Please don't say 'Hit the Fat'


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Good luck on correcting French pronunciations in the US. If there's one thing the last couple of decades have demonstrated, it's that many Americans positively revel in willful ignorance. Also remember that we're the country that had that "Freedom Fries" nonsense back when France was perceived as insufficiently supportive of the oh-so-well-thought-out invasion and occupation of Iraq. For some inexplicable reason we're thin-skinned to the point of insanity when it comes to even implied French disapproval. Maybe we're still insecure about needing help during the American Revolutionary War or something.
Yeah, folks are too used to saying 'Mardi Gras' and don't notice that Grâce and Gras are two entirely different words which are spelled and pronounced differently.
It's even worse than that. I live in the Northeastern US and have heard people pronounce it "Mardi Grass" instead.

That said, "hit the fat" sounds amazing in English and deserves to become an American idiom, assuming it doesn't already have an Urban Dictionary listing (which I refuse to look for).
 
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That said, "hit the fat" sounds amazing in English and deserves to become an American idiom, assuming it doesn't already have an Urban Dictionary listing (which I refuse to look for).
It sounds a bit like pushing a buddy to exercise more. Would also go great with "touch some grass" 😄
(and no, it doesn't seem to exist on UD so far)
 

It sounds a bit like pushing a buddy to exercise more. Would also go great with "touch some grass" 😄
That's much better than mine. I was thinking either:

1) In the vein of "hit the silk", a social media fad where people film themselves diving into vats of rendered fat stolen from meat-packing factories. Distressingly, not as bizarre and disgusting as some actual TikTok fads.

or

2) From "hit the dirt", the act of taking cover behind overweight fellow citizens (for the extra stopping power, of course) during a mass shooting incident.

Not feeling very positive about humanity this morning, if it wasn't obvious. :)
 

Umbran

Mod Squad
Staff member
Supporter
You must pronounce the second syllable, the 'ce'.

What is this "MUST" you speak of?

If I am speaking to someone who expects me to be trying to communicate in French, it would be helpful to pronounce it as you say, definitely.

But, if everyone at the table knows it with that different pronunciation, they will understand what you mean just fine. And not a single horrible consequence for not using your preferred pronunciation will occur.

And ultimately, the point of language is to communicate, not to be proper.
 


Old Fezziwig

a man builds a city with banks and cathedrals
What is this "MUST" you speak of?

If I am speaking to someone who expects me to be trying to communicate in French, it would be helpful to pronounce it as you say, definitely.

But, if everyone at the table knows it with that different pronunciation, they will understand what you mean just fine. And not a single horrible consequence for not using your preferred pronunciation will occur.

And ultimately, the point of language is to communicate, not to be proper.
Who's talking about horrible consequences? Even OP said that this was a minor pet peeve of theirs. What would the consequences be? Honoré de Balzac isn't going to rise from his grave and curse a player's dice for mispronouncing it. I grant that it would probably be rude to aggressively correct folks' mispronunciation at the table in most circumstances, but it seems like a minor thing to use the correct pronunciation.
 


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