In the 6-letters thread it felt awkward to post this:
ESKMOS: Each silk-kimonod maid oscillated sensuously.
'Silk-kimonod' certainly seems odd, but what's the alternative?
kimonod? Looks like the last syllable should be pronouned 'nod', not 'node'. kimonoed? Again, the spelling would mislead on the pronunciation. kimonode? Pronunciation looks right, but there's no logic for the final e. kimono'd? Well, at least that would make the meaning and pronunciation clear. But by what rule would the apostrophe fit in?
I'd take "b," too. I think the apostrophe would just indicate that it was used instead of a letter. For example, in some limericks where I have only wanted 2 syllables, I have written, "Lim'rick."
kimonoed does match the pronunciation, by analogy with hoed, toed, goes, potatoes, but that generally only looks right with native words. (Recognizably foreign endings like -ado, -illo, -ino all take -os rather than -oes.)
So the other possibility is kimono'd, which has a good precedent in wretched un-idea'd girls. -- Ah, it was Johnson who said that, so we don't actually have his authority for the written form. But I think this is the most weighty precedent.
If I were worried, I'd recast the sentence to something like girls in silk kimonos, although obviously that couldn't be done in the Six letters... thread.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Once the OED has spoken . . . a reverent silence ensues.
Last night as we were talking with CW at dinner, CW said to Shu, "I know why you are friends with me; you just want to be able to access the OED online from my library!"
