# misled /myzled (spelling mispronunciations & mispronunciation misspellings; Term?)



## Chasint

Hello

As a child I had two entirely separate conceptions of the word 'misled'.

When I heard it spoken of course, it was always "miss-*ledd*"  /mɪs'lɛd/  however I didn't make the connection between that and the same  word when I read it in books. In reading I mentally pronounced it as "*my*zld"  /'maɪ zəld/

Additionally I had two different meanings. The real one for the spoken version and my personal imagined meaning for the one I read which I took to mean 'confused'.

I have since discovered that I am not alone in this particular misconception and I presume there are other such words. 

Does anyone know if there is a name for the phenomenon?


_______________________________________________________
Note for non-native English speakers.

(a) Misled is the past tense of the verb "to mislead"
(b) The correct pronunciation is /mɪs'lɛd/


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## MuttQuad

I have heard it pronounced "mizzled" deliberately as a joke by people who know better. Educated English-speakers know the correct pronunciation is "miss-led." They also know on which syllable to place the stress on "produce" and "progress" depending on meaning and context.

The closest thing I know of to a name for this sort of inadvertent mispronunciation is "mondegreen,"
but it's not quite the same phenomenon.


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## Loob

I'm with you, Biffo - except that I pronounced my verb "misle" as "missle".

I don't know a name for the phenomenon.


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## PaulQ

Interesting! Is it a form of eggcorn? Perhaps not but it is similar. The script writers Galton and Simpson put these into the mouth of Steptoe senior in the TV series "Steptoe and Son" - there was your miss'ld (so it's not uncommon) and pol-loponny for polo-pony.

I also knew a lecturer who pronounced paradigm as para'digum.


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## Chasint

PaulQ said:


> Interesting! Is it a form of eggcorn? Perhaps not but it is similar. The script writers Galton and Simpson put these into the mouth of Steptoe senior in the TV series "Steptoe and Son" - there was your miss'ld (so it's not uncommon) and pol-loponny for polo-pony.
> 
> I also knew a lecturer who pronounced paradigm as para'digum.



I knew a maths lecturer who pronounced contiguous as though it was spelled contigious. However I don't suppose he had a different meaning for it. (or did he?)

Maybe it was part eggcorn and part mispronunciation on my part except that I had two distinct pronunciations and meanings.


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## Thomas Tompion

Something rather similar happens with *awry*.


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## SavoirFaire

>Does anyone know if there is a name for the phenomenon?
Round these parts we call it an error.


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## mplsray

A version of the phenomenon in question is mentioned in the Wikipedia article "Pronunciation respelling for English" (boldface emphasis added):


> Pronunciation respelling systems for English have been developed primarily for use in dictionaries. They are used there because it is not possible to predict with certainty the sound of a written English word from its spelling or the spelling of a spoken English word from its sound. *So readers looking up an unfamiliar word in a dictionary may find, on seeing the pronunciation respelling, that the word is in fact already known to them orally.*



No name for the phenomenon is mentioned, however.


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## Parla

The weird thing is that the same word has misled people in different countries. I was one of those who thought it was "missled" (emphasis on the first syllable) as a kid. Then I started meeting other Americans who'd thought the same, as well as several who'd gone the "myzzled" route. This is the first I've heard of the same confusion afflicting those in the Mother Country.


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## Egmont

Can't help adding a personal example of another one of these. A friend once asked me what the verb _to durf_ means. I said I had never heard of it. She said "How about the passive? What does it mean to be _durfed_?" I still didn't know, so I asked her to show me where it was used in the book she was reading. She pointed to a word, saying "Here it is, it's really the opposite, _undurfed_." 

Upon seeing the word, I replied "It means 'not having been given enough to eat.' "

underfed

Drag your mouse over the seemingly-blank area above to see what the word really was.


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## Chasint

Egmont said:


> Can't help adding a personal example of another one of these. A friend once asked me what the verb _to durf_ means. I said I had never heard of it. She said "How about the passive? What does it mean to be _durfed_?" I still didn't know, so I asked her to show me where it was used in the book she was reading. She pointed to a word, saying "Here it is, it's really the opposite, _undurfed_."
> "It means 'not having been given enough to eat.' "
> ...




Perhaps people can say what they thought "missled" or "myzld" actually meant. I thought it meant something between  'confused' and "puzzled".


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## natkretep

This looks similar to _moped_ (small scooter read as the past tense form of _mope_ - see commuter-moped). But I don't know the name for this either.


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## theartichoke

I had the same experience as a kid with a rather more common word: human. I was perfectly familiar with the word "human" in spoken English ("hyoo-min"), but encountering the written word--mainly in fairy stories--I read it as "hum-man" and believed it referred to a sort of woodsman or lumberjack. 

And thanks, Paul, for introducing me to eggcorns. My sister is the mistress of eggcorns. She was under the impression--as an adult--that people worked on lab-top computers.


