The last word on "penultimate"

[Mel Fulks]

The TV people seem to get drills on how to pronounce specific words. And some of it is nothing but incorrect preferences
of the studio "teachers". They are now routinely pronouncing letters that are "silent". Hey, maybe they think they are
"giving them a voice" !

[Tom Stenzel]

I for one am not going to say anything about what words others use. Or how they pronounce them. English isn't my first language although it's the only one I have.

-Tom

[Jim Koepke]

I for one am not going to say anything about what words others use. Or how they pronounce them. English isn't my first language although it's the only one I have.

-Tom

Even with American English as my first language it isn't my place to correct others. It is hard enough even for a northern Californian to understand someone from southern California at times. Surely it is the same the other way around.

jtk

[Jason Roehl]

The more I am corrected, the more correct I will be!

[Zachary Hoyt]

I like using words that unnecessarily long and obsolete. Substituting extraforaneous for outside or outdoor is an easy one.
Zach

[Jim Koepke]

Substituting extraforaneous for outside or outdoor is an easy one.

Until you try to find out what it means:

extraforaneous.jpg

Of course if one likes to see the "deer in the headlights" look on people's faces it is a good word to know.

Though some might be disinclined to acquiesce in accepting the veracity of the orator.

jtk

[Zachary Hoyt]

I found it in my 1950s edition of the Oxford Universal Dictionary, but here's an online source:

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us...extraforaneous

[Jim Koepke]

I found it in my 1950s edition of the Oxford Universal Dictionary, but here's an online source:

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us...extraforaneous

One or more sources in my search mentioned it as being mostly of British usage. That of course required telling Google my search is for the word extraforaneous and not extemporaneous.

jtk

[Tyler Bancroft]

I have not heard it used incorrectly, though I rarely hear it. My favorite is antepenultimate: the last but two.

There's something to be said for preantepenultimate (everything but the last three).

[Ben Darrah]

[Rod Sheridan]

Language can be tricky. I would discourage someone who is trying to bestow a compliment by using a word that essentially means "almost" the ultimate . Those people are handing out a backhanded compliment unintentionally.



I find this practice discouraging but, that's just my Sheldon Cooper syndrome showing through. The American English language is a potpourri of morphed words and languages. I am sure glad I am a native speaker. With my many failed attempts to learn even the basics of another language, I'd be hopeless.

“Damned by faint praise”

Regards, Rod

[Stan Calow]

There is an ongoing perpetual debate among linguists, over whether dictionaries are meant to define words and their usage for people, or reflect the actual spoken language of people. I think words with clear Latin roots should stay close to those roots.

[Mark Gibney]

My pet peeve regarding mangled meaning of words is the way so many events are framed as being "ironic", when they are not. Often the events are a coincidence, but not in any way ironic.

I wish I could recall a clear example of this but it's late and I can't.

[Prashun Patel]

The whole Alannis Morisette song , Ironic has no irony in it. Ironically, that’s the real irony.