Is there a difference between “protestant” and “protester” other than the spelling? Why is the pronunciation different? The “pro” in “protestant” is pronounced with the short o sound, but when people pronounce “protester”, they use the long o sound. Why is that?
Which is more correct to use?
Fictional Example: The angry protestants/protesters marched down Main Street with picket signs and pamphlets toward the president’s mansion, where they could report their grievances.
Fictional Example: Protestants/Protesters vehemently ventilated their innermost feelings about the evil space aliens’ behavior to the government.
I haven’t researched this to verify, but it was explained to me thusly:
Protestant used to be pronounced with the long ‘o’ like protester, and was applied to those who were protesting the Catholic Church - thus, protestants. For whatever reason, over time, the pronunciation changed to the current.
I don’t know if we use protester because of Protestants taking over the word, or if it was just a different usage.
Protestants were so called because they protested against the Edict of Worms. The Edict was repealed, but by then the name had stuck, and it became the name of the Christian tradition stemming from the European reformation. Once it acquired that primary sense it ceased to be used for protestors in general.
For UK speakers, the word “protester” is often pronounced with the emphasis on the second syllable.
The logic is that in spoken language the noun “PROtest” is distinguished from the verb “proTEST” by the stress pattern. (There are many such word-pairs in English.) Adding the suffix “-er” to the verb thus gives “proTESTer”.
Some people also pronounce “Protestant” with the emphasis on the second syllable.
I’ve been told the opposite - that the original pronunciation of Protestant, as a proper noun, has remained relatively consistent even as language has changed around it so that the word protest now has the long ‘o’.