PENCHANT

[Slava]

Today's GWoTD:

• penchant •

Pronunciation: pen-chênt • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, mass

Meaning: 1. A predilection, inclination, or tendency. 2. A liking or desire for.

Notes: Penchant is out there all by itself; there are no related words, not even a plural, since it is a mass noun. The only trick is to remember that it ends on -ant, since many words similarly picked off from French spell the same ending -ent.

In Play: Today's Good Word started out meaning only a tendency or inclination: "Rachel's penchant for fact-free commentary on political issues only increases her potential as a future political candidate." More recently, however, it has been leaning more toward the sense of a liking: "Barnaby's penchant for fast cars costs him more in speeding tickets than gas—even at today's prices!"

Word History: This Good Word is the present participle of French pencher "to incline" from Vulgar Latin *pendicare, a variant of Classical Latin pendere "to hang". This root is also visible in other English words borrowed from Latin or French, such as depend, suspend, pendulum, and appendix—all things which hang in some sense. The original PIE root, *(s)pen- "to draw out, stretch" had a Fickle S, that is to say, an initial S that appears in some Indo-European languages but not in others. Latin didn't keep it but English did in words like spin and the name of one of the best spinners around, spider.

[Audiendus]

A few observations:

Pronunciation: pen-chênt

In Britain we usually approximate to the French pronunciation, i.e. pã-chã (ã = nasalised 'a'). Otherwise it might be misheard as "pension".

Part of Speech: Noun, mass

I wouldn't call it a mass noun, since we say "a penchant". The plural is rare but possible, e.g. "I am aware of the strange penchants some people have", "We have to cater for the different penchants of our customers".

The only trick is to remember that it ends on -ant, since many words similarly picked off from French spell the same ending -ent.

Similar words derived from French usually (or always?) end in -ant, since all French present participles end that way. English words such as "resistant" have -ant even though the original Latin verb (e.g. resistere) would lead us to expect -ent.

[Slava]

"We have to cater for the different penchants of our customers".

UK/US difference here? I'd go for "cater to."