mic or mike?

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fenix

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Mike the name of a person.

Mic is short for microphone.


is this right? Why are people spelling it Mike? I've never heard of a Mikerophone.

Someone clarify.
 
Mike is the masculine form and Mic is the feminine. Whenever used as a verb or adverb it is proper to use the masculine form. When used as a noun you should use the feminine.

The root "mic" comes from the latin word "mica" which when translated literally means "to speak into a phalus". In ancient times this term was used as a euphamism for oral sex. "She gives great mike!"

Syntax:
I miked the guitar.
The miked cabinet sounded stronger.
Can you recomend a mic?
 
I don't care much about the specifics, but something just doesn't seem right about the phrase "I'd like to get my hands on a nice warm Mike."

I usually write mic and mic'd. :)

Slackmaster 2000
 
hold up dude...english words are neutral, they can't be male or female.
 
My post was written using an ancient writing technique called "sarcasm".
 
"english words are neutral" - basically...but, they still carry weighting from the genders of other languages (esp. latin).
Thats why we call ships "she", etc...comes from latin.

I don't know that the gender has anything to do with this particular question...but, the end result is the same.

Noun, it is a mic or mics.

but, you miked a guitar cabinet.

mic'd isn't wrong...personally I kinda like it better.

I am not sure about "I wonder what I am going to mic my drums with" - In that case I think either mic or mike would be correct. but I would certainly go with mic there.

Basic rule for me is if I have to put "ed" after it - then its mik. otherwise, mic.
 
I'm not sure that changing a C to a K and adding an E is really the right way to go about things. I think that "mic" is not a word, but an abbreviation for the word "microphone", and should never be spelled "Mike", who is my coworker.

I realise that "mic" should be pronounced with a short "i", but the word "microphone" is pronounced with a long "i". Therefore, I propose that from now on we all pronounce microphone with a short i.

Really the biggest hangup when creating the word microphone, was probably the letter C, as seen in the word "mice". "Micerophone" just doesn't work because of the stupid "C" shifting from "K" mode to "S" mode. Stupid C.

Now back at that time, if had they decided to drop the proper latin prefix and just spell the damn word how it sounds, then it would have been Mikerophone. But then EVERYBODY knows Mike, so that's no good.

Wait a sec. Hold the presses. I take back my above proposal, and now propose that we change the spelling of "microphone" to "mikrophone", both being pronounced with long i's for no reason. That way, when we abreviate "Mikrophone", we get Mik, and adding the "ed" suffix is quite natural to create "miked".

Aw shit, but then we're back to square once since we all know Mike.

Perplexing.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Well, in dictionaries (and they often change when the word has taken on a new form by the new peoples), it's mike. I use both mic and mike, but mike when I feel I may be corrected by someone who knows that properly used, it's...mike.
 
The first time I saw the word "mic" in print, I thought for a second they were referring to the slur for Scottish and Irish people.
 
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