Wan. I've read it in so many books, but never said it. "Ooh, you're looking a bit wan. Everything okay?" Nah. Also, I am playing "the half-light" bingo. I feel like there is a secret conspiracy between writers to describe a particular type of light as "the half-light". Whenever I read it I know that the author is in on the conspiracy. What are yours?
Oh man, do I have a story about this! I took a public speaking class in 1st year of college and had to stand up and recite my memorized thesis or whatever it was (this was a long time ago). It included several words that fit your description, that I had read but people never actually use them in conversation. I THOUGHT I knew how they were pronounced, but found out the hard way I was wrong! One was Deity. I pronounced it like "Die-dee" (which sounds like"didies", nickname for diapers). Turns out that one was supposed to be "day-it-tee". Then there was Seive. I said it like "Seeve". Nope—it's supposed to sound like"Siv". There were a few more that I don't remember. But here's what killed me: the instructor told me "If you're not sure on the pronunciation look it up." But the thing is, I was pretty sure! At least I always THOUGHT that's how those words were pronounced, and had no reason to believe otherwise. Heck, even if it's a word you hear all the time that doesn't mean people are pronouncing it right. Talk about embarrassment!
Oh I have another one. A little different this time. You know the word Trough, as in an animal's feeding trough? Is that even how it's spelled? It looks weird now that I write it down. Anyway, I always thought it was pronounced "Troth", but apparently it's supposed to be "Troff" (like the GH at the end of "Tough"). That makes sense, but it's hard for me to break the habit now. Actually, I could even see people thinking it's supposed to be pronounced "Trou" (as in "Trousers"). Then there's Dour. I think it means something like sour, as in "You're looking a bit dour today". I looked it up one time and it's pronounced "Door". Well that would just sound really weird: "You look a bit door today, what's the matter?"
The only one that comes to mind is Paul Atreides' surname. When it was just a book, my head-voice said Ay-tree-idz. The film acquainted me with Paul Ah-tray-dees.
I keeping reading "sere" for some reason. It means very dry, like a desert. I think I've heard it now from Cormac McCarthy, Elmore Leonard, Steinbeck, Coelho, and now Styron. Styron had the Pulitzer in 67. I'm reading "The Confessions of Nat Turner," that's where it popped up again. Those are my favorite kinds of descriptive words, the unusual one- and two-syllable ones. I can't imagine saying it out loud though.
Yes! All great ones. I admit I have said trough lately because I happened to see one, but it honestly felt like a special event to get that word out and chuck it around. I had to look up "stolid" today and was very surprised that it had nothing to do with solid. I was said burgeoning once, and pronounced it Bur-Goh-Ning and was laughed at. Served me right for being a pompous twit. It wasn't even a public speaking class.
Ooo! You reminded me! Copse referring to a stand of trees. No idea if it's pronounced like he copes well with his issues, or if it's like there are three cops down that alley. I ran across it initially in Sheri S. Tepper's Grass. I've used it several times in stories. I do not think I've ever uttered it out loud in a sentences.
I think 'dour' is pronounced 'doo-er.' Not 'door,' as in what you slam shut. One word I looked at for a LONG time before actually saying it was 'egregious.' I'd never heard of it till just a couple of years ago. Then suddenly it was appearing everywhere. I had to look it up. Now I do occasionally use it. It's a good word.
Or Scotland's former First Minister, Donald Dewar. In Scotland, however, the pronunciation is odd ...Donald Jewar. Same with the whisky. Jewar's. Here's a video with his name being spoken (at 0.15) :
(puts on high supreme dork hat) That's a common phoneme shift, actually. It happens in Brazilian Portuguese too where a semi-terminal D is pronounced more like a J. The two D's in the word saudade are pronounced quite differently, one from the other, in Brazilian P.
Apropos. I still don't think it's a word, even if The Architect in The Matrix used it. Concomitantly. WT the F! Used in a movie (don't recall the name) with Jeff Goldblum and Cindy Lauper. And Peter Falk! And Sting! Just the thought of a combination like that cracks the foundation of the cosmos! Oops, might have been Julian Sands, but even still!
Mea Culpa. I've seen it / read it a lot, but I've never uttered it for fear of being mistaken for an alien life form.
