I have some language pet peeves. I still resent the replacement of the perfectly good word "sex" with the term "gender", for example. It has always seemed euphemistic to me to use the label "gender" on forms in place of the simpler "sex". They place the blame for that one on one of my heroes: Ruth Bader Ginsberg. From Wikipedia: "Her strategic advocacy extended to word choice, favoring the use of 'gender' instead of 'sex', after her secretary suggested the word 'sex' would serve as a distraction to judges"
Tonight my pet peeve is the frequent mispronunciation of "mischievous".
NOT
mis-ˈchē-vē-əs (nonstandard)Just ask Ms. Mirriam-Webster.
I learned this in about fourth grade. Miss Matilda Brown sometimes found occasion to describe my behavior and, being me, I had to consult the dictionary to discover what that beloved but strange woman was saying about me. Besides being "mischievous" she once found me "impudent"; that sounded bad!
Along the way I learned that mischievous has THREE, count 'em, three, syllables. It has driven me nuts for sixty years now that so many otherwise intelligent and articulate people, including many TV news readers, invent a nonstandard four syllable substitute! AAAAIIIIIIIIIiiiiiii! Tonight it was a guest on the Chris Hayes show, a NYT Reporter named Erin Griffith. C'm'on folks. Look at the word. There is NO "i" between the "v" and the "o".
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