Wordie [wûrd • ē]
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29 wordies list
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first listed by:
die6die (315 words)
appears in these lists:
religion, by brandelion
GRE list #2, by Sera
Going Postal, by skipvia
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I was interested to learn in John Wells's phonetic blog of 1 July 2008 that the traditional pronunciation of this is stressed on the /pɒ/. He says dictionaries only give /əˈpɒsteɪt/, though actually the OED (2nd ed.) gives only /əˈpɒstət/ with weak final syllable. I have always thought of it the way the BBC said it, viz /ˈæpəsteɪt/, though of course I've presumably never actually heard it or had occasion to say it.
It seems like every bloody article mentioning John McCain describes him as an “apostate”.
David Eddings uses this word to describe a character in the Belgariad.
Only at the apostake.
We found an apostate, may we burn her?
Or they may apply it to themselves ironically, acknowledging that *they* consider *me* an apostate.
Very few former believers call themselves apostates and they generally consider this term to be a pejorative.