Why does someone always have to incarcerate on these Boards?
Rediculate-emboss
Whaaat are you people talking about? Wait, nevermind , I don’t want to know. Continue the gibberish 
This happens to me every once in a while, particularly at work (since I work in a field where a driver’s license is more important than a edumacation).
One of the women answering the phones was put off by a customer’s foul language. She was writing a note to the manager, letting her know of it, and she asked how to spell “profound.”
Then when she read the note out loud, she referred to the customer’s using “profound language.” I had to tell her that, unless the customer was expounding on the finer points of quantum physics or engaging in a theological discourse, then the phrase this woman was looking for was “profane language.”
Thing is, most of the people I work with don’t really care if they’re ignorant or not, so they giggle at themselves, look up to me with awe for knowing basic English, and go forth with no desire or intent to better themselves.
Having spent a good 15 years of my life thinking that hours d’ overues (oh forget it on the spelling) was a French word pronounced LIKE IT IS SPELLED and meaning the same thing as ordurves (which of course does not exist) I can empathise with the people described in this thread.
I also made the epitome mistake. Maybe I just can’t read.
I’m a Role-Playing Gamer, and we have now twice had Game Masters tell the group that there were either smoking or flaming brassieres in a room.
Of course, they mean Braziers, but you know…
Epitome is one of the most mispronounced words in the language, largely because it is most often used by people who read a lot, but don’t necessarily use the words they know in speech. And I, for one, am not going to a dictionary every time I need to pronounce a familiar but unspoken word.
Like eschatological. Which keeps killing me.
Maybe the Game Masters were old-line feminists reliving their glory days in the 60s.
Also, if you ever visit Montreal, please be aware that all the signs for “Brasseries” are for beer halls, not lingerie stores… we had great fun at the expense of someone who was up from Rochester NY over that one.
(Sorry matt_mcl, but I beat you to that one)
That’d be a real trick, considering both were male…and so far as I know, neither has been to Johns Hopkins.
Whoops! Well slap my ass and call me Judy!
I had no idea clement was a word - although I admittedly can make heads or tails of it now. Obviously, my vocabulary is something you can hold a candle to. I won’t bunk any more myths about the word, that’s for sure!
I’m quite gruntled.
- Rick
My favorite of the “missing opposite” words is ruth, a beautiful word which means compassion. Of course the only time we ever hear it is in its antonym, ruthless.
If you want to hear about sung heroes, try Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” 
Would someone please be kind enough to tell me where this is from? It’s driving me up a tree.
It’s from The Princess Bride.
Thank you.
The word I mispronounced the most was lettuce. I am a francophone. I was working for Mike’s, a Pizza and Sub restaurant chain, and every time I said lettuce, I pronounced it Let-Yousse. My supervisors heard me, but didn’t tell me for months. They found it funny to hear me say it that way. No need to tell you, when I found out, I was oh-so-red-in-the-face…
I have a friend who calls them “horse doovers, or horse dovers”
I had to ask wtf she was talking about the first time.
Something I wish I could say:
No, dear, the word you’re looking for is ‘ultimate’ not ‘penultimate’. But I’m flattered. Really.