# Pronunciation of "Cache". **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 15, 2007, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514 "2007-11-15T09:30:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/21 "2007-11-15T14:17:17Z")
[QUOTE=Hari Seldon] There is a joke (from the days of the Soviet invasion) whose punch line is, “Can you cache a Czech?” which should be a good mnemonic. [/QUOTE] Actually, in Soviet Russia… (Sorry.) ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/22 "2007-11-15T14:17:58Z")
[QUOTE=asterion] I don’t hear it from the military. Where I often hear that mispronounciation is in IT, where cache is used for several different storage areas. Then again, I’m not sure IT people are real either. [/QUOTE] While the jury’s out on that, I’m in IT and have never heard it from IT people. Nor anyone else, although it’s possible I have and thought they were saying “cachet”. ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/23 "2007-11-15T14:23:41Z")
What’s confusing in the IT world is that there is a well-known database management system called Caché. Presumbaly they call it “cash-ay.” Not to be confused with cache in the IT sense, of course. Can’t have that, now, can we? ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/24 "2007-11-15T14:29:29Z")
Cache is also used in the term cachepot, which means a decorative pot that you put an aleady potted plant in, as I recall from my days of working at Crate & Barrel. Here’s an example: > **[Furniture, Home Decor and Wedding Registry | Crate and Barrel](https://www.crateandbarrel.com/)** > > Shop Crate and Barrel to find everything you need to outfit your home. Browse furniture, home decor, cookware, dinnerware, wedding registry and more. IIRC, it was generally pronounced “cash pot.” ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/25 "2007-11-15T15:07:12Z")
[QUOTE=robardin] “Cache”, meaning “stash”, a hidden or squirreled away store of supplies, is properly pronounced “cash” as it would be (more or less) in French. [/quote] This is what I normally think people are referring to when I hear something pronounced “cashay.” Of course in my current life, it’s almost computer related (same meaning, though). Or being that I live in Detroit (well, the “Detroit area”) sometimes it’s “a cache of weapons.” 😉 > [@](#): > > On the other hand, there is another French loanword in English that _is_ pronounced “Cash-ay”: _cachet_, most commonly meaning (in English) “mark of prestige”, “sellability”, “Q factor”. More archaically, it also refers to a physical stamp or imprint, a “maker’s mark”, from which the modern sense derives. > . . . > What I think is that a lot of people are _misspelling_ “cachet” as “cache” thinking it’s a Spanish word frequently used in English, like _ole_ or _hombre_, since they hear “cash-ay” all the time and are more used to dealing with Spanish than French. Interestingly enough, “cachet” is a perfectly good loaner-word in Mexican Spanish, spelt as you see it, with the same meaning as you define it, with the only difference being the common-Spanish-loanword-technique of pronouncing it phoenetically in Spanish, or as you allude to, “cach-et.” ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/26 "2007-11-15T15:17:02Z")
[QUOTE=Ludovic] While the jury’s out on that, I’m in IT and have never heard it from IT people. Nor anyone else, although it’s possible I have and thought they were saying “cachet”. [/QUOTE] Really? You are in IT and never hear the term Cache? Internet Cache, temporary Cache, memory cache in hard-drives, RAM and even motherboards and CPUs? But you’ve never heard that? I think even Networking has Caches in routers and switches. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/27 "2007-11-15T15:19:09Z")
[QUOTE=Epimetheus] Really? You are in IT and never hear the term Cache? Internet Cache, temporary Cache, memory cache in hard-drives, RAM and even motherboards and CPUs? But you’ve never heard that? I think even Networking has Caches in routers and switches. [/QUOTE] Really? Pronounced “Cashay?” You learn something new every day. ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/28 "2007-11-15T16:11:37Z")
I think I misunderstood your position. Sorry, I thought you were saying you have never heard the term (no matter the pronunciation), upon re-reading the post you quoted, I see my error. I blame lack of sleep. ---
**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:** [November 15, 2007, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/29 "2007-11-15T17:03:20Z")
[QUOTE=glee] Bonjour mon amis! Malheuresement, je parle Francais seulement un petit peu, mais je dit cache ‘cash’. And so do the rest of us English chappies wot have had a few ‘annees’ of French ‘a l’ecole’. Guanolad is right about cachet (=‘cash-ay’). [/QUOTE] And then there’s _caché_, that **PaulParkHead** mentioned, which pronounced much like _cachet_, but semantically related to _cache_. _Cache_ is “hiding place” and _caché_ is the past participle of the verb “to hide”. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/30 "2007-11-15T17:25:36Z")
You stash your cash in a cache. If you sashay with flambe, you gain cachet. WhyNot, Firedancer ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/31 "2007-11-15T17:34:30Z")
