I recently read something disturbing at Merriam-Webster

[conuly]

It's been haunting my very dreams.

Answer the question before you click, please: How do you say the word "detritus"?

Poll #22807

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 87

View Respondents

So?

View Answers

Yeah, M-W is right
73 (83.9%)

Nah, they absolutely gotta be trolling us somehow
14 (16.1%)

Comments

[darkoshi]

It sounds correct to me with the first syllable as either Dee or Dih or even D' (without a particular vowel), similar to the word "decide". I always say the rest of the word the same as in the audio examples on that page.

[sabotabby]

Same. I was expecting something far worse.

[cellio]

Same. With the accent on the second syllable, which is what I think I heard there.

[fred_mouse]

Yeah, that counts as one of the two standard pronunciations to me.

[conuly]

But they don't have a second pronunciation.

[fred_mouse]

as in I have two standard pronunciations, and the one they have is one of them.

[steorra]

Before clicking through, I had a hard time deciding whether I'd put the stress on the first syllable or the second. Both sounded pretty good.

(Did not answer poll because neither answer fit my reaction.)

I suspect that I would naturally say it with the stress on the first syllable, but am also familiar with the pronunciation with the stress on the second syllable.

My Canadian Oxford Dictionary agrees with M-W about where the stress is.

[lavendertook]

I can't answer the choices you gave above, but I thought the accent is on the first syllable and the word is rhythmically like "treacherous". Is that how you say it? It's possible I haven't heard the word spoken, but I think I have. MW's pronunciation sounds British to me. I read more than I converse, so my pronunciation is unreliable.

[conuly]

That is how I say it, yes. DET rih tus.

[lavendertook]

My first syllable rhymes with "Meh" and "Feh", so short "e" accented. My "t" goes on the second syllable. Deh tri tis where the last vowel is the upside down e. My typing sucks, too, so I don't even try to find out how to code the diacritical marks.

[conuly]

"Upside down e" is a schwa. Or a schwi, if you differentiate - that is, if Rosa's and roses are not homonyms to you. Technically, of course, schwi has a different symbol, but most people aren't as familiar with it. I just like saying scwhi and schwa.

irrelevant fact

[bibliofile]

I knew a guy whose nickname was Schwa (short from Joshua)-- in fact, he now has a tailor shop here in town. Which he spells "Schwa" not [symbol].

I've heard "detritus" prounced three or four different ways, ever. I can't say that any of them are right or wrong, just more common. (I also admit to being an amateur who votes on the side of descriptive rather than prescriptive for language thingies.)

Re: irrelevant fact

[conuly]

So do lexicocographers, usually, which is why I'm stunned at only one pronunciation.

[lavendertook]

I did know schwa, but couldn't access that brain file. I don't think I've ever known schwi, though, but neither does spellcheck, which is never surprising. It IS a very fun word to say. *pets it* I stand in detritus pronunciation solidarity with you.

[thewayne]

That's my first syllable, too, with slipping in the H.

And I loved Conuly slipping in the Pratchett reference, sly little minx that she is. :-)

[conuly]

Um, yes. That was intentional.

[darkoshi]

So you say it with the accent on the first syllable, and a short vowel in the second syllable (like 'impetus')? I can't say I've ever heard it that way, but it sounds sort of British to me.

Yet according to this page, the UK pronunciation also has a long accented 2nd syllable:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/detritus

[jack]

In the very large category of words "I learned from PTerry, I never knew the proper pronunciation, I was sort of aware it wasn't how I said it in my head, but I've never had enough occasions to say/hear it to be confident saying it the 'real' way" :)

[antisoppist]

Oh! I've just realised I pronounce it de-TRI-tus when it's a word but DET-ri-tus when it's a name in Pratchett because er... I didn't realise it was the same word? IDK. Maybe I read it in Pratchett before I encountered it elsewhere so made up my own pronunciation for it in the book and then when I did know how it was pronounced as a word, I didn't go back and correct the name of the character in my head?

I'm southern English if it helps in the survey

[oloriel]

I'm not a native speaker, so I wouldn't necessarily say M-W is "right" or "wrong"! But their pronunciation fits what I would have expected for a Latin word of that spelling from an English speaker - that is, it's how I would have pronounced it in an English-speaking scenario while hoping for the best...

[white_hart]

That sounds right to me, apart from being in an American accent whereas I'd pronounce it in an English accent with the "t"s sounded.

