I don't want to steal Annette's word nerd thunder or anything, but every now and then I get obsessed with words, too. My obsession just takes a slightly different form. I get upset with stuff that isn't right (and sometimes stuff that's weird but mostly the not-right stuff). My husband is more easygoing about these things but even he loses it when someone uses the word "ginormous." He likes to make up his own version of this word with variations like "hugantic."
I have a lot more pet peeves than "ginormous." However, he and I do have the same word peeve question: What is up with "rezource"? How does it make sense to pronounce resource with a Z? It's lame. LAME, I say.
This is why I need to acheive blog dominance. I can then use this as a platform to eradicate the blatant manipulation of the "S" in resource and return it to the sibilance it deserves. (Deserves is supposed to have "z" sounds. Two of them. But they're not rezources).
Okay, I'm lying about wanting the blog dominance. I just like to talk and I like that people come here on purpose to listen to me. But all three of you better quit saying "rezource" as of today.
And also, no air quotes unless the situation is desperately ironic.
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26 comments:
I love your new profile picture. And I've never heard "rezource." I'm glad about that. I don't like when people say imporDant. I suppose I would be annoyed with anyone (not British) who pronounced the first "t", though, too. It's "Uh!" (or however you'd spell it) like in kitten our mountain!
oh yeah new pic way awesome. two thumbs up from me.
and I want you to know that I've always said resource since 1980.
Thanks for the linkage! I love your fellow word nerdiness--post away! (I don't really have any word nerd thunder to steal . . . it's more of a low rumble.)
You had be at sibilance.
Uh oh. I use ginormous. I will repent immediately.
Thanks for the pic compliments! The other one was about three years old, so I finally found something updated to use. It shows my new bangs.
And Kristina, ginormous isn't that big of a deal. My husband's just a little nutty about that one but I'll give you a pass on it.
Haven't heard the rezource thing. But the hair on the back of my neck it standing up with disgust. I can't think of any horrid mispronunciations at the moment.
I also hate misuse of phrases like "in lieu of" when folks really mean "in light of" and are just trying to sound fancy or educated or whatever. Or when people say "imply" when they mean "infer." Or incorrect idioms such as "nip it in the butt," or "butt naked." Why do people hear "butt" for any one-syllable B-word?
"Butt," I'm pretty easily irritated, so I've just learned to grit my teeth and grin and leave my griping for later.
I don't get annoyed, I just feel superior (which is probably worse).
What a great post. I haven't heard rezource. You're right. That makes absolutely no sense. I hope you achieve blog dominance so you can correct all the word-wrongs of the world.
And you totally freaked me out with your new profile pic. What is up with that, miss glam, mod, sleek, sexy chic. I thought I had a new friend, but there was something about that facial expression . . .
I'm obsessed with words too, btw.
But I use ginormous all the time because my allegiance to Elf is overzealous. ;)
No, Elizabeth. I'm worse because I get annoyed and feel superior at the same time. So that makes me lamer than the rezourcers. Great.
I had never heard "rezource."
But I'll tell you what raises my hackles: someone telling me they're going to the "liberry" to check out some books.
Ugh. That one just about makes my teeth shatter.
Aye, aye captain.
What I want to know is what is up with "an history." I hear it on the news and it makes me want to scream. Come on people!
I am married to an english major and have some very smart, literate children, so I get called on anything I say wrong. I have a funny pet peeve though, when I text, I have to spell out the whole word with correct punctuation and everything. I hate the way most people text. call me crazy... Oh yeah and not to be too picky, but the pharse is, "nip it in the bud." not butt!
Like you, I have tons of word pet peeves, but probably unlike you, I'm sure I commit heinous errors of my own... so I guess that makes me a hypocrite. Hmmm.
I've never heard rezource either but a bunch of the docs I say sonometers for centimeters. Drives me crazy!
I first started hearing "rezource" on NPR. When I first mentioned it to Melanie, I don't think she believed me...but she was nice and said "I haven't heard that". Then a couple weeks later she heard it on NPR too! Then we heard it on the TV news.
What bugs me the most is that these are reporters who two years ago and beyond pronounced it correctly and now all of a sudden have taken to pronouncing differently.
My only guess is that it started with the Canadians. I mean, they pronounce "salsa" "salza" after all. Perhaps it started with NPR Canadian reporters in America. They were sick of faking an American accent, so they decided to show their Canadian Pride. Which then just confused the rest of the American reporters who thought maybe they were wrong this whole time and followed their maple leaf colleagues.
