I remember a while back someone mentioned in one of the “words that aren’t pronounced as they appear” threads something like “half-farthing” which was pronounced something like, “hay-fun”. I don’t remember the exact word, but I’m pretty reasonably sure it had “farthing” in it, and the pronunciation had “hayf” in it.
Anyone???
Here’s a definition of {url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farthing]Farthing.
From there I think you can figure out what a half-farthing is.
Sorry, Farthing.
Well, “farthing” is pronounced pretty much how it looks. The word (name, actually) you may be thinking of is something along the lines of “Featherstonehaugh” (I’m not sure of the exact spelling), which is, AFAIK, most often pronounced “fen-shaw.”
Are you thinking of half-penny? I realize that’s nothing like what you remember, but it does include the name of a coin and it’s the closest I can think of. Abbreviated ha’penny and pronouned HAYP-nee.