"KevinS" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> 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.
>

In certain parts of Western NY, they avoid the issue entirely, calling the
fish a papermouth.