The dictionary.com word of the day today was clinquant. It means "glittering with gold or silver, tinseled." All day long I've had the sound of that word jack-in-the-boxing in my head. I did a dish and out it popped, "clinquant." Then I scrubbed the tub and surprise, "clinquant." Driving back from Hobby Lobby, boing (boyng?), "clinquant." It was just like that all day long, clinquant, clinquant, clinquant.
This doesn't happen to me often. More often than not I'm a bit bored by the word of the day and send it to the trash can in my email quicker than I can read the example sentence. So I pondered on why how this word had grabbed up so many of my brain cells. And I think it's the onamatopoeia (another favorite word)- you know, from high school English, it means when a word sounds like what it means. Clinquant - tinseled - clink, clink - quaint - it just worked.
So I opened up my email tonight to get ready to tell my millions of readers about the word clinquant and I found out something very, very, very disappointing. I've been prounouncing clinquant CLEEN-kwint from first sight. Come to find out, you're supposed to say it KLING-kunt. Kunt! Kunt! There is nothing pretty about kunt (or stunt or punt or bunt for that matter)! Unt is not a pretty tinseled sound. And kling? As in desperately clinging? How can there be any clear, high beauty assoiciated with something that clings like barnacles to a rock or like my babies to my womb?
Man, I'm ticked. I'm ready to call whoever you call to demand a repronunciation. Who's with me?
2 comments:
JessicaP,
Be a maverick. Pronounce the word how you want, after all, 'pecan' has two pronunciations depending on where one resides, 'pee-can', and 'puh-con'. The former anywhere but the South and Texas, the latter, you guessed it, Texas and the South. If you hear 'pee-can' in the South or Texas it's 'cause they're transplanted Yankees, as my husband's grandfather put it.
So who's to say that your pronunciation isn't correct? I'm with you, who makes that decision any way? :)
I love that there is more than one way to say pecan. Thanks for reminding me. The distinction of pronunciation is something that makes folks more interesting. Thanks me (meaning you)!!
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