Revised as of
19 Jan 2023
A pair of heterographs (a subset of homophone), mic versus mike is not a confusion I had expected.
I’ve been reading mic and mike in novels for years, nay, decades!
In the meantime, Straus, Kaufman, and Stern say “Mic [italics mine] is a bogus and clueless abbreviation of microphone. For too many decades to count, the word was mike. ‘Ike is good on a mike’ went a line from a popular early-1950s song about presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower” (Straus).
The authors go on to note that “A bicycle is a bike, not a bic. So how is a microphone a mic?”
They do make a good point, except, as the word history for mic indicates, it was shortened in the 1960s and appears in most dictionaries. It’s a pretty good indicator that it’s an acceptable abbreviation of microphone.
Choose which you will, but do remember that mic is a noun and mike is both noun and verb . . . and you do need to be consistent throughout your story.
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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| Mic | Mike |
|---|---|
Screaming Boy in the Studio by Free-Photos is under the CC0 license, via Pixabay. — I guess he wants to be heard via that mic. |
Shure mikrofon 55S is Holger.Ellgaard‘s own work under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — A vintage mike from the 1950s. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Abbreviation; Noun
Plural for the noun: mics |
Noun 1, 2, 3, 4; Proper noun 5, 6; Verb 1, intransitive 3 & transitive 4
Plural for the noun: mikes Third person present verb: mikes |
| Abbreviation: [Biblical] Micah
Noun: |
Noun: [Informal] A microphone 1 A forklike support for a light cannon on a sailing ship 2 [British] Loafing 3
[Micrometer] A precision instrument with a spindle moved by a finely threaded screw, for the measurement of thicknesses and short lengths, commonly used by machinists for turning shafts or boring holes 4 Proper noun: [Slang] A microgram, as of LSD [Military] A minute A male given name, form of Michael 6 A female given name, form of Michaela Verb, intransitive: [British] To loaf 3 Verb, transitive:
To measure with a micrometer 4 |
| Examples: | |
| Abbreviation: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times” (Micah 5:2 [NIV]). “In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and peoples will stream to it” (Micah 4:1 [NIV]). “Who will rule the land of Assyria with the sword, the land of Nimrod with drawn sword. He will deliver us from the Assyrians when they invade our land and march into our borders” (Micah 5:6 [NIV]). Noun: Lavelier mics are small microphones usually no bigger than the tip of your little finger. A roadie ran on with another mic so then I was holding two mics taped together, and I wasn’t really sure which one to sing into. He clearly dropped the mic on his critics, effectively cutting off further discussion. The final track is the ultimate mic drop. |
Noun: Get that mike plugged in. She also revealed that a couple of big time opera houses in New York do resort to using body mikes or floor mikes. The mike broke on the forward cannon. That’s a good mike for you, but you’ll have plenty to do later on. The thickness of both wing webs was measured by a pressure-sensitive mike before injection. I got five mikes of Lucy. Wait one mike. We’re 15 mikes out. Proper noun: Hey, Mike, give us a hand with this mike. Mike Myers is known for his roles in Wayne’s World, Austin Powers, and Shrek. Verb, intransitive: I told you she was miked. He thundered at anyone he thought was miking. Verb, transitive: The minister was already miked up for the interview. I told the sound guy that I didn’t want to be miked up today; this was too important an outing for me, and I needed nothing to divert my attention from the job in hand. If Michael had been miked, the microphone would have melted. Did you mike up that material before you put it in the machine? |
| Phrasal Verb | |
| mike up | |
| History of the Word: | |
| 1960s, as an abbreviation. |
|
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Mic versus Mike
Apple Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com: micrometer, mike
Lexico.com: mic, micrometer, mike
“Micah.” Bible. Top Verses.com. n.d. Web. 20 May 2020. <http://topverses.com/Bible/Micah>.
Straus, Jane, Lester Kaufman, and Tom Stern. The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation: An Easy-to-Use Guide with Clear Rules, Real-World Examples, and Reproducible Quizzes. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley, 2014. p 100.
Your Dictionary.com: mike
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Mike Dirnt at Mic in Cardiff during the American Idiot tour was photographed by Lloyd Morgan and was autolevelled and cropped using GIMP by en:User:Coelacan and is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via th.m.Wikipedia.
