Wednesday 30 July 2008

Pappa, Poppa, Puppo

Mr Gnome found himself embroiled in a spelling-related shopping crisis today.

His conclusion?

Variety always goes with spice...

5 comments:

Brett Jordan said...

AskOxford.com says: [edited]

As with many words from foreign languages which have their own alphabets, there is no universally accepted way of transcribing the Tamil name of this food into English.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1999) lists the word at poppadom, but mentions poppadum, and popadom, as alternatives.

The variant spellings which have been listed in Oxford dictionaries include papadam, papaddam, papadom, papadum, papodam, papodum, popadam, popadom, poppadam, poppadom, poppadum, poppodam, puppadum, puppodam, puppodum.

However, there is nothing to say that you cannot use the unlisted spellings papodom, popadum, poppodom, poppodum, puppadam, puppadom, and puppodom.

Take your pick!

barrie k said...

पापड़
I would like to say that the above (courtesy of shabdkosh.com english-hindi dictionary) should be the last word on the Popadum multiple spellings conundrum. However, as wikipedia informs us that there are at least 415 languages spoken throughout the Indian subcontinent, I think South Asia has probably got Old Blighty beat on the variants of this delicious hors-d'oeuvre/snack food!
I was devastated the other day when my local (and addictive) Wholefoods Market in Cambridge, Massachusetts ran out of Cilantro (that's coriander to us Brits) Mini Papadoms. When your papadom is a papanot it is a very sad state of affairs!

RHK said...

I bow benignly to the blessing of these bright bestowals - from blokes whose names begin with B.

Many thanks!

For a non-Indian pa-pa-pa treat, pop 'pa pa pa Mozart' in to Youtube for the wonderful 'recognition' duet when lonely birdman Papageno finally finds his Papagena - and they stammer their way into happiness.

Cosmo said...

I had a friend at school who thought the Madonna song, 'Papa don't preach' was actually poppadom peach!

RHK said...

Ha ha!

Please - do check out the Mozart 'pa pa pa' connection!