Today's Broadcast

Topic: Temperature

A query about the proper way to pronounce the word naming "a degree of hotness or coldness measured on a definite scale" made our blood run cold. Why? Because no matter what we say about how one says the word whose Latin ancestor is pronounced temp-eh-rah-too-ra, we’ll guess someone is sure to get hot under the collar.

Plenty of people say (and have no problem hearing) the pronunciations temp-er-chur and temp-uh-chur. Some of these people haven't noticed any degree of change in this pronunciation from an earlier one; others who have noticed it point out that the shift from the older temp-er-uh-chur to temp-er-chur and temp-uh-chur is simply yet another instance of syncope, "the loss of one or more sounds from the interior of a word" (think Worcestershire sauce, for example).

So is it incorrect to pronounce temp-uh-chur without an intermediate R sound? What about temp-er-chur, where the A sound is lost? Is temp-pruh-chur an acceptable compromise? Call us even-tempered, but we see all these developments as variants and nothing to get too het up over . . . and we're sticking with temp-er-uh-chur or maybe temp-pruh-chur.

Questions or comments? Write us at wftw@aol.com Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and CDs including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.