Got hammered by my dad on this one when I was a teen: primer, as in an introductory manual, is pronounced primmer. Primer, as in the undercoat of paint, is pronounced prymer.
Imagine my teen ego faced with the devastating fact that the fogies knew something after all. Of course I’m not going to tell my son this until he’s a teen – got to save it until I can wring the most advantage from it. Like my dad probably did.
And flaccid is pronounced flak-sid. You might need that for the next AoSHQ flame war.
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November 17, 2006 at 8:53 pm
Webster says both flaccid pronouciations are correct.
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Funk and Wagnalls could not be reached for comment.
November 17, 2006 at 9:00 pm
Oh, that Webster. Such a populist; such a mobocrat. They should have said that the first pronunciation is what the poor uneducated plebes use.
November 17, 2006 at 9:00 pm
Websters has succumbed. The indisputable There is no Zoo in Zoology knows all and tells all. Don’t settle for less.
November 18, 2006 at 3:28 am
Webster’s gave up on irregardless too.
They’re dead to me now.
November 18, 2006 at 4:32 am
What’s wrong with irregardless? It’s a perfectly cromulent word.
November 18, 2006 at 4:36 am
Now see “cromulent” is an example of the good that the patois of the commoners can bring. It’s a brand new word rather than an abuse of a well-characterized word. And it’s kind of cool.
November 18, 2006 at 10:17 pm
Two related baseball factoids: “Honus” is short for Johannes and is pronounced accordingly. It is NOT pronounced “Hoe-nuss.” Second, Evers as in Tinker to Evers to Chance is “Ee-vers,” not “Eh-vers.”
February 25, 2008 at 11:36 am
Mrs. Peel is correct about Honus and agrees with his biographer as well as audios of old-timers and an audio of his introduction at the Hall-Of-Fame ceremony.
I think Evers name was first mispronounced by Boston fans when he went to the Braves in 1914.
February 28, 2008 at 8:50 pm
When Roy Oswalt first broke in, we called him “Oz-walt” instead of “Oh’s-walt” for months, until he finally told us we were saying it wrong. That was kind of annoying because it ruined his nickname: The Wizard of Oz. Oh well. We still call him the Wizard on occasion.
September 29, 2008 at 2:10 pm
i prefer the more sensible British pronunciaton of “primer,” even though I am American. There are two acceptable pronunciations, after all:
Pronunciation Challenges: Confusions and Controversy
§ 150. primer
This word, meaning “a small textbook used to teach reading,” is usually pronounced with a short i, rhyming with dimmer, in American English. A variant pronunciation with a long i, as in prime, occurs chiefly in British English. 1
The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. Copyright © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
September 29, 2008 at 2:35 pm
There are two acceptable pronunciations, after all:
Not in the land of the free and the home of the brave, they ain’t.