Reply To: Tis the season to explode the atmosphere
thefreedictionary.com has it spelled out phonetically as “proBOSSsis” but has links for (presumably Flash-based) audio recordings of pronunciations. The en_US (speaker over flag) icon and en_GB (speaker over flag) icon both sound like “proBOSSsis” (the US one actually more like “proBOSS-siz”). Lower on the page, there’s a speaker icon without a flag: “proBOSSkiss.” This comes immediately after the phonetic spelling… which it contradicts.
Merriam-Webster lists both pronunciations but lists “proBOSSsis” first.
It sounds like neither is technically incorrect. I’d just like us to be consistent and aware of the possibility for inconsistency. I’d heard both pronunciations and wasn’t sure which was “correct.” It turns out that they both are. Descriptive lexicography FTW!
@Angelastic: I’m OK with that.
If nobody really cares strongly for the brats/bratty parallelism, I’ll change to brats/naughty later today.
@JoAnn I’ll fix that “all.”