Okay, there is a Christian holiday that thas an alternative (archaic?) name. IIRC, it starts w/ a “q,” and it looks to be quite inpronouncable. When I knew what it was, even google.com only had one or two hits for it. I do recall a SDMB thread including it, but since I don’t remember it searching for it will be tricky.
Can anybody tell me the holiday, the alternative, and how to pronounce said alternative? Your help will be appreciated.
Regards,
js_I swear this isn’t a wild goose chase_africanus
Wow! You guys rock. One problem, those aren’t it. I recall it being a nasty, nasty word. The ones you guys dug up make sense: “quadra” and “quinta” being tip-offs, for example.
So I did what I thought I could never do: I remembered by pure force of will. Actually it was a hunch, and about a half-hour of digging brought into my hands The Superior Person’s Second Book of Weird & Wonderous Words by Peter Bowler. Now I know why pronounciation was such an issue—he deliberately eschews giving them so that readers have to look them up.
Page 81:
I’m suprised I remembered where I had seen it. I feel bad that it had been with me all along. I guess I’ve earned an SDMB Demerit.
Well, this is slightly cheating, IMHO. Of course it looks unpronounceable to us. It’s using an archaic orthography. Middle English had “yifte” for “gift” and “swich” for “such”.
Assuming it’s QHYTHSONTYD you want to pronounce, I’d say it’s pronounced Whitsuntide. OED also lists Qhat, Qheche, Qhom and Qhwom as words starting with Q with no following u. Good luck using them in your next Scrabble® game.
Spelling words with quh- or qh- replacing wh- is was done in medieval Scottish. How did you come across this antique Scottish spelling? Been reading William Dunbar?
