July 15 2010
Imagine a professional in any field of endeavor and then imagine that professional chronically misspelling a key word in their trade language. The offender would be dismissed as an amateur that had somehow infiltrated the ranks and everybody would continue about their business.
However, in the realm of wine there is a frequent misuse and misspelling of a word that goes unchecked, the user continuing along their merry way without repercussion.
I feel like a young, curmudgeonly William Safire even though, with a book editor for a wife and a brother-in-law who is a professional writer, I get my own share of gentle nudges based on my assault of the English language – passive voice, the possessive and a couple of other bugaboos.
Yet, I can no longer cast a blind eye to the misuse of the word “palate” and the mistaken twins of, “pallet” and “palette.”
This misuse is a noxious and pervasive stinkweed in a field of online wine writing that goes largely unchecked allowing the offender to continue blithely unawares. It’s everywhere. And, it’s more omnipresent than another frequent misuse of a word: compliment and complement.
Want proof? Sequentially Google, “wine palate,” “wine palette” and “wine pallet.” You’ll quickly see how insidious the incorrect usage of “palette” and “pallet” truly are.
What started out as a muse for me is now feeling like a compulsion to take on as a pet project. Of course, instituting the grammar Gestapo is not akin to a resveratrol fueled cure for the gout, but, hey, we all want to make our mark on the world.
With that, I am now enacting a 30-day amnesty on the use of the incorrect word for palate and thereafter I will be setting up a donation mechanism, 100 pennies per offense.
It’ll work something like this: When the incorrect use of the word “palate” is seen online, the reader will contact the offender, indicate that they have been cited by “Pennies for Palates” and then direct them to a page where they can make a $1 donation. It is like a swear jar on a large scale. All proceeds will be donated to a still to be determined charitable cause – perhaps the Sonoma County Wine Library.
Please join me as a lieutenant in the fight for protecting the sanctity of the word “palate.” In doing so, consider the following, “We tasted next to a pallet of wine. The bouquet offered up a wonderful palette of aromas and the palate offered up more of the same.” Or, “We tasted next to a palate of wine. The bouquet offered up a wonderful pallet of aromas and the palette offered more of the same.”
Thank you, in advance, for joining me in a worthy cause.
Posted in, Good Grape Daily: Pomace & Lees. Permalink | Comments (9) |
Coach, I’m open to correction ... and, the answer is, no, I’m not flagging the grammar issue!
Please shed light ...
Jeff
Jeff,
Singular/plural conflict.
To avoid the patriarchal use of a masculine pronoun, and to also be grammatically correct, the phrase should be recast to:
“...users continuing along their merry way…”
a “user” is not a group.
oop[s, didn’t want to send right then:
a user is not a group, but even a group would be cast as singular.
Much as I enjoy a good grammar discussion—job number is in that realm, after all 
—I would like to say that “wine” is listening, but keep in mind that the very issues being raised here, vis-á-vis “alternative” messaging options for the industry as a whole and a dogged determination to keep the equation as “wine equals scarcity equals expensive equals must-be-good,” those issues are what keeps a lot of us who ARE trying to listen to what wine drinkers want from being heard when we try to “talk back” with our products. We’re simply too small; we’re all scrambling just to get grapes picked, wines bottled, websites reasonably updated, etc.; and there are just lots and lots of us, which makes coordination difficult if not impossible. The bottom line is that the consumer needs to do part of this, too, by actively pursuing wines that she wants and not giving in to that nasty equation I mentioned above. I can’t make more wine if I don’t sell what I’ve already got in bottle—and neither can lots and lots of others, too.
Pennies for palates! Good one! hehe. Cheers!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this post! Every time I see someone misuse that word it sets my teeth on edge! But then, so do the people who say ‘nucular’. And ‘relator’. And ‘jewlery’.
I can’t help but think less of professionals who do not know how to spell ‘palate’. It’s not fair to judge them, I suppose, but the palate is a pretty key part of enjoying wine!
even the owner of Ch. Haut-Brion misuses the term! (last paragraph)
http://www.luxist.com/2010/07/29/chateau-haut-brions-prince-robert-of-luxembourgs-latest-ventur/
THANK YOU!
I worked as an executive for major US retailers for over 25 years.
We selected our seasonal color palettes for product development, hired buyers with good palates for product selection, and when our assortments were done we used pallets for shipping.
Unfortunately, my red pen got a work out over the confusion with these homophones. Thank you for articulating this problem and taking it on as a pet project. You have someone here in Ashland in your corner!
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Based on this writer/editor’s experience, you’d have more success changing the English language…
Anyway (not anyways), here’s one of your phrases above: “...the user continuing along their merry way…”
See anything wrong with it?