English Language & Usage Asked by Loureiro Gui on November 28, 2020
Petrol and patrol are written very similarly, though completely and obviously different in meaning. My question here is actually about the accent on these words.
Why is petrol stressed on PE, and patrol stressed on TROL? What are the grammar rules applied here?
I think they both follow their original pronunciation from French from which the terms derive:
gasoline," 1895, from French pétrol (1892);
1660s, "action of going the rounds" (of a military camp, etc.), from French patrouille "a night watch" (1530s), from patrouiller "go the rounds to watch or guard."
(Etymonline)
Answered by user121863 on November 28, 2020
There is no reliable way to predict the stress pattern of a polysyllabic word ending in a single vowel letter (i.e. not a vowel digraph) followed by a single L. Some such words have final stress (e.g. lapel, canal, cabal) while others have earlier stress (e.g. label, camel, vial, metal, channel).
There also isn’t any simple link between pronunciation and etymology for words with this spelling pattern. As Janus Bahs Jacquet mentions in a comment, older loans from French are less likely to have final stress than more recent loans.
I think non-final stress is generally more regular for words with this spelling pattern, except for prefixed verbs such as impel, propel, extol, annul, compel.
Even though patrol isn't prefixed, I think the fact that it is commonly used as a verb might have contributed somewhat to its having final stress—both as a verb and as a noun. Even though there are some English noun-verb pairs that are distinguished by stress, such as record (v.) vs. record (n.), it's actually also common for nouns to have the same stress as identically-spelled verbs, as with report, surprise and account.
Answered by herisson on November 28, 2020
Petrol is a light fuel oil that is obtained by distilling petroleum and used in internal combustion engines. The word is thus derived from petroleum.
Petroleum is a noun-adjunct, noun pair from
Ancient Greek: πέτρα, translit. petra, "rock" and Latin oleum, "oil" from Ancient Greek: ἔλαιον, translit. elaion.
Naturally, the stress is on the noun and not the noun-adjunct.
OTOH, patrol is from
Mid 17th century (as a noun): from German Patrolle, from French patrouille, from patrouiller ‘paddle in mud’, from patte ‘paw’ + dialect ( gad)rouille ‘dirty water’.
The paddle is the main subject and the dirty water is just a qualifing assistance. Patol is stressed on the paddle, pat-.
Answered by Kris on November 28, 2020
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