Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coop
Jul 4, 2026, 10:51 AMRight: the word ‘ichor’.
Please add where you’re from or where your English is from if replying. Along with your pronunciation!
Replies
- Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coopJul 4, 2026, 11:35 AM
I wonder if I should have asked your ages instead of origins, as I am pretty certain ick-or was the only version I’d heard until 15, 20 years ago.
Wonderdog 🏳️🌈caity@bne.socialJul 4, 2026, 11:13 AM@CommonMugwort Australia
- Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coopJul 4, 2026, 11:25 AM
@caity Thanks! What did you vote?
- Wonderdog 🏳️🌈caity@bne.socialJul 4, 2026, 2:08 PM
@CommonMugwort Eye. Ick sounds so odd to me!
PonderStibbonsPonderStibbons@mas.toJul 4, 2026, 11:16 AMEye-chor, probably because I heard it pronounced that way.
Born in Canada to NZ father and USA mother, grew up in Melbourne, Australia.
Who knows where I get my language from?
Ann Hhardingar@mindly.socialJul 4, 2026, 11:25 AM@CommonMugwort @dubiousblur Ireland with access to BBC.
- Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coopJul 4, 2026, 11:26 AM
@hardingar @dubiousblur Thanks! What did you vote?
- Ann Hhardingar@mindly.socialJul 4, 2026, 11:28 AM
@CommonMugwort @dubiousblur With the majority. Eye - chor (soft ch)
- Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coopJul 4, 2026, 11:29 AM
@hardingar @dubiousblur SOFT CH?!? Now you’re blowing my mind.
Dubious Blurdubiousblur@treehouse.systemsJul 4, 2026, 11:26 AM@CommonMugwort Britain (eyekor)
- Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coopJul 4, 2026, 11:27 AM
@dubiousblur Thanks!
- Dubious Blurdubiousblur@treehouse.systemsJul 4, 2026, 11:27 AM
@CommonMugwort eyekor, sorry :)
- Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coopJul 4, 2026, 11:28 AM
@dubiousblur I got it, thanks!
Hugo MillsdarklingJul 4, 2026, 11:28 AM@CommonMugwort UK: ick-ur (to rhyme with licker, or liquor).
- Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coopJul 4, 2026, 11:31 AM
@darkling That’s how I say it too.
(U.S, but also Greece, which complicates things, especially because that’s where the word is from) 
Bethan M. Jenkinsgwenynen@toot.walesJul 4, 2026, 11:31 AM@CommonMugwort
But to note I think it's a word I've only ever read rather than heard...- Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coopJul 4, 2026, 11:32 AM
@gwenynen Always a distinction worth making. Which option did you choose?
- Bethan M. Jenkinsgwenynen@toot.walesJul 4, 2026, 11:33 AM
@CommonMugwort ick...
VirtualWolfvirtualwolf@toot.virtualwolf.orgJul 4, 2026, 12:28 PM@gwenynen @CommonMugwort Yeah I'd only ever read it until like a couple of years ago when I heard it in Diablo IV, haha. I read it as "itch-or" in my mind, not having any reference to know how it would be pronounced.
- Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coopJul 4, 2026, 12:31 PM
@virtualwolf @gwenynen The wider your reading, the more likely you are to have words like that.
Fredrik Graverfgraver@hcommons.socialJul 4, 2026, 11:52 AM@CommonMugwort I would say ick-or, or a variant closer to ich-kor, but my upbringing is unusual… (Diplomat’s kid, went to both british and North American-based schools before coming to Canada and living there from age 13 to 40…)
- Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coopJul 4, 2026, 11:56 AM
@fgraver Yes, many English speakers struggle with that kh sound, so I decided to leave it out.
- Bethan M. Jenkinsgwenynen@toot.walesJul 4, 2026, 12:20 PM
@CommonMugwort 47, somehow, improbably... 😬
- Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coopJul 4, 2026, 12:22 PM
@gwenynen 😆😆 I am unaccountably 55…
sunflowerinrainsunflowerinrain@mastodon.onlineJul 4, 2026, 12:41 PM@CommonMugwort
I can attest to eye-kor in England from 1960s, and I've not encountered ick-kor. Perhaps different in North America?- Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coopJul 4, 2026, 12:44 PM
@sunflowerinrain No, irrespective of where they’re from, most say “eye-”. I’m not sure I can trust my own memory of “ick-“ because I might just be extrapolating from Greek.
Colman ReillyColman@mastodon.ieJul 4, 2026, 11:45 AM@CommonMugwort eye-kor London/Dublin but I listen to a lot of Warhammer and Cthulhu books so my pronunciation is probably from them.
- Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coopJul 4, 2026, 11:57 AM
@Colman I wonder who uses it regularly outside SFF and gaming circles. Some biologists, and nobody else.
- Colman ReillyColman@mastodon.ieJul 4, 2026, 12:05 PM
@CommonMugwort I can’t think of any other use and the dictionaries don’t provide any.
Jul 4, 2026, 11:49 AM@CommonMugwort I don’t think I’ve ever said it out loud, and the only place I regularly see it written is in World of Warcraft (Spider Ichor and Ichor of *Undeath - two common drops). I chose the first as my best guess, but in my head the “ch” is asperated, like in “loch” or “Bach”, as I’ve been reading it as a Welsh word all these years.
(Ed. Wales, late-50s)
(Ed. Another edit, before the WoW pedants get me)
- Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coopJul 4, 2026, 11:55 AM
@nic It’s spelled with a χ in Greek, so your aspiration is bang on so far as I’m concerned, but I don’t want to prescribe to anyone, am just curious.
