Minor Queries.
Oasis.
—What is the proper pronunciation of this word? Ninety-nine people out of a hundred will say, as I said, "Oāsis, of course!" Let them, however, proceed to consult authorities, and they will begin to be puzzled. Its derivation from the Coptic "wáhe" (or "ouahe," the French way of expressing the Egyptian word wáhe.—Encycl. Metrop.) seems universally admitted. As to the pronunciation, the way in which the word is accented by the different authorities in which I have been able to find it is as follows:—
Ὄασις (πόλις).—Herodot. iii. 26. Larcher's Notes, and Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon, give no help as to the pronunciation.
Rees's Cyclopædia, and the Encyclopædia Britannica, do not accent the word at all. Brasse's Greek Gradus, Ainsworth's and Riddle's Dictionaries, Yonge's Gradus, Walker's Rhyming Dictionary, Webster, Richardson, and Johnson, do not even contain the word.
The few authorities which do accent the word, do it "with a difference." Ex. gr.:
O'asis.—Penny Cyclopædia.
O'asis.—Imperial Dictionary.
O'asis.—Spiers' English-French Dictionary.
Oăsis.—Anthon's Lemprière.