# Perk, or perq? **URL:** \ **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:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/41 "2012-10-13T22:03:35Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Also, going back about 20 years, my 5 year old wanted to get nuclear Pepsi. It was actually the short lived Clear Pepsi, which was new. When I was five, a waitress asked me if I wanted soup or salad. I said ‘Super salad!’ ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/42 "2012-10-13T22:06:21Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Anyone know where the OED stands on this highly contraversial issue? Yes, I just did a search on “perq” and it redirected me to “perk”. “Perq” is listed as a variant form, but all the quotations (the earliest is from 1869) use “perk”. I see nothing to indicate that the “perq” spelling was ever commonly used or that it predated “perk”. There’s a note in the etymology section that says “Compare earlier Scots _pirkuz_”, with a quote from 1824 defining “pirkuz” as “any kind of perquisite”. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/43 "2012-10-13T22:46:44Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Lefties don’t perk their coffee anyway - they use drip coffeemakers.😉 And a _mod_ says this, no less… You _do_ have a point about drips. BUT, you should have your coffee cup taken away, for that. Keep the ‘jackboots’. We don’t _care_ about _that_ one. _I_ use a _proper_ percolator for my coffee… > [@TriPolar](#): > > IIRC Carter also said nucular. At least Carter was a proper ‘Nuclear [note the spelling] Officer’. He may have been an idiot. I [del]make[/del] _express_ no judgment on that point. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/44 "2012-10-14T18:41:52Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > 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_”. I’ve always seen “perk”, never perq. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/45 "2012-10-14T20:05:12Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Perk. I didn’t even know of the existence of the word perquisite. And now you’ll come across it 100 times in the next week. > [@](#): > > And knowing that word is the only reason you’d allow such a nonstandard spelling as having a q at the end of a word, without a ue. Though the Q appears at the beginning, [\*\* this esteemed physician\*\*](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php) shuns the u. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/46 "2012-10-15T00:00:10Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > Though the Q appears at the beginning, [\*\* this esteemed physician\*\*](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php) shuns the u. But **Qadgop** is an alien with a zymolosely polydactile tongue, and his name is not English but Mercotan. Non-English names often include a “q” without a “u,” notably Iraq (and the Iraqi Tariq Aziz). ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/47 "2012-10-15T03:17:02Z")
So, should we start spelling it **Qolibri** , now? Them hummingbirds have rather bizarre tongues. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/48 "2012-10-15T03:25:20Z")
> [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > So, should we start spelling it **Qolibri** , now? Them hummingbirds have rather bizarre tongues. Actually, I prefer the spelling [Huitzilopochtli](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huitzilopochtli). ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418/49 "2012-10-15T07:58:59Z")
So you’re saying your tongue is in your _left_ cheek? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perk-or-perq/637418.md?page=2)