aste(r)perious

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>the accent pattern
>isn't quite right: all the variants of "asterperious" would have the
>pattern 2 v 1 v v (v is unaccented, 2 secondary accent, 1 primary
>accent), while all the variants of "obstreperous" have the pattern 2 1
>v v

I don't deny that this is a point against my guess (which I've tentatively
retracted anyway, since I think Jonathon Green's explanation has merit).

But stress pattern is not necessarily preserved.

Consider the word "masonary". This means exactly "masonry" AFAIK. I can't
find any such (modern) word in any dictionary (although apparently there
was Middle English "masonerie"). There are thousands of Google hits,
including its appearance in company names and in other contexts where some
care in spelling would have been expected. I've heard this word several
times, and it is pronounced with four syllables, with secondary stress on
the third, as expected from the spelling. Presumably "masonry" was
misread/mispronounced (under influence of "stationery" or whatever) and
then written as it was pronounced, etc. I believe "masonary" may be the
dominant word for "masonry" at least in Pittsburgh (from my limited
experience): I've heard it from laymen, and I've heard it from masons
(lower-case "m"). I found this quite bizarre when I first heard it but
apparently it doesn't bother the general public.

-- Doug Wilson