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Flaccid

Edher

Senior Member
USA
Cd. de México, Spanish & English
Azucarudos,

How do you pronounce the word "flaccid"?

Thousand Thanks,
Edher
Edher said:
Azucarudos,

How do you pronounce the word "flaccid"?

Thousand Thanks,
Edher

It's pronounced "flassid."
Not out west, I don't think. It might be the influence of the double cc in Spanish, or just our being a little less rooted in tradition. Out here if we see a "c" we'll pronounce it. Also you'll hear garage and portage pronounced correctly in downstream, edjumacated zones of the country-- and "grodge" and "portidge" out here.

Another factor is, out here in Marlboro Country flaccid just ain't a word we come across too often.
foxfirebrand said:
Another factor is, out here in Marlboro Country flaccid just ain't a word we come across too often.

Nice to see someone stand up for local values.
Azucarudos, edher.
No one says flackid then, I was wondering if they would. I don't say 'flaccid' aloud, I say floppy. Wouldn't use tumid either conversationally, though I know how to pronounce that.
elroy said:
It's pronounced "flassid."

According to my English Pronouncing Dictionary, (14th edition, 1988)
flaxid and (increasingly) flassid.
Never "flaxid" in UK English. Always "flassid". Tumid - I would only use in literature. Nice Marlboro country jokes, lads!
Can prose be flaccid and turgid simultaneously? I suppose it could, but these words are quite subjective when applied to literary criticism. Flaccid prose - loose prose? What exactly would that mean? What style of prose would that refer to? Turgid prose - this would be easier to understand: a heavy, dull kind of prose, I would think. So, all in all, yes - a piece of prose could be described as flaccid and turgid at the same time - the two words are not contradictory. Does this answer your question or have I confused you more?!
cuchuflete said:
Can prose be flassid and terdjid simultaneously?

Neither are very complimentary, are they ? One being slack, shall we say, and the other puffed up and ostentatious. Limpid and lucid would be nice prose-wise.
Limpid and lucid are, indeed, lovely words, but one might not want to be complimentary. I've heard the style of Mein Kampf described as "turgid".
emma42 said:
Never "flaxid" in UK English. Always "flassid". Tumid - I would only use in literature. Nice Marlboro country jokes, lads!

The only problem I can think of is - Where the hell are you going to find it under those " flaccid Beer and Beefburger Bellies " 👁 Confused :confused:
👁 Wink ;)
Find what, Jonegy? And I don't like the sound of your friends, much!
emma42 said:
Nice Marlboro country jokes, lads!

I daren't expain - I may be banned. 👁 Big Grin :D
emma42 said:
Can prose be flaccid and turgid simultaneously? I suppose it could, but these words are quite subjective when applied to literary criticism. Flaccid prose - loose prose? What exactly would that mean? What style of prose would that refer to? Turgid prose - this would be easier to understand: a heavy, dull kind of prose, I would think. So, all in all, yes - a piece of prose could be described as flaccid and turgid at the same time - the two words are not contradictory. Does this answer your question or have I confused you more?!
Thank you, Emma, for the terse and lucid description of Bulwer-Lytton. 👁 Wink ;)
Oh! I get it now! And I, the "double entendre" Queen of Nottingham!
Edher said:
Azucarudos,

How do you pronounce the word "flaccid"?

Thousand Thanks,
Edher

Going back to the topic of the thread, you may find this link very handy. The source says that the first pronunciation is the most widespread, at least in America.

Yes, they'd rather say /flassid/.
I had to look up "Bulwer-Lytton"! Interesting... Great to talk to a literary American. No offence, but you know how you are portrayed on English telly. I, of course, do not subscribe to stereotypes.
Hey
I've been using the word flaccid a lot recently in my biology class....we are doing about the plant cell and osmosis, this is where these words are commonly used really....
I say it "flassid", and have never heard "flaxxic", but that might just be because I've never heard anyone from America say it!
Rach
I don't believe this! I thought I'd just look flaccid up in Chambers and it has both pronunciations, although "flassid" is the first. Just shows that it pays to check everything.
It’s no assident that I pronounce flaccid as flaxid, even if it is an essentric pronunciation. A sussinct explanation is that there are no other words containing -cci- or-cce- that are pronounced 'ss', wherever the assent falls in a word. All except 'soccer' and the names of various bacteria (for some of which vassines have been found) are pronounced 'x'. So far I’ve had no sussess in asselerating any change in people’s pronunciation, anywhere in the ossident at least. I’ve not been to the orient. Maybe my explanation isn’t assessible enough for people to be able to assept it.

(D’oh! Can’t figure out how to include ossiput. 👁 Frown :(
)
emma42 said:
I don't believe this! I thought I'd just look flaccid up in Chambers and it has both pronunciations, although "flassid" is the first. Just shows that it pays to check everything.

Does it really require recourse to judicial authority? Another of those BE/AE things..."in Chambers". I've never seen British telly (telly ?!) so I'll have to assume it portrays all yanks as terdjid marlboro types, sitting atop horses with no more to read than a comic book.

Off to harvest flax seed, still smiling at Aupick's brilliant post.
Sorry, Cuche. Chambers Dictionary is one of the most well-respected dictionaries in UK. We do have some intellectual Americans on telly (!), but we do import a lot of stuff like Jerry Springer et al. Also, things like religious fundamentalism and obesity are given a lot of airtime - part of the alleged "tabloidisation" of the media. Tabloid - non-broadsheet popular newspaper, attractive to, shall we say, less intellectual people. Hope I'm not "teaching my grandmother to suck eggs". I suppose I should open a new thread for this. I am relatively new to the forum.
Well really👁 Frown :(

I wandered off for a couple of days and what did I come back to, top of the EO forum, but a conversation on the variant and deviant pronunciations of "flaksid" - and yet another reference to the noble Bulwer-Lytton.
So here I am, looking up the dear old OED again, and coming down strongly on the side of all of you who insist that "...cc..." should be pronounced "...x..."
... and it simply ignores any alternative.
Really, Panjandrum?! I have never heard anyone pronounce it "flaxid". Chambers gives both, but "flassid" first.
The continuing tumescence of this thread makes me wonder if this is what happens to words when annointed with the IPA equivalent of viagra.

Welcome back Panj.
OUP is speaking from both sides of their maw:

flac•cid /flsId; flk/ adj. (formal) soft and weak; not firm and hard: flaccid breasts
from Oxford Advanced Learners' Dict.
Oh Cuchuflete! OED is speaking out of its arse, is it not? What is so HARD (geddit!) about this word. Sorry for the bad joke, I know it is not up to standard, but it's such an obvious one I had to use it. I am firm on this point.
Heaving ponderously from a metaphorical leather armchair I had a good look around the online OED and it is consistent.
Perhaps for the more populist volumes it may recognise alternatives.....👁 Stick Out Tongue :p

Perhaps I should also confess that I have heard it pronounced the other way.
Agnès E. said:
My Robert & Collins dictionary gives flak-sid. 👁 Stick Out Tongue :p

My Dearest Agnès,
Your R & C is hardly the final authority on the firmament. While I don't intend to deflate their fine reputation, only a stiff would rely entirely on a single lexicographical source. 👁 Wink ;)
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