XPost: alt.usage.english, alt.english.usage   
   From: office@REMOVETHISwhhvs.co.uk   
      
   On 30 Jul 2024, Steve Hayes wrote   
      
   > On Tue, 30 Jul 2024 10:08:44 +1000, Peter Moylan   
   >  wrote:   
   >   
   >> On 29/07/24 21:40, Phil wrote:   
   >>> On 29/07/2024 12:25, Peter Moylan wrote:   
   >>>> On 29/07/24 19:25, Steve Hayes wrote:   
   >>>>> On Mon, 29 Jul 2024 17:08:29 +1000, Peter Moylan   
   >>>>>  wrote:   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>>> There used to be a low-calorie Australian beer called   
   >>>>>> Dietale. My uncles used to pronounce it as if it were an   
   >>>>>> Italian word.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> So did I when I first saw it.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> I've discovered that "biopic" is pronounced "BI-o-pic", but I   
   >>>>> still tend to pronounce it as "bi-Opic".   
   >>>>   
   >>>> So do I. So, I imagine, do many people, because the word looks   
   >>>> as if it's supposed tp rhyme with myopic.   
   >>>   
   >>> Yes, I'm one of those many. I also firmly believe it's possible   
   >>> to misle people, having encountered 'misled' in print at a   
   >>> tender age. A poster here a while back also brought us   
   >>> 'skipants'.   
   >>>   
   >>> I have the same confusion, in my head, with Dutch 'tegelijk',   
   >>> which I'm prone to think rhymes with 'degelijk'.   
   >>   
   >> I won't comment on the Dutch examples, because I'm not sure what   
   >> rhymes with what. But in English, at least, anyone who invents a   
   >> new word needs to have a good feel for the spelling rules, which   
   >> among other things indicate how to pronounce the word.   
   >>   
   >> Some people will claim that English has no consistent spelling   
   >> rules, but it does. (With, admittedly, some exceptions.) When   
   >> faced with an unknown word, most English speakers will agree on   
   >> how to pronounce it. The basic rule is "if it looks similar to a   
   >> known word, then it probably has a similar pronunciation".   
   >>   
   >> It was a mistake to coin a word ending in -pic. We don't have   
   >> many such words, but for all the ones I can think of there is a   
   >> simple pronunciation rule: the stress falls on the penultimate   
   >> syllable.   
   >   
   > I suppose whoever coined "biopic" was thinking of "biopsy" rather   
   > than "myopic". But I've also seen, in writing, people using   
   > "optics" in peculiar ways that suggest that they are not talking   
   > about lens construction.   
      
   The Macmillan Dictionary dates the use of "optics" to describe how a   
   policy or action appears to the the general public to the late 1970s,   
   in reference to Jimmy Carter's anti-inflation policy, and gaining in   
   use in the 1980s in political commentary in the US and Canada.   
      
   It's a bit jargon-y for my taste, but I can see that it's a useful,   
   single-word term for "how something looks to the general public".   
      
   My impression is that it's been used here in the UK for the past   
   decade or so, but that it's still fairly new -- not to mention a tad   
   too NAm for people who dislike that sort of thing.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)