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How do you pronounce this word? If you think it's mischievous, take another gander at the spelling
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There's no I after the V. It's mischievous. But mischievous is such a widespread pronunciation
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that it's listed in Merriam-Webster's entry for the word, though it is labeled non-standard
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Why it's so widespread is a mystery. Maybe people are influenced by devious
0:20
which does sort of evoke mischief. Or maybe they're just being mischievous
0:24
Hi, I'm Merriam-McCarthy, Editor-in-Chief of Mental Floss. There's no shame in mispronouncing
0:28
a word. It's basically impossible to go through your whole life without doing it. And plenty of
0:32
words get botched so often that the mistake, like mischievous, is eventually accepted as a valid
0:38
variant. So on this episode of The List Show, we're covering some of the English language's
0:42
standout mispronunciations, from victuals to boatswain. Let's get started. There's no X in etc, but that hasn't stopped people from saying etc. It's an
0:57
Understandable mistake. English has a whole host of words that start with EXC. Excel, accept
1:04
excite, and few that start with ETC. Knowing what the term means might help you remember how to say
1:09
it. It comes from the Latin phrase etc. That's two words, which translates to end the others
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It's essentially the same as another Latin phrase, et al. And you wouldn't pronounce that ex al
1:20
would you Would you This word meaning payment is likely another victim of people erring toward familiar territory It not uncommon to hear remuneration like numeral but it M not N so we should all be saying remuneration This word meaning food or provisions
1:38
isn't pronounced victuals. It's vittles, like little. And you can blame some Latin superfans
1:43
for that. In the 16th and 17th centuries, scholars altered a bunch of words to look
1:47
more like their Latin predecessors. At the time, vittles didn't have a C
1:51
because English speakers had borrowed the word from the French vitale. But its Latin origin was
1:55
victualis, and scholars thought the modern edition should reflect that. Though the new
2:00
spelling eventually stuck, the general public didn't change the pronunciation to match it
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So it's vitals, not victuals. The relatinization trend also explains why we say February instead of
2:10
February. English speakers first used fevrare or feverel from the French fevairie, but the
2:16
original Latin was februarius. So another R got added, but we drew the line at actually saying it
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The plural of address isn't addreses, and the plural of recess isn't recesses. They're
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addresses and recesses. So why do so many people pluralize processes processes? Probably because
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it's miscategorized as a word like axis, thesis, or ysis, whose plurals do become axes, theses
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and yses. But since processes doesn't end in IS, that rule shouldn't really apply
2:46
processes is a common enough mispronunciation that Merriam-Webster accepts it though so I guess just do with that what you will A single sensory appendage on an insect is an antenna but two or more Those are antennae where the A matches that of algae and caesar not antennae or antennae
3:04
That said, classical Latin scholars believe A-E was originally pronounced eye, so they
3:08
probably won't mind if you opt for antennae. Realtors on the other hand might mind if you say realtor
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In fact, the National Association of Realtors minds it so much that they wrote this in their
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membership manual. There's only one way to properly pronounce the term realtor
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Realtor. Members are encouraged to carefully train new employees and salespeople on the
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proper pronunciation of the term realtor. And yeah, realtor is a trademark term
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But adding an extra sound to a word to make it easier to pronounce is a natural linguistic tendency
3:37
It even has a name, epenthesis. It's the same reason people say athlete instead of athlete
3:43
English speakers may find it counterintuitive to have a PH and a TH right
3:47
against each other, which probably explains why this word, meaning two vowels pronounced as one
3:52
syllable, is so often said diphthong instead of diphthong. Even more counterintuitive is the fact
3:58
that diphthong isn't a compound of dip and thong. Its parts are from the Greek word for to and the
4:03
Greek word for sound or voice. And while we're here, this bacterial infection should be diphtheria
4:08
not diphtheria. Like so many other words we've covered though, dictionaries do recognize the
4:13
dip version of both words. This word for yarn or thread wound loosely on a reel isn pronounced skein or skine it skein and one Redditor claimed to have gotten kicked out of their knitting group for saying it right As the exiled knitter wrote in the R English subreddit they said I was being pedantic That led to a vote of no confidence and it all went downhill from
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there. Something tells me that the members of that knitting group wouldn't really appreciate this
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video, but I know people in our YouTube comments will. Let's end with a handful of quick hitters
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People have a habit of saying the name of this highly addictive opioid as fentanyl, like Tylenol
4:47
It's fentanyl, like Benadryl. And yes, I know the word long is in this word
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But it's not longevity. It's longevity. Or rather, longevity. Don't get tripped up by how much this word, a melted metal or metallic alloy used to join
5:02
metallic surfaces, looks like soldier. Its primary pronunciation is solder. This word's primary pronunciation, on the other hand, depends on the context
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If it's describing something used to prime a surface or an electric charge, it's primer
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But if it's a small book or piece of writing used to prime you on a topic, or one used
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to teach kids how to read, it's usually said, primer. And godspeed to kids learning how to read this word, meaning a ship's officer in charge
5:26
of equipment and deck work. As those of us who enjoy Below Deck know, it's not boatswain, but bosun
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In fact, it's sometimes just spelled B-O-S-U-N. It's a similar story with this word, for a sailor who steers a ship's boat
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It's coxswain, not coxswain. That's it for this episode of The List Show
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How many words did you realize you were technically mispronouncing by watching this video
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I will not be revealing my number. Sorry. Thanks for watching, and we'll see you next time
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