Re: Waistcoats and weskits

From: benlizross (benlizro_at_ihug.co.nz)
Date: 02/15/05 

Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 21:48:54 +1300

Stewart Gordon wrote:
>
> I've read in a few places that "waistcoat" was originally pronounced
> "weskit". This seems silly - it would seem that the word "waistcoat"
> derived from "waist" and "coat", and hence the original pronunciation
> should've been "waistcoat". (Or did "wes" and "kit" were the original
> pronunciations of "waist" and "coat".)
>
> I began to think, maybe the original spelling was "weskit" or similar,
> and "waistcoat" was a hobson-jobson spelling that later caught on as a
> pronunciation as well. But a quick search tells me to the effect that
> "weskit" is the later, pronunciation spelling (but presumably before the
> spelling pronunciation of "waistcoat" became common).
>
> Can anyone enlighten? Why would "waistcoat" have been originally
> pronounced "weskit", or "weskit" have been originally spelled "waistcoat"?
>
> Stewart.
>
> --
> My e-mail is valid but not my primary mailbox. Please keep replies on
> the 'group where everyone may benefit.

Originally it was a compound of "waist" + "coat" and pronounced
accordingly.
As with many common compounds, the pronunciation became simplified and
reduced to "weskit".
But the spelling didn't change.
Some people still say "weskit", but others have created a spelling-based
pronunciation "waist-coat".

Other examples to compare:
"cupboard", where everybody says "cubberd", though the spelling still
shows you where it came from.
"forehead" -- in the nursery rhyme it rhymes with "horrid", which is how
many people say it; but lots of other people (like me) say "fore-head".

So the general pattern is: compound words often mush together in
pronunciation, but the spelling tends to lag behind. This means that
people can go back to a spelling-based pronunciation when and if they
want to.

Ross Clark

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