n. a word used in the entertainment industry to mean a respectful reference or tribute to someone or something else in the industry; for example, a remake film might make an hommage to the original.
The word is pronounced "oe-MAZH". Originally the word was one and the same as homage (pronounced "OM-ij" or "HOM-ij"), but filmmakers started thinking this word ("homage") was borrowed from
French (which it is not), and wanted to
sound sophisticated or more accurate, so they started pronouncing it as though it were
French. When the people tasked with writing things down realized you couldn't spell the
sound "oe-MAZH" as "homage", they wisely decided to use the
French version of the word ("hommage"), and thus filmmakers avoided scathing ridicule for not knowing how to pronounce an honest English word.
Lady
Gaga makes an hommage to Alfred Hitchcock in her song "Bad
Romance" by saying, "I want your psycho, your vertigo schtick—want you in my rear
window, baby you're sick."