A few months ago I had a segment about what it means to read someone the riot act, and I told you that the official name of the act starts with “An Act for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies.” But recently, a listener pointed out that I had mispronounced tumult ("too-muh lt") as "tum-ult."
A tumult is riot or uprising or just a loud, disorderly crowd. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, we get tumult from a Latin word that meant "commotion, bustle, uproar, disorder, disturbance,” and Merriam-Webster notes that it may be related to a Sanskrit word for “noisy.”
I’m not sure why I pronounced its as "tum-ult" instead of "too-muh lt," except that I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone else say the word, but I have heard the adjective form—tumultuous, as in It’s been a tumultuous week—so I was probably modeling the pronunciation after the word I had heard. Although, I wasn’t exactly saying it like that either.
I’m sorry for the error, and now you too can remember that it’s pronounced "too-muh lt."
Image courtesy of Shutterstock.
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