Judi’s Reviews > There is No Zoo in Zoology, and Other Beastly Mispronunciations: An Opinionated Guide for the Well-Spoken > Status Update

bulimia byoo-LIM-ee-uh.

Do not say boo-LEE-mee-uh or buh-LEE-mee-uh. These are recent and now very common mispronunciations.
Bulimia came into the language in the fourteenth century, and until 1987 the only recognized pronunciation was byoo-LIM-ee-uh. In the last ten or fifteen years the word has leapt from medical manuals into the vernacular, and in response to widespread confusion over how it is pronounced,...

brooch BROHCH.

Properly, brooch should rhyme with coach. The pronunciation BROOCH, which rhymes with smooch, is usually listed but not preferred. Both pronunciations exist because, historically, brooch, an ornamental clasp, is the same word as broach (now usually used as a verb to mean to utter, introduce, or open for the first time), and most dictionaries still give the alternative spelling broach for brooch.

Brobdingnagian BROB-ding-NAG-ee-in.

Be sure to pronounce the second syllable like the word ding. It is often mispronounced DIG, probably because the word is often misspelled Brobdingnagian.
The word refers to the gigantic inhabitants of the imaginary land of Brobdingnagian in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, or to anyone or anything like them. It should be capitalized.

boudoir BOO-dwahr, not BUU-dwahr.

The first syllable (you-) rhymes with too. Most dictionaries prefer the stress on the first syllable, but stressing the second (boo-DWAHR) is also acceptable.

bouquet boo-KAY (boo- as in boot) or both-KAY (jobs- as in boat).

Older dictionaries prefer boo-KAY; some do not even list bot-KAY. However, since about the 1950s most dictionaries have preferred both-KAY, except when the word is use to mean an aroma, as "The [boo-KKAY] of this wine," Why such a distinction is necessary is beyond me. Maybe ti came about because the connoisseurs all stuck to boo-KAY after hoi poloi..

Bolivar boh-LEE-vahr.

I recommend this one pronunciation for both the monetary unit of Venezuela and the name of the nineteenth century South American liberator. It is a personal preference, based on the following assumptions:
1. There seems to me a general trend among educated speakers and the broadcast media to pronounce foreign names in the way they are pronounced in the language they come from.

blithe BLYTH (rhymes with writhe).

How do you pronounce the title of New Coward's play Blithe Spirit? Does the TH of blithe sound like the Thin then or in thin? You may have heard many speakers say BLYTH, with the TH of thin, but the correct pronunciation is BLYTH, with the TH of then. Here's why:
When a monosyllabic word ends in -the, the TH is usually sounded or "voiced, as in clothe, breathe, and soothe.

bestiality BES-chee-AL-i-tee, not BEES-chee-AL-i-tee. See bestial.

bestial BES-chuul or BEST-yuul. BES-tee-uul is British

Since the 1960s, dictionaries have given BEES-chuul as an alternative because many people had mistakenly begun to model their pronunciation of bestial after the word beast.
Dictionaries are too egalitarian to tell. you why they don't prefer BEES-chull, but for your protection I will: It is considered by careful speakers to be a truly beastly pronunciation.

bequeath be-KWEETH.

The TH should should like the TH in this and bathe, not like the TH in thin and path. Also, do not pronounce the first syllable like the verb be; because be- is unstressed the E is lightened so that the syllable sounds like the BI or BUH.