Lingua Franca

An exploration of the uses and misuses of the English language, including amusing signage, mind-boggling linguistic contortions, grammatical debates, etymological musings, and other forays of interest to those of us obsessed with this strange and often absurd language.

6.09.2009

It's French, silly!

I participate in a parenting message board, and I just saw a post in which someone referred to "hoping that his cold clears up toot sweet". Toot sweet! I'm somehow less offended by utter wrongness when it's kind of cute.
Posted by Alexis

3 comments:

  1. BarryJune 9, 2009 at 2:34 PM

    I would love to hear someone explain why linking "toot" to "sweet" yields a synonym for "quickly".

    ReplyDelete
  2. AmandaJune 9, 2009 at 3:09 PM

    I think we need more context. Is the rest of the post remotely clever, or does the poster have a history of cleverness? If so, this may be either a deliberate attempt at cuteness or a case of "I know I can't spell it so I'll go with the goofiest phonetic spelling I can muster."

    Or yeah, he's a moron.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AlexisJune 9, 2009 at 3:18 PM

    Yeah, I'm pretty sure it wasn't intended to be clever. Oy.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)