epitome

[W Brewer]

JL wrote: <<<epitome (rhymes with "Kodachrome")>>>
WB:  Since we're slamming UCLA professors today, allow me to contribute my
interesting experience with the word *epigone*. Three or four decades ago,
a certain professor (who shall remain nameless, let us simply mention by
the way that he was a scion of Harvard, and his devotees referred to him as
"Papa") functioned as a virtual guru on the UCLA campus. --- No, wait.
There were actually two professors like that (the other anonymous Harvard
expatriate being known as "Mother Goddess"). Anyway, I came to
affectionately refer [oh damn! I split my infinitive] to their students as
***epigones***, which I pronounced [eh-PIG-uh-knees], rhyming with [a
Pekinese], obviously influenced by *epitome* [eh-PIT-uh-me]. (Now that I
look up *epigone*, I can see the Seven Against Thebes were epigonoi, and
that the -e ending was a result of French transmission.) [eh-pig-OWN], the
prescribed pronunciation, sounds downright uneducated to me.

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