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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
Brooch is one of those words which makes my mind itch. I cannot help but think “broooooch” as in hoot or cool rather than “broche” as in hotel or cold. Yet, “brooch” is the preferred spelling.
Per Webster’s, the word comes from ME broche, in turn from French, from Latin broccus. How did that double-o sneak in?
And while I’m on the subject: does anybody pronounce “breeches” as “breeeeeches?” Or, like everybody I’ve ever heard, like “britches?” In fact, do you ever see it spelled with the double-e, outside of old English novels?
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear Sparteye: I used to wear "britches", but the place where a cartridge is inserted into a firearm is the breech, as in "breach", and in obstetrics a "breech presentation" means the buttocks are delivered before the head.
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Joined: Oct 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
and as has been discussed elsewhere (most recently in the Advent thread,) English spelling has nothing to do with pronounciation! it is a bit worse in England..
pronounced Mam (as in spam) rather than Marm (as in palm)
• Interesting pronunciations include:
Althorp - All-trup
De la Warr - Della-ware
Beaulieu - Bew-ly
Le Fanu - Leff-new
Blenheim - Blen-im
St John - Sin-jun
Cholmondeley - Chum-li
Theobald - Tibbald
What caught my eye was "... than Marm (as in palm) "and not Marm, as in Harm.
to me britches is the correct word.. and breech is correct too-- not only in a breech delivery, but in a battle plan, when there is a break in the battle lines, and the opposing force "heads for the breech"
As for Brooch -- i (ignorent thing that i am) i think most often i would say it to rhyme with coach.. not as brooch (to rhyme with houtch, or "Coo, Coo, Coochie, goodby..") the same as broach-- to bring up a subject.. )
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
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>Yet, “brooch” is the preferred spelling.
for what? a brooch is something you wear at the neck. a subject is broached. they are homophones -- pronounced the same. OED has this note for brooch: Forms: broche, brooche, brouche, brutch, browche, bruche, brouch, broch, bruch, Sc. brotch(e, broach, brooch. [ME. broche; the same word as broach, the differentiation of spelling being only recent, and hardly yet established. Occasionally pronounced (brutch).]
maybe WS is to blame: Georges halfe cheeke in a brooch.
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Bartleby's gives two spellings: brooch and broach and two pronunciations: one rhymes with coach and the other rhymes with cwuch...or smooch! But the little man who pronounces the words on that site only performs the one that rhymes with coach. Stubborn little man!
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>But the little man who pronounces the words on that site only performs the one that rhymes with coach.
that's because in the AHD (the Bartleby source) broch is the first pronunciation and brüch the second -- there's an implied preference there. M-W is more specific; it says \broch also brüch\
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Joined: Mar 2000
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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broccus (in the meaning of shoot, sprout ) is also the latin root for ...broccoli! NO chinese!
( I am not kidding, even if it can seem so)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Yes, that's what I meant, Max & Emanuela. I think Marco Polo gets the credit. Not meaning to go off thread or anything [heaven-forbid] but what are some other things that Polo discovered in China and have since become popularized in the West under their Italian names?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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other things that Polo discovered in China
Certainly pasta got itse'f brang over by MP but how many shapes were the Chinese resposible for and how many invented by the Italians?
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