OCR Text |
Show ! Take Mq UW j! j! For in jj l By FRANK COLBY I SURPRISE WORD Overheard on a news broadcast: "Twice within a few minutes the town was shaken by a 'trembler.' " A "trembler" is one who trembles. trem-bles. There is no such word describing de-scribing an earthquake. The correct cor-rect word Is temblor. It is from the Spanish phrase, temblor de tierra, meaning "earthquake." The accent falls on the second syllable, which rhymes with "more, pore." Say: tem-BLORE. An earthquake is often referred to as a tremor, from the Latin word of the same spelling, and meaning "a quaking." First choice: TREM-er. TREM-er. Second choice: TREE-mer. Colby, You're Wrong! San Diego: Recently you made the nonsensical assertion that it is-quite is-quite all right to pronounce rather with a flat "a." If you will consider con-sider the word father, which always has the "ah" sound, you'll see how mistaken you are. I demand a retraction. re-traction. W. T. H. Answer: Slathers of such blather in my column ma.ke you lather, I gather. Altadena: Since you advise pro-MUL-gate. instead of the correct British PROM-ul-gate, your pronunciation pronun-ciation of propagate, then, must be pro-PA-gate? A. P. R. Answer: Sorry, this column establishes estab-lishes no pronunciations. It reports correct American usage, as reflected reflect-ed by the consensus of American dictionaries. Of seven American dictionaries, all list as first or only choice: pro-MUL-gate. Two list PROM-ul-gate as "British." Only one lists PROM-ul-gate as second American choice. Bell Syndicate. WNU Features. |