Straight Dope Message Board

[Fear Itself]

The other night on the news, the talking head made a reference to Snopes, the urban legend debunking site. The odd thing was, she pronounced it, "Snow Peas". I had always imagined it rhymed with "Popes", though I have only seen it in print and never heard anyone pronounce it before.

What say you; "Snow Peas" or rhymes with "Popes"?

[WhyNot]

I've always said "Snopes" as in "Sneaky Dopes". Methinks she was just reading off a teleprompt and had a brain fart.

[ParentalAdvisory]

Snopes; like Slopes.

[Spoke]

Sounds like she was maybe trying to impose a Spanish pronunciation on it. And a poor one at that.

[Khadaji]

It is pronounced Shar-Day

[newcrasher]

Snopes like "lemon".

[LSLGuy]

The correct pronounciation is "Throat Warbler Mangrove".

[Johnny L.A.]

Snopes is the family name of characters created by William Faulkner.

[ZipperJJ]

Originally Posted by Johnny L.A.

Snopes is the family name of characters created by William Faulkner.

Yeah? You ever hear Faulkner pronounce it??



I've always pronounced it as rhyming with popes. Like "snoops" but without the extra o.

[Hal Briston]

Originally Posted by Fear Itself

What say you; "Snow Peas" or rhymes with "Popes"?

Neither. The way I say it, it rhymes with "ropes".

[E. Thorp]

It rhymes with 'heliotropes'.

[dangermom]

Originally Posted by Hal Briston

Neither. The way I say it, it rhymes with "ropes".

And Popes doesn't rhyme with ropes?

I pronounce it as rhyming with Popes, ropes, and dopes.

[Fern Forest]

Originally Posted by dangermom

And Popes doesn't rhyme with ropes?

I pronounce it as rhyming with Popes, ropes, and dopes.

and Scopes.

[Miller]

Lopes, hopes, copes: Snopes.

[BJMoose]

Sounds like you're the victim of a local newscaster who doesn't bother to study her script beforehand. I used to work with someone who was notorious for mangling names and terms unknown to her. Alas, the only example I can recall at the moment is her take on the name of the computer chain CompUSA [that's kahmp-yew-es-ay]. She called them Compusa [kahm-'poo-suh].

[jimmmy]

Originally Posted by BJMoose

Sounds like you're the victim of a local newscaster who doesn't bother to study her script beforehand. I used to work with someone who was notorious for mangling names and terms unknown to her. Alas, the only example I can recall at the moment is her take on the name of the computer chain CompUSA [that's kahmp-yew-es-ay]. She called them Compusa [kahm-'poo-suh].

I had a person do Tucson (Two-saun) into (Tuck-son).

FTR I say Snow-pss

[Kat]

I've always pronounced it as if it rhymed with "soaps".

[thirdwarning]

Why am I suddenly hearing Chy Chy Rodrigueeez?

And I pronounce it to rhyme with copes. As the phonics rules say.

[Antigen]

Originally Posted by jimmmy

FTR I say Snow-pss

And on that note, the tip of the day is: Don't eat yellow snow.

[dangermom]

Originally Posted by Antigen

And on that note, the tip of the day is: Don't eat yellow snow.

I can't see...oh woe is me...I can't see

[Cervaise]

I disagree with all the suggestions thus far. I say it rhymes with "gropes."

[flodnak]

Originally Posted by BJMoose

Sounds like you're the victim of a local newscaster who doesn't bother to study her script beforehand. I used to work with someone who was notorious for mangling names and terms unknown to her. Alas, the only example I can recall at the moment is her take on the name of the computer chain CompUSA [that's kahmp-yew-es-ay]. She called them Compusa [kahm-'poo-suh].

At least twice I've heard national newscasters refer to Jupiter's moon, Ten.

That would be Io. You can say EYE-oh, or you can say EE-oh, but even if it's written in all caps on the TelePrompTer, you can't say Ten.

[PunditLisa]

Perhaps the newscaster was trying to panache (a new verb!) the pronunciation, like everyone does with Target (Tar-zhay).

[WordMan]

I believe it is "Rio" by Duran Duran...



PS: Oscillo-snopes....

[Khadaji]

Originally Posted by PunditLisa

Perhaps the newscaster was trying to panache (a new verb!) the pronunciation, like everyone does with Target (Tar-zhay).

I have a friend who thought that Roget's thesaurus was pronounced Rog-it (where the ROG rhymes with HOG). I was very entertained.

[BJMoose]

Originally Posted by flodnak

At least twice I've heard national newscasters refer to Jupiter's moon, Ten.

That would be Io. You can say EYE-oh, or you can say EE-oh, but even if it's written in all caps on the TelePrompTer, you can't say Ten.

Which leads me to wonder if all of those jokes about "Malcom the Tenth" (for Malcom X) were really jokes. . . .


Oh. And I prefer one syllable, long o, for Snopes.

Just had a thought: could we really blame someone who pronounced it "Snoops"??

[Silver Pageant]

Yes. We could.

[Musicat]

[total hijack]

We have a small town nearby with the name of Dykesville, pronounced, dikes-ville, like hikes-ville, long "I" for the first one.

The legend goes that onceuponatime a salesman notfromaroundhere was coming to town to propose the installation of something and wanted to have a town meeting to explain his plan to the citizens. One of the local town supervisors took him aside just before the meeting and warned him that the correct pronunciation of the town was dick-ees-ville. Since he didn't want to appear to to be an outsider, the salesman was quite grateful for the advice.

It was a long time later when he found out why he didn't get the contract and why the audience snickered whenever he said the town's name.

[/total hijack]

[Kizarvexius]

Originally Posted by BJMoose

Which leads me to wonder if all of those jokes about "Malcom the Tenth" (for Malcom X) were really jokes. . . .

I really tried not to howl in derisive laughter when the clerk at Blockbuster rang up my DVD of Henry the Fifth -- "Henry Vee? What's that about, dude?"

Really I did.

[Askia]

Originally Posted by Khadaji

It is pronounced Shar-Day

Snort!

[jjimm]

Back in the days before Google, my dad's American colleague was talking this new search engine, "Ask Jay-ayves".

[Malacandra]

Ah, the old "Newscaster doesn't know how to pronounce 'Snopes' " story. That's been around a few times.

[Wallenstein]

Remember folks, as with "popes", "ropes" and "gropes", the silent "q" in "Snopes" is usually ommited (similar to "fox").

[Musicat]

Originally Posted by Malacandra

Ah, the old "Newscaster doesn't know how to pronounce 'Snopes' " story. That's been around a few times.

Linky no work. Is that the point?

[jjimm]

Originally Posted by Musicat

Linky no work. Is that the point?

Malacandra was making a very clever joke. The important part was that you saw the URL in your status bar, not that the page actually worked.