Friday, October 15, 2021

Take the cache and let the edit go

 I am going to go over this ONE MORE TIME because some of you were not listening. 

The word cachet means "prestige" or "a characteristic feature or quality conferring prestige." We lifted the word and its pronunciation, "cash-AY," directly from the French, because the French are so much better at prestige than the English. 

The word cache also has a French root, but we pronounce it as "cash," because it's our language and we do as we damn please. Cache has nothing to do with prestige. As a noun it means a hiding place for provisions or tools, or the materials being stored in a secure place. As a verb, it means to put things in a secure place. And more recently it became a word for material stored in computer memory. 

We sometimes see cachet spelled caché, the likely reason being that people have a memory of a chain of shopping mall stores selling overpriced vulgar women's clothing that included an accent aigu in its name, Caché, among its affectations. DO NOT DO THIS. 

Don't make me come over here again.