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pronunciation

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Pronunciation

  • /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/[1]

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

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