As I write this, I am bobbing around somewhere in a very turbulent Atlantic on a lovely ocean liner that has a proud British pedigree. It is especially well known for serving “tea” every afternoon. Besides tea sandwiches – rectangular pieces of bread with a variety of fillings – small rolls with other fillings and pastries, they offer “cream tea.” The term “cream tea” specifically refers to a warm scone served with clotted cream and jam [...]

You are looking forward to your first cream tea. You see a pastry in front of you. If you’re an American, it looks like a buttermilk biscuit with raisins. You want to refer to it by name. What do you call it? Is it a “scon” – rhymes with “gone” – or is it a “scone” – rhymes with “own.”? [...]

Eating a scone as part of a cream tea is a tricky business. One does not just pick up the biscuit and eat it. There are weighty matters to be determined. One can skip over the conundrum of how to pronounce the name of the delicacy itself by pointing to it.[...]