I can’t stand it when people say HARRISment. It bugs me, I don’t really know why. So, how do you say harassment?
HARRISment, HERassment, HArassment?
Huh–RASS–ment. Thanks for asking. 
I heard that the reason that the newspeople prounounce it WRONG (aka HARRISment) is because that Anita Hill mispronounced it during the trial and the ‘sensitive’ newspeople didn’t want her to feel foolish. And it stuck.
–Tim
Actually, at around the time of the Anite Hill debacle, there were jokes going around that went to the tune of "It’s not harassment unless you grab “her ass.” I’m not sure if it predated the whole “harisment/harassment” crap, but I d remember hearing the joke before I heard the word “harissment” for the first time.
Just a WAG really. There are some people who insist that this is the PROPER pronounciation of the word, but no where in common speech had I (or anyone I have ever known) ever heard it pronounced that way until the Clarence Thomas hearings.
This question was once asked on WKRP in Cincinnati.
The one word that bothers me more than harrasment is when schedule is pronounced SHEDule. What IS that? Oh, and what about MaTour?
RAAR!
Don’t forget “ad-ver-tizz-ment” (I’m bad at phonetic spelling)
To quote my wife, who is infinetly more knowlegdable about such things:
"It’s pronounced “ha-RASS-ment”. I refuse to “HAIR-ass” someone.
In British English, “harass” was pronounced, with regional variation, as both “har-ASS” and “HAR-ass.” “HAR-ass-ment” is a carryover pronunciation from the variant of “harass.” Anita Hill didn’t invent it, fer chrissakes.
Just after our Sexual Harrassment Indoctrination,
one of my colleagues asked how the word should be
pronounced.
Another colleague answered:
“Let’s put the ASS back in Harassment.”
We all had a good yuck.
Bad as you may be, I still know exactly what you’re saying. And yes, it’s very annoying. Although I mostly hear this one on the radio.
Mega the roo: Yep. These are pretty annoying too. It’s skedg-ual and machure damn it!
There is an annoying one common around here. People pronounce color “collar.” It drove me nuts when I first moved here. And I drove people nuts telling them the correct way to say it. I think I have enlightened about 3 people as to the correct way to say it (years of saying that a collar is part of your shirt).
One that isn’t common around here is saying “axe” instead of “ask.” very annoying.
I would be interested to know why these pronunciations bother everyone?
Frankly, as long as I know what the person is talking about they can pronounce the words any way they like.
Reminds me of the one about the American who had been in England for a few years. One day he was asked why he continued to pronounce the word “Schedule” as “Shedule”. He responded by saying that he never went to an English “Shool”
(I hope everyone gets this. It’s not really meant to be a written joke, but rather one passed on by word of mouth)
It’s just not right. It’s like, all your life you’ve known that two plus two equals four and suddenly someone proves that it really equals five. That would take a lot of time to get accustomed to. More and more people (that I know) are starting to say SHEDule. People who have pronounced it skedg-ual all their lives. Why? I don’t know. To sound sophisticated? Maybe. It just bugs me, like a pet peeve.
another word I hate when people misproun. is Uranus (7th planet from the sun). At one time it was your-ANUS but it was changed to the more pc YOUR-n-us. now it might sound nicer to say but thats no reason to change the word. I think the name change was started by the people who live there to raise property values
A mentor of mine who was an excellent writer and editor and prided himself on word usage stressed to me many years ago that it’s pronounced HARassment. Because I respected him so and learned so much from him, I was determined to follow his lead, but I had trouble with it. He said, think of the name “Harris” then add “ment.” That helped, and since then that’s how I pronounce it. I just checked my Oxford dictionary (British), and they give only that one pronounciation. My American Heritage dictionary gives it first, and the second pronounciation (harASSment) second. I suspect there’s some Anglo-Saxon snobbism going on here, as is the case with “schedule.” The Brits say shed-ule. “HARassment” and “shedule” sound more, ummm…upper class, if you will. (I confess I’m an Anglophile, and deep down a snob, so I tend to go with the Brits.)
Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy and Dan Quayle enter a spelling bee. Who wins?
Quayle. He’s the only one who knows harass is one word.
LMAO! Good one Manny.