The piece originally appeared in the March 25, 1990 edition of the New York Times Magazine. Back then, the divorce of Donald and Ivana Trump was in the news, in part because of the terms of their separation.
MARRIAGE LINES
By William Safire
THIS DEPARTMENT tries to stay on top of the proper pronunciation of words in the news. In the gossip arena, the word most often mangled is nuptial.
''After the tumult surrounding the playing of the celebrated Trump,'' writes Stephen Gutkin of Jersey City, ''I've yet to descry your voice on the subject of prenuptial, namely, 'Whence the pronunciation prenup-chewal?'''
There may be bite but no chew in prenuptial agreement.
The word nuptial is from the past participle of the Latin verb nubere, ''to marry,'' which is also the root of nubile, ''marriageable,'' or at least ''apparently fully developed sexually,'' which is not the same thing. Use the plural to refer to a wedding ceremony, as in ''I cannot make it to the nuptials, but I hope to be at the festive signing of the first postnuptial agreement.''
Pronounce nuptial NUP-shul, just as you pronounce the warlike martial MAR-shul. They are not NUP-chill or MAR-chill, and they are certainly not pronounced as if spelled ''nuptual'' or ''martual.'' (On the other hand, you can pronounce victuals VIT-els, because this synonym for food is used only in dialect form.)
1 comment:
Dear Gordon: congratulations + I'm so honored to be mentioned (with my "Safire necklace") in your prenuptial blog! Incidentally, but perhaps also a fecund tie-in, Bruce and I used to attend summer camp in the Berkshires (what a lovely setting for a wedding!) at Camp Mah Kee Nac and used to have "socials" at Belvoir Terrace, which, back then, was a girl's camp. We were about 13 years old and had no earthly idea how to speak to a girl (and probably very little inclincation to do so) but still spent hours of breathless dread combing and blow-drying our hair (having hair: those were the days!).
But I digress...
Wishing you both lots of luck, health and happiness in your lives together.
Warm regards,
Stephen Gutkin
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