I have always pronounced it like \*\*GuanoLad \*\* does. I learned that pronunciation in Alaska, when I first encountered the Book Cache chain of book stores. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/32 "2007-11-15T17:51:38Z")
[QUOTE=Epimetheus] Really? You are in IT and never hear the term Cache? Internet Cache, temporary Cache, memory cache in hard-drives, RAM and even motherboards and CPUs? But you’ve never heard that? I think even Networking has Caches in routers and switches. [/QUOTE] **Ludovic** was saying he’s never heard anyone pronounce it wrong. I’ve been in IT and software engineering for a decade in a lot of different companies and have never heard it pronounced “cash-ay,” either. And we talk about caches and caching all the damn time, ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/33 "2007-11-15T17:54:12Z")
[QUOTE=robardin] I think few people even use the word “cache” very much, unless you’re in Special Ops or are a survivalist planning for a post-apocalyptic disaster scenario. [/QUOTE] Or as mentioned, in IT. I’m functional, but I get told to empty my such-and-such cache now and then to troubleshoot issues. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/34 "2007-11-15T18:38:33Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] Or as mentioned, in IT. I’m functional, but I get told to empty my such-and-such cache now and then to troubleshoot issues. [/QUOTE] Exactly. Because when it comes to computers, cache and carry can be a real problem. You get what you pay for. ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/35 "2007-11-15T18:52:55Z")
In IT I heard it occasionally, but it was the [DEL]l[/DEL]users that said “cashay”, not fellow IT dweebs. Usually when they were trying to impress someone with their knowledge of all things computery. ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/36 "2007-11-15T19:08:29Z")
[QUOTE=friedo] **Ludovic** was saying he’s never heard anyone pronounce it wrong. I’ve been in IT and software engineering for a decade in a lot of different companies and have never heard it pronounced “cash-ay,” either. And we talk about caches and caching all the damn time, [/QUOTE] I haven’t heard it from any IT people, but from users all the time. I was telling my SO the other day to delete her cookies and empty her cache file and she said “whats that?” and I pointed it out and she exclaimed “You mean cashay?” No, it’s pronounced cash. Her response was to argue the point for several minutes. I find it hard to believe you have NEVER heard it pronounced cashay, though I suppose anything is possible. And I realize what he meant, which is why right under his post I apologized. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/37 "2007-11-15T19:26:05Z")
[QUOTE=sandra\_nz] I pronounce it cayshe, not cash. Didn’t realise I was saying it wrong all this time! [/QUOTE] Yeah - like in, “Hello. I’m Johnny Cayshe.” I’ve heard him do that a lot. Nope - it’s cash, because it’s a place to store things. Anyone who is from the pre-computer era will call it that because that’s still what it is, in a way. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/38 "2007-11-15T19:47:24Z")
I work at a business on a street name ending in “Cache”. It’s annoying to hear the company owner continually mispronounce it as _Cah-shay_ but I suffer quietly and take solace in saying it correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/39 "2007-11-15T20:12:17Z")
[QUOTE=Balthisar] I’ve never, ever heard any _real_ person say “cashay,” although it was prevalent as hell in my military days (and drove me crazy as hell, too). (Okay, military people are real people too.) [/QUOTE] That’s the thing. I’m surrounded by military people. And, coincidentally, surrounded by weapons and munitions caches every single day. Everyone is _always_ talking about the “cash-ay” and calling up on the radio “we found another buried ‘cash-ay’” or “there’s an IED ‘cash-ay’ over here”… ARGH! Well, it got even worse a couple days ago when I was talking to another person about the cache that I found. And he was like, “The cash-ay!?” Putting extra emphasis on the word as if to correct me. It’s become so bad that I figured maybe either pronounciation was okay. Much like Culinary and Forte… maybe it’s one of those arguable things. I’m glad I started this thread to learn that they’re all miserably wrong! I fucking hate these people, anyway! ---
**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:** [November 15, 2007, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514/40 "2007-11-15T20:25:28Z")
[QUOTE=Bear\_Nenno] I was talking to another person about the cache that I found. And he was like, “The cash-ay!?” Putting extra emphasis on the word as if to correct me. [/QUOTE] I hope you said ‘No, **cash**. If you don’t know how to pronounce a word, don’t use it.’ 😃 I’ve always heard and said ‘cash’, except for in George Romero’s _Knightriders_ ([WC Fields] We seem to have discovered a cash-ay of the elusive spondulix. [/WCF]). Until, that is, the recent quagmire started. Then I heard military personnel mis-pronouncing it all over the place. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-cache/426514.md?page=3)