Homage forte

A quick detour into near-pedantry.


A peeve of mine, pet or no, has been the quasi-educated use of the term "homage" with a French accent.  Omazh, with the accent on the second syllable.


It's an English term, feudal origin, from Middle English, probably earlier from Old French, originally meaning the acknowledgement of fealty by a vassal to his lord.  It is pronounced with the accent on the first syllable, and a hard "j" sound, not a "zh". With or without a silent "h".  It isn't, as far as I can tell, a French word -  I have two French dictionaries in the office and "homage" isn't in either one.


Anyway, it's an interesting animal - an English term that looks kind of Frenchy and therefore the semi-literates use a French accent.  Unique?


Non.  Take forte, which my father always insisted on pronouncing like the thing with a moat around it.  He was right.  Dad's forte  - his strong suit - was, indeed, the English language.


But time and the same predilections have caused the plebes to pronounce it for-tay, accent second syllable.   Which makes no sense.   It's a noun, for goodness' sake.  Why make it sound like it has an accent aigu?  (OK, it may not be misplaced French.  It may be Italian - the forte you see in music.  Where the "e" is, of course pronounced.  But I think not.  I think it's more wannabe Francophilia.)


Anyway, the sad part is that the dictionaries seem to have folded, and for-tay is now an OK second pronunciation.  As will probably happen with omazh.  Lordy, can the apocalypse be far behind?