Elizabeth (and Alison Wonderland, you might enjoy this story about your brother-in-law) - Remember when Brent used to say "anyways" and I used to corrected him. He'd say "I have a JD, so I can pronounce it however I like". Then one day I noticed he started saying "anyway" instead. I called him on it, and he essentially said that he was NOT admitting that I was right, but that he changed because he decided that if he was in a court room addressing a jury and there was a grammar-nazi like me in the jury, he would most likely lose points if he continued to pronounce it "anyways".
My eight-year-old daughter uses air quotes. Correctly, and usually even for ironic intent. Yeah, she's already outgrowing my attempts at parenting, too (or so she thinks.)
I've missed the joy of "rezource." I used to work with someone who said "with" with a hard th like at the beginning of "that" and it annoyed me, especially since I came to associate it with her overly slow-and-patronizing style of talking in general.
It's been driving me nuts that I can't relocate an amazing link that was once sent to me that documented regional pronunciations. It turned out that my husband's annoying way of saying "pecan" with a long e and the stress on the first syllable is *just as common* and accepted as my pronunciation (soft e, stress on second syllable.) And I never knew some people say "spicket" for spigot -- and then heard my sister-in-law say it just a few weeks after I read that.
I remember learning, a few years ago, that many northeasterners say "greazy" instead of greasy (and it's also an accepted pronunciation) and now whenever I say greasy I think "greazy" in my mind, and shudder a little.
Mina, I love that way of using "in lieu of" -- my Mom got an invitation to a ward party last year that said that it would be held "in lieu of the season." I keep a list of malapropisms which I occasionally use to create little compositions (you can find them in the drop-down category menu on my blog under "malaprops") and "in lieu of" is on my list waiting to be put to use -- along with a lot of other great stuff I could not have made up myself. The great thing about collecting malaprops is that it makes it so that when you encounter one it becomes a little thrill instead of a painful annoyance. Oh, and I hadn't encountered those "butt" ones -- how funny. (And how funny that another commenter is correcting you -- we'll give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she was speed-reading.)
Hey, I was simul-commenting.
Kenny & Melanie, you might also enjoy this one my mom heard an otherwise normal-sounding reporter use on the news: "Coming back with a vintage" (instead of with a vengeance.) She even replayed it on her TiVo to be sure he really said that.
(Man, I'm giving away my whole malapropism list. I guess it's time for me to do another one . . . it's not like I have Christmas to get ready for, followed shortly by the arrival of a baby, or anything like that. The internet always takes precedence, right?)
Hello, first time commenter (I feel like on calling a radio station saying that), nice post. I haven't heard that version of resource, but I have my word issues as well. Why can't people use the word literally correctly? For instance, when someone says something like, "I was so mad, I literally blew my top." Really?
I have my own language issues though, and I heart spellcheck. It lights up red all over the place every time I click it :)
Thanks for commenting, Nevandista. "Literally" is literally my husband's second biggest pet peeve, word-wise. I'm sure he feels your pain. I once saw a hilarious MadTV sketch about using "literally" incorrectly. Good stuff.
Melanie, you are really into words! Or should I spell the word really like "rilly" because that is how I say it.
BTW, I actually say resource. I've never heard it with a "z" before. Maybe I'm crazy. Or, maybe I'm just crazy in love with the word GINORMOUS. Because after watching Elf, I have to use that word like it was always a word. I love it. Really. Sorry that bugs you.
We can still be friends, right?
Cool new photo! You should be a model. (Except you're too smart.) :)
I think being a contestant in the National Spelling Bee deems you an official Word Nerd for life...even if you grow up to become an artist. (You probably missed some of my word nerd fetishes from my earliest blog days.) My mom was a total word nerd, so I think it might be hereditary.
But I have never, mind you, NEVER heard or seen REZOURCE until this very moment. Clearly I lead a sheltered life.
Here's one of my biggest rants: Store names like Rite Aid. Rite as in Ritual? Duh! So irritating.
Oh, don't get me started…
How do you pronounce the word coupon?? The next thing you know they'll be calling it a military queue.
I say ginormous too. Just cause I actually kind of like it. It sounds hugeish. Ha!!!
I double annoyed you. :)
Actually, I do hear you. I get annoyed with word stuff too. My Grandma still says warsh for wash. I just don't get it. There is no R in wash, but whaRtever.
I actually do say reSource, but I can see where reZource comes from. Please excuse my nerdiness for a moment....
the /i/ in re is voiced, as it the /o/ in source. /s/ in voiceless. /z/ is voiced. When the two surrounding sounds in a word are voiced, many people voice the sound in the middle to be like them.
Umm other examples....
This isn't the same, but impossible. The prefix is normally in. But the /p/ is a bilabial sound, so the /n/ was assimilated to be like it since /m/ is a bilabial sound too.
I could also explain why people say liberry instead of library, but then I'd just be obnoxious, which I hope I haven't been!
That should be "as is"
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