Draft and Draught

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hey, how are you doing?

Good, who’s this?

This is Scott.

Scott.

Hi, Scott.

How are you doing?

I’m doing very good.

And where are you?

I’m in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

All right.

Well, welcome to the show. How can we help?

Well, you know, I’m attending school, and in there we’re talking about plants, and my instructor had some handouts and a textbook he gave us, and in there, they’re often talking about the plants do not tolerate cold, and I’ll spell the word out, D-R-A-U-G-H-T-S.

Really?

And I was like, is that a misspelling of droughts? And I brought it up in class because the connotations is kind of purporting drafts, but it didn’t make sense because the spelling was so off the wall.

So I inquired about it, and he told me it’s not D-R-A-F-T-S, because that’s what beer is, a draft. And I laughed, the whole class laughed, but he said the proper spelling for draft is D-R-A-U-G-H-T-S.

You have to ask, is your teacher from Britain?

That’s what I asked, and no, in fact, he is not.

He’s not?

No.

Interesting.

Is he pretentious?

Well, he does drive a Volkswagen.

That doesn’t mean he’s pretentious.

Maybe he just likes the smell of diesel.

There you go.

No, he’s not pretentious. He’s a very kind individual, caring.

Okay.

Okay.

Interesting.

Nice puzzle.

But he spelled it the other way.

So this particular kind of plant doesn’t like drafts of air.

Yeah.

Meaning cool air.

Okay.

They do not tolerate cold draughts.

Yeah, yeah.

So you’re confused because this is not a spelling you’re accustomed to.

Exactly.

Just like spelling color with a U.

Mm—

Well, you’re right to mention color with a U because that’s another Britishism. And any time you see it spelled D-R-A-U-G-H-T, that’s British. Although they always pronounce it draft.

Yeah, it’s not draught or draught.

And in American English, it’s always spelled with an F. Whether you’re talking about a draft of a check or…

I hesitate to say always, but almost always.

Really?

Yeah.

Like where would you find it?

Well, in a botany class, for example.

In a British class.

Yeah, yeah.

But generally speaking, the American spelling is F. It’s always pronounced draft no matter what.

Yeah, it’s something like 99.99% of the time in the U.S. We spell it D-R-A-F-T.

But I will tell you, what really goes through my mind when I first saw that word is draught.

Well, exactly.

So you’re thinking of it being really dry, which has nothing to do with the other kind of draft.

That’s awesome.

Yeah.

Yeah, it’s crazy.

Well, you know who’s to blame for this, kind of? It existed before his time, but Noah Webster, the great spelling reformer in the New World, he championed the D-R-A-F-T spelling, and he is part of the reason that it is nearly universal here in North America.

Very intriguing.

The G-H-T actually represents an older pronunciation that was kind of like the Scottish Lach.

Yeah, it’s a Germanic.

Of course, the Latin language was pure joke, of course.

Oh, okay.

Wait, what?

Hey, if you know Latin, you’re going to have a great time in botany.

Yes, I am having fun in botany.

Is it botany or gardening?

What kind of class is this?

It’s landscape horticulture.

Oh, okay, great.

Very good.

So what kind of plant is it that can’t stand cold drafts?

Well, there’s some plants like the Norfolk Island pine that really don’t like cold draft, but most of them are like ficus benjamina, if you wish to use a Latin term, or the ficus benendiikiae. They will drop their leaves with a cold draught.

Those are the kind that don’t actually produce the figs, but they’re related to figs, right?

Right.

Okay.

You often see the weeping figs in all the offices.

They’re well overused.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

In restaurants, too, right?

Yes, but if you find them with the long leaves, that’s an ollie fig.

How do you spell ollie?

A-L-I-I.

Oh, I never would have guessed that.

Okay.

All right.

Well, your teacher’s wrong.

Okay, so just take that back to him.

Well, you know the Latin language that is used for botany and horticulture or naming any other taxonomy names is because it’s a dead language. The meanings will not change.

The problem we’re having in a horticulture class is these bigwigs that are looking over the plants are finding that these plants don’t belong in these families, and the names are changing anyway.

Right. They’re reassigning Latin names, right?

Boy, does that confuse us that are learning it one way, and we have to relearn everything.

That’s how you successfully justify a second and third edition of a book.

Well, you know, that really defeats the whole purpose of using a dead language.

Hi.

Hi.

Welcome to language.

Welcome to being a part of the human race.

We are variable, to say the least.

You are great.

Thank you very much.

Good luck in class, by the way.

All right.

You have a great day.

All right.

Thanks.

Bye-bye.

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