Last week, a prominent member of the crossword community emailed me: "Isn't eggnog one word in your dictionary?"
He was referring to 8-Down in Thursday's puzzle, where EGG was clued as [___ nog (Christmas drink that 22-Across tried for the first time on Fallon's show; she winced and said "Maybe with rum it's better"]. That was the one where Israeli actress Gal Gadot tried certain American foods for the first time and gave fans her reactions to them on the Tonight Show.
And he's right -- Webster's lists it as one word, as does Cambridge.
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But, I wrote my e-mailer back, "Fallon & co. spelled it EGG NOG on-screen during the segment so who am I to disagree?"
And indeed, most major producers of the stuff spell it with two words. Take this photo of many brands, where the score is 8-3 in favor of EGG NOG, two words, among the visible labels --
an intriguing case of dictionaries and real life disagreeing. Of course, we crossword writers will side with the two-word people, since NOG is so useful for our grids.
Had any good EGG NOG lately? Take a pic of the container and tweet it to #beastxword so we can settle this once and for all.
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