# pronunciation: eschew



## susanna76

Merriam Webster gives the following pronunciations for eschew:

\e-ˈshü, i-; es-ˈchü, is-; _also_ e-ˈskyü\

Do you actually say eh-SHOO in American English? I never heard anyone say it this way. (I never heard anyone say it, period.  ) I fear that if I say es-CHEW it will sound out of place in American English. I've always pronounced it es-CHEW though, as in British English. Other dictionaries, such as Collins, don't even give the eh-SHOO pronunciation. Collins gives only is-CHEW. 

Thanks!


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## envie de voyager

Yes, everyone here says eh-shoo.  And I can honestly say that I have never heard anyone ever say es-chew.


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## Thomas Tompion

envie de voyager said:


> Yes, everyone here says eh-shoo. And I can honestly say that I have never heard anyone ever say es-chew.


 That's interesting.  I've never heard anything other than _es-*chew*_ in BE.


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## sdgraham

Thomas Tompion said:


> That's interesting.  I've never heard anything other than _es-*chew*_ in BE.


Neither have I with respect to AE, although, frankly, it's not a word I hear frequently.


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## envie de voyager

I'm not very good with phonetic symbols, so excuse my method of confirming this. Are you saying that you have heard this word pronounced where the second syllable is "choo", as in "choo-choo train"?


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## natkretep

It might be relevant for me to quote from John Wells's phonetic blog

Firstly, he quotes  Michael Covarrubias of Purdue University: 



> ... I've been using the word for at least 15 years. And in several departments where I've had the pleasure of studying, including the University of Michigan, I've seen and heard the word quite often, used in conversation and read aloud — and I only heard it pronounced /ɛˈʃuː/ [e-SHOO].
> 
> What surprises me is the unanimity with which descriptive dictionaries fail to report this common American form. Any time I have called attention to the standard pronunciation /ɪsˈtʃuː/ the claim is met with skepticism. At least in the midwest of the United States the affricate has become a pure fricative.



John Wells suggests that the /ɛˈʃuː/ [e-SHOO] is a spelling pronunciation:



> its origins must, I think, lie in a spelling pronunciation in which speakers coming across the word first in writing interpret sch as having its German value of /ʃ/ [SH]



I think the howjsay.com website has got it wrong, when it says: /ɛˈʃuː/ [e-SHOO], also American /ɛsˈtʃuː/ [es-CHOO].


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## pops91710

sdgraham said:


> Neither have I with respect to AE, although, frankly, it's not a word I hear frequently.



It's an old word that is found in the Bible only four times. To eschew evil means to avoid it. The pronunciation officially is *es-shoo*, but I suspect it's like the word *schedule* in BE vs AE. I have only heard it pronounced  e*s-choo*, but that doesn't mean it is right.


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## la grive solitaire

You can hear the different pronunciations here  http://www.acapela-group.com/text-to-speech-interactive-demo.html

(It's from the French-English forum Resource stickies.)


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## mplsray

pops91710 said:


> It's an old word that is found in the Bible only four times. To eschew evil means to avoid it. The pronunciation officially is *es-shoo*, but I suspect it's like the word *schedule* in BE vs AE. I have only heard it pronounced  e*s-choo*, but that doesn't mean it is right.



The pronunciation given in The Century Dictionary, an American Dictionary of 1895, is "es-CHOO." That does not mean that the es-SHOO pronunciation did not exist at the time, but that, at least in the Northeastern United States--which, being the prestige American pronunciation at the time, was that which was represented in American dictionaries--"es-CHOO" was the preferred pronunciation.

Furthermore, I have so far been unable to find a dictionary other than Merriam-Webster's which shows the "es-SHOO" pronunciation. Since the M-W pronunciation is based upon sound files of actual speakers, it must be in use--or at least must have been in use at one time. But it is hardly the "official pronunciation."


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## Rover_KE

envie de voyager said:


> Are you saying that you have heard this word pronounced where the second syllable is "choo", as in "choo-choo train"?


 
Yes, envie - that's what we're saying.

Rover


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## natkretep

Rover_KE said:


> Yes, envie - that's what we're saying.
> 
> Rover



And for some of us, myself included, that was the only kind of pronunciation we'd ever heard before reading this thread!


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## pickarooney

I don't think I've ever heard the words spoken but have always (cautiously) read it as 'ess-CHOO'. I wouldn't have been hugely surprised if it were actually pronounced 'ess-SHOO' or 'ess-KYOO'. Is the latter used anywhere? Is it related to the French 'esquiver' (avoid) ?


