"doughtnuts" news and stories

According to a press release today, Dunkin Donuts is is going to be offering jumbo cookies as the newest additions to its ever-extending line of fast, fresh and affordable snacks. The cookies come in three flavors: Chocolate Chunk, Oatmeal Raisin and Peanut Butter Cup. The cookies are avilable now in stores inthe Northeast, and will be available everywhere else by October.

This is all part of Dunkin Donuts recent shift in marketing, away from being known merely for coffee and donuts in the morning to an all day snack and food source.

With the smoothie introduction earlier this summer, I thought they were trying to go for a slightly healthier image, especially with the "American runs on Dunkin" slogan that I am guessing is supposed to imply that Dunkin DOnuts can keep you fueled all day long. Sure, if you're okay with caffeine and sugar high/lows all day.

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Eric (who's great, we hear) was wondering whether it's "doughnuts" or "donuts." So I'll do my best to answer.

Doughnuts is clearly the original spelling. According to the wiki on the subject, it's the only spelling listed in Thorndike and Lorge's The Teacher's Word Book of 30,000 Words.

I have no idea why that book is an authority. Usually, the Oxford English Dictionary is considered the be-all and end-all for words. But the British, well, they don't know from doughnuts, according to the Word Detective. He says it's a purely American treat, and the word's earliest known use was in Washington Irving's 1809 account of life in New York, when he described "balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog fat." There were no holes in the original version.

In my opinion, "Donut" is no better than "Minit" or "Kwik" or "Kopy" - a dumb misspelling created for cute-itude. It seems to date from the 1950s, when Dunkin' Donuts first hit the scene. So, then, "doughnut" is correct, unless you're referring to the products of the double D.