Terminalcoffee discussion

Do you ever come across words that just look alien? This doesn't happen if I'm hearing them, but some words I come across while I'm reading stop me in my tracks.

Like "piano." I can say it and hear it just fine, but when I look at it, I think it's misspelled or deformed or something.

Another one: "ignonimity." I know what it means, but it just seems like it's a mutant.

There are a few others. I'm probably alone in this madness, right?

I have a very hard time in my head with words that have dual pronunciations. Even if I know the correct way to say a word, my mind will usually flip to the more common form.

Like tomato v. to-mah-to?

You are not alone Aynge. This happens to me all the time but in a different way. It can happen to perfectly ordinary words that have previously looked fine. I can't think of any particular example because it happens randomly.

Arghh. I want to think of one off the top of my head but just can't seem to. There was one that tripped me up last week because the word had two completely different ways that it could be read and I kept reading the one that didn't match up.

I find this happens to me when I stare at a word too long. It begins to look strange. This can also happen with whole phrases or sentences that I re-write and work on for an extended period of time, trying to get everything just so. Things stop making sense after a while. I have to put it aside and come back with fresh eyes.

This used to happen to me when I was pulling an all-nighter in college, staring at my arm. My arm would suddenly look ENORMOUS. Did that ever happen to anyone else?

Aynge wrote: "Do you ever come across words that just look alien? This doesn't happen if I'm hearing them, but some words I come across while I'm reading stop me in my tracks.

Like "piano." I can say it and h..."

Isn't it ignominy? Perhaps that's why "ignonimity" looks strange to you.

Sometimes when I'm sick I'll be lying in bed and staring at the ceiling, and it seems like it's coming at me. Usually during a fever during flu season.

Lobstergirl wrote: "Isn't it ignominy? Perhaps that's why "ignonimity" looks strange to you."

Though it currently looks quite becoming on her.

I have struggled to pronounce "cuisine" for years, and in turn, I get nervous when I have to say the word, and go with "food" instead.

RandomAnthony wrote: "I have struggled to pronounce "cuisine" for years, and in turn, I get nervous when I have to say the word, and go with "food" instead."

Victuals. Is this pronounced how it looks, or vittles? Is vittles the nickname for victuals?

I am never sure which way to say homage. Hommage. Whatever. Tribute.

I like that J-than said "fresh eyes."

I also like that LG is using the semantics category I made and then promptly abandoned.

Lobstergirl wrote: "RandomAnthony wrote: "I have struggled to pronounce "cuisine" for years, and in turn, I get nervous when I have to say the word, and go with "food" instead."

Victuals. Is this pronounced how it l..."

This is an excellent question. Is "vittles" just "victuals" sped up?

Jackie "the Librarian" wrote: "I am never sure which way to say homage. Hommage. Whatever. Tribute."

I say o-MAHJ.

I can't say "vittles" without thinking of Tender Vittles. I'm going with "food" on that one.

I pronounced "hor d'ourves" as "whore dee vores" for years, and I'm still not exactly sure of the pronunciation. Luckily that word doesn't come up in my circles very often.

Or durves.

"How do You Prounounce the Word Victuals?

If you're like me, you have often wondered why, even though you have seen this word from time to time in print, you have never actually heard it. I say if you are like me because you may actually know how to pronounce victuals and you are snickering in a knowing superior way as you read this. Before now, I would never have attempted to say this word out loud because I learned my lesson at a very early age. I noticed a hero in a book I was reading was named Prince Stephen. Step Hen. Imagine my humilation when my own cousin looked at me with a mixture of shock and insult and informed me that this was the same spelling of his name, thank you very much, and was prounounced Steeeevin. And what about dingy which I persisted in prounouncing as ding ee perhaps until I was an adult? I admit it. I was too lazy to look it up and just let a phrase like the dingy, dank room remain mysterious or a reference to something from the sea. (That's the dinghy that's prounouned ding ee). Thank goodness that I have changed my irresponsible ways.

First, we should get the meaning of this word out of the way. Victuals means food or provisions, especially food meant for people. So let me tell you how I think it is supposed to be prounounced (and it seems that I am not alone in this): vick two alls or if I say it faster: vickchewls. You may be very surprised as I was to learn that this word should be pronounced: vitilz. vittles. Listen to it yourself: victual. Now vittles, by the way, is an valid alternate, and I think, more reasonable spelling.

I think I only ever heard this word used on The Beverly Hillbillies. (Didn't Jed often tell Granny to put them vittles on the table?) Or Hee Haw. Its etymology is from Middle French adopted into Middle English originating from the Latin victus meaning nourishment. Who knew?

