From Slashdot

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Thu Jul 19 19:11:09 UTC 2007


"FOR-midable" is currently being used in the voice-over for an ad that
occasionally runs on local TV. Otherwise, it's been dekkids, ca. the
Vietnam era, since I've heard the word used. As for "exquisite," I
hear it all the time on TV, on the radio, and in the wild, and it's
always "ex-QUIsite." I fight the good fight and continue to use
"EX-quisite," but I'm pretty much alone in that. Even my wife uses
"ex-QUIsite."

-Wilson

On 7/18/07, James Harbeck <jharbeck at sympatico.ca> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       James Harbeck <jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA>
> Subject:      Re: From Slashdot
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> >I say, "Well, you never know." In the '50's, IIRC, "FOR-midable"
> >became "for-MIDable." Now, the word seems to have returned to
> >"FOR-midable." OTOH, the shift of "EX-quisite" to "ex-QUIsite," which
> >may have occurred around the same time - memory fails - appears to be
> ><sob!> permanent.
>
> Funny. I use "forMIDable" and am used to hearing that; I only expect
> "FORmidable" from Brits. OTOH, I'm quite used to "EXquisite"; I use
> it myself (but not invariably -- however, I don't have a clear
> criterion to trot out governing my choice; I suspect it's related to
> which pronunciation I've most recently heard, and perhaps which
> general tone or register I'm using) and I think I may hear it more
> often than "exQUISite," though I can't say so with certainty, since I
> don't hear either all that often.
>
> James Harbeck.
>
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
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