# Word errors you discovered embarrassingly late in life. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 23, 2009, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-errors-you-discovered-embarrassingly-late-in-life/482604 "2009-01-23T07:01:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-errors-you-discovered-embarrassingly-late-in-life/482604/81 "2009-01-24T04:09:47Z")
In college, I was in the play “Antigone,” in which one of the characters is Euridice. At the first rehearsal, one of the actors referred to her as “Uterus.” ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-errors-you-discovered-embarrassingly-late-in-life/482604/82 "2009-01-24T04:21:31Z")
And our very own **mangetout**. . . I wonder how many people think his name is “man get out.” ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-errors-you-discovered-embarrassingly-late-in-life/482604/83 "2009-01-24T04:33:04Z")
> [@Audrey\_Levins](#): > > I was a teenager before I realized that “debris” is that word I kept hearing, pronounced “de-BREE.” > > I thought they were two different words that happened to mean the same thing. I had the same experience with the word(s) “misled”, which I read-pronounced “my-zled” even though I was familiar with the spoken word pronounced “miss-led”. Then one day, at the age of 15 or so, the epiphany mused aloud to a friend of mine: “Hey, how weird is this? _Myzled_ and _miss-led_ are two words pronounced differently yet are spelled the same, like “led/leed” for “lead”, but in this case they also _mean exactly the same thing_! Oh, wait… Ah… D’OHHHH!” (This was pre-Simpsons, but if D’oh! was in my vocabulary it surely would have fit.) ---
**Author:** ![AngelSoft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angelsoft/32/440_2.png) [@AngelSoft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelSoft)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-errors-you-discovered-embarrassingly-late-in-life/482604/84 "2009-01-24T04:37:39Z")
Apparently it’s “posthumous” and not “post-humorous”. Boy I cringe at how many times I must have sounded like an idiot lol ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-errors-you-discovered-embarrassingly-late-in-life/482604/85 "2009-01-24T05:14:39Z")
I think I was in high school when I read “origin” aloud as “uh-RIDGE-in.” (Hey, I grew up on a farm. The word didn’t come up much in conversation.) And I was well into my twenties when I found out “victuals” is properly pronounced “vittles”. (Jed Clampett was smarter than we thought!) And don’t ask how I pronounced “Goethe” in a prepared speech as a lad. ---
**Author:** ![Hedda\_Rosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hedda_rosa/32/1204_2.png) [@Hedda\_Rosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hedda_Rosa)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-errors-you-discovered-embarrassingly-late-in-life/482604/86 "2009-01-24T05:25:29Z")
> [@Oni no Maggie](#): > > And…as an adult - well well into my thirties - my husband had to convince my whole immediate family that there’s no ‘l’ in amphitheater. We always pronounced it as “Amplitheater” - you know, a theater that’s shaped to amplify sounds. Ampli-theater. I don’t think any of us had ever noticed that there was an ‘h’ where an ‘l’ would go if we’d been right. > > It still seems wrong to spell it with an ‘h’. Me too. Also it took me a whole to figure out that hors d’oeuvres (written) and “or derves” (spoken) were the same thing. For a long time I thought Southern was said “South-ern” instead of “Suthern” ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-errors-you-discovered-embarrassingly-late-in-life/482604/87 "2009-01-24T05:53:26Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > And our very own **mangetout**. . . I wonder how many people think his name is “man get out.” It certainly can be. Fitting, since French is also associated with the double entendre. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-errors-you-discovered-embarrassingly-late-in-life/482604/88 "2009-01-24T05:56:26Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > I’m 53 and I just discovered this year that “desultory” is pronounced “DESS-ul-TOR-ee” and not “de-SULL-ta-ree”. Yeesh!! There’s only one stress in any word. It’s on the DESS… not the TOR. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-errors-you-discovered-embarrassingly-late-in-life/482604/89 "2009-01-24T10:23:58Z")
**WhyNot** , I pronounced “detritus” as “dee-tree-us” for years. Did we both read the same book as impressionable youngsters that misspelled it? I wonder. And this “desulTORy” thing? News to me. (I’m 50, so we can narrow down the age when one learns to pronounce this down to sometime in the early 50s.) ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-errors-you-discovered-embarrassingly-late-in-life/482604/90 "2009-01-24T10:25:57Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > There’s only one stress in any word. It’s on the DESS… not the TOR. There’s a primary stress on “DESS” and a secondary stress on “TOR”. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-errors-you-discovered-embarrassingly-late-in-life/482604/91 "2009-01-24T11:48:07Z")
> [@spoke-](#): > > And I was well into my twenties when I found out “victuals” is properly pronounced “vittles”. (Jed Clampett was smarter than we thought!) Wait…_what_? I don’t think I’ve ever spoken that word out loud, but I’ve certainly not been pronouncing it that way in my head when I read it. An ex of mine had a habit of placing the stress on the second syllable in words starting with “se”. So, he once mentioned a seVEERed head and a different time a seQUEENed gown. (That would have been quite a conversation if they happened in the same sentence, eh?) I know there were at least 2 “se” words that he did that with, causing me to think it was something about that combination of letters that threw him. ---
