ZOMBIE TASTE TREAT DINNER REVIEW: “The meal was expertly finished off with a decedent, Pierre Herme Paris dessert…” What’s so funny about this? This entire joke rests on a single letter. It is most likely a typo, that is, a typographical error. In other words, the writer intended to write the letter “a” but instead typed the letter “e”. This could have been conscious or accidental. The finger might have slipped or it could even have been a computer glitch. There are a number of A’ and E’s in the quotation, but we’re only concerned with the word “decedent,” or should I have said “decadent?” And not only is the meaning and entire sense of the statement altered, but so is the pronunciation. This occurs in two ways: The letter C can have a hard or soft sound, depending on the vowel that follows it. Decedent has the soft C and decadent has the hard C. The other pronunciation change is syllable stress. Decedent has the stress on the 2nd syllable, so it’s pronounced de-CE- dent; whereas “decadent” has the hard C sound with first syllable being stressed as in DE-ca-dent. And we haven’t even touched on the meaning yet. The best place to look for that is in the context provided by the other words. We’re looking at an evaluation of a meal someone had at a restaurant or possibly on a first-class airplane flight. Specifically, it’s the end of the meal, usually reserved for desert. We know that it was created, perhaps even prepared by some guy called Pierre Herme who is from Paris, a happens to be a world-class pastry chef. The real question is was it decadent or decedent. One difference in the two words is that the former is an adjective while the latter is a noun. A “decedent” is a person who is dead, while “decadent” describes something in the state of cultural or moral decline. In all likelihood this is the intended word, because deserts, when they are exceptionally rich and sweet, are often called decadent. They are considered too good to be true, almost as if to eat something decadent is like sinning. However, that is not the word that appears in the sentence. If it’s not a typo, we are left with the conclusion that Mr. Pierre Herme is dead yet still baking deserts. And THAT’’s what’s so funny! This typo came from Premier Travel magazine, June/July, 2013 review of an airline meal. Identified in the blog World Wide Words, August, 8, 2013 audioboo.fm/boos/1534071-zombie-taste-treat
Posted on: Sun, 04 Aug 2013 17:33:41 +0000
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