Antennae, not antennas, you fucking dummy

Posted on 07/10/2018 by Wirecutter

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43 Responses to Antennae, not antennas, you fucking dummy

  1. Bear says:
    07/10/2018 at 09:50

    “Aerial.”

    Reply
  2. jo says:
    07/10/2018 at 15:17

    just for fun- my old Webster’s New Collegiate – pub date 1977~
    ref: has both pl spellings-after the word and pronunciation~ but does not discuss the different applications. The definitions follow after…
    Not what I was expecting!~

    Cool though~ I learned a couple things today!
    I always prefer to believe it is NOT about being right or wrong- but learning/knowing the truth!

    Reply
  3. ChuckN says:
    07/10/2018 at 15:33

    Silly Wirecutter, you think schools still teach English, let alone Latin? Why, as we speak (or type as the case may be) there are hundreds if not thousands of ivy leaguers that believe alumni is singular.

    Reply
  4. Kenny Zwick says:
    07/10/2018 at 15:40

    Actually the plurality of antennas is antenae for insects and antennas for electronics.

    Reply
    • Wirecutter says:
      07/10/2018 at 15:46

      Not when I went to antennae school in the army it wasn’t.

      Reply
      • Tsquared says:
        07/10/2018 at 09:49

        You were trained at an Air Force school. The USAF had a big debate about it in the late 80’s and decided antennas for electronics was correct. I retired Tropo/Microwave maintenance in 2004 and that was a running joke for about 10 years.

        Reply
        • Wirecutter says:
          07/10/2018 at 17:04

          Okay, instead of admitting that I was once right but am now wrong, I’m just gonna fall back onto that old “Can’t teach an old dog new tricks” argument.

          Reply
          • Djamer says:
            07/10/2018 at 19:45

            Why is the “truth” always changing and who the fuck gets to decide it? I vote for myself. . .

            Reply
            • Tsquared says:
              07/10/2018 at 15:24

              Actually it was a Major General at Maxwell AFB in the late 80’s.

              In my case 2 stars beat the hell out of 6 stripes at the time.

              Reply
  5. Terry says:
    07/10/2018 at 15:51

    An anechoic chamber (an-echoic meaning “non-reflective, non-echoing, echo-free”) is a room designed to completely absorb reflections of either sound or electromagnetic waves.
    Like a microwave oven.

    Reply
    • 1980XLS says:
      07/10/2018 at 17:45

      Worked on one of them for United Technologies about 20 years ago.
      When done, they hung an F16 figter Jet on cables in the middle of the place.
      One of the most interesting projects I was ever involved in.

      Building was 100% radio wave proof as well.
      The contractor I was working for said the door to the hanger alone cost over $100K all by itself.
      The gaskets were actually electrical brushes to block any inbound or outbound RF signals.

      Reply
  6. Ed says:
    07/10/2018 at 15:54

    The right way (electronic antennas), the wrong way (insect antennas) and the Army Way (electronic antennae).

    Reply
  7. VMS says:
    07/10/2018 at 15:58

    Kenny is correct! Languages (and many other things) change. Antennae was the accepted plural for antenna, But at some point, a distinction was made between insects and electronics. The accepted spelling today is as Kenny says.

    Reply
    • Andrew says:
      07/10/2018 at 16:52

      And, surprisingly, Dan Quayle was right when he said ‘potato’ (American modern spelling) had an ‘e’ at the end (potatoe – the way edumacated snobbish old people used to spell it.)

      But what do you expect from people who pronounce the word ‘Corps’ as ‘corpse’ and not like the Marine way?

      Wurds er fun, eh?

      Reply
      • JeremyR says:
        07/10/2018 at 12:00

        Give Barry a break, the only Corps he was familiar was the Washington Press Corps. The face of the press in Washington back then was Helen Thomas, a walking corpse if ever there was.

        Reply
    • Djamer says:
      07/10/2018 at 19:47

      And again, what’s right becomes wrong, and what’s wrong becomes right, or is that right becomes left, and left becomes right? . . . I’m so damn confused!

      Reply
  8. Don in Oregon says:
    07/10/2018 at 16:20

    Two antennae got married … the wedding was only so-so, but the reception was terrific!

    Reply
  9. rocketguy says:
    07/10/2018 at 17:01

    The absolute silence in those anechoic chambers is a bit disturbing.

    Reply
  10. California southpaw says:
    07/10/2018 at 17:02

    Yesterday she couldn’t spell scientist…

    Ever read “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury? We’re getting there.

    Reply
  11. Richard W says:
    07/10/2018 at 17:59

    Hey folks, the English language is a living, evolving thing. Think about it; we now speak of radar, lasers, automobiles, airplanes and all sorts things. Also we spell things differently than our cousins across the pond. Don’t get hung up on the fiddly bits.

    Reply
    • California southpaw says:
      07/10/2018 at 20:50

      Let’s just skip the middleman and go straight to ebonics, amirite?

      Yeah, no.

      Reply
  12. Mike_C says:
    07/10/2018 at 18:38

    Either road, I’m just grateful they’re not calling them “antennaz”.

    Reply
  13. Bad_Brad says:
    07/10/2018 at 20:40

    I’d like to invite you all to stop by to view my Cactuses Garden. I built it on big raduises for easy viewing.

    Reply
  14. rocketride says:
    07/10/2018 at 21:16

    Actually, it seems consensus has settled on the plural ‘antennae’ for ones that are parts of critters, and ‘antennas’ for ones that are parts of electronic circuits.

    Reply
  15. Rich W. says:
    07/10/2018 at 21:26

    Radii?

    Reply
  16. VMS says:
    07/10/2018 at 21:45

    The European Commission has announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the EU, rather than German, which was the other contender. Her Majesty’s Government conceded that English spelling had room for improvement and has therefore accepted a five-year phasing in of “Euro-English”.

    In the first year, “s” will replace the soft “c”. Sertainly, this will make sivil servants jump for joy. The hard “c” will be dropped in favour of the “k”, Which should klear up some konfusion and allow one key less on keyboards.

    There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome “ph” will be replaced with “f”, making words like “fotograf” 20% shorter.

    In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of the silent “e” is disgrasful.

    By the fourth yer, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing “th” with “z” and “w” with “v”.

    During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary “o” kan be dropd from vords kontaining “ou” and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters. After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and everivun vil find it ezi to understand ech ozer. ZE DREM VIL FINALI COM TRU!

    Herr Schmidt

    Reply
    • rocketride says:
      07/11/2018 at 02:16

      And the language will keep on evolving until the new spellings fit just as badly as the current ones do now. (This is, seriously, the main argument against spelling reform, in whatever language. One I mostly agree with, BTW.)

      Reply
  17. Bad_Brad says:
    07/10/2018 at 21:54

    I machine RF shit. It’s antennae

    Reply
  18. Jeep says:
    07/10/2018 at 22:02

    Tomato, potato…meh.

    Reply
  19. Skip says:
    07/11/2018 at 00:11

    I just wanna know what happened to the camel toes.

    Reply

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