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## Packard

If ever I used "eschew" in conversation I would immediately be branded an effete snob.

So that neatly exempts me from ever pronouncing the word as I do not wish to be considered an effete snob and I don't use it orally.  (I do use it in written communication, but rarely.)


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## natkretep

Packard said:


> If ever I used "eschew" in conversation I would immediately be branded an effete snob.



I wouldn't use _eschew _ in conversation either.  But surely there are non-conversational contexts where one might need to say aloud the word, for example if you are reading aloud the story of Job in the King James translation: 



> There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.



No?


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## Packard

natkretep said:


> I wouldn't use _eschew _in conversation either.  But surely there are non-conversational contexts where one might need to say aloud the word, for example if you are reading aloud the story of Job in the King James translation:
> 
> 
> 
> No?


 
Yes. (Although I am rarely called upon to read from the Bible.)


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## pickarooney

The last time I heard someone talking about a Job in the land of Uz it was on a New Zealand immigration forum.


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## Packard

I do recall a teacher saying,_* "Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation."*_


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## natkretep

Packard said:


> I do recall a teacher saying,_* "Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation."*_



Ha, ha. Lovely. Was he/she sufficiently obfuscating? And how did he/she pronounce 'eschew'?

Nat


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## JamesM

envie de voyager said:


> I'm not very good with phonetic symbols, so excuse my method of confirming this. Are you saying that you have heard this word pronounced where the second syllable is "choo", as in "choo-choo train"?


 
That's the way I've always heard it (and pronounced it on rare occasions).


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## Havfruen

I hear eh-SHOO more.


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## Elle Paris

Havfruen said:


> I hear eh-SHOO more.


Me too as in to make fail or to foil.


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## Gwan

Elle Paris said:


> Me too as in to make fail or to foil.



You mean with the meaning 'to make fail' or 'to foil'? I've never seen it other than as 'to avoid' or something along those lines.

I pronounce it es-shoo as well, for the record.


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## Elle Paris

Gwan said:


> You mean with the meaning 'to make fail' or 'to foil'? I've never seen it other than as 'to avoid' or something along those lines.
> 
> I pronounce it es-shoo as well, for the record.


 
Yes that's what I mean... but now that you mention it , it might be: make fail or foil by avoiding.


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## natkretep

Sorry, Elle, could you put the word, as you use it, in a sentence? 'Make fail' sounds sufficiently different from the way I would use the word (eg 'He eschewed insalubrious company').


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## Packard

natkretep said:


> Ha, ha. Lovely. Was he/she sufficiently obfuscating? And how did he/she pronounce 'eschew'?
> 
> Nat


 
The phrase was apparently from a NASA document (which I could not find), but here is a WIKI article giving the background on that phrase:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obfuscation

There are many other references when I Googled it, but they are all identical in phrasing so I think they are copying one another rather than doing original research.


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## trevorb

For the record, and completeness, I use the third pronunciation - /es'kju:/

As far as I remember, that's how it was pronounced by everyone on my law degree at a UK university about 35 years ago (probably because we all learnt it from the same source).

Trevor


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## JamesM

trevorb said:


> For the record, and completeness, I use the third pronunciation - /es'kju:/
> 
> As far as I remember, that's how it was pronounced by everyone on my law degree at a UK university about 35 years ago (probably because we all learnt it from the same source).
> 
> Trevor



This pronunciation is similar to the word "askew"?


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## Elle Paris

natkretep said:


> Sorry, Elle, could you put the word, as you use it, in a sentence? 'Make fail' sounds sufficiently different from the way I would use the word (eg 'He eschewed insalubrious company').


 
He was tempted but he eschewed evil by doing good.
(avoided+foiled / made evil fail)

The scientist was offered a job by the devious CEO of an unscrupulous company who threatened to ruin him if he didn't accept. It all (the whole situation/plot) was eschewed by exposing the CEO and the company for what they were and by accepting a post in another country to avoid any revenge attempts.


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## trevorb

JamesM said:


> This pronunciation is similar to the word "askew"?



Yes, that's right.

Trevor.


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## JamesM

Elle Paris said:


> He was tempted but he eschewed evil by doing good.
> (avoided+foiled / made evil fail)


 
I don't think it has the additional meaning of "made evil fail". It simply means he avoided doing evil by doing good.  He didn't actively foil evil; he only avoided the temptation of doing evil himself by choosing to do good.



