The word whose usage is literally driving me nuts. It literally drives me nuts because I know that people saying it have only read it before attempting to speak it, and when they say it, they say it wrong nearly every single time.
Tracy Morgan knows how to milk a line for comedy. He mispronounces homage over and over throughout Cop Out (2010) and every time he does it, it’s fucking hysterical. When he does it, it’s funny. When people who talk for a living do it repeatedly without realizing they’re doing it, it ain’t funny. Understand where your words come from, so that you can understand how to say them without sounding like an idiot.
Homage is French. It is said the same way in English as it is in French. If you speak another romance language and you think your version of the word is better, you are wrong. The French only get a few things right, how to make a croissant and how to pronounce the language they inherited from Rome. Why? Because the French were the only barbarians to understand Rome well enough to conquer and hold it for any significant length of time. So pronounce the word the way the French do and sound like you know what you are talking about. Pronounce it like someone from Wisconsin and you sound like someone who thinks they invented cheese when it was the French who did that too.
Also, there are not two definitions for the same word homage. Doing something in reverence or respect is to do something in homage. You don’t pronounce it differently for the different things you are respecting. The problem is that people assume that the person speaking has actually heard the word spoken before and so they know what they are talking about. Making an ass out of you and me does not make anything better, so don’t do that. Be like the French. Know that the word is said this one way, means this one thing, and c’est la vie or c’est la guerre. Pick your poison.