June 24, 2009, 23:39
DFWandPynchonMoray
I heard a homophone of moray, but I don't know how to spell it or what it means. I heard it in the plural: "morays." Any ideas?
June 25, 2009, 00:51
Richard EnglishI have only ever heard of "moray" as a kind of eel. Could the word you heard have been a mispronunciation? Maybe the speaker meant "morass".
June 25, 2009, 05:30
<Proofreader>In jprinting, there is a "moire" pattern which occurs when two separate overlays have the same angles (they're usually separated by thirty degrees). We pronounced it "moray" since I think there should be an accent mark over the "e".
June 25, 2009, 05:30
zmježdPropbably
mores 'accepted traditional customs and usages of a particular social group; moral attitudes; manners, ways' < Latin
mōrēs 'customs, morals'. There is no singular form in English, but in Latin it was
mōs.
I've only ever pronounced
moiré /mwareɪ/, but /mɔreɪ/ is another pronunciation, at least in General American English; not sure about RP.
June 25, 2009, 18:43
<Asa Lovejoy>How about the mondegreen from the old Dean Martin song, "That's Amore?"
June 25, 2009, 19:10
<Proofreader>One of my bosses used to pronounce it mwahr but, after being laughed at universally, he came around to maw-ray.
July 07, 2009, 05:11
DFWandPynchonThanks to all, but zmjezd got it right.