Dunkin' Donuts convinced the world to spell 'doughnut' all wrong

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June 2, 2017 4:05 PM

If you're a spelling snob with a sweet tooth, you've encountered the question: Is it a doughnut or a donut? Here's the answer.

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If you're celebrating National Doughnut Day 2017, you've probably encountered the question: Is it a doughnut or a donut?

phonetic-based spelling reform

Rosenberg began franchising in 1955, opening the 100th location in 1963 and 1,000th shop in 1979.

A Dunkin' Donuts representative told Business Insider the company did not have additional information on why Rosenberg spelled Dunkin' Donuts as "donuts" versus "doughnuts," though the chain could confirm that it has been spelled that way since 1950.

The first Mister Donut opened in Boston in 1955, and it expanded to nearly 1,000 locations in the US before its American business was acquired by Dunkin' Donuts' parent company in 1990. Today, Mister Donut has a booming business in Asia, with more than 10,000 locations worldwide.

As pointed out by the grammar blogger Grammar Girl, the rise of Dunkin' Donuts (and, to a lesser degree Mister Donut), ran parallel to a significant growth of the use of the "donut" spelling since the 1950s, according to Google Books data.

Donut has gained ground even more rapidly in recent years. Since 2005, the use of the term donut has risen steadily, according to Google Trends, while the use of doughnut has remained constant — perhaps, in part, because of the character constraints connected to social media.

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