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## MuttQuad

PaulQ said:


> Interesting! Is it a form of eggcorn? Perhaps not but it is similar. The script writers Galton and Simpson put these into the mouth of Steptoe senior in the TV series "Steptoe and Son" - there was your miss'ld (so it's not uncommon) and pol-loponny for polo-pony.
> 
> I also knew a lecturer who pronounced paradigm as para'digum.



And on this side of the pond we have a president who pronounces corpsman as corpse-man.


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## Loob

After much googling, I think I've found a term for this sort of 'word misapprehension' - they're called (wait for it!) _*misles*_.

I found the following in an article by Geoffrey Pullum entitled _Beware the Misles_: 





> [...] Errors of this kind—private misanalyses of written forms that yield  phonological errors if and when the word has to be spoken—need a  technical name.  They are not to be confused with other types of word  error like folk etymologies, malapropisms, eggcorns, or mondegreens.  I have learned, however, that people interested in English usage  already have an established name for the words in question, which may  suffice: They’re known as *misles*.
> The term derives from the most widespread of all misles: the verb _misled_, which has misled many. [...]


The article lists a number of other misles, including Egmont's brilliant _*underfed (has not yet been derfed)*_.

I feel much better now I know there's a name for it!


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## Chasint

Loob said:


> After much googling, I think I've found a term for this sort of 'word misapprehension' - they're called (wait for it!) _*misles*_.
> 
> I found the following in an article by Geoffrey Pullum entitled _Beware the Misles_: The article lists a number of other misles, including Egmont's brilliant _*underfed (has not yet been derfed)*_.
> 
> I feel much better now I know there's a name for it!


Great research Loob! 

The one that always gets me is predate.

*

the native people who predated European settlers in America
*http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/predate


I can't help thinking "Really? They were cannibals?!"


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## Forero

I have created at least two such "words" myself, in my younger days: "amphitheater" pronounced "amfit heater" (some sort of outlet vent for a heating system in a large building) and "determined" pronounced "deeter mined" (meaning is just "determined", but I was misled and did not see the familiar word even when I knew the meaning).


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## Thomas Tompion

My pupils had a day room with partitions symmetrically opposite each other.  They used to amuse themselves by giving these partitions opposing names, where you couldn't always guess the opposite from hearing the one.  One pair I remember was GONE (pronounced Gonny) and ANTIGONE.  

Does anyone else do it with_ miniseries_?  I'm very tempted to put an accent on the second syllable, _Mi*ni*series _and rhyme it with_ fisheries._


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## Chasint

I first heard my father talking about a plaice-boh when he was in his eighties. I said nothing.  However this was merely a mispronunciation and he didn't have an alternative meaning for placebo as far as I know.


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## Enquiring Mind

I can't read the word coworker without thinking it's someone who orks cows (which, I think, is probably illegal).


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## velisarius

Enquiring Mind said:


> I can't read the word coworker without thinking it's someone who orks cows (which, I think, is probably illegal).


Me too. I even started a thread about this, but from the replies I thought I must be a lone sufferer from cow-orkerism. The odd thing is that even though I know very well that co-worker is most often spelled without the hyphen, that "cow" just jumps out of the page at me before my mind catches up with it.


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## Chasint

I'll add "communal garden" which I stressed on "com". It meant more or less the same as "common or garden" but was a metaphor based on shared vegetable plots.


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## wandle

Huddersfield Rugby League Club used to play at a ground called Fartown.
To this day, many people still refer to them as 'Fartowners'.


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## heypresto

I'm not sure if these url misles count, but I'll add them anyway. I've removed a 'w' from each of them so they don't actually work as links.


_ww.whorepresents.com _belonging to *Who Represents*, where you can find the name of the agent that represents any celebrity.

_ww.expertsexchange.com_ *Experts Exchange* is a knowledge base where programmers can exchange Advice

Looking for a pen? Look no further than *Pen Island* at _ww.penisland.net_ 

And there are more . . .


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## Phil-Olly

I can't resist adding the 2 girls names I remember from my childhood:

Penneloppy (the girl next door, whose name I had never seen written down), and
Penelope (the one I came across in books and assumed rhymed with 'antelope')


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## exgerman

Back in the early days of the internet, a misle list was maintained on the group alt.usage.english. I guess we're not allowed to post lists here, even when they're relevant, but theAUE list contains about 50 misles, most of which were found in the wild.

They also kept a list of mishy-phens " 'cow orker', 'mans laughter', 'doe snot', 'lo cal library'", which I guess are a written analog of misles.


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## Egmont

I ran into one of these in this morning's paper, where a well-known career criminal* complained of being subjected to "pretrial punishment." "What sort of punishment is 'pretrial," I asked myself, pronouncing the word phonetically as PRETT-ree-al. Then I realized that there should have been a hyphen after the "e."

_____________________
*Whitey Bulger, if you're curious. No need to be mysterious.


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## Loob

Egmont said:


> I ran into one of these in this morning's paper, where a well-known career criminal* complained of being subjected to "pretrial punishment." "What sort of punishment is 'pretrial," I asked myself, pronouncing the word phonetically as PRETT-ree-al. Then I realized that there should have been a hyphen after the "e."


