![]() ![]() Julie Palmer, a historical linguist and the nation’s leading scholar on the various pronunciations of “crappie.” Okay, her actual gig is Associate Professor of Modern Languages at Hampden-Sydney College, in a particularly crappie-rich region of south-central Virginia.Īccording to Palmer, the original name of this bespeckled problem-causer is the French crapet, meaning “rock bass,” and that term likely would have spawned the French Canadian crappé. ![]() To sort things out required a deep dive into etymology, and for that I needed to ring in with Dr. So how are we common perch-jerkers supposed to come to a consensus? Not so fast, saith the Oxford English Dictionary. ![]() Rhymes with “happy,” decrees the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. But in more Western and Northern states, and along the fringes of the South, “crop-pee” rules the day. Some say “crappie” so it rhymes with “happy.” Others pronounce it so it rhymes with “poppy.” Down he-yah in the Southern climes, most folks go with the former despite its potty-mouth connotations. There are at least two accepted pronunciations of the word. What’s really confounding isn’t how to catch the fish, but something more primary: how to pronounce their dang name. ![]() This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. ![]()
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