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How many layers of editors does the New York Times have?

But they offered none of the standard accouterments of such rollouts

12 thoughts on “How many layers of editors does the New York Times have?”

  1. Accouterment is a valid alternative spelling. I checked my ©1989 Websters Dictionary. I was surprised; I was taught accoutrement.

  2. Do Americans really pronounce the word as accouterment?

    Indeed, has any American pronounced the word since, say, 1914?

  3. The weirdness is not the spelling but the usage. Accoutrements are articles of clothing or regalia. Not sure how they can be fitted to a rollout…and the metaphorical usage is so stretched as to suggest that the writer and subs don’t actually know the meaning of the word. At that point a metaphor has become the worst sort of cliche: a thing which I thought the Gray/Grey Lady/Laidie strove mightily/mitily to avoid.

  4. And aluminum.

    “Do Americans really pronounce the word as accouterment?”

    I’ve never heard anything but accoutrement.

    Interestingly – to me at least – the spell checker doesn’t like either.

  5. You can understand centre/center, but the whole pronunciation falls over with ‘accouterment.’

    Anyway, not exactly a burning issue.

  6. Bloke in Costa Rica

    What gets me is the cod French pronunciation of things like fillet and garage. Fuh-LAY. Guh-RAAAHGE. For fuck’s sake.

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