What's the correct spelling Donut or Doughnut? or just personal pan cake with hole?

Question

And why is there a nut in there?

Answer 1

either is correct, though I prefer personal pan cake with hole - too cute!

Answer 2

Doughnut traditionally, but donut has "morphed" into acceptable usage, originally a spelling used only as a specific marketing by one company. Don't know about the nut, though...could it have anything to do with nuts and bolts? Or nuts being used in the dough originally, like banana-nut doughnuts or something?

Answer 3

Either is appropriate, but doughnut is the more traditonal spelling. The first known printed use of the word "donut" was in an Los Angeles Times article dated August 10, 1929. And as for the etymology of the word....
"The earliest occurrence of the word is in the work of Washington Irving (1809). He had to define the word, so we can assume that it was not a widely known dish at the time, at least to his audience. And, interestingly, he defines doughnuts as "balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat". This suggests that doughnuts were not named after knots or nuts and bolts, but instead after nuts like walnuts or pecans. They were balls of dough that, when fried to a deep golden brown, resembled nuts. Doughnuts only took their torus shape to overcome a problem inherent in balls of dough - uncooked centers. Removing the centers ensured that the doughnuts would be cooked throughout. "

ANOTHER explanation would be the following (which is also briefly mentioned on the Krispy Kreme Fun Fact Sheet Page 6): "Doughnuts as we know them today originated in the mid-1800s. Their predecessor was the olykoek, a treat Dutch immigrants to the U.S. made by frying the leftover bits of bread dough in hot oil. Exactly how the name “doughnut” came to be used is the subject of some disagreement. According to some sources, the Dutch twisted their dough into knots, hence “dough knots”. Others point out that the olykoeken tended not to cook through in the very middle, so some makers would put nuts in the center (“dough-nuts”) to make them more palatable.

The uncooked centers seem to have been, directly or indirectly, the reason behind the hole. According to several widely diverging accounts, the doughnut hole was the invention of a New England sea captain named Mason Crockett Gregory (or Hansen Gregory or Hanson Gregory, depending on who you ask) around 1847. Gregory’s mother Elizabeth made olykoeken and sent them with her son on his journeys to sea. The least likely but most colorful version of the story, and therefore the one I like best, is that Gregory needed a place to put his olykoek while he steered the boat, so he impaled it on one of the spokes of the steering wheel. Other sources say that Gregory came up with the idea in a dream or claimed to have received it from angels; some say he simply didn’t like the uncooked centers (or the nuts his mother filled them with) and poked them out; still others say he may have encountered a cake with a hole in the middle during his journeys and decided to adapt the idea to the olykoeken. Whatever Gregory’s real reason for adding the hole, it had the beneficial effect of making the doughnuts cook more evenly, and the idea quickly caught on."


Several people have made mention of an earlier spelling as "doughnought." According to the Wordorigins.org site this "earlier, original" spelling is incorrect.
"Any number of people have inquired about the origin of the name of this pastry. The dough part is easy enough, but why nut?

The term doughnut is first attested to 1809, in Washington Irving's Knickerbocker's History of New York, but Irving is not referring to the toroidal confection that we know today. Instead, what he describes are small balls of fried dough, what we would today call doughnut holes:

An enormous dish of balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat, and called doughnuts, or olykoeks.
The nut comes from the size and shape of these balls, literally nuts made out of dough.

A common misperception is that the original spelling was "doughnought," referring to the hole in the middle. This is simply not true.

(Source: Oxford English Dictionary Online)"

Try to do a search on the word "doughnought" on Merriam-Webster Dictionary online or ANY dictionary for that matter. The word is not found!!! If it was an "original" spelling, as some have claimed, then I would assume the word would be defined as the original spelling for donut or doughnut. While "doughnaught" would appear to be a reasonable beginning, there is no proof that this was the original spelling for the word. It has, on the other hand, been proven that the spelling "doughnut" dates back to 1809.

Answer 4

This proves that either spelling is corrrect and also gives a little trivia. I didn't know doughnuts have been around that long...pretty interesting. I still don't know where the "nut" comes from, but I am curious to find out.

Answer 5

The actual, original spelling is doughnought, which meant literally a nought (a zero) made of dough. As the pronunciation was (is) "doe nut", over the course of time, the spelling has become simplified to "donut"

Answer 6

Doughnut, although it is usually shortened to donut. They are made out of dough, but I am not sure where the nut part comes in either.

Answer 7

It depends on where you are....lol. The correct spelling is doughnut, but companies take the english language and twist it too suit their goals, like Dunkin Donuts. They didn't even spell dunking correctly...lol.

Answer 8

Doughnut.

Answer 9

Donut

Answer 10

I think the very original spelling was doughnaught, because there is naught in the middle!

Edit: Actually the person above me has it right. I knew I was close though, in that there was an even older spelling suggesting the shape of the pastry.

Answer 11

Doughnut in English, both in American English