Salt Lake Telegram | 1948-03-18 | Page 16 | Take My Word for It

TAKE MY WORD FOR IT By Frank Colby THE VORD WORD ROUTE The English words rout and route as M we learned yesterday are different forms of ot the French noun route We also learned that In English the word route has two sanctioned pronunciations pro pro- root and rout the latter prevailing among the people people peo peo- pie as a whole and being universally universally sally lly heard in commercial and railroad usage Now why is It that most Americans feel more ore comfortable comfortable comfortable comfort comfort- able in saying rout than they do in saying root It is a simple matter of connotation or to use a more familiar term word association The connotation or suggestive significance of a word strongly influences its pronunciation and vice versa It is so with the pronunciation root for route for root suggests 1 the root o of a plant 2 to take root in inthe inthe inthe the soil 3 to root up as of weeds 4 to root in the ground as asa asa a hog 5 a mathematical factor as the cube root 6 the primary form or stem of ot a word 7 a cause or source as the root of evil 8 3 the root of a tooth 9 to root or push with the nose or snout 10 to root for the home team On the other ther hand the pronunciation pronunciation pronunciation pro pro- rout for route has but two other associations 1 to route or scoop out with a gouge 2 to put to rout as in repulsing an enemy Now we see see that the r elation root has stronger and many more associations to disturb dis dis' disturb us than has the pronunciation tion rout For example if one should say The railroad rooted us to New NewYork NewYork NewYork York by way yay of Washington a grotesque image pops into ones one's mind Not so with The railroad railroad railroad rail rail- road routed us 11