TRANSMOGRIFY

[Slava]

• transmogrify •

Pronunciation: trænz-mah-grê-fai • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, transitive

Meaning: 1. To transfigure or transform into something grotesque, to change or alter the appearance of. 2. To astound, to astonish and confound.

Notes: Because this fake Latinate (from Latin) word is so cleverly contrived, we can derive a complete family of words from it: transmogrification (process noun), transmogrifier (agent noun), transmogrifiable (passive adjective), and so forth and so on. Have fun! There are no tricks of spelling other than the shift of y to i whenever a suffix follows.

In Play: Remember that this Good Word is more specific than transfigure or transform; it means to transfigure for the worse: "Barbara Seville has transmogrified her hair into a ghoulish multicolored pincushion!" Here is how we use both senses of this word in the same sentence: "Herschel was transmogrified by the transmogrification of his date when she removed her make-up."

Word History: This word originated in someone's confused mind before 1656. It was occasionally spelled transmigrafy, which suggests that our Good Word may have resulted from the addition of -fy to transmigure by someone less than fully educated. This corrupted verb is a conflation of transmigrate and transfigure that was used occasionally in the 18th century. Apparently, only people were transmogrified originally; now we can do it to anything. (Chris Stewart, a long-time friend from South Africa, suggested this good but mysterious word.)

[misterdoe]

I first saw this word as a function of a long-lost (and unlamented) computer software program, MakeUp, which was used for making printed banners. The program allowed for step-by-step adjustment of how the bannered text would display and print, and the function Transmogrify, which would apply multiple adjustments at one time. I thought Broderbund (the software publisher) had made up the word.

[LukeJavan8]

It always reminds me of Zombies.

[bamaboy56]

I had to laugh at Herschel in the "In Play" section. I could relate to his dilemna. I had a coworker I often thought of as attractive, if somewhat coquettish, until I saw her one day without makeup. The very epitome of TRANSMOGRIFICATION!! Who hasn't had this experience?

[LukeJavan8]

You Bet!
and more than just a 'bad hair' day!

[Audiendus]

I could relate to his dilemna.

Ah, the dreaded 'N' again! See the discussion of this word in the Spelling forum.

[LukeJavan8]

Yuppers, I've been there.
Still, and probably always, "dilemna".
As I mentioned somewhere - it is probably like
volume and column: two words frequently interchanged
as volumn and colume by students when I was teaching.
And then I do the dilemna thing.

[bamaboy56]

OOPS!! My spelling slip is showing! Thanks, Audiendus, for the correction. I've probably been spelling "dilemna" like this all my life. What a dilemma! To the best of my knowledge, I've never misspelled the word "column", though (although I saw it spelled "colum" once). Isn't English fun?

[Audiendus]

Yes, "dilemna" is a strange transmogrification. Remember to spell dilemma like Emma, otherwise you'll be damned or condemned. (That's a mnemonic.)

There's an English town called Lympne, pronounced "Lim". It's in the far south-east, so it's rather out on a limb. Artists have to travel almost to the limit to limn it.

Then there are Houyhnhnms....

[Slava]

Yes, "dilemna" is a strange transmogrification. Remember to spell dilemma like Emma, otherwise you'll be damned or condemned. (That's a mnemonic.)

There's an English town called Lympne, pronounced "Lim". It's in the far south-east, so it's rather out on a limb. Artists have to travel almost to the limit to limn it.

Then there are Houyhnhnms....

Or maybe even contemned?

Wow, we could have an entire site on the pronuncifications of English town names. Take Chelmondeley for one example.

[Perry Lassiter]

YOU take it. I live in the land of the Ouachita and admire the names of Faulkner's counties.

[LukeJavan8]

A totally boring scene in Golding's "Lord of the Flies"
has Piggy explaining to the "littluns" the pronunciation
of the town he's from. And it's full of letters that are
forgotten in the telling.

Out here on Plains we have many sites that are
derivations of Native American words. I love when any
news station gets a new meteorologist and they talk about
highs and lows and never pronounce the town the way
the locals do. It's something you would think the
station management would teach.

[misterdoe]

I love it when I come across those names. We have plenty of them around my way. But the ones that get me are the ones that are spelled like familiar names but pronounced differently. Like Houston Street in Manhattan, which is pronounced House-ton, rather than Hew-ston. Or a local town park, spelled Yosemite but pronounced Yo-se-might rather than Yo-sem-itee...

[Philip Hudson]

The name Houston is frequently pronounced ‘Haus-ton. It may be that the name of the famous Texan, Sam Houston, pronounced ‘Heu-ston, is a minority pronunciation. My experience with the name has always been ‘Haus-ton except for Sam and the city named after him.

There is a Texas town named Mexia. Once two men were in a fast food joint there and were wondering how to pronounce the name of the place. They asked their server to pronounce it slowly for them and she said "Daaa-reee Queeen." Although the "correct" pronunciation is the Spanish Ma-‘hae-ah, some of the locals call it Muh-‘hahr. Outlanders usually say ‘Mex-i-ah.

In Texas Palestine is pronounced Pal-uh-‘steen.

Since there are no standard all-alphabetical pronunciation symbols, I have created my own. Uh is for the shwa, ah for the standard (except in English) a, ae is the long a and etc. I would gladly use standard all alphabetical symbols if there were any. As it is, I, and I assume others, have to guess at the sound of symbols. I don't even understand the Good Doctor's pronunciation symbols. Is there a chart? I am further confused by some uses of marks over vowels. They aren't the same as in my dictionary and hence I don't know how to pronounce them. Don't suggest IPA. It was designed to serve all languages and thus serves none well.

[gailr]

There is Beatrice (bee AT triss), Cairo (care-o), and Kearney (carnie) in Nebraska.