On Aug 9, 1:06?pm, zxcvbob wrote:

> Clue: Look up the etymology of a word to get an idea
> why it's pronounced weird. ("crappie" was borrowed from
> French "crapet" I thought it was gonna be something
> German with an umlaut)

Just out of curiosity, I looked in a Shorter Oxford O.E.D.
I found this entry for "crappie" - U.S. 1861. A species of
sunfish, pomoxys annularis, found in the Mississippi.
It shows the "a" pronounced as in "man".

The next entry is "crappit-head" - the head of a haddock
stuffed with the roe, oatmeal, suet and spices.

Not only that, this editor/reviser is C. T. Onions.