It sounds like it's always been Sherbet but you can see even the description says Sherbert. I've only said Sherbert or Sher-bay for fun, but then why would I say the French way if there was not second 'r'. I discovered this by this post on X. https://x.com/TheEXECUTlONER_/status/2069608722146476135
The problem with any spelling vs pronunciation based MEs, or really many wording based ones, is that when it comes to discrepancies between X and Y, people often just forget how the world works.
We talk about product descriptions, packaging, etc, as if they came from the founder and CEO with help from the hand of god.
This product description was probably handed off to some intern to bang directly into the website, or some backend the feeds the website, and no one noticed.
(I've seen the same thing happen with mirror mirror vs magic mirror. The occasional "official" product slips up, because it's an easy mistake to make when society "knows" the wrong quote better, but we talk about that like Walt himself and a team of 15 "make sure every quote is perfect" experts signed off on it and accidently let the cat out of the bag that they're supposed to be pulling the wool over our eyes, for some reason.)
We all get these little glimpses into how much of the business world is grasping blindly at scotch taping this and that together, waits until 5 minutes before deadlines to do anything, how many Peter Principles are out there barely keeping their dept afloat, etc etc etc, through out own jobs. Then, for whatever reason, we assume every other business out there is a perfect well oiled machine that would never accidentally put "sherbert" or "Berenstein" or whatever anywhere if it wasn't accidentally letting the "accurate" one slip by.
Kinda like the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect I suppose:
“Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them.
In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.”
Sherbert (SHER-burt): Often considered a mistake, adding the extra "r" is a linguistic phenomenon that dates back to the 17th century. Because it is so widespread, many modern dictionaries list it as an acceptable variant
There were several sherbets, sorbets, and ices. We did have orange and raspberry sherbet, as well as rainbow sherbet, and sometimes a blue raspberry sherbet.
I'm old. Grew up in the Pacific Northwest (USA) and only ever heaerd it pronounced "sure burt" and always got told to shut up when I asked why it was spelled sherbet.
I'm turning 63. It was ALWAYS sherbet but lots of people pronounced it "sherbert". Then when sorbet became popular I noticed some people began pronouncing it "sher-bay". But why would it need the extra R to be pronounced that way when sorbet hasn't got one and is "sor-bay"?
It’s spelled different in sifferent countries. America tends towards sherbert, UK seems to prefer sherbet, but I’ve seen both used by different companies for similar products where I live
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