pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pronunciacioun,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman pronunciacioun, as well as Middle French prononciacion,^[4][3] and directly borrowed from Latin prōnūntiātiō (“public announcement, declaration, delivery of a speech”).^[4][3][5][6] The Latin noun is formed on the past participle of prōnūntiō (“to proclaim, announce; to pronounce”),^[4][5][7] the source of pronounce, which is formed from prō- (“forth, in public”) and nūntiō (“to announce”), from nūntius (“messenger”).^[3] In Anglo-Norman the word is recorded from 1299, meaning a pronouncement or declaration of a ruling.^[8] In French it first had legal senses, a judgement or decree (1281) and the official pronouncing of a verdict, and only from the late 14th century the pronouncing of words and sounds.^[4] The word has parallels in pronunciacion, pronunciació, pronunciación and pronunziazione.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Oratorical utterance, eloquent delivery of a speech: Lydgate's Fall of Princes (?a1439).^[4] Etymonline gives the sense "the way a word is pronounced" from the early 15th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first English sense came from rhetoric: pronunciation was the delivery of a speech, one of the parts of the orator's art, and it kept this use until the mid-18th century.^[4][2] By the late 15th century it was used for the way words are spoken, especially as measured against a standard, which became the main sense.^[4][2][9] From the mid-15th century it could also mean an authoritative pronouncing, a proclamation, a sense now carried by pronouncement.^[4][2] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "the act or mode of utterance".^[10] A rare 18th-century sense in art, the clear drawing of features, is not found in French and follows pronounced in the sense "strongly marked".^[4] In modern dictionaries the word also names a written phonetic transcription of a word.^[11]

Timeline

• 1281 – in Old French, a legal judgement or decree.^[4]
• 1299 – in Anglo-Norman, a pronouncement or ruling.^[8]
• ?a1439 – oratorical delivery, elocution (obsolete by 1748).^[4]
• c1455 – a public proclamation or declaration.^[4]
• ?a1475 – the way a word is pronounced.^[4][2]
• 1686 – the action of speaking, articulation (obsolete by 1706).^[4]
• 1728 – in painting, the clear marking of features (obsolete, rare).^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The way in which a word or a language is spoken, especially as judged against an accepted standard: Her French pronunciation improved after a year in Lyon.^[11][7][4]
2. The act of pronouncing words or sounds; articulation.^[11][7]
3. A phonetic transcription of a word, as given in a dictionary.^[11]
4. A formal proclamation or declaration; a pronouncement.^[4][2]
5. (obsolete, 1439–1748) The delivery of a speech; elocution.^[4][2]

Word family

• pronunciational

Related words

• pronounce
• mispronounce
• pronouncement
• announce
• denounce
• renounce
• nuncio

Usage notes

A common mispronunciation of the word has the vowel of pronounce (/prəˌnaʊn(t)-/);^[12][7] the OED attributes it, and spellings such as pronounciation, to the influence of the verb.^[4]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press