*tsunamus

[Jonathan Lighter]

Now I want a martino.

JL

On Sat, Feb 27, 2010 at 8:35 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: *tsunamus
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 6:34 PM -0500 2/27/10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >One of Honolulu's news anchors apologized on CNN for having said "tidal
> >wave" when he meant "tsunami." He also emphasized that "tsunami" is
> >"singular."
> >
> >Perhaps someone complained about apparent subject-verb discord.
> >
> >JL
>
> No, it's not Latin, it's Italian:  Would you like to much on a tasty
> panino while you watch the tsunamo?  Of course in the original
> Italian it was "zunamo", but it is a loan word after all.
>
> LH
>
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