Last year, a friend bought a new house and gave us a walk-through, proudly naming the rooms as we entered. "This is the Great Room", which we would call the 'dining room'. "Here is the "Master Suite", or 'large bedroom' as we knew it. And at the back of the house was the "Lanai".

I choked back a chuckle since we are many thousands of miles from Hawaii, and a forty-mile-an-hour cold wind was blowing rain against the windows over a barown lawn with bare trees under gray skies.

Does that room really qualify as a "lanai"?

Or did some sharp realtor claim another victim?

If massive sailing vessels are "tall ships", what would qualify as a "short ship"? A kayak? A surfboard?

Why do they pronounce it KYE-ack? Based on the first syllable, shouldn't it be KYE-yike?

quote:

Originally posted by Proofreader:
If massive sailing vessels are "tall ships", what would qualify as a "short ship"? A kayak?

Some kayaks are fairly long - as long as canoes. And,being a palindrome, you can paddle one, or pronounce, in either direction. I used to own a sea kayak. Loads of fun crossing a power boat's wake at anything other than perpendicular, and wakes don't go that way.

As for "lanai," he mispronounced it. He meant, "lie." It's something salesmen are adept at, as are politicians.

I suppose any porch could be called a lanai. Jerry would have loved it!