Victuals and other odd words

[marcusmarcusrc]

Stimulated by a discussion at chenoameg's WordGames, I wanted to ask people to list words whose spellings are ridiculously different than their pronunciations:

eg.
vict.ual \'vit-*l\
col.o.nel \'k*rn-*l\
Worcestershire sauce (IPA [ˈwʊstə(ɹ)ʃ(ɪ)ə(r)])

EDIT: And how could I forget
boat.swain \'bo-s-*n\
(I learned this one when I was in the Tempest)

I still can't believe that until last week I thought that "victual" and "vittle" were two different words with different pronunciations that just happened to have the same meaning. Like the years I spent assuming that there were two military ranks, colonel and kernel. Only that misconception I corrected in middle school...

Comments

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Yeah I'm with you. I totally would spell victual "vittle".

How long did it take you to put the IPA codes in the LJ? Should we stop enabling your procrastination this afternoon?

[marcusmarcusrc.livejournal.com]

I copied the IPA codes from Wikipedia. I don't actually _know_ IPA, much less how to summon the characters out of my keyboard. Maybe I'll get Becca to teach me someday, after I finish learning the Arabic alphabet.

[marcusmarcusrc.livejournal.com]

athena% webster vittle
vit.tle n : VICTUAL

So "vittle" is also a word of its own, fortunately. Unlike "Kernel". Well, I mean, Kernel is a word, it just isn't a military rank.