Online Etymology Dictionary

pronunciation: 1430, "mode in which a word is pronounced," from L. pronuntiationem (nom. pronuntiatio) "act of speaking," also "proclamation," noun of action from pronuntiare "announce" (see pronounce).
miz: 1907 as graphing of U.S. Southern pronunciation of Mrs. or Miss; 1972 as standard pronunciation of Ms.
vase: 1563, from M.Fr. vase, from L. vas "container, vessel." Amer.Eng. preserves the original Eng. pronunciation (Swift rhymes it with face, Byron with place and grace), while British Eng. shifted mid-19c. to preference for a pronunciation that rhymes with bras.
Kiribati: island nation in the Pacific, formerly Gilbert Islands and named for Capt. Thomas Gilbert, who arrived there 1788 after helping transport the first shipload of convicts to Australia. At independence in 1979 it took the current name, which represents the local pronunciation of Gilbert. Christmas Island, named for the date it was discovered by Europeans, is in the chain and now goes by Kiritimati, likewise a local pronunciation of the English name.
ration: 1550, "reasoning," later, "relation of one number to another" (1666), then "fixed allowance of food" (1702, often rations, from Fr. ration), from L. rationem (nom. ratio) "reckoning, calculation, proportion" (see ratio). The verb meaning "put (someone) on a fixed allowance" is recorded from 1859; sense of "apportion in fixed amounts" is from 1870. The military pronunciation (rhymes with fashion) took over from the preferred civilian pronunciation (rhymes with nation) during World War I. Rationing is from 1918, from conditions in England during the war.
once: c.1200, anes, from ane "one" + adverbial genitive. Replaced O.E. æne. Spelling changed as pronunciation shifted from two syllables to one after c.1300. Pronunciation change to "wuns" parallels that of one. As an emphatic, meaning "once and for all," it is attested from c.1300, but this now is regarded as a Pennsylvania German dialect formation. Meaning "in a past time" (but not necessarily just one time) is from c.1250. Once upon a time as the beginning of a story is recorded from 1595. Slang once-over "inspection" is from 1915. At once originally (c.1230) meant "simultaneously," later "in one company" (c.1300), and preserved the sense of "one" in the word; the phrase typically appeared as one word, atones; the modern meaning "immediately" is attested from 1531.
schedule: 1397, sedule, cedule "ticket, label, slip of paper with writing on it," from O.Fr. cedule, from L.L. schedula "strip of paper," dim. of L. schida "one of the strips forming a papyrus sheet," from Gk. skhida "splinter," From stem of skhizein "to cleave, split" (see shed (v.) and cf. schism). The notion is of slips of paper attached to a document as an appendix (a sense maintained in U.S. tax forms). The specific meaning "printed timetable" is first recorded 1863 in railway use (the verb in this sense is from 1862). Modern spelling is 15c., in imitation of L.; the modern British pronunciation ("shed-yul") is from Fr. influence, while the U.S. pronunciation ("sked-yul") is from the practice of Webster, and is based on the Greek original.
braw: Scottish formation and pronunciation of brave.
gotcha: 1932, colloquial pronunciation of "(I have) got you."
critter: 1815, dialectal or humorous pronunciation of creature.
yeah: Amer.Eng., colloquial, 1905, from drawling pronunciation of yes.
goombah: from dialectal pronunciation of It. compare "companion, godfather."
hoss: 1815, representing U.S. dialectal variant pronunciation of horse.
attaboy: 1909, from common pronunciation of "that's the boy!" a cheer of encouragement or approval.
dat: representing the pronunciation of that in West Indian, Irish, or U.S. black speech, from 1680s.
twee: "tiny, dainty, miniature," 1905, from childish pronunciation of sweet.
b'hoy: 1846, U.S. colloquial for "spirited lad, young spark," supposedly from the Irish pronunciation of boy.
nertz: 1932, originally Amer.Eng. university slang, colloquial or euphemistic pronunciation of nuts.
reet: "good, proper, excellent," 1934, jazz slang, from Amer.Eng. dial. pronunciation of right (adj.).
bovver: 1969, Cockney pronunciation of bother "trouble" (q.v.), given wide extended usage in skinhead slang.
heart: O.E. heorte, from P.Gmc. *khertan- (cf. O.S. herta, O.N. hjarta, Du. hart, O.H.G. herza, Ger. Herz, Goth. hairto), from PIE *kerd- "heart" (cf. Gk. kardia, L. cor, O.Ir. cride, Welsh craidd, Hittite kir, Lith. širdis, Rus. serdce "heart," Breton kreiz "middle," O.C.S. sreda "middle"). Spelling with -ea- is c.1500, by analogy of pronunciation with stream, heat, etc., but remained when pronunciation shifted. Most of the figurative senses were present in O.E., including "intellect, memory," now only in by heart. Hearty is late 14c.; heart-rending is from 1680s. Heartburn is mid-13c. Heart-strings (late 15c.) was originally literal, in old anatomy theory "the tendons and nerves that brace the heart." Heartland first recorded 1904 in geo-political writings of H.J. MacKinder.
wannabe: 1981, originally Amer.Eng. surfer slang, from casual pronunciation of want to be; popularized c.1984 in reference to female fans of pop singer Madonna.
snick: 1962, Amer.Eng., from common pronunciation of SNCC, acronym for "Student Non-violent Co-ordinating Committee," black civil rights organization.
oi: 1962, vulgar or working class pronunciation of hoy a call or shout to attract attention.
brummagem: "cheap and showy," 19c., from a noun, from the vulgar pronunciation of Birmingham, England, in reference to articles mass-manufactured there. The word also recalls Birmingham's old reputation for counterfeiting.
