Well, if you’re talking place names (especially British ones) then we could be here all day: Leicester, Towcester, Wymondham, Kirkby, Guildford, Reading…
I still think “epitome” is the, uh, eppy-tome of this sort of word. I know how it’s pronounced but I still mentally say it wrong and get tripped up by it.
Same with “hyperbole” - I always think of it as a really big ball game… :rolleyes:
Two that haven’t been mentioned, with accent on a weird syllable:
Hmm… well, my desk dictionary says EE-pock, but the crapola online dictionary gives that as the second choice, with preference to “EPP-uhk”, or some such nonsense. I have never heard that in my life.
Must be those same crazy folks that pronounce “ethyl” like “Ethel”…
Another one: whilst.
Not a word used by Americans much, but a word I’ve been mispronouncing forever (in my head) when I read emails from people across the Pond.
My roommate got embarrassed around a few friends the other day when he pronounced “brooch” just as it’s spelled. One of my brothers does this all the time because he reads so much and talks to so few people, but I can’t think of any examples offhand.
The ironic thing is, many of these words probably used to be pronounced like they seem (thus the double humor in the French guy in Holy Grail mocking English kniggits.)
