How many of you have embarrassed yourselves by mispronouncing words you've learned from reading? You sound it out in your head and store it there until you have a chance to use it in conversation. When you finally do use it, you're faced with looks of total incomprehension, or worse, laughter. My worst ones were in Junior High. I've since learned to look up new words!
Mine were awry and misled. I thought they made perfect sense in context. As in, something had gone AW-ree (I think I linked it with the NASA term yaw, as in pitch, roll and yaw; something gone out of kilter) and MY-selled (akin to chiselled or cheated).
Anyway, I'm guessing many of you have had the same experience.
Forgot one. Armageddon. Asked my Dad how to pronounce it, he helpfully replied: "Easy, it's ar-meg-eh-DON." Needless to say I got laughed out of Sunday School.
My roommate is notorious for this kind of stuff, and I'm merciless about pointing it out to him... For caricature, he came up with <kuh RIC uh chur>. I've got a call in to see what else I've mocked him about lately ~
I initially assumed that it was pronounced /FAL a roap/ and had that corrected to /fuh LAIR uh pee/. Now I have a flag set in my brain that says that's wrong and I was right in the first place and am now hopelessly confused. To make matters worse I think my stack is full or not there and that I will never know which is correct. Fortunately, it's not a word that I have to use every day. If there are others I have been so badly embarrassed that I have suppressed the whole incident and don't remember them.
Is that book so old that no one knows what I am talking about? Too Late the Phalarope.
I still can't say the word coin correctly. Using a long o, I have two distinct syllables: co'-inn. That's the way it looked to me as a child, and I cannot get my mouth around that oy sound, though I have no difficulty with it in other words. I try to say "change", when I can!
<EP-i-tome PAR-a-DG-m> Two classics! Done them both.
<Phalarope> Reminds me of two botanical words: Liriope (yes, I pronounced it LEE-ree-ope) and clematis (still not sure which way to say that one; grew up with cle-MA-tis, my gardening buddies all use CLEM-uh-tis). My mnemonic device for remembering Liriope is that it rhymes with calliope.
<Coin> Love that. A friend from North Carolina says "awl" for oil; cracks on me for saying OY-ill.
Misled is a classic; I had a problem with that too. I still don't know to this day (tell me, someone) if grisly is pronounced like the bear or to rhyme with rice-lee.
Only Doug gives us: A friend from North Carolina says "awl" for oil
My Boot Camp company commander (the shell-shocked WWII Chief Gunner's Mate) pronounced it /OH-'ll/.
I did ribald as RYE-bald instead of ribbled. When I learned ribbled I back-formed the verb ribble. I also back-formed the verb misle pronounced /mizzle/ when the mispronunciation of misled occurred to me.
Pronounced like the bear, indeed. Or at least that's the way *I* pronounce it...
But then, I pronounce the "t" in often (which my Korean conversation students always gave me hell about), and before I sew a garment, I have to take the wearer's MAY-zhur-ments.
>I also back-formed the verb misle pronounced /mizzle/
I'd be very careful using that one! mizzle already exists as a verb in about 5 very distinct senses; one of which is used in the (Naval?) phrase: to mizzle one's dick. YCLIU
Bob and français, gurunet gives both ways of saying ribald, but lists ribbled first. I've always said RYE-bald.
And yes, grisly is pronounced grizzly. I don't know if this is right, but I tend to put three syllables into the word gristly: griss-el-ly, just to make the distinction.
Just thought of one I got laughed at for. I used a long "i" for the first syllable in cringing.
Dear Doug: You have touched on a problem that has painfully tormented me for years: that there is no one place where I can find pronunciations of many words and names the dictionaries ignore.Reading hysterical novels with Gaelic names, Polish names, Greek names, I get trapped into howlers in the company of my linguistic superiors. As an example, I couple years ago read novel about Poland by James Michener(sp?), in which name of an estate is spelled "Lancut". Naturally I pronounced it "Lan (like man) cut (like haircut)". Halfway through the book, the hostess of the estate tells a visitor it is pronounced "WineSOOTH" It made me want to commit a nuisance on Mitchener's grave. Gaelic names are even worse. PLEASE if anyone knows solution to this problem let me know!
I usetah give my pal a hard time about "war-shin" (washing) his hands (only because he gave me such a hard time about mine bein' so dirty all the time...)
Yes, I had only read the word awry and also mispronounced it initially .
I once saw a news woman who, try as she might, could not get out the word helicopter… she kept on pronouncing it HELLICO-peter, correcting herself over and over. I felt so bad for her.
