# Pronounciation of "homage" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 28, 2009, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-homage/491115 "2009-03-28T19:57:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2009, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-homage/491115/21 "2009-03-29T03:25:16Z")
‘hoh-midge’. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2009, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-homage/491115/22 "2009-03-29T03:38:27Z")
Growing up, I heard both ˈɒmədʒ and ˈhɒmədʒ – the former in secular life, the latter in the Catholic Church liturgy – and got used to the idea that it has two pronunciations. As for the French pronunciation oˈmɑʒ – that applies only to the actual French spelling _hommage_ – otherwise it’s a bit pretentious. I learned this sense (a composition in the style of another composer) from the _Grove Dictionary of Music_ when I was studying a lot of classical music. If it’s spelled with one m, it’s an English word, so pronounce it either of the two English ways. If it’s spelled with double m, it’s a French word, then you can use the French pronunciation. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2009, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-homage/491115/23 "2009-03-29T05:32:16Z")
I generally will say “hommidge”, as in “pay homage to”, but I will occasionally slip into “oh-mazh” in the phrase “an homage to.” ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2009, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-homage/491115/24 "2009-03-29T07:10:30Z")
The French pronunciation (and often spelling) is used specifically in the movie world in reference to films done in the style of another director. Gus van Sant’s _Psycho_ or Brian de Palma’s _Obsession_, for instance, are _ommages_ to Hitchcock. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2009, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-homage/491115/25 "2009-03-29T12:32:37Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > The French pronunciation (and often spelling) is used specifically in the movie world in reference to films done in the style of another director. Gus van Sant’s _Psycho_ or Brian de Palma’s _Obsession_, for instance, are _ommages_ to Hitchcock. Thats exactly my answer. You make an _homage_, you pay homage to someone. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2009, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-homage/491115/26 "2009-03-29T12:58:34Z")
> [@magnusblitz](#): > > What’s the proper way to pronounce the word “homage”? I’ve seen more and more people recently pronounce it in a French fashion (i.e., “oh-mahj” with a soft J), whereas I’ve always been told it’s got a hard English sound (“ah-midg” or “hah-midg”). All the dictionary sites online with audio pronounciations seem to support the latter, but other people have said “well it comes from French, so it should be pronounced that way.” > > What say you? I absolutely detest it when the people who want to look chic take a word that has been used in the english language with an english pronunciation for centuries and decide to pronounce it like it is the original language. We have used ah-mihj for hommage, akouterment instead of akutreemente, ambience instead of aaahhhhmmmmbieensse, refer to something as an objeee instead of this 'random art thingy like a tapestry which has a perfectly good name] and pretty much any variant of chaise-longue. The main clue to what trips my trigger is someone who talks perfectly normal and lapses into a cheesy maurice chevalier accent for a word every now and then. We have a perfectly good vocabulary ripped bleeding and whimpering from every other language we have come into contact with and bashed into submission, why bother showing we think we know the origin of certain words by changing the pronunciation?:dubious::rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2009, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-homage/491115/27 "2009-03-29T13:13:54Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I generally will say “hommidge”, as in “pay homage to”, but I will occasionally slip into “oh-mazh” in the phrase “an homage to.” Oh, duh! This should have been my answer! I totally forgot that I’ve pronounced it both ways. {{{whimper}}}I’m not THAT old I should be forgetting these things! ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2009, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-homage/491115/28 "2009-03-29T13:48:34Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > …refer to something as an objeee instead of this 'random art thingy like a tapestry which has a perfectly good name] and pretty much any variant of chaise-longue. “Objet d’art” (no C) has been used in English since the nineteenth century. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-homage/491115/29 "2009-04-01T16:49:24Z")
The Royal Shakespeare Company saw fit to use the English pronunciation in an entirely French context. [“Homage to Marat!”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcJKxrDczSo) (at 0:08) ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-homage/491115/30 "2009-04-01T17:08:06Z")
Brit, and I use the same “hommidge”/“ohmazh” distinction as **pulykamell**. And I am, as usual in these pronunciation threads, baffled by the American habit of using “ah” to sound out a short o. “Hom-” does NOT sound the same as “Hahm-”! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-homage/491115/31 "2009-04-01T17:08:33Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > …and pretty much any variant of chaise-longue. Are you under the impression that “chaise lounge” was the normal English pronunciation for centuries? Because you’d be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-homage/491115/32 "2009-04-01T21:24:00Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I generally will say “hommidge”, as in “pay homage to”, but I will occasionally slip into “oh-mazh” in the phrase “an homage to.” Yep, same here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-homage/491115.md?page=1)