DESS-putt.
That is how it is pronounced. Of course, the word is “despot.”
This one always throws me. But I’ll return to that in a moment.
A despot, by definition, is “a ruler who has total power and who often uses that power in cruel and unfair ways. Despot can also be used somewhat formally to refer to a person who simply has a lot of power over other people.” (From Webster)
This throws me too.
Oh, this English language of ours. Sometimes it feels like eating raisin bran without actually eating any of those raisins floating amidst the flakes. A big bowlful, and there they are, those raisins, bobbing around in your milk. The finagling of the bran on your spoon takes quite a bit of skill, and once you think you’ve done it? There’s a raisin hiding under the flake.
Back to despot.
First, the word should be pronounced just like depot. It looks like depot. In fact, somewhere in my brain, I’ve settled on the notion that the “s” is silent, and the “o-t” sounds like “OH.” Despot. Silent s.
Next, the word itself. If you are going to insist on sounding like “DESS-putt,” you darn well better act like it.
“Putt” sounds like putz. And “dess” sounds like you don’t know how to put on clothes correctly. A poorly dressed putz. That should be the definition. But no. A despot is a ruler? A cruel ruler?
Since we are there on the word “ruler.” What the heck?
A ruler can be a person exercising government or dominion.
Orrrrr.
A ruler can be a straight strip of plastic, wood, or metal typically marked at regular intervals, to draw straight lines or measure distances.
Ruler, the king.
Ruler, the measuring stick.
I say. What the heck?
There goes another raisin.
I’ll just say this. If I were in charge of the English language, things would be a LOT different around here. No words with double meanings.
Fair.
Minute.
Lead.
Second.
Fine.
I mean. C’mon. Which is it with these words?
Fine. Does it mean my diamond is of high quality?
Or do I have a parking ticket?
Yeah. I’ll tell you.
If I were the English Language Despot…
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“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”
― George Orwell, 1984
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“Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars.”
― Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary
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“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein
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Despot. It is all wrong, ruler.
