My sister once asked what epi-scopal was. We were so confused until she showed us the word.
We're Literary 2: To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Still a question: damask, DAM-isk or Duh-MAHSK or Duh-MASK? (Go DAM-isk, choose DAM-isk!)
I say it like Damascus.
When I was very, very little, I thought babies were born with unbiblical cords. But that was a case of having heard the word but not read it rather than the other way around.
Meem, juliana.
I had a very embarrassing incident with the word facade in 7th grade or so....
In 7th grade, reading aloud from a science textbook, I (repeatedly) pronounced "organism" minus one very important syllable. This did not assist my efforts to be thought of as "cool".
The worst part was watching the teacher. He was giggling too hard to catch his breath long enough to stop and correct me.
DAM-ask and AHG-el, FWIW.
And my word was "frappe." I pronounced it "FRAP." Which produced gales of laughter from my friend who had had French.
I deserved it, though; I'm a habitual corrector of pronounciation. I try to do it gently, but payback's a bitch.
Erin, be not embarrassed.
Frappes in New England are pronounced, "frap". At least, they are if you're talking about a very thick milk shake.
Mmm, now I want a Fribble.
Thank you, PMoon.
And my word was "frappe." I pronounced it "FRAP."
You're not alone. Almost everyone in MN pronounces it "frap". I thought it was common. "Hot dish" for "casserole", now....
heh...half my homework in the seventh grade had "orgasm" on it cause my notetaker wasn't very smart. But I got embarrassed trying to correct it.
"Panache" (pan-a-shay) and "hors d'oeuvres" (not-a-clue) gave me trouble until I hit college. (I knew what hors d'oeuvres were, it just never occured to me that that unpronounceable word might be them.)
I did that, too. I was a bit younger, and asked my mother if whores dovers were the same as Hors d'ouevres.