H: the pronunciation "aitch" was in O.Fr. (ache), and is from a presumed L.L. *accha (cf. It. effe, elle, emme), with the central sound approximating the value of the letter when it passed from Roman to Germanic, where it at first represented a strong, distinctly aspirated -kh- sound close to that in Scottish loch. In earlier L. the letter was called ha. In Romance languages, the sound became silent in L.L. and was omitted in O.Fr. and It., but it was restored in M.E. spelling in words borrowed from O.Fr., and often later in pronunciation, too. Thus Mod.Eng. has words ultimately from L. with missing -h- (e.g. able, from L. habile); with a silent -h- (e.g. heir, hour); with a formerly silent -h- now vocalized (e.g. humble, honor); and even a few with an excrescent -h- fitted in confusion to words that never had one (e.g. hostage, hermit). Relics of the formerly unvoiced -h- persist in pedantic insistence on an historical (object) and in obs. mine host. The use in digraphs (e.g. -sh-, -th-) goes back to the ancient Gk. alphabet, which used it in -ph-, -th-, -kh- until -H- took on the value of a long "e" and the digraphs acquired their own characters. The letter passed into Roman use before this evolution, and thus retained there more of its original Sem. value.
fella: attempt at phonetic spelling of a casual pronunciation of fellow, attested by 1864. Feller, along the same lines, is recorded by 1825.
haul: 1581, variant spelling of M.E. halen (see hale (v.)), representing a 13c. change in pronunciation. The noun is from the sense of hauling with fishing nets.
foosball: debuted in U.S. 1963 and was a craze on some college campuses for a few years thereafter. Said to have been designed c.1930s in Switzerland. The name is presumably from the pronunciation of Fußball, the German form of (Association) football.
deboshed: 1590s, Anglicized spelling of Fr. pronunciation of debauched "dissolute" (see debauch). Obsolete in England after mid-17c., retained in Scotland, and given a revival of sorts by Scott (1826), so that it turns up in 19c. literary works.
kn-: Gmc. consonant cluster, still evident in most sister languages but in Eng. it has been reduced to n- in standard pronunciation since before 1750, and for about a century before that it had been pronounced hn-, dn-, tn-. It was fully voiced in O.E. and M.E.
Seabee: 1942, from pronunciation of C.B., abbreviation of Construction Battalion, formed as a volunteer branch of the Civil Engineer Corps of the U.S. Navy.
bock: type of beer, 1856, from Ger. ambock, Bavarian dialectal pronunciation of Einbecker bier, from Einbeck, Hanover, where it was first brewed.
gal: slang pronunciation of girl, 1795, execrated as a Cockney vulgarism. Gal Friday is 1940, in reference to "Robinson Crusoe."
brer: in Brer Rabbit, etc., 1881, Joel Chandler Harris' representation of U.S. Southern black pronunciation of brother.
aspirate (n.): 1725, "sound of the letter 'H'," especially at the beginning of a word, from L. aspiratio "a breathing, exhalation, the pronunciation of the letter H" (see aspire).
Chicano: 1947 (n.), from Mex.Sp. dialectal pronunciation of Mexicano "Mexican," with loss of initial unaccented syllable. Probably infl. by Sp. chico "boy," also used as a nickname. The adj. is first attested 1967.
dem: representing pronunciation of them in Jamaican speech, from 1868. As a minced form of damn, attested from late 14c.
Amish: 1844, Amer.Eng., from Jacob Amman, 17c. Swiss Mennonite preacher who founded the sect. Originally spelled Omish, which reflects the pronunciation in Pennsylvania German dialect.
kicksie-wicksie: a fanciful word for "wife" in Shakespeare ("All's Well," II iii.297), 1601, apparently a perversion of kickshaw, late 16c. for "a fancy dish in cookery" (especially a non-native one), from pronunciation of Fr. quelque chose "something."
Jaycee: 1946, Amer.Eng., from pronunciation of J.C., in Junior Chamber (of Commerce).
fraidy-cat: "coward," c.1910 slang, from child's pronunciation of afraid + cat (q.v.).
cuz: 17c. as an abbreviation of cousin; 1889 as an attempt to represent the lazy pronunciation of because.
bedlam: "scene of mad confusion," 1660s, from colloquial pronunciation of "Hospital of Saint Mary of Bethlehem" in London, founded 1247 as a priory, mentioned as a hospital 1330 and as a lunatic hospital 1402; converted to a state lunatic asylum on dissolution of the monasteries in 1547.
opry: 1914, U.S. dial. pronunciation of opera. Esp. in Grand Ole Opry, a radio broadcast of country music from Nashville, registered as a proprietary name 1950.
spinnaker: "large triangular sail," 1866, either a derivative of spin in the sense of "go rapidly" or a corrupt pronunciation of Sphinx, which was the name of the first yacht known to carry this type of sail.
zydeco: 1949, perhaps from Creole Fr. pronunciation of Fr. les haricots "the beans," part of the title of a popular dance tune ("les haricots sont pas salés").
bureaucrat: 1842, from Fr. bureaucrate (19c.); see bureaucracy.
"bureaucrat, &c. The formation is so barbarous that all attempt at self-respect in pronunciation may perhaps as well be abandoned." [Fowler]
faux: from Fr. faux "false" (see false). Used with English words at least since 1676 (Etheredge). Used by itself, with French pronunciation, from 1980s to mean "fake."
rile: 1825, Amer.Eng. spelling alteration to reflect a dialectal pronunciation of roil (q.v.); cf. heist from hoist.