# Um, that doesn't mean what you think it does... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 13, 2007, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-that-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/426303 "2007-11-13T23:31:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-that-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/426303/101 "2007-11-15T00:21:07Z")
[QUOTE=fetus] They weren’t using it incorrectly, and of course they work, they’re (ETA: basically) the same thing (for all intensive purposes 😉 ): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consonant\_cluster\_reduction [/quote] Consonant Cluster Reduction. Just because you’re white doesn’t mean that your way is better. [/QUOTE] In what dialect is ‘pacificly’ a standard substitute forand considered a correct version of ‘specifically’? And what does being white have to do with it? ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-that-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/426303/102 "2007-11-15T01:34:46Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] Which dialect is that? [/QUOTE] Drunken slurring, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-that-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/426303/103 "2007-11-15T01:49:53Z")
> [@Jodi](#): > > And if you intended to avoid looking like a po-faced pendant I suppose this is some perverse form of Gaudere’s Law at work. > [@Antinor01](#): > > In what dialect is ‘pacificly’ a standard substitute forand considered a correct version of ‘specifically’? And what does being white have to do with it? Alright, full disclosure time: I didn’t do my research when I posted here earlier and I was going off some half-remembered things that I thought were fully-remembered, I guess. I violated my usual rule of having the original text within 5 feet when I posted. Which means that I haven’t found a cite; I haven’t been trying very hard, I grant, but the possibility is now looming that I may have been talking out of my ass and not known it. Pending (pendant?) further notice, I shall eat my words. Anyone got ketchup? ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-that-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/426303/104 "2007-11-15T04:15:11Z")
[QUOTE=fetus] Alright, full disclosure time: I didn’t do my research when I posted here earlier and I was going off some half-remembered things that I thought were fully-remembered, I guess. I violated my usual rule of having the original text within 5 feet when I posted. Which means that I haven’t found a cite; I haven’t been trying very hard, I grant, but the possibility is now looming that I may have been talking out of my ass and not known it. Pending (pendant?) further notice, I shall eat my words. Anyone got ketchup? [/QUOTE] No problem dude. Happens to all of us at one time or another. (I find worcestershire sauce to go better than ketchup though) ---
**Author:** ![denquixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@denquixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/denquixote)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-that-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/426303/105 "2007-11-15T08:42:52Z")
I remember the time this person meant to say po-faced pedant and said po-faced pendant. lol. Actually I would not correct this, but the intended word was so spot-on I am assuming a typo. As far as hummers, I really think they are synonymous with blowjobs and offer the following evidence. If you haven’t heard this song, it is a bawdy treat and definitely NSFW or most other places. [Newgrounds.com — Everything, By Everyone](http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/138572). ---
**Author:** ![Daniel\_Sug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9f8e36/32.png) [@Daniel\_Sug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel_Sug)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-that-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/426303/106 "2007-11-15T15:12:13Z")
Reading these, I realize I must be a word snob, coz I can think of several. My dad was quite strict about pronouncing words correctly, especially if mis-pronouncing them led to a different meaning. A scary movie(horror) is pronounced haw-rer, not hor-rer, because the second one sounds too much like a whore movie, which is a prostitute. :rolleyes: As an adult, I realize that’s silly, but I’m still stuck with it, and my friends to this day crack on me for it. Last night, I was complaining how hardly anyone can say the name “Chipotle” correctly. Too many times, I hear “Chipotay” or something. How hard is it to say Chi-pote-lay? The best one happened over a year ago. One of my older employees, S, overheard me and one of the younger guys say “that’s how I roll.” She got such a kick out of it, she started saying it in conversation. About 45 minutes later, another employee comes up to my desk, saying “Daniel, you can’t be teaching S to say stuff when she doesn’t know what it means!” By this time, S had walked up, with a big grin on her face. I said “No one told me what it means, I just picked up that it meant 'thats how I am, thats how I do things.” We asked S what she thought it meant and she said “Well, you know, when you trip and fall down a hill, that’s how you roll.” I love her. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-that-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/426303/107 "2007-11-15T16:24:46Z")
[QUOTE=Daniel Sug] Reading these, I realize I must be a word snob, coz I can think of several. My dad was quite strict about pronouncing words correctly, especially if mis-pronouncing them led to a different meaning. A scary movie(horror) is pronounced haw-rer, not hor-rer, because the second one sounds too much like a whore movie, which is a prostitute. :rolleyes: As an adult, I realize that’s silly, but I’m still stuck with it, and my friends to this day crack on me for it. [/QUOTE] Neither of my parents were particular strict about the way we pronounced words. Certainly they taught us correctly when we were little “It’s ‘with’ not ‘wiff’, little Cellphone.” But my dad did have ONE pronunciation pet peeve that he was an absoute Nazi about: “poor” vs. “pour”. And that one _does_ have legitimate regional variances. You’d definitely hear the difference when we were going back and forth bewteen the U.S. and Canada, mainly reflecting the “about” vs. “aboot” accent differences. As far as he was concerned, the former was “poor”, the latter was more like “pore”. He would not tolerate any exceptions. If you said, “The kid down the street fell off his bike. Pawr thing.” He’d go nuts. My sister and I used to work it into conversations all the time, just to see if we could make his head explode. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-that-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/426303/108 "2007-11-15T16:52:31Z")
I’m sure I’m just a poor provencial thing, but I say _poor, pour_ and _pore_ all exactly the same! ---
**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, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-that-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/426303/109 "2007-11-15T16:55:02Z")
[QUOTE=Ellen Cherry] I’m sure I’m just a poor provencial thing, but I say _poor, pour_ and _pore_ all exactly the same! [/QUOTE] Same here, but > [@fetus](#): > > Thirdly, how do you pronounce “caught” and “cot”? “Don” and “Dawn”? “Aaron” and “Erin”? Each of these pairs do sound different to me. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-that-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/426303/110 "2007-11-15T17:15:14Z")
