It makes sense to me that the word lieutenant comes from "lieu;" i.e., the lieutenant governor acts in lieu of the governor. Or general or what have you.
So, why is the British pronunciation LEF-tenant? Do they pronounce the word "lieu" as "lef?"
There's a nice long discussion here, but another source reports: "Scholars are unable to explain satisfactorily how the curious British pronunciation came about."
Dilettante, Wikipedia is not a reliable source. In almost every case where I have checked language-related, linguistic, or etymological information, I have found it to be misleading, wrong, incomplete, or subject to subtle vandalism. When it has been correct it is because a known, trusted colleague has completely revamped an entry, but even then entropy takes hold and the entry soon moves into an unreliable state. Linking to Wikipedia is problematic because what may seem correct today may be changed tomorrow.
We don't use Wikipedia for the show and I don't recommend citing it here.
I know about the bad reputation of Wikipedia, which is why I included another source as a counterpoint. Still, I'll try to avoid citing it here in future.
dilettante said:
I know about the bad reputation of Wikipedia, which is why I included another source as a counterpoint. Still, I'll try to avoid citing it here in future.
Excellent! Here's another reference for the pronunciation "leftenant":
Every-day English: A Sequel to "Words and Their Uses" by Richard Grant White, 1908. p. 242. Gives a good historical perspective.