# Words You’ve Never Heard Pronounced **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 1, 2022, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774 "2022-05-01T22:23:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/161 "2022-05-12T02:35:29Z")
minutiae. I heard Garak in Deep Space Nine pronounce it as min-you-sha and I thought, so that’s how you say it. However, I just heard a character in another TV show pronounce it my-newt-ee-eye. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/162 "2022-05-12T04:02:33Z")
It suddenly occurs to me that I don’t know how “consortium” should be pronounced. Most words with “ti” in a position like that (like “ti” in “position”) have it pronounced like “sh”. And yet, “con-SOR-shum” just seems wrong. I want to say it “con-SOR-tee-um”. I really don’t know for sure which is right. (And since when should “su” ever be pronounced like “sh”, as in “sure” or “sugar”?) ETA: I had a date or two, once upon a time, with a person of female characteristics, whose name was “Marcia”, which I had only previously seen in writing. I pronounced it Mar-see-ah, with the accent on either the first or second syllable. She corrected me: It’s pronounced like Marsha. I had always should that the name Marsha was spelled Marsha. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/163 "2022-05-12T06:48:54Z")
Never mind… ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/164 "2022-05-12T09:05:58Z")
IMO you can’t make _too_ much of a faux pas if you pronounce a Latin/Italian/French/Greek/Gaelic word or name as in the original language. At worst you will come off as educated in the classics. > [@Senegoid](#): > > I had always should that the name Marsha was spelled Marsha. I have seen the spelling “Marsha”. It’s out there. (Maybe a regional variant?) Marsha = Marcia. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/165 "2022-05-12T11:23:30Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > ETA: I had a date or two, once upon a time, with a person of female characteristics, whose name was “Marcia”, which I had only previously seen in writing. I pronounced it Mar-see-ah, with the accent on either the first or second syllable. She corrected me: It’s pronounced like Marsha. I had always should that the name Marsha was spelled Marsha. I’ve known multiple people who pronounced their name " Mar-see-ah" - names often have no-standard pronunciations or spellings. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/166 "2022-05-12T12:17:00Z")
> [@Briny\_Deep](#): > > The grammar and usage threads often devolve into descriptivist/prescriptivist skirmishes, with the weight of the thread generally landing on the descriptivist side. Why not the same for pronunciation? People say things how they say them, and that’s the language. Descriptivism doesn’t mean “anything goes”, it means that rules are established by consensus usage in the community of speakers rather than by edict. It certainly does not mean that native speakers cannot make mistakes. This thread is about situations where we have never heard words spoken, so obviously mistakes are possible when we could not possibly _know_ the correct pronunciation. Pronunciations that originated as mistakes can become _established_ as acceptable variants. But that’s a process across the entire community of speakers, not a unilateral one. > [@Briny\_Deep](#): > > I used to cringe whenever I heard “be-HEM-oth,” because I think it’s BEE-a-muth, but really, who’s to say? It’s a common reaction to “cringe” when you first encounter a variant that is common elsewhere, but is (or was) considered a mistake in your own dialect. Empirical data determine whether and where both are established variants. ---
**Author:** ![2\_More\_Bits](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2_more_bits/32/4148_2.png) [@2\_More\_Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_More_Bits)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/167 "2022-05-12T13:28:28Z")
As a kid I always thought chaos was pronounced “chay-ose.” And because I watched Get Smart I knew how to spell “KAOS.” ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/168 "2022-05-12T15:07:35Z")
I remember reading an account by a noted British author (whose name I don’t recall) making this exact point. He described how, as a schoolboy, he had been mocked by a teacher for pronouncing “misled” as “mizzled.” He responded, “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having read more words than one has heard spoken.” Which, whether he intended to or not, should certainly have put the teacher in his place. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/169 "2022-05-12T15:08:23Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > It suddenly occurs to me that I don’t know how “consortium” should be pronounced. Most words with “ti” in a position like that (like “ti” in “position”) have it pronounced like “sh”. > > And yet, “con-SOR-shum” just seems wrong. I want to say it “con-SOR-tee-um”. I really don’t know for sure which is right. I pronounce it as con-SOR-shee-um [kən 'sɒɹ ʃi əm] ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/170 "2022-05-12T15:10:34Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > He responded, “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having read more words than one has heard spoken.” Great response, but “mis-led” is not a word that is uncommonly spoken. Similar would be “awry.” It’s just not making the connection. But no teacher should be mocking their students, of course. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/171 "2022-05-12T15:12:28Z")
