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I’ve been practicing listening of English language news on FEN for years, and heard the latest (March 24) Wall Street Journal Barron’s magazine news as follows:

“Visteon is maneuvering to be a key player in this fast growing cockpit electronics market. Quainted the auto supplier has hit share of potholes since being spun out from Ford 14 years ago, But this week’s Barron’s says Visteon is back on track now, as it shifts away from lower margin businesses , and toward lucrative high growth areas.”

I think I heard “Quainted the auto supplier has hit ---,” but I don’t understand what “quainted” means here. OALED defines ‘quaint’ only as an adjective meaning "attractive in an unusual, or old-fashoned way." And if it is adjective, why there is “the” between ‘quainted’ and “auto supplier”?

Did I hear wrong? If I’m wrong, what would the right word that sounds like ‘quainted” be?

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  • Can you give a link to the newscast?
    – David M
    Commented Mar 28, 2014 at 23:52
  • David M. Sorry I can’t, because it’s only on tape. I use to tape-record AP and Barron’s news which are aired back to back on FEN (Far East U.S. Force Network), and listen to the tape together with a dozens of English language enthusiast peers for the purpose of improving listening proficiency. We listened to the quoted news together, and everybody including me heard it “quainted,” and were puzzled over what it means.
    – Yoichi Oishi
    Commented Mar 29, 2014 at 0:26
  • No problem. It appears to be granted as Oldcat suggests. It makes significantly more sense in context. I recommend accepting his answer.
    – David M
    Commented Mar 29, 2014 at 0:42

2 Answers 2

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I assume the word you heard is "Granted"

Granted, the auto supplier has hit (it's) share of potholes since being spun off from Ford 14 years ago, But this week’s Barron’s says Visteon is back on track now..."

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  • Yeah! That makes more sense. I've spent the last 15 minutes looking for the actual newscast online.
    – David M
    Commented Mar 28, 2014 at 23:51
  • I first did a search looking for a company named "Quainted" since I skipped over the first sentence...
    – Oldcat
    Commented Mar 29, 2014 at 0:05
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    Now it’s makes sense. The sound of “granted” I heard on an old-fashioned cassette tape (some users were astonished to find that I’m still using a tape for listening) may have shifted, or rolled to ‘quainted-like’ pronunciation.
    – Yoichi Oishi
    Commented Mar 29, 2014 at 0:07
  • I presume you mean "its"?
    – Michael Hampton
    Commented Mar 29, 2014 at 7:04
  • Correction. It makes sense.
    – Yoichi Oishi
    Commented Mar 29, 2014 at 9:22
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Regarding: I wonder why all of us (16 English language enthusiasts including MBA of Illinois University) mistakenly heard “quainted” ...

You know, I believe the newscaster misspoke: specifically:

Note that "quant" and similar is a term financial newscasters have to use all the time; it wouldn't strike me as unusual that a financial newscaster garbles a word in to something related to "quant".

Note too: assuming, Yochi, you typed the headline here correctly. The financial newscasters also fucked up the "has hit.."

It should have been "has his" (set aside that that is a strange construction, it's a company not a "him").

But note again ... "has hit..." is a very common phrase in financial reporting. ("has hit their targets," "has hit his targets").

I suggest that anyone from the financial markets, reading/hearing that misspeaking, would pick up on the "quant-" connection, and the "has hit.." connection.

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  • Reading Oldcat’s notation, “has hit (it's) share of potholes,” and your comment - It should have been ‘has his (share of potholes) - in your answer, I reheard the line in question carefully. I heard it “Granted (still sound like ‘Qainted’) the auto supplier has hit it's share of potholes” this time.
    – Yoichi Oishi
    Commented Mar 30, 2014 at 8:34
  • Yoichi, one point, you have a spelling mistake there, I believe that is its, not it's. Can some expert confirm this?
    – Fattie
    Commented Mar 30, 2014 at 8:42
  • Joe Blow. Right. I think it should be 'its.' But I simply copied Oldcat's writing.
    – Yoichi Oishi
    Commented Mar 30, 2014 at 8:55

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