How do you say the wordmischievous ? If you think it ’s “ miss - CHEE - vee - uss , ” take another gander at the spelling : There ’s noiafter thev . It ’s “ MISS - chuh - vuss . ” But “ miss - CHEE - vee - U.S.A. ” is such a far-flung pronunciation that it ’s list in Merriam - Webster’sentryfor the Son — though it is labeled “ nonstandard . ”
Why it ’s so far-flung is a mystery ; mayhap people are influence bydevious , which does sort of evoke roguery . Or maybe they ’re just … being mischievous .
There ’s no shame in mispronouncing a tidings ; it ’s fundamentally unimaginable to go through your whole life-time without doing it . And plenty of words get botched so often that the mistake — like “ girl - chee - vee - uss”—is finally accepted as a valid variant . So on the latest instalment of The List Show , Mental Floss editor - in - chief and host Erin McCarthy is covering some of the English words ’s standout mispronunciations , from “ VICK - shoo - uhls ” to “ BOAT - swain”—and in some cases , why we pronounce the words way .
TakeFebruary , for good example . We say “ FEB - yoo - air - ee , ” not “ FEB - roo - air - ee , ” and we have some Latin superfans to thank for that . In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries , scholar altered a crowd of word to look more like their Latin forerunner . English speakers first usedfeverere , orfeverell(“fev - er - ELL ” ) , from the Frenchfeverier(“fev - air - ee - AY ” ) . But the original Latin wasFebruarius(“feb - roo - ARE - electrical engineering - us ” ) . So anotherrgot add , but we drew the line at really saying it .
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