Spinach.

[Abdulmajid]

Has anybody noticed that even celebrity chefs sometimes pronounce spinach as spinidge S-P-I-N-I-D-G-E.

Is this ever acceptable in civilised society??

[chrisrob]

Who said celebrity chefs were civilised?

[sallybowles]

who deternines what is civilised society?

who even cares?

[sallybowles]

* determines*

[Abdulmajid]

I care sally, otherwise I wouldn't post the question would I??

Doh!!!!!

[sallybowles]

what I meant was, does it matter how it is pronounced? Different areas have different accents.
some people even have loose false teeth....could make it difficult to say..'spinach as it is supposed to be said.
:-)

[andy-hughes]

I can live with that Abdul - it's every single news reporter on every single radio and TV channel saying the word 'secretary' as 'sec-it-ary' - that drives me crazy!

[Quizmonster]

Spynnage, spenage, spinnage, spinage, spynache, spinech and spinache...all of these were used in English before the word finally settled down as spinach. So, the word as you present it certainly was perfectly acceptable in civilised society at one time.
Perhaps the cooks are just going back to their roots? (Linguistically, I mean, rather than their root vegetables!)

[sallybowles]

make sure you brush your teeth afyerwards though.....no matter how you say it, because it would sound even worse if you had a bit of it stuck in your teeth....yeuuuccchhhh!
:-)

[brionon]

Are Celebrity Chefs acceptable in a civilised Society ? Cooking Celebrities is a good idea but not legal,surely ?

[coccinelle]

If you look at the phonetical pronunciation in the Oxford Dictionary it is to be pronounced spinidge!!!

[Quizmonster]

Whilst I normally treat The Oxford English Dictionary as the 'bible' in such matters, I have to say that Chambers offers both itch and idge pronunciations, Bloomsbury offers only itch and Collins only idge!
Given that language is constantly changing over time and that the the other three dictionaries are much more recent than the OED is, it seems possible that this particular word is in a transition stage and that, therefore, both pronunciations are currently acceptable.

[Quizmonster]

Rather belatedly, I decided to check out the online version of the OED and it offers both pronunciations!

[Abdulmajid]

Well I'll be bu66ered.

Such a simple question has turned very interesting indeed.

QM, your boundless knowledge and researching mind never fails to impress.

[Quizmonster]

You're too kind, AM, but thank you for your generous comment.