Quote:
Originally Posted by MarchHare
Everyone seems to know how to say "pediatrician" correctly, but for some reason most people mispronounce "pedophile". The root of the two words is the same, but common usage of "pedophile" sounds like the speaker is describing someone with a foot fetish.
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Neither of these are mispronunciations, especially given that BOTH do not reflect the original pronunciation of the root:
paidos in Greek, meaning, "boy". There are a number of other words that contain this root and reflect a variety of pronunciations: "pedagogy", "pedant" "pedantic", etc. If anything, our pronunciation of "pediatric" is the oddity.