> [@johnpost](#):
>
> that would be a perc perk.
Perchè ?
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/19 "2012-10-11T17:14:41Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#):
>
> It should be “perq”, but you always follow a “q” with a “u” in English, and “perqu” would look damn weird, even if the “u” was silent, so “perk” it is.
It’s “shouldn’t” be anything. Just like “refrigerator” doesn’t become “frig” when shortened, but “fridge,” “nucular” becomes “nuke,” “microphone” becomes “mike,” (although “mic” is sometimes used) “perquisite” becomes “perk.” It doesn’t matter what the root word is; it’s spelled in a way that reflects the way it sounds. Just because a word is a truncation of a longer word doesn’t mean it should be spelled simply as a truncation of the longer word.
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### Author:  [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2012, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/20 "2012-10-11T17:18:37Z")
The thing is, I’m pretty sure tranquilizer is most commonly shorted to tranq.
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