The Classic: Leicester
Lee-cester?
Lehster?
As luck would have it, I heard one of the radio personalities in our area say "REE-LUH-TER" just this morning on my way to work. This was mentioned earlier in this thread. Cracks me up every time! Ree-luh-ter, really? Like jew-luh-ree? That's another one that I think is pretty common.
On a related note, a few years ago when all those realtor commercials showed up on tv and on the radio, it bugged me that they tried so hard to let you know that the last syllable is spelled with an "o" rather than an "e" by pronouncing it "ree-ul-TOR" in a really awkward way. I don't feel like that's necessary. I mean, raptor can be pronounced "rap-ter," no? You don't have to say the "Toe-ron-toe rap-TORES," do you? In my mind, there is no reason in the world to say "When you want to by or sell real estate, make sure to call a ree-ul-TOR." Coulda just said "re-ul-ter," in my opinion.
"We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." --M. Proust
Any of the numerous pronunciations of Raleigh that isn't Raleigh or some southern-affected pronunciation that is similar.
An acquaintance of mine back in the mid-70s never quite believed that he had misunderstood (despite a three-year Army stint) the phrase describing a very enthusiastic soldier. Instead of 'gung ho', he was pretty sure the phrase was 'gun hole'.
I still giggle thinking about 'ol Don. He knew people were messing with him most times. He just couldn't figure out how.
Man, if your Mom made you wear that color when you were a baby, and you're still wearing it, it's time to grow up!
Heigth for height.
I absolutely can't stand when someone says nucular instead of nuclear. It makes me want to do bad things to them. George W. was the WORST! I honestly thought no one could ever be as bad as a president who said "Nucular" until, well... we won't go there.
"That young man has an extra step on his ladder the rest of us just don't have."
Just crossed my feed.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/14/how-...sed-words.html
Jicama. I pronounced it with a hard j in front of customers a couple of years ago! Hard j!!!! It was awful!!!
Here’s a word/phrase the pronunciation of which irked me for years, because I saw it in print intermittently, heard it pronounced several entirely different ways, didn’t know which was correct, and, I guess, was too lazy to track it down. I knew its meaning, but not its pronunciation.
Sui generis.
At some point I learned the correct pronunciation. In case this helps any of you obsessed pronuncerizers, here’s a link. Scroll down to Word of the Day.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dict.../sui%20generis
A good friend of mine, having a bad ear for the lilt of language anyway and thinking the phrase French, pronounced it this way: swee zhan ree.
Last edited by gumbomoop; 02-18-2021 at 02:39 PM.
I frequently saw the increasingly popular word meme in writing but never heard it spoken. Having studied French, I always assumed that meme was pronounced like the word meme in French, which has a ^ (accent circumflex) over the first e so rhymes with them. I finally figured out what the correct pronunciation is. I prefer my way but I think I'm outvoted.