> [@Swallowed My Cellphone](#): > > As far as he was concerned, the former was “poor”, the latter was more like “pore”. He would not tolerate any exceptions. FTR, I pronounce those the same too (although I know what you mean). > [@gigi](#): > > Each of these pairs do sound different to me. OK; I can’t imitate the sound that other people use in “caught” or “Dawn” without sounding like a caricatured New Yoaka, but I can’t even figure out what the difference is between “Erin” and “Aaron”. I know they’re pronounced differently in some areas. I just can’t hear the difference. I’ll have to do some research on that… ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-that-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/426303/111 "2007-11-15T17:20:55Z")
[QUOTE=fetus] FTR, I pronounce those the same too (although I know what you mean). [/QUOTE] Yeah, I have relatives in Pennsylvania and the Southwest, and “poor,” “pour”, “pore” all sound the same if you’ve got the right drawl in your accent. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-that-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/426303/112 "2007-11-15T17:32:56Z")
My favorite one occurred years ago. I had just moved to Europe and was calling up a German girl I used to see, planning a visit. At the end of the conversation it goes something like this: Her: I’m looking forward to seeing you, I can finally show you some good, old-fashioned German hostility. Me: 😕 Did you say “hostility”? Her: Yes. What, is that not the right word? Me: I hope not. _laugh_ Us Poles know enough about German hostility… _I hear sounds of her leafing through a dictionary in the background_ Her: Hold on, hold on…_hospitality_! _leafs back to check meaning of ‘hostility’_ Oh no, no, no. Why are those two words so close? ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-that-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/426303/113 "2007-11-15T17:34:13Z")
[QUOTE=pulykamell] My favorite one occurred years ago. I had just moved to Europe and was calling up a German girl I used to see, planning a visit. At the end of the conversation it goes something like this: Her: I’m looking forward to seeing you, I can finally treat you to some good, old-fashioned German hostility. Me: 😕 Did you say “hostility”? Her: Yes. What, is that not the right word? Me: I hope not. _laugh_ Us Poles know enough about German hostility… _I hear sounds of her leafing through a dictionary in the background_ Her: Hold on, hold on…_hospitality_! _leafs back to check meaning of ‘hostility’_ Oh no, no, no. Why are those two words so close? [/QUOTE] Oh, that makes me smile. 🙂 Especially her reaction at the end! ---
**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, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-that-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/426303/114 "2007-11-15T17:35:05Z")
[QUOTE=fetus] but I can’t even figure out what the difference is between “Erin” and “Aaron”. [/QUOTE] For me, it’s both vowels, but more so the first one Erin: eh like pet, in Aaron: a like pat, un Oh, and if I had been a boy I would have been Aaron, and if my best friend growing up had been a girl he would have been Erin. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-that-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/426303/115 "2007-11-15T17:40:31Z")
[QUOTE=fetus] OK; I can’t imitate the sound that other people use in “caught” or “Dawn” without sounding like a caricatured New Yoaka, but I can’t even figure out what the difference is between “Erin” and “Aaron”. I know they’re pronounced differently in some areas. I just can’t hear the difference. I’ll have to do some research on that… [/QUOTE] I don’t know the proper linguistic terms, but (at least in the way I say them) “cot” is kind of short and clipped, while I tend to stretch out the vowel sound in “caught” a bit–it takes me a little bit longer to say the word. As for “Erin” and “Aaron,” Erin is air-in and Aaron is more like air-un. The only difference is the second syllable. ---
**Author:** ![KSO](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@KSO](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KSO)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-that-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/426303/116 "2007-11-15T17:42:26Z")
I once interviewed a law student who proudly told me that she had greatly enjoyed working with indignant people through Legal Aid. ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-that-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/426303/117 "2007-11-15T18:28:54Z")
Here’s an article far more pertinent to the thread than the specfically/pacifically debate: > **[9 Words That Don't Mean What You Think](https://www.cracked.com/article_15664_9-words-that-dont-mean-what-you-think.html)** > > The English language is under assault by stupid people who use words they don't understand, and is defended by pompous asses who like to correct those people. We're not sure who to side with. > So, here are some words that you'll see used incorrectly... I just came across it today. ---
**Author:** ![Pithy\_Moniker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8dc957/32.png) [@Pithy\_Moniker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pithy_Moniker)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-that-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/426303/118 "2007-11-15T20:03:17Z")
A lady that I used to work with was telling customers that she’d rented 101 Damnations for her grandchildren to watch. Now that’s a Disney movie I could get into. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-that-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/426303/119 "2007-11-15T20:13:01Z")
My first wife’s female relatives all talked about ministration cramps. I’m fairly certain they meant something other than cramps caused by functioning as a minister or giving aid or service. ---
**Author:** ![MizQuirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/94ad74/32.png) [@MizQuirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MizQuirk)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-that-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/426303/120 "2007-11-15T20:18:43Z")
This is a simpler thing than those discussed here, and different in some way, but help me understand – how can so many people not know the difference between “bring” and “take”? For example, the late-night talk show host when wrapping up an interview with a celebrity regarding her recent trip to Italy: “Next time you go to Italy, bring me along”. Sign in a deli: “Bring some of our potato salad to your next picnic”. TV weatherman: “You’ll want to bring an umbrella to the ballpark tonight,” etc. What’s so hard to understand about how those “brings” ought to be “takes”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-that-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/426303.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-that-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/426303.md?page=7)