themostepotente: (GayDumbly/??)
Keeper of the Superfluous Es! ([personal profile] themostepotente) wrote2009-02-19 07:24 pm

Question for the Brits on my flist...

This is driving me absolutely fucking apeshit.

Is the correct spelling 'poof' or 'pouf?' I've seen it spelled both ways, and I'd like to know which spelling is correct?

Thanks!

--P

[identity profile] glorafin.livejournal.com 2009-02-20 08:08 am (UTC)(link)
Calanthe mentioned this a few months ago. And although 'poof' is the most widely used spelling, pouf is accepted by reference dictionaries to mean a gay man. I find 'poof' much more easy on the eye though.

[identity profile] themostepotente.livejournal.com 2009-02-23 11:43 pm (UTC)(link)
What do you find aesthetically unpleasing about 'pouf?' I'm curious now that you mentioned that.

[identity profile] glorafin.livejournal.com 2009-02-25 07:29 pm (UTC)(link)
It's not really a question of aesthetics. It's just that my sense of spelling is mainly driven by how words look (both in my native tongue and in English) and "pouf" doesn't strike me as a correct English word. First, 'ou' is rarely pronounced in English as 'oo' (I can't think of any other word). Second, pouf is for me a French word (meaning the piece of furniture mentioned above) so it just looks like an obvious spelling mistake to me. :)