I totally had an epicrain moment at work tonight.
For those not familiar with that word, some background: Back in 2000, I was an inexperienced copy editor trying to keep my head above water on the sports copy desk at The Dallas Morning News. I was editing a Tour de France story whose lead described "an epicrain-soaked journey."
Being relatively new to cycling lingo, I figured "epicrain" (pronounced in snooty French accent) was some term I didn't know (a la peloton). And I proceeded to call the reporter, who was in France, and ask him about it, all smug about my flawless pronunciation. As the words were coming out of my mouth, "So what is this epicrain ...?" I realized that, duh, the words had been run together in the e-mailing of the story. *Ahem* "epic rain-soaked journey," thank you very much. Quel horreur!
Anyway, tonight's incident wasn't as bad but still made me feel dumb. A sentence in a bass-fishing story said "Lines whiz over the water, lores squeak on the surface ... ." Had no idea what a "lore" was and whether it could squeak. The dictionary definition of lore(2): "the space between the eye and bill in a bird or the corresponding region in a reptile or fish." Fish! I thought the writer was describing how the fish peek above the surface. They do that, right?
So I was asking the reporter about this when I realized, oh, she meant "lures squeak on the surface." I'm still not sure if lures actually squeak on water, but I felt so epicrain that I let it go!
6 comments:
That was a very enjoyable reading. Keep them coming!
I'm tempted to write my own epicrain story...but couldn't think of one now.
Here is a substitute.
This morning, Judy quoted from some Taiwanese English book that declared "words start with CON carry the meaning of a 'group'...eg. congregation, conglomerate, congress etc. I was not convinced and asked "How do you explain CONstipation?"
I thought of another awkword Taiwanese English moment only Frank could produce: At a get-acquainted party, a pretty lady greeted Frank "Hi, I'm Marry". Startled, (and thinking way too much) Frank replied "I'm married too!"
Ernie
Ba, that's hilarious! You and Uncle Frank crack me up!
Yo Gie!
Ba was bugging me to read the comment he wrote about your epicrain story. I was cracking up when he wrote CONstipation. We've been having a lot of fun here in Indy. Wish you were here!
Rico
Omigosh, sounds to me like Ba needs to start his own blog, dontcha think?
Hilarity. I think Sports is fodder for a disproportionate number of misunderstandings. One of the all-time faves for Bob and me was in the college newsroom when (again, with snooty French accent), someone said, "What do you mean outrebound?" A moment of silence. "Oh, OUT-rebound. Gotcha."
Don't ever let a reporter make you feel silly or stupid -- it was THEIR ERROR in the first place! A fishing reporter better know how to spell lure! :-P
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