Word of the Day

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Deasil

No, I didn't misspell diesel. I learned this word yesterday. According to the phonetic transcription that accompanies it, it sounds like diesel, but this morning I consulted the big (British) Cambridge dictionary I have in my office which has the pronunciation desil (de as in deficit and a voiceless s). The Wiktionary seems to agree with it, but this American source countenances the pronunciation I listed first. The problem with this word is that it is so rare that not many web pages describe its pronunciation. I think I like "desil" better, which can't be mistaken for the fuel.

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