# Words You've Read But Never Heard Said **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 8, 2024, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769 "2024-01-08T12:02:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![john\_b\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@john\_b\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/john_b_2)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2024, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/181 "2024-07-14T07:15:32Z")
I’ve heard the word synod pronounced a number of times, including on television and on radio, to rhyme with sin nod, just like that, and nothing to do with those words themselves, just a manner of pronouncing synod, unrelated to venial or napping. ---
**Author:** ![john\_b\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@john\_b\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/john_b_2)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2024, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/182 "2024-07-14T07:50:56Z")
I’ve used niggardly a number of times, and have heard it IRL, a few, very few times. Its definition should not in itself be offensive to black people, although the sound of it often is, especially in its implication. Along similar lines, and to the best of my recollection, I’ve never heard the word cupidity used in my life, even as I have known its meaning since I was a teen (go figure). No, nothing to do with a god of love, nor, more generally, erotica, lascivious, voluptuary, or other such words. The definition of the word is synonymous with greed and avarice; and while its origins are from a Latin word for yearning, cupiditas, this is too general to be directly associated with sexuality ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2024, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/183 "2024-07-14T09:54:08Z")
I associate “parlous” with Mark Twain. I assume it was a 19th-century frontier rural Americanism for “perilous,” just as “varmint” (which I associate with Yosemite Sam) was for “vermin.” ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2024, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/184 "2024-07-14T10:16:10Z")
A regional variant on perilous indeed, but apparently much older than European settlement of America > **[Definition of PARLOUS](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/parlous)** > > dangerously shrewd or cunning; full of danger or risk… See the full definition ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2024, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/185 "2024-07-14T10:18:25Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > just as “varmint” (which I associate with Yosemite Sam) was for “vermin.” Similar vowel shift in “varsity”, and if memory serves there’d be other examples in Dickens and other Victorian writers. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2024, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/186 "2024-07-14T11:00:17Z")
Cool! I never associated “varsity” with “[uni]versity” until you mentioned it just now. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2024, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/187 "2024-07-14T15:50:08Z")
“Cadre”. My mental pronunciation has always been CAW-dray, but I’ve been listening to a lot of British English narrators lately, and they pronounce it like CAW-der (rhymes with fodder). I did a Google search and the audio pronunciation for American English was CAW-dree, though I did see some IPA notation that supported my longstanding mental version… ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2024, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/188 "2024-07-14T16:54:13Z")
> acronym - a word (such as _NATO, radar_, or _laser_) formed from the initial letter **or letters** of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term The definitions overlap. At one time they might have been more limited but use over decades have made them grow looser. Capex can fit the definition of all three of acronym, stump compound, and portmanteau. Ain’t English grand? ---
**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:** [July 14, 2024, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/189 "2024-07-14T18:42:30Z")
This may be one of those cot/caught things, but I’ve always heard it as CAH-dray or even CA (as in “cat”) -dray. I’ve _never_ heard the last syllable as “der.” ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2024, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/190 "2024-07-14T18:59:40Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > This may be one of those cot/caught things Yeah, for me CAH and CAW parse as the same sound. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2024, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/191 "2024-07-14T22:17:05Z")
Add to that, “victuals” . TIL it is literally pronounced “vittles”. ---
**Author:** ![UDS1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47774/32.png) [@UDS1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS1)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/192 "2024-07-15T01:21:42Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > This may be one of those cot/caught things, but I’ve always heard it as CAH-dray or even CA (as in “cat”) -dray. > > I’ve _never_ heard the last syllable as “der.” In BrE the second syllable always gets a schwa, and a lot of BrE speakers also do not voice the _-r-_. So, _KAH-duh_ or _KAH-druh_. Essentially, they give it a frenchified pronunciation, which make sense, since it’s a relatively recent (late 18th century) borrowing from French . In USE the second syllable is often given a long vowel, so either _ray_ or _ree_. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/193 "2024-07-15T13:14:14Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > > [@JKellyMap](#): > > > > just as “varmint” (which I associate with Yosemite Sam) was for “vermin.” > > Similar vowel shift in “varsity”, and if memory serves there’d be other examples in Dickens and other Victorian writers It’s still around in modern British English: _clerk_ = “clark”, _Derby_ = “darby”, _Berkshire_ = “barkshirr”. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/194 "2024-07-15T15:44:08Z")
Then there are words I’ve heard, but never read. If a wound has a purulent discharge people want to say it is pus-ee. So I’ll ask them how to spell the word they are using and they spell it pussy, which isn’t correct. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2024, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/195 "2024-07-16T20:57:38Z")
My Random House dictionary says the “e” at the end is a schwa, except in the US military, where it’s pronounced as a long E. I’ve always pronounced it with the schwa, because that approximates the French pronunciation while still not being too difficult. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2024, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/196 "2024-07-17T03:00:11Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > The only person I’ve heard _say_ the word is my wife, who is deeply into archaeology. Tell me you’ve never watched ‘Forged in Fire’ without _telling_ me you’ve never watched ‘Forged in Fire’… ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/197 "2024-07-18T06:50:39Z")
How about ‘gibbet’? Can’t say I have ever heard anybody talking about that… ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/198 "2024-07-18T07:01:14Z")
Bunch of historical names. For example, I got it in my head that Franz Shubert’s last name was pronounced “Shoo-Bear” and mispronounced it to appropriately hilarious results. (It’s “Shoo-Bert”, in case y’all are wondering. Which y’all aren’t, being smarter than I.) ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/199 "2024-07-18T15:42:16Z")
Pretty sure his name was Schubert and he was Austrian. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/200 "2024-07-18T15:53:10Z")
This thread is about pronunciation, not spelling! 😂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769.md?page=11)