WORD OF THE WEEK: Renege

Summary: In studying this week's featured vocabulary word, I own up to a broken promise to you, and relate how that's like the wishy-washy pronunciation of the WOW word. I also offer you a free preview of my online communications workbook.

Renege - a verb meaning to deny or revoke something, or to go back on a promise. For example, "That blogger reneged on her promise to post a very interesting article last week about living with Asperger Syndrome!"

Forgive me for being behind in my blog posts. I do have the best intentions, but not always the best time management skills. (Or as my colleague James terms it more fittingly: time blocking.) In short, I can sometimes be unorganized. The article about Brian King is still forthcoming. And in the meantime, I hope you'll check out the free preview of the Speak Your Truth communications e-workbook that I did dedicate more of my attention—and a decent little block of time—to last week.

Probably the most interesting thing about this week's word is that it has at least three totally different, but acceptable, pronunciations: rih - NEG, rih - NAYG or ree - NIG. In the U.K., (where pronunciation is also varied), it's even acceptable to pronounce this word rih - NEEG.

Why so many differing vowel sounds? It may seem like the answer is "Why, to confuse you, of course!" but that isn't so. The truth of the matter is that this word has been handed down to us from its 16th century Latin origin through a variety of languages, including Spanish, German and Old English—each of which pronounces vowel sounds quite distinctly differently. Perhaps it makes sense that a word that means "to go back on" is unreliable in its pronunciation?

I don't know. How good is your word?

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