I've started to keep track of the number of times I've seen voila spelled properly or improperly. So far the stats are running about 5:1 in favor of 'viola', although I've also seen "wallah".

But, it's fun to mispronounce it as vay-oh-lah.

It's a fun word. I'd use it more if I felt more confident about my pronunciation of French words. I just have the worst time pronouncing anything in French.

I sometimes say (jokingly!) VOY-la! (It more or less rhymes with 'boiler'.)

Arnie, back in the mid-80s, I worked with a very witty wordsmithing fellow (employed as a court reporter) who also (jokingly) said, "VOY-la!" I've never heard of anyone else saying that...till now.

quote:

although I've also seen "wallah".

Walla/wallah is a word in Arabic, also used as Hebrew slang. Its meaning is quite complicated, but may be conveyed as 'I understand'.
It is even the name of a popular israeli portal, based on the idea of "Yahoo".
Maybe this was the reason of the peculiar spelling.

Wallah is also an Anglo-Indian word meaning something like fellow or person who. For example, a chai-wallah is a fellow who brings the tea. It's also half a city name in Washington state. Usually pronounced /'val@/ by Indians and /'wal@/ by Anglos.

quote:

I've started to keep track of the number of times I've seen voila spelled properly or improperly. So far the stats are running about 5:1 in favor of 'viola',

It just show how many people are on the fiddle :-)

I hadn't heard of either the Arabic or Anglo-Indian wallah; the wallah I saw (in documentation for simulation software written by engineers in Houston) clearly meant "there it is!" and not "I understand" or some dude.

Richard, what does "on the fiddle" mean?

quote:

Richard, what does "on the fiddle" mean?

Cheating or in some other way misappropriating another's property without physically stealing it.

So, "fiddling one's expenses" would mean being "creative" about how much one spent and claimed.

quote:

So far the stats are running about 5:1 in favor of 'viola',

Thanks for clearing this up! I thought folks who wrote "Viola" were talking about some woman magician.

quote:

Richard, what does "on the fiddle" mean?

Cheating or in some other way misappropriating another's property without physically stealing it. So, "fiddling one's expenses" would mean being "creative" about how much one spent and claimed.

Gives new meaning to the old limerick,

There once was a man with a hernia,
Who said to his doctor, "Gol dern'ya,
When fixing my middle
Be sure you don't fiddle
With matters that do not concern'ya.

(Sorry for the interruption. We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.)

The fiddle thing is very interesting - I'd not heard "on the fiddle" before. I have heard (and used) the phrase "fit as a fiddle" . . . and ready to fly!