Ross, a Navy listener in Hawaii, asks how to pronounce Aegis, the naval combat system. The most common and oldest pronunciation is EE-jiss, while AY-jiss appears in recent American dictionaries as an acceptable second choice. The word goes back to an ancient Greek word for goatskin. In some stories, an aegis was a magical protective cloak made from the goat that suckled Zeus. Today, to operate under the aegis of a company or agency means doing so under its protection or according to its rules. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Two Pronunciations of “Aegis” in the Navy: “EE-jiss” and “AY-jiss””
We got a voicemail from Ross, who lives in Hawaii and wanted to talk about a situation that arose at work.
Hi, my name is Ross. I’m in the Navy and on our ships, we have a combat system that is called AEGIS.
And there are two parties in the Navy, some that pronounce it Aegis and some that pronounce it Aegis.
And I was wondering, what is the correct pronunciation?
Thank you very much.
Well, that’s a really good question.
Ross, the most common pronunciation of the word A-E-G-I-S is Aegis, and that’s the oldest pronunciation, too.
Martha, I think that you probably grew up saying Aegis, right?
I did indeed. Aegis.
Aegis. A-E-G-I-S.
That A-E sometimes is printed as a ligature where the A and E are combined into one typographic character. And you can look back in old dictionaries as far back as 1940s, 1950s, old pronunciation guides for NBC and BBC, and you’ll find aegis. But by the early 2000s, maybe the late 90s, you can find the aegis pronunciation show up in Oxford dictionaries and Merriam-Webster dictionaries listed as an American pronunciation, usually given as the second pronunciation, which means it’s still not the most common pronunciation.
Now, that means it’s acceptable, but if you have a choice, Aegis is still probably the best one, I would say.
Wouldn’t you, Martha?
I would say the best choice is whatever your commanding officer is using.
Yes, definitely.
Whatever the highest-ranking person in the room uses, that’s what you say.
Yes.
When you’re in the Navy, that’s how it works.
That’s how it works.
Or in the workplace, whatever your supervisor says, that’s what you say.
That’s how you get promotions, raises, commendations.
Exactly.
And of course, we can’t pass up an opportunity to talk about the etymology of the word aegis.
It goes back to an ancient Greek word that means goatskin.
And in some stories, the aegis was this magical protective cloak that was made from a goat that suckled Zeus.
And so it has to do with protection and shielding.
That’s right. And its meaning changed over time.
And there was some kind of grumbling along the way that it should always just mean shield.
But it came to mean the mark of, say, a brand or a house or, let’s say, an old family.
And so if you operated under the aegis of a company or a family, it means you operated under their protection or according to their rules.
And that’s kind of how we think of it today.
I operate under the aegis, say, of the FDA, meaning I follow the FDA’s rules of food safety.
Right?
Right.
Right.
So, Ross, we hope that helps.
If you’ve got a question, you can always leave us a message, even if we’re not on the air.
