HEE-licopter

[Joanne M. Despres]

FWIW, the alternative pronunciation is still there in the 11th edition
of the Collegiate.  The pron files showed a bunch of examples from
the 50s and 60s, including ones by Massachusetts Senators John
F. Kennedy (1958) and Leverett Saltonstall (1956), Kentucky-born
and Arkansas-educated Congressman Chet Holifield (1955),
Connecticut Governor Ribicoff (1955), Massachusetts health officer
Dr. Paul Barber (1955), Massachusetts Governor Chriastian Herter
(1954), NBC Moscow correspondent I.R. Lavine (1956), Professor
Seymour Bogdanoff of Princeton (1956), Bennett Cerf (1955), and
an unnamed naval commander, among many others.  Our
pronunciation editor hasn't personally heard it used this way, but
indicated that it's a "logical" sounding-out of the Greek root "helix"
and, in any case, has enough backing in our files to stay in the
entry.



On 26 Aug 2003, at 9:34, Dale Coye wrote:

> Last night was a big town planning board meeting for Princeton Airport.  It
> had to do with the proximity of a helicopter hanger to our neighborhood, and
> the lawyer for the airport, to my amazement, refered to them as HEE-licopters.
>  I see that Websters 10th lists that as an alternative pronunciation, and it
> seems that in the dim memories of my youth I may have heard it once before,
> but here in NJ I'd have to say this is really, really rare.  It was one of those
> things where I noticed many people in the audience turning to their neighbors
> and whispering, "hee-licopter?"    I think it actually hurt his case at some
> subconscious level.
>
> Dale Coye
> The College of NJ


Joanne M. Despres, Senior Editor
Merriam-Webster, Inc.
jdespres at merriam-webster.com
http://www.merriam-webster.com