pronunciation Look up pronunciation at Dictionary.com
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).
vase Look up vase at Dictionary.com
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 Look up Kiribati at Dictionary.com
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 Look up ration at Dictionary.com
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 Look up once at Dictionary.com
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 Look up schedule at Dictionary.com
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 Look up braw at Dictionary.com
Scottish formation and pronunciation of brave.
gotcha Look up gotcha at Dictionary.com
1932, colloquial pronunciation of "(I have) got you."
critter Look up critter at Dictionary.com
1815, dialectal or humorous pronunciation of creature.
goombah Look up goombah at Dictionary.com
from dialectal pronunciation of It. compare "companion, godfather."
hoss Look up hoss at Dictionary.com
1815, representing U.S. dialectal variant pronunciation of horse.
attaboy Look up attaboy at Dictionary.com
1909, from common pronunciation of "that's the boy!" a cheer of encouragement or approval.
dat Look up dat at Dictionary.com
representing the pronunciation of that in West Indian, Irish, or U.S. black speech, from 1680s.
twee Look up twee at Dictionary.com
"tiny, dainty, miniature," 1905, from childish pronunciation of sweet.
b'hoy Look up b'hoy at Dictionary.com
1846, U.S. colloquial for "spirited lad, young spark," supposedly from the Irish pronunciation of boy.
nertz Look up nertz at Dictionary.com
1932, originally Amer.Eng. university slang, colloquial or euphemistic pronunciation of nuts.
reet Look up reet at Dictionary.com
"good, proper, excellent," 1934, jazz slang, from Amer.Eng. dial. pronunciation of right (adj.).
bovver Look up bovver at Dictionary.com
1969, Cockney pronunciation of bother "trouble" (q.v.), given wide extended usage in skinhead slang.
wannabe Look up wannabe at Dictionary.com
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 Look up snick at Dictionary.com
1962, Amer.Eng., from common pronunciation of SNCC, acronym for "Student Non-violent Co-ordinating Committee," black civil rights organization.
oi Look up oi at Dictionary.com
1962, vulgar or working class pronunciation of hoy a call or shout to attract attention.
faux pas Look up faux pas at Dictionary.com
1674, from Fr. "false step." The word faux by itself, with Fr. pronunciation, borrowed into Eng. 1980s to mean "fake."
H Look up H at Dictionary.com
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.
haul Look up haul at Dictionary.com
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.
heart Look up heart at Dictionary.com
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. Heartache was in O.E. in the sense of a physical pain, c,1600 in sense of "anguish of mind;" heartburn is c.1250. Broken-hearted is attested from 1520s. Heart-strings (late 15c.) was originally literal, in old anatomy theory "the tendons and nerves that brace the heart." Heartless (early 14c.) originally was used with a meaning "dejected;" sense of "callous, cruel" is not certainly attested before Shelley used it so in 1816. Heartland first recorded 1904 in geo-political writings of H.J. MacKinder.
deboshed Look up deboshed at Dictionary.com
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- Look up kn- at Dictionary.com
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 Look up Seabee at Dictionary.com
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 Look up bock at Dictionary.com
type of beer, 1856, from Ger. ambock, Bavarian dialect pronunciation of Einbecker bier, from Einbeck, Hanover, where it was first brewed.
gal Look up gal at Dictionary.com
slang pronunciation of girl, 1795, execrated as a Cockney vulgarism. Gal Friday is 1940, in reference to "Robinson Crusoe."
brer Look up brer at Dictionary.com
in Brer Rabbit, etc., 1881, Joel Chandler Harris' representation of U.S. Southern black pronunciation of brother.
aspirate (n.) Look up aspirate at Dictionary.com
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 Look up Chicano at Dictionary.com
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 Look up dem at Dictionary.com
representing pronunciation of them in Jamaican speech, from 1868. As a minced form of damn, attested from late 14c.
Amish Look up Amish at Dictionary.com
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 Look up kicksie-wicksie at Dictionary.com
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 Look up Jaycee at Dictionary.com
1946, Amer.Eng., from pronunciation of J.C., in Junior Chamber (of Commerce).
fraidy-cat Look up fraidy-cat at Dictionary.com
"coward," c.1910 slang, from child's pronunciation of afraid + cat (q.v.).
cuz Look up cuz at Dictionary.com
17c. as an abbreviation of cousin; 1889 as an attempt to represent the lazy pronunciation of because.
bedlam Look up bedlam at Dictionary.com
"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 Look up opry at Dictionary.com
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 Look up spinnaker at Dictionary.com
"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 Look up zydeco at Dictionary.com
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 Look up bureaucrat at Dictionary.com
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]
rile Look up rile at Dictionary.com
1825, Amer.Eng. spelling alteration to reflect a dialectal pronunciation of roil (q.v.); cf. heist from hoist.
gosh Look up gosh at Dictionary.com
1757, altered pronunciation of God. Probably from by gosse (mid-16c.).
Cajun Look up Cajun at Dictionary.com
1868, Cagian, dialectic pronunciation of Acadian, from Acadia, former French colony in what is now Canadian Maritimes. Its Fr. setters were dispersed and exiled by the English and thousands made their way to New Orleans in the period 1764-1788.
holiday Look up holiday at Dictionary.com
O.E. haligdæg, from halig "holy" + dæg "day;" in 14c. meaning both "religious festival" and "day of recreation," but pronunciation and sense diverged 16c.
tamper (v.) Look up tamper at Dictionary.com
1567, figurative use of tamper "to work in clay, etc., so as to mix it thoroughly," probably originally a variant of temper (q.v.), which is how it was initially spelled. Perhaps it is a dialectal workmen's pronunciation. Tamperproof is recorded from 1886.
u Look up u at Dictionary.com
for historical evolution, see V. Used punningly for you by 1588 ["Love's Labour's Lost," V.i.60], not long after the pronunciation shift that made the vowel a homonym of the pronoun. As a simple shorthand (without intentional word-play), it is recorded from 1862. Common in business abbreviations since 1923 (e.g. U-Haul, attested from 1951).