unbenounced

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:43 PM -0400 8/25/03, sagehen wrote:
>larry writes:
>>I would speculate that the first step here would be to have been
>>exposed to a pronunciation of _unbeknownst_ not listed in the
>>dictionaries I've checked but that I suspect exists fairly widely,
>>one with the stressed vowel pronounced with the /au/ diphthong (as in
>>"now") rather than long /o:/ (as in "know").  This would render the
>>adjective homonymous with (and thus derivable from) one built from
>>the root of "announced", "denounced", "renounced", etc., as opposed
>>to its actual relation to the archaic "unbeknown".
>~~~~~~~
>Possibly mixed with renown, also?
>AM

Almost certainly.  My oversight.  So the etymology (and semantics) is
from "(unbe)known(st)", the pronunciation (and semantics) from
"renown", and the spelling (and pronunciation, and morphological
structure) from "(PREF+)nounce(d)".  The three roots are in fact
unrelated, _renown_ being cognate with "name" and "noun".

Larry