A psychological phenomenon where a word, place or name is pronounced incorrectly by a lot of people. The Lewcatch Effect is to mispronunciations as the Mandela Effect is to false memories, oral discrepancies and spelling errors. Named after Hungarian Marxist philosopher György Lukács, whose surname’
s pronunciation is a matter of dispute. He pronounced his last name “LEW-cotch”, while others make the argument that his last name was actually pronounced “LEW-catch.”
Other examples include:
• Dr. Suess = “Soice”, not “Soose”
• Tone Loc = “
Tone Loke”, not “
Tony Lock”
• Martin Scorsese = “Scor-SEZ-ee”, not “Scor-SAY-
zee”
• Gyro = “YUR-row”, not “JYE-row”
• Açaí = “
AH-sigh-EE”, not “
ah-KAI”
“I’m going to
Peter’s Mediterranean Shack, do you want anything from there?” - Hugh
“Yes, I’ll have two
chicken jye-rows.” - Nikki
“Nikki, it’s pronounced YUR-rows. You’re not the first person to butcher that pronunciation. In fact there’s a word for people who have picked up the habit of incorrectly pronouncing words. It’s called the Lewcatch Effect.” - Hugh
“Okay, I’m sorry. I’ll have two
chicken YUR-rows! Thanks for correcting me, Hugh!” - Nikki