I do that! Well, I say ‘chimley’, anyway, unless I concentrate. I have no idea where I got the idea that it was pronounced that way, or how I rationalised the spelling difference away.
It’s either an archaic or a regional variant of “chimney”, but it’s a perfectly good word: Dickens also uses it in Oliver Twist, and from memory Tolkien has Sam use it in The Lord Of The Rings.
My top 5 most hated mispronounced words:
- “height” instead of height
- “nucyooler” instead of nuclear (the old reliable one)
- “supposably” instead of supposedly (already mentioned)
- “MissourUH” instead of Missouri… Gee, do you also say “MississippUH?”
- “excape” instead of escape
I hear one of these almost every day. And I nave to practically bite my tongue clean off unless it comes from someone I can correct without being rude.
:smack:
“heightH” instead of heighT
Don’t laugh too hard. I just woke up.
We recently switched over to a compny for our shredding needs. They put out several large blue containers for sensitive docments.
A sign over the UB92 (the form hospitals use to send out claims) printer:
“Please put all blanks UB in the blue bend.”
I was going to make a new sign, but someone found their brain and scratched out “bend” and wrote “bin”.
See, ever since Finding Nemo, I tend to pronounce this “ess-ka-pay” just for the heck of it. Not when I need to sound sane, mind you.
What about “Collective,” as in, “I managed to stay cool, calm, and collective.” AARRGGH!! N. Sane (a pedantic English major) tears her hair out.
Can you tell me where that is so I can avoid going there? Because that whole “pacific” thing is one of my irrational hates. It sends me into an Incredible Hulk-like rage.
People at work say “borrow me a —”
“hey! I aksed (like axed) you to borrow me a —”
They “go by” their Ma’s house (I always picture them standing next to the house).
they “bathed” (short a) the patient.
I can’t even start on the spelling…
the good thing about the future is I will be dead. I don’t have to live thru this idiocy. Yay.
We use this word a lot in my business and almost everyone I work with says “heighth”.
The same group of people can’t seem to correctly pronounce their own product. It’s compac, not compact. You sound like an idiot when you mispronounce something you’re trying to sell.
They also like to say “vurbidge” instead of verbiage. So many of them said it that way, that I had to look it up to make sure I wasn’t the one who was insane.
One of these days, I’m just going to sit at my desk and scream. They’re all driving me crazy.
Hey, now; that one’s just a dialectical difference, not crossing up words.
I hate the be the bearer of ill tidings, but lamentedly, supposably and orintate are both words found in the dictionary. I used to (and frankly, still do) find the word “orientate” to be needless and irritating, but after seeing it on so many bloody drawings and even published in the ASME Y14.5M GD&T standard, I was determined to demonstrate to all far and wide that there was no such word, so I cracked open the dictionary and…there it was. ::sigh::
There is, however, no such word as “orientationated”, as a former boss used to use frequently, in lieu of using the simple and clearer “aligned”.
My current boss just makes up words at will (electrificationed? radiationated? fatiguemented?), conflates terms that are contradictory or redundant (non-metal epoxy? metallic aluminum?), ignores all punctuation and capitalization, and creates enormous three page e-mails that are comprised of one run-on sentence that even William Faulkner would balk at reading. His communiqués are therefore nearly as incoherent as his Kruschev-like attempts at verbal communication during meetings.
Stranger
Yes, orientate is a word, properly used when something is pointing east, as your definition shows. It is not, however, to be used as follows:
“So I’m going to go orientate the new people about the phone system.”
You’re going to make sure everyone faces east while on the phone? Because, if that’s the rule, I know I violate it all the time. I usually face west while on the phone at work, and occasionally north if the person on the other end is boring me.
“Yeah, Marsha’s the one who orientated me when I started here.” Really. Marsha showed you which way was east. Huh.
(Sorry for any snark. It’s an evil, evil morning, with poor cruddy weather that will make it impossible to throw a surprise party in a back yard tonight. Stupid weather clowns.)
I can’t even see that word anymore without hearing Ellen Degeneres’ voice saying, “ess-ka-pay.” Damn that Nemo.
People around here tend to say ‘zink’ for ‘sink.’ That one grates on my nerves.
I hear ‘chimbley’ sometimes, too.
‘Heighth’ makes me want to punch them.
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, though - if they’ve spent 30 or 40 years saying it that way, it’s impossible to get them to correct it.
That’s nothing compared to the word salad newspeak that passes for “information transference” (i.e. business correspondence) at my übercorporate workplace. They manage to create a whole new dialect of pseudoprofessional jargon to conceal the fact that they aren’t saying anything whatsoever.
Er, didn’t you get the memo? We’re not supposed to let anyone outside of the state of Southern California know that it is not always sunny and cloudless here. Some gentlemen from Mr. Goverator’s Tourist Board Task Force will be at your front door momentarily to straighten out your misperceptions.
According to wunderground.com, it is supposed to clear up before nightfall, though it will be a bit chill. Personally, I kind of like it; I’m getting ready to throw on a long-sleeve T and go for a nice extended run. At least it’s a break in the relentless sunshine that we have the other 364 days a year. 
(See, that’s how you do it.)
Stranger
“Joe knows all the answers. Let’s ax him.”
No, let’s ask him. I will not be party to a homicide.
My boss uses “supposably.”
My supervisor uses “ONvelope” instead of “ENvelope” (one of my pet peeves).
One of my co-workers uses “doctorial” when she means “doctoral.” I’ve never dared to correct her, 'cause she’ll get mad at me, as if I’m being sassy or something. And then she’d promptly forget it anyway.
I used to have a co-worker who could never use “don’t” and “doesn’t” correctly: “It don’t matter.” And of course her kids grew up speaking exactly the same way. sigh
Yes, but that’s all water over the bridge now.
Some of these points have been raised in previous threads so maybe we are just once more repeating these all over and over again for a second time.
When I was eight or nine, I got in trouble at church for correcting someone when she said “heighth.” It hurts my brain, though!
I always wondered at the phrase “head over heels.” Uh…yeah, my head is generally over my heels, therefore the sensation isn’t all that novel. Props to the band Puddle of Mudd, though, for writing a song called “Heel over Head.”