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Is haphazard the only word where ph is not pronounced like /f/?

tchrist
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michael crowley
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2 Answers2

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No. Trying to find other examples is an uphill battle, though.

In greater detail: Words that came from Greek and have a 'ph' in a single morpheme tend to use the /f/ pronunciation (except some cases like "Stephen" where it's /v/ — voiced instead of unvoiced). However, words that were formed by combining separate morphemes (such as uphill, loophole, haphazard, etc) have a 'ph' that belongs to two morphemes and does not represent an /f/ sound.

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Mr. Shiny and New 安宇
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    You had to go out to the aphelion for such an upheaval. – Robusto May 08 '12 at 18:47
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    Aphelion has one pronunciation that upholds the point, another that doesn't. – James Waldby - jwpat7 May 08 '12 at 19:05
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    @jwpat7 - Stop now, before you hurt his aphelions. – MT_Head May 08 '12 at 20:40
  • @jwpat7 I've only ever heard it pronounced as Ap-helion. Is this a regional variation? – Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight May 08 '12 at 20:41
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    @jwpat7 Hm, “uphold” … is that pronounced /ˌə'fōld/? Or is it another loofole? – Konrad Rudolph May 08 '12 at 20:47
  • @jwpat same with napththa: it can be naftha or naptha. – Kaz May 08 '12 at 22:14
  • @DanNeely: My dead-tree (and rather old) American Heritage Dictionary only lists the "afelion" pronunciation. – John Y May 08 '12 at 22:28
  • OED also has only /əˈfiːlɪən/ ... I guess we can deduce that Dan Neely is not an astronomer, or he would know how to pronounce "aphelion". – GEdgar May 09 '12 at 00:36
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    @GEdgar, I'd expect astronomers, being also familiar with terms like parhelion and perihelion, to say /æpˈhiːlɪən/ (ie, p pronounced) rather than /əˈfiːlɪən/. Note, from etymonline: aphelion, "point farthest from the sun" ... 1670s, a Grecianized form of Mod.L. aphelium, altered by Johannes Kepler based on Gk. apo heliou ... from apo "away from" ... + heliou, gen. of helios "sun" ... – James Waldby - jwpat7 May 09 '12 at 01:33
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    The OED (1973) explains the pronunciation in its etymology - that it's derived from aph + helios (αϕ + ηλιος), and the two Hs kind of merged. So it looks like the "F" pronunciation would actually be more correct. This surprises me - I've always given it the "P-H" pronunciation. I shall henceforth change. –  May 09 '12 at 10:52
  • Here are some other fine candidates: apehood, bishophood, gossiphood, hophead, kniphofia, loop-hole, paphood, peep-hole, popehood, scamphood, snaphance, straphanger, top-heavy, Uphaliday, upholsterer, wasphood, whip-hand. – tchrist Oct 28 '12 at 01:59
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'haphazard' is a word which has 'ph' and is not pronounced as 'f'(a few people may suggest 'amphitheater' as another word but I can't say for sure). However, there are several compound words where 'ph' doesn't sound like 'f' when pronounced. A few of such compound words are:

flophouse, loophole, peephole, uphill, uphold, upholster.

Fr0zenFyr
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    Note that haphazard was also originally a compound (NOAD, M-W). My guess is that this is the reason for all cases. It is the same way with porthole. – zpletan May 08 '12 at 19:15
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    Also, amphitheater, coming as it does from Greek, should have the 'f' sound. – zpletan May 08 '12 at 19:17
  • I agree with you completely on both the comments. About amphitheater, that's what I believed so I specifically mentioned it, but some people do contradict it. – Fr0zenFyr May 08 '12 at 19:22
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    Your answer contradicts itself. "peephole" has a "ph" as much as "haphazard" does. – Mr. Shiny and New 安宇 May 08 '12 at 20:21
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    "Unique" means "the only one" – Mark Beadles May 08 '12 at 20:31
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    @MarkBeadles - All words are unique! That's the beauty! (Seriously, though: grrrr.) – MT_Head May 08 '12 at 20:41
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    @Mr. Shiny, Mark: the mentioned words other than 'haphazard' are often hyphenated, I have never encountered a 'hap-hazard'. I agree with zpletan because he was right that haphazard was originally a compound word as per the references he gave. However, it is not considered a compound word in present-day English. – Fr0zenFyr May 08 '12 at 20:57
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    Why a downvote? Why don't u consider contributing to the answers if you know of something better? – Fr0zenFyr May 08 '12 at 21:00
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    When is the last time you saw "upholstery" or "upholster" hyphenated? They are as much units as "haphazard" is now. As for downvotes, I feel that if your answer had recognized that "haphazard" is not unique, if you had researched more about "amphitheater", and if you had not called "upholster" a compound word, your answer would have been better. I didn't feel the need to submit an answer since Mr Shiny and New has a fine one. – Mark Beadles May 08 '12 at 22:03
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    Indeed, "upholster" is not a compound, or even a word with a prefix, but a variant of "bolster"! – Colin Fine May 08 '12 at 22:56
  • @ColinFine -- [citation needed] – Michael Lorton May 08 '12 at 23:57
  • @Malvolio: I withdraw it. It appears I've been a victim of etymythology. In mitigation, I can only offer that it was a long time ago that I read this. I wonder where it was ... – Colin Fine May 09 '12 at 17:16
  • @zpletan: What you mean "used to be"? "hap" is still in my vocabulary. – Joshua Mar 28 '21 at 19:02