I was confused for a long time by the two spellings of "dispatch" and "despatch". I didn't check, and pronounced them differently - DISpatch and DESpatch. Got laughed at, yep!
I must have been about 30 before I got it that "hors d'oeuvres" and "or durves" were the same thing. I guess the regional pronunciaiton (hate spelling that word) of water, WAH-dur, drives some people up the proverbial wall.
Friend of mine turned Penelope into PEE-neh-lope. Then there was a high school classmate who gave negligee an new definition - "one who neglects."
wwh: Reminds me of Leon Uris' Trinity. I remember pronouncing (only in my head, luckily) the protagonist's hometown as, Ballyatogue as Ball-ee-AY-ta-gyew. I'd love a book (website) like that! 20 years on, I'm guessing the pronunciation is more like BAL-ya-toge. Any help?
I just discovered a "misled" I never knew I had-- today's Word of the day: athenaeum. It's pronunced (ath-uh-NEE-um). I've always thought it was uh-THEE-nee-um.
lusy, Dearest--I don't know who the Ravens are, but from your hint I'm guessing they must be one of the teams that played in that game the network seems to insist on showing every year.
>lusy, Dearest--I don't know who the Ravens are, but from your hint I'm guessing they must be one of the teams that played in that game the network seems to insist on showing every year.
Luckily, TEd knows enough geography to know that Bobyoungbalt's arrows directed at Kentucky will not hit Denver if he overshoots.
Some of you may have managed to miss out on the world domination of Harry Potter (at last count, a small, 14 year old wizard with a lightening shaped scar on his forehead).
Anyway, his best friend was/is called 'Hermione', and I keep hearing people pronounce it 'Her-mee-own' instead of 'Her-my-o-nee'.
And, that's just generated another one - four-head or forread - which is your preference??
Gulliver's Travels is the worst for this sort of potential embarrassment. I found myself with NO idea how to pronounce Houynhims (sp?), and I seem to recall having some initial concerns over Brobdignag. I think I went totally phonetic on <HOY-n-hims>, but now I understand it to be <WHIN-ums>. Or am I still off my cracker?
Luckily, TEd knows enough geography to know that Bobyoungbalt's arrows directed at Kentucky will not hit Denver if he overshoots.
TEd's knowledge of geography is impeccable, but since we won, I can afford to be magnanimous.
For the benefit of outlanders, the Ravens are the Baltimore football team, which yesterday won the Superbowl, the grand championship of U.S. football. They were a definite underdog, as was the city, which has not had a winner in 30 years and was without a major league football team for years. This victory is the equivalent of India winning the most prestigious of test matches (whatever that might be) against Oz.
For the benefit of outlanders, the Ravens are the Baltimore football team, which yesterday won the Superbowl
Thanks, Bob. I was unaware of either fact. It slowly began to dawn on me, from the supermarket displays, that the Superbowl was probably coming up, and apparently it was played yesterday. But--I thought you-all were the Orioles? I distinctly recall hearing the words Baltimore Orioles, from some distant time in my past. Well, congratulations, anyhow.
This victory is the equivalent of India winning the most prestigious of test matches (whatever that might be) against Oz.
What, you mean Baltimore bookies rigged the Superbowl? (Cricket fraternity in-joke)
Congratulations, by the way. I have been afflicted with a love of American football since the heady days of the mid-80s, when Marino's 49ers were divine.
Well actually Jazz, he died in Baltimore-- he lived several places.
He started life (an adaoptee) in Richmond VA-- and there are several sites in Richmond, commemerating Poe, and he lived in NY, the town of Fordham-- now in the Bronx--(near, less than 1/2 mile--1 K from Fordham Uninversity) he (and wife) house he rented, (and actually wrote the poem The Raven in )is now in a small city park--poe park.
His wife died in NY, and he left soon afterwards.
And as Byb- pointed out, he lived the last years of his life in Baltimore, and died in a charity ward of a hospital there. (with his mother?) (as for me, i couldn't care less about football)
Max mentioned 'BANE-l'.... wow, i've always thought this was correct, though i'm not sure i've ever heard it spoken (perhaps i need to get out more??). I looked it up, but M-W lists a gazillion alternative pronunciations (one of which, incidentally, does appear to have it rhyming with anal). Does the preferred pronunciation rhyme with canal? I've always had trouble deciphering the ampersands and other strange prunciations guides. TIA for enlightening me
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