Q. How did the word timbre get to be pronounced like "tambre"?

A. The word timbre comes to us from French. In French, the sequence "im," when it comes at the end of a word or before another consonant, is pronounced much like a short "a" sound in words like ham, but with a nasalized aspect to it. The "m" is actually silent in French but we pronounce it in English since English lacks purely nasalized vowels, so we must include the nasal consonant \m\.

Q. A friend used obtuse in reference to a topic that was hard to understand, and I told him that abstruse was more suitable. However, when I looked up obtuse I saw the definition "difficult to comprehend." Is this definition referring to people who are difficult to comprehend, or to ideas that are difficult to comprehend?

A. That sense of obtuse does indeed refer to things such as ideas (topics, statements, etc.) that are difficult to comprehend or confusing. However, you may still be correct. Abstruse is used for such things that are difficult to comprehend because they are very complicated or require expert knowledge to understand, whereas obtuse tends to be used for things which are poorly expressed but not necessarily beyond the reach of a person of average knowledge.

Q. I read that the letter "y" was used as an abbreviation for "th" — such as in the word ye, which is really the. Is this correct? Also, I was wondering if I could go a little further. I am studying the Bible and in the King James translation, the word ye is used. Is it being used incorrectly, or are they just trying to duplicate the thorn? Is this common in other literature?

A. The explanation for the archaic use of "y" to mean "th" may be found in the Collegiate Dictionary in the etymology for the word ye, second homograph. A longer version of that explanation is that in some medieval manuscripts the runic letter called a thorn (our "th") became indistinguishable from the Roman letter "y." As the runic letter grew obsolete, some printers used the "y" to replace it. This is the "y" we see in usages such as "Ye Olde Gifte Shoppe."

This ye is a different word from the biblical ye you asked about. You'll notice that in the Collegiate Dictionary, each is treated separately and that this is the first homograph entry. It means "you" and is now usually restricted in use to ecclesiastical or literary language and in various English dialects. This ye comes from the Old English "ge," while the other is an alteration from the Middle English word that was formed from the thorn + e, giving "the."