Sitting next to this guy on the plane who pronounced the word “erudite” as “air-e-o-dite” got me thinking. For a word that means having or showing great knowledge, it’s amazing how often it’s mispronounced. It’s er-u-dite, which oddly enough, is exactly how it’s spelled.
My husband sometimes pronounces things wrong because even though he is very intelligent and well read he was cursed to spend way too many of his formative years stuck with vicious idiots. And back in the day if you looked up how to pronounce erudite you’d see something like this “/ˈer(y)əˌdīt/”. Which goes to show not only Texas hillbillies can be vicious idiots. Of course that is exactly what you get if you Google it now, but at least you can also hear somebody pronounce it. And according to them it is er – oo – dite. Which is a matter of opinion if that’s how it’s spelled. But at least doesn’t have sounds with no letters at all.
I have never heard of erudite. But, just because one has not heard of it, does not necessarily mean that they themselves are NOT erudite. It may indicate however, that I do not fly enough.