> The scientist was offered a job by the devious CEO of an unscrupulous company who threatened to ruin him if he didn't accept.
> The scientist eschewed it all by exposing the CEO and the company for what they were and accepted a post in another country to avoid any revenge attempts.


 
I can't imagine "eschewed it all" in this context.


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## Elle Paris

JamesM said:


> I don't think it has the additional meaning of "made evil fail". It simply means he avoided doing evil by doing good. He didn't actively foil evil; he only avoided the temptation of doing evil himself by choosing to do good.
> 
> 
> 
> I can't imagine "eschewed it all" in this context.


 
That is perhaps because you have not come across it enough but I checked and my example has been corrected.


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## Elle Paris

Elle Paris said:


> He was tempted but he eschewed evil by doing good.
> (avoided+foiled / made evil fail)
> 
> The scientist was offered a job by the devious CEO of an unscrupulous company who threatened to ruin him if he didn't accept. It all (the whole situation/plot) was eschewed by exposing the CEO and the company for what they were and by accepting a post in another country to avoid any revenge attempts.


 
I thought my memory would not fail me but my dislexia must have short circuited it. Please see the correction above.
Nevertheless, I believe my original text would be correct.


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## JamesM

I still think the second example (in the corrected version) means that he avoided both the job with an unscrupulous company and the threatened personal ruin by exposing the CEO.  If he foiled anything it was by exposing the company, not by eschewing anything.


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## Elle Paris

It is very interesting to note that the online dictionaries, as well as mine at home all seem to disagree as to the origin of the word ranging from German to Frankish old French to Middle English. It is fascinating isn't it?
Words are pouches that contain what we all put into them over the generations each of us influenced by what we have read and heard- most of the time we don't even realise that what we say to the person in front of us may not have been understood in the way that we understand and intend.
An interesting detail: in French we can still say:
 " His evil plan eschewed /ran aground. "... it didn't hold water ! or
"The boat ran aground and was stranded on the reefs." We would pronounce it the same way: ehschoo.


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## JamesM

_Ah! I think you're picking up a false cognate there (eschew is éviter, not échouer), but that's for another forum._


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## Elle Paris

That's possible since when I have read and heard it, it has always worked. Perhaps I am reading more into it than I should or perhaps the word is distantly charged with some very old Frankish influence that is fading.


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## timpeac

What an interesting thread! So many native speakers - and across the infamous AE-BE divide - who not only use one or the other pronunciation, but have never heard of any other!

For my part, I say eh-shoo - and have never heard it pronounced any other way!


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## Forero

I always thought it was "eh-shOO", but I have only heard it pronounced "shun".


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## susanna76

Forero said:


> I always thought it was "eh-shOO", but I have only heard it pronounced "shun".



Ha ha. It does certainly appear it's not a often pronounced word. I wondered about it every time I read it somewhere. Happy this forum cleared it up for me. So, with the exception of sdgraham, who's familiar with es-CHOO, and one other user who vouches for both es-CHOO and eh-SHOO, Americans who posted pretty much endorse eh-SHOO. For British English, the es-CHOO pronunciation clearly dominates, as I suspected (although I wondered about is-CHOO and es-KYU; interesting that one person in the UK mentioned the pronunciation rhyming with askew). 

I agree that the American dictionaries might go with the es-CHOO pronunciation because of the Northeastern universities but it seems we have still to find someone from the Northeast who says es-CHOO!


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## JamesM

> So, with the exception of sdgraham, who's familiar with es-CHOO, and one other user who vouches for both es-CHOO and eh-SHOO, Americans who posted pretty much endorse eh-SHOO.



I don't think that's quite an accurate summary, susanna76.  If we're talking about only the AE (or NAE=North American Englsh) respondents, we have:

es-SHOO   - 3 (envie de voyager (Canadian English), forero, Elle Paris)
es-CHOO   - 3 (JamesM, sdgraham, pops91710)
Didn't say  - 3 (mplsray, Packard, la grive solitaire)


This is too small a sample to say anything, but if I were to draw any conclusion from it, it would be that both pronunciations are alive and well in AE.


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## AH92

Today I heard an American professor pronounce it "eh shoe" (e-ˈshü). I rewinded several times just to make sure. I guess the "educated" pronunciation is "eh shoe", just like the educated pronunciation of "mature" is mə-ˈtu̇r and that of "comparable" is with the stress on the first syllable (as opposed to the second).


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