HAH-STA

HOE-STA to me sounds like you need a british accent or something . try it..

I pronounce it just the way you do. However, I have a friend who insists on calling them Plantation Lilies.

I guess I can be considered a snob, as well. I pronounce Clematis as CLEM-a-tis - just like Martha Stewart, the Clematis Society and many pronunciation dictionaries I have consulted. Invariably, a nursery center clerk (or my mother) will correct me, which makes me all the more determined to 'say it loud and say it proud'.

Is your friend related to Don Imus??

I know some one who pronounces 'hosta' as 'hospistas',no matter how i many time i say 'hosta',he still says 'hospistas',i don't verbally correct him of course,but one would think if you hear it said enough times as 'hosta' one wold just remember 'hosta'.lol

Carol

I reserved a building one time for one of our hosta society meetings. The scheduler mis-heard me and when we arrived there later that month, we laughed when we read that it was reserved for the HOSPICE society! Don

Actually it doesn't always matter how many times you hear something you may not have a keen enough ear to hear certain sounds. I have trouble with certain sounds, my wife corrects me saying; you said this and it is that and I can't hear the difference.

I also have a friend who calls Aushwitz the Nazis "constipation camps", he also told me once that he was tired of "eluding himself", talked about Reagan's "trinkle down economics", "swarsh it around in his mouth", "I ain't kidding you not", and he had to "rechange his mind".

My neighbor always inquires kindly about my "pasta".

He makes me feel to smart?

Uh...Merriam Websters and various other dictionaries show "hoe-stuh" as the CORRECT way to say it!

.......??!! huh?

A lady where I work calls them HAH-sta-ses, no matter if there is one or more it is all HAH-sta-ses.

She also calls a test, "Tess-ah-ses."

At least she is consistent (or is that constipated?)

Lainey

My MIL calls them HAH-Sta-ses also. It usually comes out more like hostages. But she also call Wallmart..Wallmark and phlox...fleeces, and my favorite is "like-teded". As in, I really like-ted-ded that Squash Casserole hahstases in your garden. My husband is 30% deaf in both ears and comes up with some very interesting words. His brother and one of his sisters also was born with partial deafness. I sometimes think my MIL is too, they just never figured it out.

LOL! David!!...I got it even if n o one else did!

I say HAH sta....and CLEM a tis....and asTill be...but had a good friend who correct me saying it was ah STILB.
I have a book about perennials which has pronunciations with the IDs and growing instructions and zones etc. due to that I also say HEU ker uh.
Linda C

My Illustrated Oxford Dictionary (hey, I have kids!) shows the first syllable pronounced the same way as in hostage (as in, "I sometimes feel held hostage by my hosta obsession!) Interestingly, my 1974 edition of Webster's (it was Grandma's!) doesn't even have an entry for hosta!

I, too, say Hah-sta. Our friend calls them hostages.

I say Hah-sta or Hah-stas, either being plural, if I want them to be--at least in my mind!

My MIL has said 'My-erz-zez' (for years) for our local Supermarket chain--which is Meijers!
It has driven us nuts but we've kept using the appropriate pronunciation enough that she finally
is saying it right--most of the time!! We don't correct her, we just use it as we understand it should
be when we ourselves are referring to that store.

I think it may be a regional way or cultural habit of speaking mostly that affects how we say things,
more than what is appropriate in the spelling of many words!

Oh--I finally get it, Dave--after Linda pointed out that she got it! I went back for a second read--duh!! LOL

I say Hah-sta,and Cle-MA-tis.Who cares? Only the hoity-toity say CLEM atis! Phil

Well--'hoit-toity' I ain't, fer sher! :o)

In "The American College Dictionary", the first pronunciation is ho-ste, long 'O', accent on the "ho" (Hmmm, Dave we won't go there), second is hos-te (pronounced with a short o, sounding like hostage). I like the definition though, Hosta, genus name, after Nicolaus Thomas Host (1761-1835), Austrian botanist, see plantain lily. Sigh, isn't it bad enough they don't pronounce it properly, but to think its a weed? LOL!! Actually both pronunciations are acceptable according to this dictionary.

Then there's my mom, she calls my 100's of "HA-stas" "funk-ia". Gotta love her, she can be so contemptible.

And I too say CLEM-a-tis, and ah-STILL-be. What about endive? Do you say on-DEEV or EN-dive? LOL!

Sigh, I'm with Ken, just get out the shovel.

PIM

Here is another vote for HAH-stah, cle-MAH-tis and ah-STIL-bee. We haven't mentioned PEE-ah-nee versus pee-OH-nee for "peony."

lmao margo...too funny!

I say HAH-stuh, CLEM-uh-tiss and ah-STIL-bee. I also say HEW-kur-uh.....or whatever the heck the phoenetic spelling would be!

Ever wonder why "phoenetic" isn't actually spelled phoenetically? lol

Well I have a English accent and I say OSTA

Bob

LOL! Never heard anyone call them HOE-sta! I say Cle-MAT-is and As-TILL-be. I also say "coral bells" because I can never manage to say Heuchera properly!
To this day, I laugh at my Mom when she says she needs to "warsh" clothes instead of "wash" them.

My sister says HAH-stuh, but she also says hew-CHEER-uh.

