Main Entry: bis·cot·to

Pronunciation: bi-'skät-O
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural bis·cot·ti /-E/
Etymology: Italian, biscuit, cookie, from (pane) biscotto, literally, bread baked twice
: a crisp cookie or biscuit of Italian origin that is flavored usually with anise and filberts or almonds

http://www.webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?sourceid=Mozilla-search&va=Biscotti

I feel the same every time I hear people use a hard R when pronouncing croissant.

For me, the BIG one is when NPR reporters will wrap their mouths around Spanish names and places - "Nee-ha-RRRAW-wha", "Whot-a-MAHL-a" - but wimp out on European names and places.

Warsaw, Smolensk, Edinburgh, Berlin, Munich, Budapest, Zloty, "An-Jul-u MUR-Kul"? No! Wahr-SHAW-va, Smoal-YENSK, Edinburra, Bair-LEEN, MUEN-khyen, Bu-da-PESH-tee, Zwoty, AHN-geh-la MEHR-kel!

Grrr.

Thankfully, we all now know how to pronounce Qatar.

Dictionary.com give the American Heritage defintion as derived from the medieaval latin "bis coctus", literally "cooked twice", as flash has written. An online latin grammar (Bennet's Latin) shows that "coctus" is the fourth form of the third consonant conjugation of the stem verb "cocsi", which I think means "coctus" is the past-plural of "to cook".
My rudimentary latin skill are exhausted.

The Sicilian dialect avouds the singular/ plural confusion by simpling using the same word for both: Biscott'.

Helpful hint: in Italian, the plural masculine is "i" and the plural feminine is "e". If you see an i to indicate pluralization, simply substitute an o for the singular, and you'll usually be right.

"A pile of spaghetti"
"A single spaghetto"

Speaking of NPR, what's the deal with Meeshell Norris anyway? Her name is spelled Michele. That's close enough to Michelle to say it that way in my book. She went to Washburn High School in Minneapolis and to college at UW Madison and the U of M. So where does the exotic pronunciation "Meeshell" come from?

As long as we're going to kvetch our way down this road, can I pile on about people ordering a roast beef sandwich WITH au jus?

In hawaiian there are three ways to refer to the direction and elevation some other place lies: ma'kai, ma'uka, and ma'una. Ma'kai mean towards the lowest place (the sea), ma'una means the highest place (can be translated as 'mountain'), and ma'uka is towards someplace higher than the speaker is but not _the_ highest (cf "ma'una", ma'uka"). These directions are very descriptive of climate & terrain on small islands with central peaks & microclimates.
Anyway, nearly all the mainlanders here refer to a place as being "up ma'uka" rather than just "ma'uka". Drives me crazy.

I circumvent the whole Italian-plural thing and just ask the barista for "one of those goddammed crunchy biscuity sumbitches."

Tim, I salute you!

And don't you just hate morons who say "nuke-ular?"

AC, would that make the singular, Nuck-u-lie?

Because they're quite obviously morons, and not people just repeating how they've heard the word pronounced all around them for their entire lives.

I mean, when has the pronounciation of a word ever varied from place to place in the English language?

Yeah, it bothers me that lots of people in Green Bay say "pitchers" instead of "pictures," but I doubt that they are all morons. {Zip it, Vikings fans!)

For that matter, is

No.

Could hardly care less how anyone pronounces it.

Sorry. Makes not a shred of difference to me.

And I don't care what his "smirk" looks like, either.

And don't you just hate morons who hit "post" before they finish editing?

Steve, how would you know how people in Green Bay say things...?

Do you have first hand experience or something...?

Meshell Horny.

Good porn name.

Kermit, apparently a croissant-eating French bastard said: "I feel the same every time I hear people use a hard R when pronouncing croissant."

Guilty, Doug. Moved there when I was nine, which was old enough that I never started saying "pitcher" (or "pop" for that matter). Sometime during middle school I looked at the word "nuclear" and

On a similar note, does anyone else know how to tell someone is from Milwaukee based on how they say one particular word?

"does anyone else know how to tell someone is from Milwaukee based on how they say one particular word?"

Don't know that one. But my senior project was figuring the difference in dialect, accent and vocabulary between the various parts of the northern plains. I could (and occasionally can) tell the difference between Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota accents.

That was fun.

By god, you're all a bunch of inbred cousin-humpers to me. Now go git me one of them there fancy shit-colored crunchy sumbitches.

Steve, Southwest class of '82.

And yes, I drink from a bubbler...

Clown said: And don't you just hate morons who say "nuke-ular?"

Yes, like Jimmy Carter (a "nuke-u-lar" engineer).

Angryclown: apparently a bagel-eating New Yawk bastard.

Or when someone who knows a lot about, let's say wine, and they say, "That's my forte" pronounced for-tay.

You're saying it's your loud, for Christ's sake... the Italian for forte is "loud" and it's pronounced for-tay. (Forte as in piano-forte.)

The word you're looking for is French (God help us), and it is pronounced fort... like Fort Snelling, but you'd say, "I know a little something about wine, but Australian wine is my forte."

One's French... the other's Italian... both mean different things... both are spelled the same... both are pronounced differently.

(Soapbox disappears)

Actually i biscotti would be plural..

Kinda like what is the plural of spaghetti..

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