Winning the lottery and sherbert
Here’s a nice story about Louise White of Rhode Island, an 81-year-old lady who just won a 336 million Powerball jackpot. Not surprisingly at her age, Ms. White chose to receive the money in a lump sum of $210,000,000 rather than in 30 annuity payments spread out over the next 29 years. The government gets a nice fat chunk of it as well: $52.5 to the feds and $14.7 to the state of Rhode Island.
But one odd thing in the article especially caught my eye:
The funds will go to the Rainbow Sherbert Trust, named after the dessert that she purchased last month while buying the lottery ticket, although the correct spelling is sherbet.
Indeed. Many decades ago I noticed that the word “sherbet” is misspelled with such frequency that the incorrect spelling threatens to replace the proper one. Once you notice it, you see it almost everywhere.
The question is: why the persistent misspelling of that particular word? I’ve never come up with a truly satisfying answer, except that “sherbert” has a nice internal rhyme that mere “sherbet” lacks. But that doesn’t seem quite enough to explain it, does it?
At any rate, the time may be fast approaching when “sherbet” and “sherbert” will both be replaced by the more upscale (and expensive, of course!) “sorbet.” But that won’t happen if Ms. White and her family have anything to say about it:
White said in a statement that was handed out at the news conference that she was waiting that Saturday, Feb. 11, with a grocery list for someone to take her to the store. In her list was a Powerball ticket in time for the evening’s drawing. She said she the person who was supposed to take her that morning “was working all day at home and couldn’t get away.”
“Then around [7 p.m.] a family member wanted some rainbow sherbert to eat later, so they decided to go to the Stop N Shop,” White wrote in a statement.
“I had just finished making a sandwich and was asked if I wanted anything at the store and I said emphatically, ‘I can’t believe you asked me if I want you to get me something. NO, I don’t want you to get me something,'” she wrote in the statement, “I want to go with you!”
After buying the tickets, White said she was at home later that evening listening to the news “while the family enjoyed the rainbow sherbert.”
She listened to news and copied down the winning numbers, but didn’t check her tickets until later. When she realized she had the matching numbers, she yelled, “Is anybody awake? I want you to come look at something.”
She said she and her family were in disbelief, checking the lottery website, then re-starting the computer and checking it again.
“We hugged each other and jumped up and down screaming!!,” she wrote. “Then I was told to ‘Sign it quick!!'”
“We’re excited, very blessed and will determine in the coming months how we’ll spend the money, but we know we’ll always have rainbow sherbert,” she wrote.
“Sherbert” bothers me as much as “Warshington” or that weird British “r” that falls off of doors and lands on girls named Ariana(r). Which is to say, I don’t understand where it comes from, I’ll correct my children if they happen to say it, and hearing it from adults gives me a mental tic, but in the end, I can’t correct everyone so I just let it slide.
Tesh,
Loved your description of the Britsh “r.”
I bet it’s bert before the end of the decade.
I’ve always called it sherbert even though I know it’s spelled sherbet. Is the problem mispronunciation rather than misspelling?
Ricki – I often hear people pronounce it “sherbert” and I did until I noticed the spelling. I do think that the pronunciation influences the spelling.
You say sherbet, I say sherbert. And I remember arriving in Mass as a child and being offered “tonic” to drink. I thought that was something you put in your hair.
I prefer the SORE BAY
Some say tomatoes, some say tomahtoes.
Some say potatoes, some say potahtoes.
Here where I’m from, it’s maters and taters…
…and sherbert.
I remember being surprised at some point as a child, or maybe in my early teens, when I noticed it wasn’t spelled “sherbert.” I thought that was what I had been hearing. To this day I feel slightly awkward saying the word, whether I say it correctly or incorrectly.
Is the problem mispronunciation rather than misspelling?
Yes.
Sherbert – Sher bert
Sherbet – Sher bay
Those wacky French…
I go with “sherbert” or “sherbit” – usually “sherbit”- depending on my mood. This has more to do with dropping or not dropping of R’s, instead of proper pronunciation.
Getting on to bet/bert and the French language:
“Hebert” I pronounce “Ä-ˈber,” due to having worked with Cajuns. [I also know a Mrs. Hebert- her husband is Manchester NH French Canadian.]
Coincidentally, my second grade teacher’s married name was “Abare,” which we we told to pronounce “Ä-ˈber.”
But “Bert and Ernie” I pronounce “Bert and Ernie.”
In my world, it’s FebROOary, ’cause it’s spelled “February”, with “ru” after the “Feb”.
It’s ^not^ FebYOUary. It’s just ^not^.
Why won’t the world (the real one, not my little one) knuckle under?
[ laughs at self ]
Gimme some ‘o that sherbert, huh?
vanderleun Says:
March 7th, 2012 at 3:30 pm
I bet it’s bert before the end of the decade.
Sounds like a sure bet.