I think you may have been mizzled about how often “misled” is used in daily conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/172 "2022-05-12T15:13:36Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Great response, but “mis-led” is not a word that is uncommonly spoken. Similar would be “awry.” It’s just not making the connection. But no teacher should be mocking their students, of course. My word was melancholy. I pronounced it with a hard “ch” (as in church). If I had ever heard it spoken I would have made the connection. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/173 "2022-05-12T15:14:52Z")
Daily? No? But it’s not an obscure word that is likely for someone not to have heard, and I didn’t grow up around SAT-power-vocab talking folk. The problem is simply that one had heard the word “misled” or “awry” many times in the past and just never made the connection that those words correspond to those spellings. That’s completely understandable. I’m sure it’s happened to me, but I can’t think specifically of what word surprised me when I made the connection. ETA: Actually, “segue” would work for me. Took me years before I realized “segue” and what is spoken as “seg-way” are the same word, and I heard the latter many times. I just read it as “SEEG”. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/174 "2022-05-12T15:21:56Z")
Only within the last ten years have I known that chimera is ki-mer-ah and not chim-er-ah. Though the first 40 were spent only thinking about the mythological Greek critter and I never had reason to hear it spoken otherwise until I started hearing it used in medical contexts, to refer to certain viruses and the like. So at least I wasn’t using the word at dinner parties or anything. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/175 "2022-05-12T15:29:24Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > The problem is simply that one had heard the word “misled” or “awry” many times in the past and just never made the connection So your contention is that they heard the word said aloud and didn’t know what it meant (how could they) and never stopped to ask what it meant? ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/176 "2022-05-12T15:33:49Z")
Hilaire Belloc, French by birth but John Bull British by inclination, went through life correcting clerks and messengers to pronounce “Bell-ock.” If only the Czechs had conquered the world. They spell their words according to how they’re pronounced. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/177 "2022-05-12T15:46:21Z")
The brand of underwear and bras I wear is “Cacique”. Never once heard it pronounced and I’ve been wearing them 20+ years. In my head it’s “Ca-KEEK”. Am I anywhere close? ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/178 "2022-05-12T15:47:52Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > He described how, as a schoolboy, he had been mocked by a teacher for pronouncing “misled” as “mizzled.” He responded, “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having read more words than one has heard spoken.” > [@pulykamell](#): > > The problem is simply that one had heard the word “misled” or “awry” many times in the past and just never made the connection that those words correspond to those spellings. Yes - it’s a great point that having a reading vocabulary wider than your aural experience is a virtue. It’s just that “misled” is not a great example of that. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/179 "2022-05-12T15:49:46Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > The brand of underwear and bras I wear is “Cacique”. Never once heard it pronounced and I’ve been wearing them 20+ years. In my head it’s “Ca-KEEK”. Am I anywhere close? Assuming Spanish pronunciation, “ka-SEE-ke”. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/180 "2022-05-12T15:57:52Z")
I was finally motivated to actually find a commercial for these undies to see if it’s pronounced anywhere. Dug around and found the spot below, and it’s pronounced “ca-SEEK”. So you were close @mbh they just use two syllables, not three. Will spoiler the link because it’s an underwear ad, and the pronunciation is at the end. > **Summary** > > [#ImNoAngel Is Back: Sexy Bras for Plus Size | Cacique - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt7fHAW2GK8&ab_channel=LaneBryant) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774.md?page=10)