Status Updates From There is No Zoo in Zoology,...

elephantine EL-uh-FAN-teen or EL-uh-FAN-tin or EL-uh-FAN-tyn.

EL-uh-FAN-teen is preferred by most current dictionaries, including Webster's Ninth, Webster's New World, and Random House II. EL-uh-FAN-tin is my favourite; it is the preference of older American dictionaries, and is till listed first in several of my recent sources. EL-uh-FAN-tyn is originally British (a long I as in wine, for the suffix -ine is the ...

eleemosynary EL-i-MAHS-i-ner-ee.

Standard word division treats the EE in eleemosynary as one syllable, not two, and the pronunciation follows by assigning it only one sound. The alternative pronunciation EL-ee-uh-MAHS-i-ner-ee, which adds a syllable to the word, is listed in most dictionaries, but is not preferred.

e-LEK-tuh-ral, not EE-lek-TOR-al.

The accent is on the second syllable *(-LEK-). See mayoral, pastoral, pectoral.

either EE-thur.

Though both EE-thur and NEE-thur (EE and NEE rhyming with see) nd EYE-thur and NY-thur (EYE and NY rhyming with high) occur in American and British speech, all sources agree that EE-thur and NEE-thur are the prevailing and customary American pronunciations, and EYE-thur and NTY-thur are preferred in contemporary standard British speech.
Webster 2 (1934) notes that EYE-thur "is more prevalent in ...

ebullient I-BUHL-yent or i-BUUL-yent. Not i-BOOL-yent or i-BYOO-lee-ent.

Ebullient should be pronounced in three syllables In the second, accented syllable (-BUL-), the U may have the sound of the U in bulk or bull.

duty DYOO-tee.

DYOO-tee,, the traditional pronunciation, is preferable to DOO-tee, which is commonly heard today. See dew.

ducat DUHK-it (like duck + it).

A ducat is a type of coin, usually made of gold, formerly used by various European countries. Ducats figure prominently in tales and movies about marauders ion the bounding main. Don't be misled by Errol Flynn or ny other Hollywood swashbucklers who mispronounce this word DOOK-it or DYOOK-it. DUHK-it is the only recognized pronunciation.

drowned DROWND.

This word has one syllable. The pronunciation DROWN-ded is nonstandard.

dour DOOR

Properly, dour should rhyme with poor, not with hour. This is the marking of the NBC Handbook (1984)j; Webster 2 (1934); the OED (1928); Funk & Wagnalls New Standard (1980); the Century (1914) and New Century (1927); and W.H.P Phyfe (1926). Dour is the same as the archaic word dure, hard, severe, which goes back through Middle English to the Latin durus (DOO-ruus), hard. The pronunciation DOOR (rhyming,,,

dissect di-SEKT.

The alternative pronunciations dy-SEKT and DY-sekt (with the first syllable pronounced like the word die) were not recognized by dictionaries before the 19670s. In 1961, Webster 3 labeled them "unacceptable to many." Most current dictionaries list but do not prefer them, and Webster's New World Guide (1984) and the NBC Handbook (1984) give only di-SEKT.
It is the double S in dissect that ...

disparate DIS-pa-rit, not dis-PAR-it.

If you happen to own Webster's Ninth, which prefers dis-PAR-it, with the accent on the second syllable, do not be misled about the proper pronunciation of this word. All my other sources prefer or give only DIS-pa-rit, with the accent on the first syllable.

dirigible DIR-i-ji-buul.

The alternate pronunciation di-RIJ-i-buul has been listed in American dictionaries since the 1960s, but is not preferred. Kenyon nd Knott, in they Pronouncing Dictionary of American English, call it British.

diphthong DIF-thawng or DIF-thahng, not DIP-thawng.

Both Hs in this word are part of consonant blends with specific, distinct sounds ()like BL in blue, SH in ship, or CH in chop). To drop the second H and say DIF-tawng or drop both HSs and say DIP-tawng would not only be wrong, it would sound ridiculous. Yet many otherwise careful speakers seem to think that it is proper to drop the first H and say DIP-thawng.

diphtheria dif-THEER-ee-uh, not dip-THEER-ee-uh.

Properly, the PH is pronounced like an F, as in telephone, phonetics, and ophiolarty (AHF-ee-AHL-ut-tree), the worship of snakes. See diphthong, ophthalmologist.

diminution di-mi-NYOO-shin or di-mi-NOO-shin.

This word is often mispronounced dim-yoo-NISH-in, as if it were spelled dimunition, See cupola, irrelevant, jewelry, jubilant, nuclear.

diesel DEE-zuul, not DEE-suul.

DEE-suul has been listed in most dictionaries since the 1960s, but is not preferred.
Diesel comes from Rudolph Diesel, a German automotive engineer. Webster 2 (1934), notes that in German the letter S is pronounced "like Engish S in rose at the beginning of a word...and before a vowel." We should follow this rule when we say diesel (DEE-zuul), for it breaks no rule of English nor ...

dew DYoo.

