# When and why did research become reesearch in the US?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-research-become-reesearch-in-the-us/324910
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [October 5, 2005, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-research-become-reesearch-in-the-us/324910 "2005-10-05T16:47:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-research-become-reesearch-in-the-us/324910/1 "2005-10-05T16:47:36Z")
How I hate the word reesearch. I’ve never known anyway say “I’m doing some research on [ridiculous trivial pursuit]”, but how many times have I heard someone talk about their “reesearch” on some footling wanking nothingness.
I’ve always felt it was the American pronunciation, which had been borrowed by otherwise (or formerly) sane English people to try and aggrandise their hopeless fumblings towards something knowledge-like. Part of what C.S. Lewis calls the lemming-like worship of “the incubus of research”.
But, watching the 1949 film _All the King’s Men_ the other evening, I noticed the narrator use the “British” pronunciation, the good old homely Hobbit-like “research”. So what gives? A regional thing? Or just a change over the last 50 odd years.
And please, REVERSE it!
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### Author:  [@Agonist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agonist)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-research-become-reesearch-in-the-us/324910/2 "2005-10-05T17:16:53Z")
😕
What are you complaining about? The pronunciation? I’ve never heard any other pronunciation than RE-serch. Is there another? Or are you complaining about usage - like the word “research” should only be used for non-trivial subjects?
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-research-become-reesearch-in-the-us/324910/3 "2005-10-05T17:20:33Z")
I think he’s complaining about the common American pronunciation of REE-serch, vs. the “correct” ri-SERCH. Both sound fine to me, but what do I know? I’m just a damn Yankee.
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### Author:  [@YaWanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaWanna)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-research-become-reesearch-in-the-us/324910/4 "2005-10-05T17:20:55Z")
The answer to your question was discussed in a PBS show called something like “Do you speak American?” which aired last year, I think. Basically, it said that after WWII, people in the U.S. drifted away from British pronunciations in a trend toward differentiation - I’m sure someone else could expand on that, or you could look for the program.
Anyway, it’s just the way we say it here - not worth getting your BVDs up your crack.
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### Author:  [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-research-become-reesearch-in-the-us/324910/5 "2005-10-05T17:47:42Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#):
>
> I think he’s complaining about the common American pronunciation of REE-serch, vs. the “correct” ri-SERCH. Both sound fine to me, but what do I know? I’m just a damn Yankee.
I wonder what the OPs stance is on tom-ay-toe…
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-research-become-reesearch-in-the-us/324910/6 "2005-10-05T17:56:23Z")
I would just like to point out that “Aluminum” has _four_ syllables. So there.
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-research-become-reesearch-in-the-us/324910/7 "2005-10-05T17:56:25Z")
> [@CynicalGabe](#):
>
> I wonder what the OPs stance is on tom-ay-toe…
Bah! Let’s call the whole thing off.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-research-become-reesearch-in-the-us/324910/8 "2005-10-05T18:20:32Z")
I blame the elevator operator in “Cat’s Cradle.”
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-research-become-reesearch-in-the-us/324910/9 "2005-10-05T18:48:48Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#):
>
> Bah! Let’s call the whole thing off.
What I want to know is…
…who the hell calls them “ER-sters”?
And I don’t were paj-A-mas _or_ paj-AH-mas. Just in case ya’ll were wondering…
Stranger
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-research-become-reesearch-in-the-us/324910/10 "2005-10-05T19:00:11Z")
> [@Stranger On A Train](#):
>
> What I want to know is…
>
> …who the hell calls them “ER-sters”?
Brooklynites, ya terlet-swilling joik. 😛
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-research-become-reesearch-in-the-us/324910/11 "2005-10-05T19:04:49Z")
> [@Stranger On A Train](#):
>
> …who the hell calls them “ER-sters”?
My mother! Ya wanna make something of it?
(She also pronounces “oil burner” as “earl boinuh,” like a good Bronxite.)
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-research-become-reesearch-in-the-us/324910/12 "2005-10-05T19:09:41Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> Bronxite
Crap, _that’s_ the one I meant. :smack:
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### Author:  [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-research-become-reesearch-in-the-us/324910/13 "2005-10-05T19:36:25Z")
It’s very simple. REsearch is the noun, and reSEARCH is the verb. It follows a common pattern in American English of changing the stress to nounify a verb or vice-versa. We do the same thing with words like INcline / to inCLINE and PROceeds / to proCEED.
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### Author:  [@Sengkelat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sengkelat)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-research-become-reesearch-in-the-us/324910/14 "2005-10-05T20:10:53Z")
> [@friedo](#):
>
> I would just like to point out that “Aluminum” has _four_ syllables. So there.
Yeah, but in Britain it’s actually spelled differently; “aluminium.” It was originally called “alumium” by Sir H. Davy, who then changed it to “aluminum.” And then the Brits changed it to “aluminium” because it sounded better along with sodium and potassium, etc.
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### Author:  [@YaWanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaWanna)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-research-become-reesearch-in-the-us/324910/15 "2005-10-05T20:31:43Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> My mother! Ya wanna make something of it?
Huh? What would you like me to make of it?
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### Author:  [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2005, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-research-become-reesearch-in-the-us/324910/16 "2005-10-05T22:47:07Z")
> [@Stranger On A Train](#):
>
> What I want to know is…
>
> …who the hell calls them “ER-sters”? Stranger
We, who were born in Brooklyn, may now and then let it slip out. There was a saying, “Ersters will sperl if you berl dem in earl.”
And then, the moving poem from B’klyn:
Toity poiple boids was a choipin’ on da coib,
A choipin and a boipin and eatin doity woims,
When along came Goit, who woiked in a shoit shop in Joisy,
When she hoid da thoity poiple boids, a choipin and a boipin,
Gee she was pertoibed! 😃
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### Author:  [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2005, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-research-become-reesearch-in-the-us/324910/17 "2005-10-06T01:26:46Z")
> [@yBeayf](#):
>
> It’s very simple. REsearch is the noun, and reSEARCH is the verb.
Is that really the case y’all?
My beayf is with English people who have adopted this pronunciation because they think it can somehow put clothes on the emperor-ical scrabblings and scribblings.
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2005, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-research-become-reesearch-in-the-us/324910/18 "2005-10-06T01:29:32Z")
> [@yBeayf](#):
>
> REsearch is the noun, and reSEARCH is the verb.
Not in my experience. I’ve heard both pronunciations used in either case.
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### Author:  [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2005, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-research-become-reesearch-in-the-us/324910/19 "2005-10-06T03:28:58Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Not in my experience. I’ve heard both pronunciations used in either case.
Yeah, but y’all talk weird up north.
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2005, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-did-research-become-reesearch-in-the-us/324910/20 "2005-10-06T03:33:41Z")
> [@yBeayf](#):
>
> Yeah, but y’all talk weird up north.
😃
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