Ah but, ah but, ah but ... I'd say that for a word to count as a proper 'misle', you have to believe for years that the mis-apprehended word exists.  You have to believe, for example, that there is a word "unsh", for which the past tense is "unshed".  Mis-reading for a second or two doesn't count!


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## Chasint

Here's one from a friend:
Mishap - supposedly rhymes with bishop and is a more formal version of 'mess up'.


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## Barque

Old thread, I know. I came across it from a link to it in another thread.

Like the OP and apparently many others:



Biffo said:


> In reading I mentally pronounced it as "*my*zld"  /'maɪ zəld/



Another one of mine: chaos. I thought it was pronounced with the "ch" of _China_, and rhyming with "house" or "Laos".


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## RM1(SS)

Thomas Tompion said:


> Something rather similar happens with *awry*.


I was very surprised the first time I heard someone say that word.


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## JulianStuart

"Albeit" is often misused by putting a clause containing a verb after it (treating it as equal to although), so I was surprised when a colleague used it correctly in a talk (followed by a simple adverb).  The surprise was that he pronounced it to rhyme with pal-bite, as if it were a German -ei-


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## rusita preciosa

I relatively recently connected the word I hear "*rederik*" (that I assumed was spelled something like "rederick") and the word I read *rhetoric* (that I assumed was pronounced "ret*o*rik"). I never gave it much thought, but I just assumed  they were two separate words with similar meaning.

I also was surprised that the construction item joist (supporting beam) was spelled that way. I always thought it was spelled and pronounced joyce (like a woman's name).

I also thought that book characters, when they want to attract attention, say "ay-hem" (ahem).


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## bennymix

I don't know the name for it, other than 'misreading' or 'mispronouncing [to oneself]'.

I always read 'subtle' as pronouncing the 'b'.     I heard parents saying {suttle} and thought it was a different word.   I gradually realized the meanings were the same, hence....

PS.   Same with 'awry' as others have mentioned.  I read as "*ah*-ree".


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## heypresto

I always seem to mispronounce floccinaucinihilipilification. I find myself saying flo*ck*inaucinihilipilification. 

Does anybody else regularly do this?


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## PaulQ

Are you originally from northeast Rutland with relatives in the embroidery business or who were flax-weavers?


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## Edinburgher

heypresto said:


> Does anybody else regularly do this?


No, never.  Nor do I ever say Ockident, not even ackidentally.
I expect I could count the number of words in which 'c' before 'i' is pronounced 'k' rather than 's' on the fingers of one hand.  There's the plurals of focus and locus, but they're so similar to count as one.  That leaves four spare.


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## bennymix

Though the dictionary lists {fo ki} as a secondary pronunciation, I've never heard it.

I'd tend to think the person illiterate.

Definition of FOCUS   {with pronunciation}




Edinburgher said:


> No, never.  Nor do I ever say Ockident, not even ackidentally.
> I expect I could count the number of words in which 'c' before 'i' is pronounced 'k' rather than 's' on the fingers of one hand.  There's the plurals of focus and locus, but they're so similar to count as one.  That leaves four spare.


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## velisarius

I've never heard anyone say "fohs-eye". If I did I wouldn't think them illiterate, just odd.


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## The Newt

The closest term I can think of is "misanalysis."


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## pickarooney

Who's going to win the hyperbole this year?


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## natkretep

velisarius said:


> I've never heard anyone say "fohs-eye". If I did I wouldn't think them illiterate, just odd.


We were told to say /ˈfəʊsaɪ/ in maths, and that's my current pronunciation.


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## armandawalton

My son is dyslexic and would sometimes confuse certain words two, in particular, I recall some sixty years later 1. Oboe instead of elbow 2. whores instead of oars. We had a house on a beach and had canoes and a dinghy. There were often raised eyebrows when he yelled about how many whores were on the beach or where were they?
I really came to find misled because my Mum often used the pronunciation myzled and I always thought there were two forms of the word! She used it in the context of being cheated rather than being innocently misled.


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## PaulQ

I remember a friend reading a few words from a newspaper report: 

JP: Listen to this "... it was done under the auspice of the United Nations... " I never knew you spelled 'orse piss' like that...


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## armandawalton

PaulQ said:


> I remember a friend reading a few words from a newspaper report:
> 
> JP: Listen to this "... it was done under the auspice of the United Nations... " I never knew you spelled 'orse piss' like that...


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## Phil-Olly

Here's one we were talking about the other day.  A friend of mine picked up an LP record of BBC sound effects, and started reading the sleeve notes which listed each sound effect.

Laughing he asked, "What on earth are doings?"  He pronounced it "doo-ings" as in "What are you doing?"

He laughed even louder when he realised that, in this context, "doing" rhymes with "boing"!


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## exgerman

PaulQ said:


> I remember a friend reading a few words from a newspaper report:
> 
> JP: Listen to this "... it was done under the auspice of the United Nations... " I never knew you spelled 'orse piss' like that...


Sadly, auspices is a plurale tantum. There is no singular.


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