The rush of correcting someone’s grammar is eclipsed only by correcting someone’s grammar when it involves Seattle. The city’s own Ken Jennings, host of “Jeopardy!,” got that chance on Wednesday night’s episode of the popular game show.
From the “They Almost Tore it Down” category, the $1,000 question was, “If the 1960s plan to replace this Seattle market with high-rises had succeeded, there might be no Starbucks today.”
Player Dan Moren, a writer and podcaster from Massachusetts, buzzed in, answering “What is Pike’s Place Market?”
Seems right, but did you notice the mistake? Jennings did right away.
“No,” the Edmonds-born host responded quickly. “Sorry, Dan, we are sticklers in Seattle. It’s Pike Place.”
A Reddit user posted the short clip to the r/Seattle subreddit and garnered over 4,000 upvotes by noon Thursday, writing, “Jeopardy tonight puts an end to Pikes Place.”
The common misnaming of the nearly 120-year-old landmark has been a pet peeve for some Seattleites, including Jean Smart, who grew up in the area.
If you won’t take Jennings’ word for it, take the Market’s (possessive “s” is allowed here, by the way).
To create a refuge for farmers to sell their products without paying price-gouging middlemen, the Seattle City Council passed an ordinance in 1907 to set aside land for a public market. The market would come to share its name with its location, Pike Place, a street named for Seattle pioneer John Pike.
Back in the 1960s, the now-bustling public market was almost abandoned by city and business leaders who called it “a ramshackle firetrap” on track to “die of rot.” It was nearly replaced with luxury apartment towers, a high-rise hotel, upscale offices and a seven-story parking garage before Seattleites voted to preserve Pike Place Market with a citizens initiative.
But those who misname the Seattle staple might not be trying to do the Market and its storied past dirty. They may just be making a common linguistic mistake.
Pike Place misnamers like Moren might be “reasoning by analogy,” said Western Washington University associate linguistics professor Jordan Sandoval. People often add a plural or possessive “s” to businesses, saying Costcos, Krogers or Freddy’s for Fred Meyer, because they recognize it in other business names like Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s.
They could also be adding a possessive “s” to Pike Place Market, referencing it much like another place name you might visit, Sandoval continued. You’re going to John’s house. You’re going to Pike’s Place Market.
But history and linguistics aside, it remains to be seen whether people will ever stop calling the Market “Pikes” or “Pike’s” Place.
By the way, despite the flub, Moren won Wednesday’s episode with $17,200 in earnings.
Materials from The Seattle Times archive were used in this story.
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