And it may interest you to know that someone who provides victuals is known as a victualler and that this is pronounced as vittler

If you have similiar stories about your disconnect between a word you saw in print and how you misprounounced it - I invite you to let me know about it. Let us share your pain."

http://grammarcop.blogspot.com/2005_0...

RandomAnthony wrote: "I pronounced "hor d'ourves" as "whore dee vores" for years, and I'm still not exactly sure of the pronunciation. Luckily that word doesn't come up in my circles very often."

You mean the circles of Hell?

I know the correct pronunciation but prefer to use "whore d'vores" myself. It's so much more entertaining.

We call them whores-de-OOvers because we're silly like that. Alternately they are horse-doovers.

Now it's starting to look like whore divorce.

I like the word "vittles." Reminds me of Huck Finn.

Since we are on a pronunciation tangent, how do you pronounce "coupon?"

I say KOO-pon. But I hear other people say Q-pon. Which is correct?

KOOpon is correct. It's from the French couper, to cut. (koo-PAY)

It grates on my nerves when people say they're using KEW-pons for their "GRO-shur-ees."

Groceries. Groceries.

Anyone see an "sh" in there?

I pronounce it that way. Groceries, that is. I don't say Kewpons like it is some weird mix of kewpie and tampons. I say COO-pons.

My grandma says it is time to WAR-sh your hands.

Sometimes I just say COOPS instead.

What about people who say "shhhedule" instead of schedule?

I sometimes say "ruhff" instead of "rOOf"

No, non English persons who just say it like that.

Kevin "El Liso Grande" wrote: "No, non English persons who just say it like that."

What, posers?

matoor instead of mature.
Teeuseday, instead of toosday.

My mother is British and when I learned the word schedule at home I learned shhedule. I got laughed at at school. I almost jumped off the ruhff. From that point forward I adopted the North American pronunciation for everything. My mother despairs at my enunciation...

Perspicuity, sclera, lugubrious- words I can’t say.

I grew up saying "acrost the street" and have to make myself say across. I think that's some Southern Utahn creeping out in my blood. My dh & his family from Oklahoma say "greezie" instead of "greasy".

There are so many words that I've grown up only reading, and I can say them in my head, but when I use them in a conversation my brain freezes.

My mother-in-law says Teeuseday. I have no idea why, but I guess we all have our idiosyncrasies.

Helena, what a beautiful dog in your profile pics. German Shepherd? How old?

I have trouble with some medical terms, like "hematemesis" and "panniculectomy" and "hepatectomy", if I don't see them spelled out in front of me. I once got cruelly mocked for pronouncing "ischemia" incorrectly, something I have never pronounced the wrong way again.(Hint: the "sch" is not pronounced as "sh".)

Kevin "El Liso Grande" wrote: "What about people who say "shhhedule" instead of schedule?"

Or those who say "srimp" instead of "shrimp."

Jonathan wrote: "Kevin "El Liso Grande" wrote: "No, non English persons who just say it like that."

What, posers?"

It's not poseurs?

Mary wrote: "I have trouble with some medical terms, like "hematemesis" and "panniculectomy" and "hepatectomy", if I don't see them spelled out in front of me. I once got cruelly mocked for pronouncing "ischemi..."

Shame on you Mary, for not pronouncing panniculectomy correctly.

Ha ha. Helena's last name is Handbasket.

Lobstergirl wrote:

"What, posers?"

"It's not poseurs?"

I could go either way. The French spelling is more Merriam-Webster and the other more Urban Dictionary, like something teenagers might taunt each other with.

Jonathan wrote: "My mother-in-law says Teeuseday. I have no idea why, but I guess we all have our idiosyncrasies.

Helena, what a beautiful dog in your profile pics. German Shepherd? How old?"

Thank you Jonathan- his father’s a shepherd, mother’s a shepherd with a bit of husky mixed in somewhere and he’s 2. His name’s Pax (I was hoping he’d be peaceful).

Lobstergirl wrote: "Ha ha. Helena's last name is Handbasket."

It really probably is where I’m going. I went to Catholic school. I know- they told me so.

Piano.

Imprimatur.

im-PREEM-uh-toor, or im-pruh-MAH-toor?

Yes.

Lobstergirl wrote: "Imprimatur.

im-PREEM-uh-toor, or im-pruh-MAH-toor?"

Oddly enough, I think it's pronounced "imp." It's from the Estonian, in which "rimatur" is silent.

So everyone is pronouncing it incorrectly.

Or, "inc," as we should say.

Huguenot. Do we go all Frenchy and pronounce it yɡno , or do we Anglicize it? Do you pronounce it differently in front of a group of sanitation workers and a group of university provosts?