There is a tendency in American speech to change the YOO or logn U sound in many words to an OO sound (as in soon). We are in the process of dropping YOO/long U from such words as duty, assume, presume, attitude, aptitude, astute, nutrition, student, and the like. Directly following an initial S, the long U is rarely heard from Americans. We say SOOT for suit and SOOPER for super; the British say SYOOT...

despicable DES-pik-uh-buul. Now usually duh-SPIK-uh-buul.

DES-pik-uh-buul has been the preferred renunciation for a hundred years, and duh-SPIK-uh-buul was often labeled incorrect or erroneous until the 1960s, when it became unfashionable for dictionaries to use that sort of word. Despite the popularity of Duh-SPIK-uh-buul (perhaps owing in part to the slobbering cartoon character Daffy Duck's penchant for ...

depot DEE-poh.

Many authorities make the alternative DEP-oh (DEP-rhyming with step) as chiefly military and British. American usage has alway favoured DEE-poh (DEE- rhyming with see ), and it seems reasonable to use it for all the word's senses.

deluge (noun and verb) DEL-yooj.

This word takes a little practice to pronounce correctly. Difficulty with it has resulted in a DEL-yooj of variants, including DEL-yoozh, DEL-oozh, DEL,-ooj, de-LOOJ, and de-LOOZH. Most dictionaries do not list any pronunciation other that DEL-yooj, in which the first syllable is stressed and the second syllable sounds like the word huge wothout the H.

deity DEE-i-tee, not DAY-i-tee. See homogeneity, spontaneity.

decrease (noun) DEE-krees; (verb) de-KREES.

In words of two syllables,,.that do double duty as nouns or adjectives on the one Han and as verbs on the other, it is the custom, with a few exceptions, to accent the nouns and adjectives upon the first syllable and the vers upon the last.
-W.H.P. Phyfe, 18,000 Words Often Mispronounced.

Phyfe's rule, outlined in 1926, holds true today for many words.

decibel DES-i-=bel. Do not say DES-i-buul.

The bel in this word comes from Alexander Graham Bell. On ohm (named after George Simon Ohm) is never called an um, nor is a watt (named after James Watt) ever called a what. The legal of a man is at stake her. Remember that the E in the last syllable should be as clear as a bell.

data DAY-tuh, not DAT-uh.
All my sources prefer DAY-tuh. The alternative pronunciation DAT-uh has been recorded since the 1940s, but has always been listed second to DAY-tuh. Another variant, DAH_tuh, is sometimes listed third, it dates back tot he nineteenth century or perhaps earlier, and is less frequently heard today.
The reason data is pronounced DAY-tuh is because it was taken into English from Latin ...

dais DAY-is, not DY-is.
This word should be pronounced in two syllables, the first like the word day and the second like the word kiss without the K. Those who pronounce it Dy-is (with the first syllable like the word die) are wrong because they treat the A and I not as separate vowels to be sounded distinctly, but as a diphthong with a single sound, as in aisle. Then, in the second syllable they pronounce the...

daiquiri DY-kuh-ree.

This species of rum cocktail was named after Daiquiri, Cuba (Spanish pronunciation: dy-kee-REE), the town where it is said to have originated. The word entered English about 1920, but did not get into a dictionary until the 1950s. By then the alternative pronunciation DAK-uh-ree had caught on, and so from the start was listed in most dictionaries. However, of the sixteen sources I polled, ...

cupola KYOO-po-la.

KYOO-po-la is the only standard pronunciation of this word, which has proved to be quite a tongue twister for many speakers. There are two common mispronunciations to avoid: KYOO-pa-loh, which makes the word sound as if it were spelled cupola (with the A and O transposed), and KOO-pyoo-la, which makes it sound as if it were spelled coopula. These ways of saying cupola (KYOO-po--la) are not

culinary KYOO-li-ner-ee, not KUHL-i-ner-ee.

The first syllable of this word should sound just like the letter Q: KYOO-li-ner-ee.
Though it has been heard for most of this century, and is quite common today, the pronunciation KUHL-i-ner-ee did not appear in dictionaries until the 1960s. Since then only Miriam-Webster's wordbooks have put it first; all other sources prefer KYOO-li-ner-ee.

covert (adjective and noun) KUH-vurt.

The pronunciation KOH-vurt didn't see the light of dictionary until Webster 3 included it in 1961. From what I can gather it wasn't around very long before that. My conjecture is that it probably got started during the McCarthy era, when certain folks were worried about spies in the pumpkin patch and under the streets and needed an appropriately ugly and alarming way to...

coupon KOO-pahn.

The pronunciation KYOO-pahn is widespread, and used by many others=wise conscientious speakers—Vincent Price, for example. .Neither analogy nor spelling, however, justifies it. We do not say byoo-TEEK for boutique, TYOOR-nuh-kit for tourniquet, or uh-KYOO=tur for accoutre, or insert a Y before the OO sound in nouveau riche, coup d'état, and haute couture. Why say KYOO-pahn?