Fwd: retro "psych"

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:32 PM -0400 4/25/05, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>>I take it these are/were always [saik] and not ['saiki], despite the
>>(alternate) spelling?  The latter, in this context, would really be a
>>surprise.  I've only ever heard it as [saik], whence the e-less
>>spelling, just like the popular major.
>
>I've seen the spelling with "-e" (can't remember where/when) but I've
>always heard /sajk/ or so in speech.
>
>My naive guess is that the rationale for the "-e" is that "ps-" is seen as
>an alternative spelling for "s-" and "-ch" for "-k" and "y" for "i", so
>"psyche" = "sike" /sajk/ while "psych" would represent "sik" /sIk/. Not
>everyone 'analyzes' it this way, of course; in fact the majority (it seems
>to me) would write "psych".
>
>-- Doug Wilson

Do we ever find "psyche ward" or "Psyche 101"?  Actually, now
googling, I see we do; the latter gets 846 hits, compared to 46,800
for "psych ward".

L