**Author:** ![Sticks\_and\_Scones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sticks_and_scones/32/16951_2.png) [@Sticks\_and\_Scones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sticks_and_Scones)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-errors-you-discovered-embarrassingly-late-in-life/482604/92 "2009-01-24T13:07:28Z")
I’d like to preface this by saying that I was in 5th grade at the time. We were reading The Secret of Nimh or something like that. One of the rodents had pneumonia. You pronounce that P-new-moan-ya. (The p is not silent.) Yes, of course, humans get that thing called new-moan-ya. But rats get this special, unrelated illness. Fortunately, it was my mom who I was talking about this to and she told me it was the same thing.:smack: And an unrelated hijack… I was somewhere between 25 and 30 before I realized that “Bridge freezes before roadway” because of the air running beneath it. NOT because the bridge pavement is made of stuff that is more slippery .:smack::smack: ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-errors-you-discovered-embarrassingly-late-in-life/482604/93 "2009-01-24T14:25:55Z")
> [@spoke-](#): > > And I was well into my twenties when I found out “victuals” is properly pronounced “vittles”. (Jed Clampett was smarter than we thought!) I was belittled in grade school, middle school, by students and teachers, and high school by students for insisting that the word was pronounced vittles and not Vick Tchew als. And then my high school English teacher corrected one of my tormentors in front of the class. And her correction was a beautiful thing, brief, cutting, and public, and not five minutes after the smug bastard had taunted me as we discussed the days assignment before class. ---
**Author:** ![spike404](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@spike404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spike404)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-errors-you-discovered-embarrassingly-late-in-life/482604/94 "2009-01-24T15:06:13Z")
The correct pronunciation of victuals really floored me!!! I still want to pronounce salmon with an L. ---
**Author:** ![Strange\_Machine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@Strange\_Machine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strange_Machine)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-errors-you-discovered-embarrassingly-late-in-life/482604/95 "2009-01-24T16:12:46Z")
I guess this event wasn’t too late in life, but had consequences. When I was in sixth grade, I proctored a spelling test to the rest of the class and on of the words was “ambulance.” I pronounced it AM-blee-ance. It seems that most of the class were sound it out spellers and there were so many wrong answers that the teacher gave everyone a bonus point because of it. Fast forward twenty-five years later and I’m at my parents’ house. My niece hears a siren and says “Gramma what’s that?” “It’s an ambleeance, Tori, say ambleeance.” I don’t know how she spells that, but her nieces and nephews are my “cousints” both in pronunciation and on paper. ---
**Author:** ![Mojo\_Pin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mojo\_Pin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo_Pin)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-errors-you-discovered-embarrassingly-late-in-life/482604/96 "2009-01-24T18:53:31Z")
One of the first days of middle school for me was 9/11, and in the morning our advisory was having a discussion about it. Of course I had no idea what was going on, and I didn’t even think it was that big a deal (my english was hardly passable and I was overall a very vacuous child) but I remember saying something about the debris and pronouncing it deh-briss. Around the same time I wrote voila as wallah, but neither of these are embarrassingly late I guess. Actually, until five minutes ago, I thought ennui was pronounced en-you-eye. [QUOTE=spike404] The correct pronunciation of victuals really floored me!!! [/QUOTE] Wait, how do you pronounce that? edit: ooh I was just reading eleanorigby’s post and I remembered that I made that same mistake (fuh-kaid) not too long ago. I was with a couple other guys and I actually argued that I was completely right. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-errors-you-discovered-embarrassingly-late-in-life/482604/97 "2009-01-24T19:17:03Z")
> [@KnitWit](#): > > Her: Well, you should get a pacific area, then you’ll go work there. Pacifically. > > I thought she was going to send me to Seattle. At the opposite extreme, a college girlfriend had a high school teacher who talked about the Specific Ocean. > [@elfkin477](#): > > her: Well, it’s God Own Fighting, so that must mean something about God. Doesn’t it? > me: Um… it’s Go Down Fighting. > her: :smack: You should have told her about “Godwin’s Law.” That’s the law that says God always wins, right? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-errors-you-discovered-embarrassingly-late-in-life/482604/98 "2009-01-24T19:21:24Z")
> [@Mojo\_Pin](#): > > Wait, how do you pronounce that? > . The dictionaries all say it’s pronounced “vittles,” but I’ve never believed it. Also, I’ve never actually said that word aloud (and don’t think I ever will) so it’s a moot point for me. -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![spike404](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@spike404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spike404)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-errors-you-discovered-embarrassingly-late-in-life/482604/99 "2009-01-24T19:26:20Z")
I think I will wait for an opportune moment, and use “vittles”. Then check out the reactions. ---
**Author:** ![Fiona\_Greenlee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@Fiona\_Greenlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiona_Greenlee)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-errors-you-discovered-embarrassingly-late-in-life/482604/100 "2009-01-24T19:30:43Z")
I learned a few months ago that the name Penelope is pronounced Pen-nel-lo-pee, not Penne-lope. :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-errors-you-discovered-embarrassingly-late-in-life/482604.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-errors-you-discovered-embarrassingly-late-in-life/482604.md?page=6)