My cousin says "quench" for "quiche" and "PAH-puh-pies" for "pot pies." (She was raised by dingos.)

When I first moved to the Ohio Valley it took me forever to figure out what "Uh-HYEEE-uh" was.

Lainey

dingos...rofl

I pronounce Heuchera as 'hue--kur--uh'--am I right or wrong on that one?

"phoenetic" isn't actually spelled phoenetically

....and that would be because it is spelled phonetically.... and is spelled 'phonetic'....

Here is a link that might be useful: Wikipedia phonetics

The genus Hosta was named after an Austrian botanist by the name of Nicholas Thomas Host. Therefor the proper pronunciation should take into account how his family name is pronounced in German, like you can hear in the audio link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hosta audio link on this page...

DD thought nasturtiums were "nasty urchins" when shw was little. Neighbor and I still call them that.

Pietertje, I'm sure you already know that most words that we use in our english vocabulary, that are taken from
other languages are adapted to the way we would say them, given our vowel and consonant sounds.

Even foreign cities are prounounced differently than the country itself does--for instance: 'Milan'--is 'Milano' in Italy,
as well as 'Turin' for us is 'Torino' for them. 'Den Haag' in the Netherlands is 'the Hague' to us'!

'Chaise lounge', being a French terminology,I believe, is now 'chase lounge' for us!

So, I guess we've made the name Hosta fit our particular rules--but actually, I'm not sure how we've come to do that
since if you remove the 'a' it would be host (as in hostess) no matter how we cut it!!! Must have started as a regional
thing!!
That was interesting to find out though--most of us are not doing it the way the namesake would have, I'm sure!! 'Crikey'!!

These posts reminded me of an incident years ago when my friend and I saw a new-to-us plant . . . we asked the nursery employee what it was and he said, "Oh, that's Hootenanny!" Yeah, right . . . we came home and looked it up: Houttuynia cordata. I guess he was close. Anyway, it's been Hootenanny to us ever since!

DH's aunt calls them hoys-ta most of the time. Every once in a while, she will say hos-ta. She once proudly pointed out her new Patriot hostas, calling them "parrot". I say CLEM-a-tis and As-TIL-be.

DH's mom is one of those that pronounces words a certain way no matter how many times she has some one say it. For instance she says oreganol, not oregano; Kevin, not Kelvin (a friend and I've even written his name down for her and showed her that it's Kelvin; "chatter" cheese.

My Mom has a friend that cracks us up. Someone fell and strained the "malignants" in her leg; her brothers used to go to the "burlap" shows; she had a sofa made of "auger hide"; and there are tons of others:)

MOM,
My Hosta are decent and are selective of where they will grow and with whom they will pollinate.
My "Hoesta" hang around shady places and sometimes even gravitate towards street corners. They will pollinate with every Funkia that comes along and tend to be addicted to nitrogen. So There! Both pronunciations are correct!

DEnny

I say "HA-sta", "as-TIL-be", "HEW-ker-a", and "clem-AT-us"... the last one mainly because I refuse to pronounce it like Martha Stewart, otherwise I'd be forced to say "herbs" instead of "erbs"... but only in rooms with soft, hazy lighting and lots of jade green in the background.

When speaking to my mom, who I stick up for constantly due to her accent and odd interpretation of word pronunciation, damada means tomato, Itly is Italy, and a piney is a peony.

On the other hand, we say framinkos instead of flamingos and reputer instead of computer because that's what our daughter said when she was little and it stuck with us.

I ain't got any of them 'hoes or toes lurkin' 'round my dwellin'... I HAVE HOSTA!! (hope i didnt offend anyone here, it was my southern aunt speaking to me)

Paul

I have always said "Hoe-sta". My boss says "hah-sta." She insists I say it differently because I am a yankee (?? I was born and raised in Southern California??) I think the way many words are pronounced is regional. My grandmother has chimbleys with her fire place and my husband puts pictures in his photo alblums.

just call em funkias

I have always calle them hoe-stas. Since I've heard some people say hah-stas, I went looking for the correct pronunciation and found this thread. The dictionary does list both, with hoe-stas listed first, so I'm going with it. I also appreciated the link to the German pronunciation. Thanks!

welcome to the forum .. stick around.. and you will get addicted ... lol ...

fell free to march to the beat of the drummer in your head ... right or wrong ... lol ...

ken

ps: and dont even get me started on whether hosta is both the singular and the plural.. and that there is no word hostas .... nor about if they are the august lily.. as they never have been... nor never will be.. a lily ... whats that all about????

it really doesnt matter how you say it.. or what you call them.. as long as you are talking about them ....

Enjoyed all the comments and pronunciations!! welcome to 2021 , the 2nd year of the pandemic! I say “ha-sta” friend says hoe-sta .

“Ha-sta”!

debra

say it my way.. or get the hell out of my garden .. ha-sta ... aint no hoes in my garden ...

ken

ps: feel free to take any of those hasta laying on the diriveway ... they dont belong here either ...

pps: and dont come back ...

pps: are you the same peeps who after walking thru 1600 hosta.. told me you also had all 5 that i do??? .. in fact.. just leave now ...

Ken isn't a very good host with his hostas; named after Nicolaus Thomas Host .

I call them Funkia.