FACADE

Les told me about seeing Kevin Hart interviewed and Hart was telling about being given a movie script for Fool's Gold and the script contained the word façade. When the camera rolled he pronounced the word as "fuh-cade" and the director yelled "Cut!" but, as Hart told the story, the director let him repeat the scene three times before correcting his pronunciation, as the rest of the crew were enjoying the spectacle. Hart said that he knew the word façade and knew how to pronounce the word correctly, but had never seen it in print.

A friend asked if I knew what the word deigns means, but she pronounced it as "deens"; when I did not recognize the word she spelled it and I said that I did know the word but it's pronounced as "danes". Les was listening to the conversation and said, "You know, that's one of those words that one sees on the printed page, but seldom hears pronounced."

In a recent BLOG article I used the word "banal" and then a friend referred to it and mispronounced the word.

Les said, "It's your Francophilia--you just love those Frenchy-sounding words--remember your insanity about niche?"

Other words I've heard fractured by people:

HYPERBOLE
SEGUE
ENNUI
EPITOME
YOSEMITE (yes, Yosemite!)

Read my BLOG articles MIZZLED (CLICK HERE) and AGATHA (CLICK HERE).