[zhelana]

How do you say it? I've always heard and said exactly what M-W says.

[conuly]

Stress on first syllable, all vowels "short".

[swingandswirl]

... wait, the second syllable in detritus rhymes with fry?

Nope, don't care, gonna continue pronouncing it deh-trih-tus and blaming the OED if anyone asks.

[flemmings]

Me too. I don't need to hear either trai or try, which in Canuck English have different sounds.

[loligo]

In all the science classes that I've taken that have used the term in a technical sense, I've always heard the M-W pronunciation.

[kareina]

I have never heard any pronunciation other than the one in the linked recording. How else could it be said?

[conuly]

Stress on first syllable, all vowels "short".

[movingfinger]

MW is correct. I'm confused about the confusion! It's straight from Latin via French. And it's a collective noun, so it doesn't have a plural, confused about MW listing one.

I pronounce the first syllable as a schwa, but a schwa tinged with that short "i" sound, if that makes sense.

[conuly]

It does make sense. The term you're groping for is "schwi".

As for the confusion - there you are. It's straight from Latin via French. The letter i does not represent the vowel in "eye" in either Latin or French.

[movingfinger]

Looks like the vowel is determined by the stress, in English-speaker pronunciation of -itus borrowings. Situs, pruritus, detritus, all ī, but emeritus, habitus, and propositus are short i. Tinnitus is apparently accepted with two different stress patterns and thus two different pronunciations, but I have heard only short---a double pronunciation that proves the point... Coitus is usually short i, but a few people say "co-ee-tus."

[conuly]

Yes. In English we typically reduce vowels in unstressed syllables - which is one reason English spelling is such a pain.

[darkoshi]

I always thought coitus rhymed with detritus, with a long stressed I as the middle vowel.

[chelseagirl]

I'm also with MW on this one.

[agoodwinsmith]

I didn't answer your poll because I wanted to say more:

I now pronounce it the way Detritus's name is pronounced in the Pratchett novels[1]. Before that I would have pronounced it Dee Tree Us - if I had ever needed to pronounce it, which I hadn't - because I had never heard it said and I read fast. I don't need to have a sound for a word in order to understand it and keep going. :)

[1] which is pretty much MW in a British accent

[jessie_c]

Dat's der bunny.

[pebblerocker]

I'd read the word, but had never heard it said, until this year. I was very glad to have heard a biologist say it and be able to file the pronunciation away for later.

Mind you, the same person does say "grarph" paper, where I go for "graff", so...

[conuly]

Is your dialect non-rhotic?

[pebblerocker]

Absolutely!

[archersangel]

i don't even think i use that word.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Deh-TRY-tuss. Now going to see if that's correct or not.

EDIT: yeah, that's correct. How were you pronouncing it?

[conuly]

Stress on first syllable, all vowels short. Which appears to be pretty common, so.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Ah well; these things happen; eventually it'll probably be an accepted alternate pronunciation. I've never heard anyone say 'DEH-tritt-uss' that I recall, but detritus isn't exactly a frequently-used word these days anyway.

The "alternate pronunciation" that really annoys me is 'puh-TEEN-uh' for patina. I realize it's a bit of a classist shibboleth, but it only got to be one because some people won't shut up when they don't know what they're talking about.

[conuly]

...

okay, so what pronunciation do you go with?

(And for me, it's "the hoi polloi". I believe I've said this before, but since the only reason to use that phrase unironically is to be a pretentious asshole, you have GOT to get it right or not even bother.)

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

I go with the correct one: 'PAT-in-uh'. I never even heard 'puh-TEEN-uh' till I was past 30.

I understand your point about hoi polloi, which is a phrase almost no one uses unironically anyhow, but disagree with it (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hoi%20polloi). "English doesn't borrow from other languages. It follows them down dark alleys, knocks them on the head, and goes through their pockets for spare grammar." 'The hoi polloi' would be bad Greek, but it's perfectly correct English, insofar as 'correct English' isn't an oxymoron to begin with.

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about using 'detritus' in a poem just last weekend, but looked it up and discovered it was apparenly not pronounced as I expected.

It's one of those words I've read for years, but never heard anyone say.

I thought it was DEH-trih-tis, but it appears that deh-TRY-tuss is the American pronunciation. So... clearly, I've never heard anyone actually say it until I looked it up. :O

[conuly]

It's the only listed pronunciation in the OED too. I swear, they're just fucking with us.