Living a Lie

At the last Predators home playoff game, every attendee received a bunch of plastic strips to wave around in the air during the game. Half way through the first period, the announcer said (and it was written on the jumbotron, too), “Everyone, wave your pompons!” “Did he just say ‘pomPON’?” I asked Les, incredulously. Les, who was watching players skate around on the ice, gave me a grunted response, signifying that this was neither the place nor the time to ask such a ridiculous, non-hockey-related question.

So, during the first intermission, I asked the couple in front of me, “Did you hear the announcer say ‘pomPON’?” “Yes,” the woman replied, “and it’s printed in the program, too!” We both agreed that we had always thought it was “pompom” and now felt like we had possibly been living a lie for the last 30 years. As if to make us feel worse, the man added that he was familiar with the “pompon” term. His high school had a Pompon Squad, and he remembered very clearly that it was an “n” and not an “m” at the end of the word.

When I got home, I had to Google it to find out which term was really right. After all, can you really believe a hockey announcer and a hockey fan who says he remembers cheerleading squad information 15 years after the fact? Apparently you can. After looking this up online, I found this following information on a Common Errors in English website:

“To most people that fuzzy ball on the top of a knit hat and the implement wielded by a cheerleader are both “pompoms,” but to traditionalists they are “pompons,” spelled the way the French—who gave us the word—spell it. A pompom, say these purists, is only a sort of large gun. Though you’re unlikely to bother many people by falling into the common confusion, you can show off your education by observing the distinction.”

I couldn’t believe that I had been so grammatically incorrect for so many years! Next thing you know, I’ll be saying “Valentime’s Day,” “ying and yang,” “libary,” and “expresso”! Ugh!