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NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:24:09 -0500
From: Bob Cunningham <exw6sxq@earthlink.net>
Newsgroups: alt.languages.english
Subject: "drought" and "drouth"
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:24:02 -0700
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When I was a boy, I learned that a severe dry spell was called a
drouth, rhyming with "mouth". I've said that for many years, and when
I eventually came across the word "drought", I assumed it was an
alternative spelling that was still pronounced to rhyme with "mouth".
Only quite recently did I notice in an American dictionary* that
"drouth" is archaic and the proper term is "drought", rhyming with
"about".
I'm still going to say "drouth", rhyming it with "mouth". It's too
late for me to change.
A British dictionary** says that "drouth" means "drought", but it's
"now Scottish, Anglo-Irish, US, dialectical, & poetic".
*_Webster's New World College Dictionary_
** _New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary_
--
Woody Wordpecker
Greater Los Angeles, California, USA
Western American English
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