Blog Post #4

In preparing Barb Howard’s manuscript for publication, I came across the word “résumé” and I crossed off the accent on the first “e” and moved along. The next time I met with Barb I was surprised that she had replaced the accent.

“I see you’ve replaced the first accent. I’m pretty sure that’s wrong,” I said to her.

“No, I’m quite sure it has two accents,” was her reply.

“But I looked it up. In the dictionary. It only has one accent,” the dispute continued.

“I believe the dictionary is wrong…” Oh dear, I thought.

Never before had I heard such blasphemy, questioning the dictionary? That’s a slippery slope, if you start questioning the dictionary, where does it end? Pretty soon you’ll find yourself disappearing in a puff of logic à la Douglas Adams.

In any event, the question still hadn’t been resolved so I had some research to do—and I figured I would share my findings with you, dear reader. In spelling the word in question, there are three common variations:

1) resume

2) resumé

3) résumé

I can see the reasoning behind the first option (no accents) because “English doesn’t have any accents” (according to one of the friends I polled in writing this entry). But this creates a problem as resume is a different verb (for those of you looking for bonus points this is called a heteronym) defined as: to begin again or continue after an interruption. The etymology of the word “resume” is from the Latin resumere (to re-take), whereas the etymology for the word in question is from the French résumer (to summarize).

I can also, then, see the reasoning behind the third option. The infinitive, résumer, to the past participle, résumé, is a pretty straight line.

What I can’t figure out is the second option, which is unfortunate because I think I’ve been spelling it this way for years. I was unable to find a French verb resumer, so that didn’t work. At Recliner Books we rely primarily on the Canadian Oxford Dictionary (second edition) and this is the entry for the word in question:

re•su•mé /’rezə¸mei, ’rezj℧¸mei/ noun 1 N Amer. a brief account of one’s education, experience, previous employment, and interests, usu. Submitted with job application. Also called CURRICULUM VITAE 2 a summary. [French past participle of résumer (as RESUME)]

Perhaps Recliner Books will have to reconsider our dictionary choice…

In conclusion, to rate the correctness of the three choices, I would have to go with:

1) résumé – most correct

2) resume – justifiably correct, though beware the heteronym

3) resumé – least correct (damn you, Canadian Oxford Dictionary (second edition)!)

How have you been spelling it? (all votes are 100% confidential, your name/ip address is not recorded so you are free to vote any way you like and no one will know/follow-up with you.)

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