I am listening to an audiobook about battling aliens, so the word comes up a lot (as eye-kor, a pronunciation I find a bit jarring), which is what made me ask. It’s definitely not a word you hear a lot.
Fardels Bearriggbeck@mastodon.socialJul 4, 2026, 11:59 AMScottish. I'd say ick-or, but I've never much thought about the pronunciation. Perhaps there's a transatlantic difference, in the same way that Americans say 'eye-ran' or 'eye-raq'.
- Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coopJul 4, 2026, 12:02 PM
@riggbeck Well, this was my first hypothesis, but the majority of respondents are somewhere in the U.K. and they majority answer is eye….
(not all Americans do the eye-ran thing either) - Fardels Bearriggbeck@mastodon.socialJul 4, 2026, 12:15 PM
According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, it's pronounced the same way in the UK and US, which surprised me. But I'll stick with ick-or.
- Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coopJul 4, 2026, 12:19 PM
@riggbeck It’s the closest to the Greek, so it makes the most sense to me.
(But I am not here to tell people how to pronounce words.)
Matthew Skeltonmatthewskelton@mastodon.socialJul 4, 2026, 12:03 PM@CommonMugwort ee-chhor
From Greek, innit
- Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coopJul 4, 2026, 12:08 PM
@matthewskelton : D
Possibly pre-Greek, apparently.
- sunflowerinrainsunflowerinrain@mastodon.onlineJul 4, 2026, 12:11 PM
@CommonMugwort
English.
Grew up with "eye-kor"; usually in "re-told for children" Greek myths but also in a biological or botanical context; became aware of Greek pronunciation some time later. 
Daniel Johnsonossobuffo@triangletoot.partyJul 4, 2026, 12:12 PM@CommonMugwort Short i, USA, GenX (but grew up in an insular American Evangelical environment in Central America; my wife says I grew up in the 1950s).
- Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coopJul 4, 2026, 12:17 PM
@ossobuffo I honestly think that’s how Americans said it when we were kids!
- Daniel Johnsonossobuffo@triangletoot.partyJul 4, 2026, 12:19 PM
@CommonMugwort I don’t think I ever heard the word spoken aloud until adulthood. It’s entirely possible I’ve still never heard it; only read it (most notable in The Graveyard Book).
- Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coopJul 4, 2026, 12:21 PM
@ossobuffo It’s possible I’m projecting the Greek pronunciation onto my American childhood.
It’s true I wouldn’t have heard it often, if at all. 
Patrick O'BeirnePatrickOBeirne@mastodon.ieJul 4, 2026, 1:13 PM@CommonMugwort
Ich-or (guttural ch)
Ireland
MarjorieRmarjolica@social.linux.pizzaJul 4, 2026, 1:13 PM@CommonMugwort eye-kor. UK. Not aware, until you asked, that others use a different pronunciation (it's not exactly a commonly spoken word)
Bodhipaksabodhipaksa@mastodon.scotJul 4, 2026, 1:20 PM@CommonMugwort Eye-kor is the only pronunciation I've ever heard and I was brought up in Scotland. It's also the pronunciation both my UK and US dictionaries give.
I believe it's acceptable for the long i to become short in the adjectival form, ichorous, although I'd prefer to keep it long myself (not that I've ever said that word aloud!).
- Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coopJul 4, 2026, 1:26 PM
@bodhipaksa Thanks! It’s a Greek (or possibly pre Greek) word, spelled with an ι (iota) so I can’t bring myself to use it the long “i”.
- Bodhipaksabodhipaksa@mastodon.scotJul 4, 2026, 1:39 PM
@CommonMugwort Do you also pronounce the "ch" as a χ?
Not knowing how Ancient Greeks would have pronounced it I treat it as an English word derived from Greek, rather than as a Greek word.
- Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coopJul 4, 2026, 1:52 PM
@bodhipaksa I aspirate it a bit, yes.
It’s not like I go around pronouncing ‘dinosaur’ Dee-noh-savr, I do understand that languages make words their own, but for some reason eye-chor really gets to me (see also ee-ros for Eros). Hmmm, maybe because it’s the very start of the word. 
BashStKidBashStKid@mastodon.onlineJul 4, 2026, 1:25 PM@CommonMugwort Definitely eye-kor, but always ick elsewhere (ichnology, for example)
- Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coopJul 4, 2026, 1:27 PM
@BashStKid Which is inconsistent, but English pronunciation of Greek words isn’t always consistent.
Major Denis Bloodnokdenisbloodnok@mendeddrum.orgJul 4, 2026, 1:34 PM@CommonMugwort ick-or. West of London, but my mother's Scots and still has a perceptible accent (some of which stuck to me).
Jeremy MallinJeremyMallin@autistics.lifeJul 4, 2026, 2:30 PM@CommonMugwort
The first one and Detroit, Michigan, USA.- Artemisia VulgarisCommonMugwort@social.coopJul 4, 2026, 2:35 PM
@JeremyMallin Always glad to find a fellow ick-er. : )
rainey 🌻raineyday@mstdn.gamesJul 4, 2026, 3:26 PM
Ben Fultonbenfulton@mastodon.londonJul 4, 2026, 4:57 PM@CommonMugwort ee-chor. American but I'm not sure I've actually heard it pronounced before 🤨
Jul 4, 2026, 6:04 PMEye, from the west coast of the US, but for me this is 100% booklish. I do not believe I've ever heard anyone say the word
Ick-or is a novel concept to me. And I wonder if it is where the word icky comes from?