machinism

[Peter Richardson]

I just attended a faculty meeting in which a presenter pronounced
_mechanism_ as _machinism_. Twice. It wasn't anyone with a general Jimmy
Stewart accent, either. I don't know what's afoot here, but the term seems
especially felicitous, hinting at machination while retaining--sort
of--the sense of the more neutral word. Maybe this is something for that
inquirer from the Wall St. J.

Peter Richardson