The Main Course and the Desserts

The main course today is a pair of homophones. (I suspect you don't remember what homophones are, but, please, no more guessing—they have absolutely nothing to do with homophobia.) Homophones are words that sound the same, but have different meanings, and may or may not be spelled differently, like hair and hare.


For desserts, we'll have—well, just deserts, and, for B.B., an espresso.

The Main Course

Anti- and Ante-
Ante-  and ante-  are homophones—words (or, in this case, prefixes) that are pronounced the same way, but that have two different meanings, and are often, but not always, spelled differently. Most people are thoroughly familiar with anti-, but not so sure of ante-. The problem comes not with pronouncing them, but with writing them and understanding them. As some seventh-grade teachers are inclined to say, "Let's brush away the cobwebs."


Anti-
"Anti," of course, means against, as in "for and against"; or con, as in "pro and con."


Examples:
He was an anti-war folksinger from the sixties.
Her colleagues considered her an anti-modernist.


Ante-
"Ante," from the Latin, means "before," or "in front of."


Examples: 
She lived in the Garden District, in a charming, antebellum house.
"Antebellum" means, literally, "before the war"; in the U.S.—particularly the South—it has come to be idiom for "before the Civil War" (of the United States).


His attitudes about women were positively antedeluvian.
"Antedeluvian" means, literally, "before the Deluge," and refers to the Great Flood of biblical times. It has come to mean "ancient," "obsolete," or "very primitive."


They discussed the matter in a small anteroom.
"Anteroom" means, literally, "a room in front of another room" it generally refers to a smaller room, or waiting room, that opens into a larger room.

The Dessert

Dessert is what the British call "sweets," the after-dinner mousse au chocolat, tarte tatin, or crème brûlée.


Desert is the Sahara, Lawrence of Arabia, the Mojave—you know, lots of sand and not much water—that desert.


The desert in "just deserts" (which is pronounced like the sweet dessert, but spelled like the sand desert) is a whole other word, and idiom. "Just deserts" is a very special phrase (having nothing to do with either sweets or sand) in which the noun deserts is derived from the verb deserve. In the phrase "just deserts," the word "just" is understood to mean "fair." When someone is said to be getting his "just deserts," it means that he is getting what he justly deserves. (The expression is most commonly used in a cynical, negative way, to mean "he got what was coming to him.") Occasionally, just to confuse you, some "foodie" writer will name a cookbook or a recipe column "Just Desserts," with two s's, as a play on the expression "just deserts." Foodie writers notwithstanding, "deserts," in the expression "just deserts," should correctly have only one s. Don't be fooled.


Mnemonic Device: Think of the double s in dessert as an extra dollop of whipped cream on your dessert. Think of the single s in desert as being a snake in the desert. And think of the single s in "just deserts" as being related to deserve, which has only one s.

________________________

BULLETIN BOARD

For B.B., Re Menu Italian:

Ms. Picky never claimed to speak Italian. This column is about English grammar and language. Nevertheless, here are a few helpful tips for menu Italian: An i or an e following a c gives the c the sound of ch. (Your maître d's name would be pronounced "vin-CHEN-zo.")

"Antipasto" does not mean that the chef is opposed to pasta; it is simply the name of the course served before the pasta, what Americans call "the appetizer," and Brits call "the starter." Il dolce (pronounced "eel-DULL-chay") is what Americans call the dessert and Brits call the "sweet." After dinner, please don't order "expresso" the coffee is espresso (with a single s, not an x, after the initial e). "Grazie" (GRATZ-ee) is "thank you," and the response is "prego" (PRAY-go), which is the Italian equivalent of "you're welcome."

If you're unsure about the other menu items, just speak English. The odds are that Vincenzo's "Buonasera, signora" (Good evening, madam) is mostly windowdressing; he probably understands English as well as you do.

This blog is now read in Canada, China, Croatia, France, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Malaysia, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Russia, Slovenia, the U.K., the U.S., and Vietnam, but not in Italy.