Quote Unquote vs. Quote End Quote

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hey, Grant, this is Willem, and I’m calling from Chicago. How are you?

Hi, Willem. Welcome to the show.

Hey, Willem.

I recently finished graduate school. Thank you very much.

And while I was in graduate school, I had a professor at Northwestern who would constantly say when he was giving lectures, quote, end quote, and then he would go on to talk.

And I always found it kind of funny that he said, quote, end quote, as opposed to, quote, unquote.

And this particular professor is from Argentina. So a part of me felt like, oh, maybe it’s just a colloquial thing. Like maybe in Argentina they say it differently or it’s translated differently. So I didn’t really think anything of it.

You know how when you hear something new for the first time and then, of course, you hear it every day for the next year kind of thing. So I started hearing that all the time. And then I thought, am I crazy? Is it quote, end quote and not quote, unquote?

Because I thought it was quote unquote. And then, of course, I started looking it up and the etymology from what I could find isn’t really defined.

Like there’s not a clear etymology for quote unquote or quote unquote. But boy, is there a conversation and a debate online about which one is correct.

So I thought I should call you guys since you are obviously the experts on record and say, what is the definitive answer? That is my question.

Oh, definitive.

The definitive answer.

But I’m wondering where else you hear end quote.

Do you hear it or are you reading it?

No, no, I definitely am not reading it.

I’m hearing it.

And what’s interesting is I’ve always thought that it was quote unquote if you are saying that as a pair before giving the quoted text in speech.

So if I were to say, so Martha, I was talking to Grant and he said, quote unquote, this guy is crazy. Like I could see it being quote unquote. But if I’m saying a longer quote, if I say, hey, I was reading a book by Sam Harris and Sam went on to say, quote, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, end quote, then I could see where it would be different, you know, different between quote unquote, end quote, end quote.

But I recently was listening to one of the many audio books that I constantly listen to.

And the author of this particular audio book said, quote, end quote.

And then he went on and quoted this long paragraph.

And I just thought it was so weird that he said, quote, end quote, at the beginning of the long paragraph as opposed to, quote, unquote.

Am I making any sense?

Right.

Right. Yeah, you’re raising several important points, one of which is that quote unquote, as you pointed out, is its own idiom.

I might say yesterday I gave myself a quote unquote haircut, which adds a little bit more meaning.

Right. I didn’t. Maybe that haircut doesn’t look as good as I want to see.

It’s interesting also that you mentioned audiobooks, because if you’re an audiobook narrator, particularly in nonfiction, the company you’re working for may have a house style where they prefer that you end a quotation with the word end quote.

So, as you said, quote, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, end quote.

And in the same way, reading audiobooks, if there’s a caption, for example, they’ll say, caption, Martha has a terrible haircut.

End caption. Or if there’s a longer explanation, they’ll say reader’s note. Martha couldn’t get to see her stylist and she has actually tried to do artistic projects before. End note. So you’ll have end caption, end note, and end quote.

You’ve probably read enough online to know that end quote and unquote apparently arose in response to the need to render speech in writing, starting with the telegraph in the 19th century and then later dictation devices. It’s less natural in everyday speech, but it’s useful in things like audio books.

But I’m interested that the Argentinian professor used end quote, because it’s not as common as unquote as it grants. No, it isn’t.

Not at all. Quote unquote is used both in the UK and in North America, but quote end quote is mainly American English, and it’s really rare, although the sticklers, the people who are usually kind of prim about their English, tend to prefer quote-end-quote because they, for some reason, think that unquote undoes everything that came before, like that it stops it being a quote, and it actually doesn’t.

Oh, that’s so funny. I love it. Well, thank you so much. This has been so great, and especially, you know, during the pandemic, I just can’t tell you how much the show has been such a great form of support.

Because I can listen to an episode over and over and over again and always get something new.

And I certainly love all the book recommendations and just finished reading for the second time, Diary of a Comic Queen, which was unbelievable.

Very nice.

Yeah, it was so funny and just so interesting.

So definitely keep the recommendations coming over the airwaves.

So thank you.

Thank you both so much.

This has been so great.

Thank you, Will.

We appreciate the call.

Call us again sometime.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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