How do you say patent?

[Paranteser]

I need to give a speech and getting in doubt! Is it pay-tint or pat-int (short a as in pat or ay like in pay). Help!

If you're a chemist, it's Al.

Pah-tent

We may sometimes write it thus, but we don’t call it Al …
…thanks for the earworm!

I used to work a lot with patents for work (including a specialised patent attorney firm, external patent lawyers and the engineers in the business creating the subject of the patents).

All pronounced it pah-tent. As do I 🤣

This.

I love how everyone on here who either works as a patent lawyer or knows someone who does is (rightfully) saying it’s pah-tented (and pay-tent for the shiny shoe) yet others are still saying, ‘nope, it’s pay-tent!!’ I just … I wonder what it’s like to be so confidently wrong 😂

Nope

Something amusing happened as I was reading this thread as well as simultaneously listening to a podcast by an American. He just said 'patently' pronounced 'pat-ently'. Does that mean all Americans say it that way? No, but I thought it was funny I heard it as I was reading here!

A Brief History of Patent Leather

In the 1790s a gentleman named Hand from Birmingham, England obtained a patent for preparing leather in such a way that it was waterproof. One of the earliest references to ‘patent leather’ with its high-gloss finish was in a British periodical called The Bee, or Literary Weekly Intelligencer that recognized Mr Hand as having obtained a patent for the process which then inspired other inventors around the country.

Six years later Edmund Prior of London received a patent for a method of painting and coloring leather with dyes and finishing it with an oil varnish. In 1805 another patent was awarded to London inventor Charles Mollersten for a leather chemical finish that was glossy. In 1818 patent leather was introduced to America by New Jersey inventor Seth Boyden who improved the original formula and created a linseed oil based lacquer coating but never patented his process.

I know it's pah-tent. But it just doesn't seem right!

I've been mocked on this thread but no one has yet even attempted to explain why patents for dishwashers or bicycles or hoovers should all be pronounced one way, but specifically patents for leather should be pronounced another way.

I can only guess that people don't know that patent leather means leather that had a patent?

As I say, this is pedants' corner. Simply shouting "you're wrong and no one agrees with you" is not quality pedantry. Pedantry means looking into meanings, origins, reasons for change of usage.

IP lawyer here! Pa-tent. „ the invention patent“

„that is pay-tently clear“

So

noun - pa-tent
verb - pa-tent
adverb, adjective - pay-tent (ly)

So you're right and the dictionary is wrong. Got it.

I agree with this but patent leather isn't patent used as the adjective, that's the misconception that's on here. It's not patent as in clear. It is patent as in having a patent. An adjectival noun.

Cf: "I've just bought that new patent dishwasher"

Intellectual property lawyer here - pat-int (for the monopoly right) pay-tent for shiny shoes (unless you are American - they pronounce them both pay-tent).

I’m a patent attorney and we all say ‘pa-tent’ not ‘pay-tent’. Maybe the whole industry is wrong but I’ve never heard it pronounced ‘pay-tent’ 🤷🏻‍♀️

Because language has changed since the 1790s you numpty. We don’t call recipes “receipts” as they did back then either.

Two patent lawyers have replied since your post saying they pronounce it ‘pah-tent’ so I don’t know what to tell you 😂

Either your whole industry is wrong or the dictionary is, which seems more likely?

If you're resorting to insults, maybe you don't have a strong enough argument...

I don’t have an argument. I have facts. I know I am right because I am a specialist who has worked with patents since 1991. Ta dah.

The logical fallacy of appealing to authority occurs when someone accepts a claim as true simply because an authority figure supports it. This fallacy relies on the perceived credibility of the authority figure rather than the validity of the argument itself.

I presume that many replies are pedantically answering the OP's titular question as to how they pronounce it rather than making a case for that actually being correct.

I, like others, have always pronounced it to rhyme with blatant and latent, but am not defending that, just adding my voice to those saying it's not unusual to hear that pronunciation outside a professional patent-using environment. I also agree that, while it may be wrong, it's easy to see why so many people pronounce it like that when there are established pronunciation principles (such as rhyming with similarly spelled words for example) that support a belief that it's correct. 😉

Eta - that took me so long to post that it looks like the balance might have tipped the other way!!

Either way, I'm sure there are more words that have a 'professional conventional pronunciation' (possibly for ease of international communications) that differs from a perfectly acceptable lay-pronounciation.

You are not very good at constructing an argument, are you. There is no claim. The question was how to pronounce a term of art. Three or more practitioners in that field have confirmed the pronunciation. There is no argument otherwise, save your plaintive cry “But Why?”. Doesn’t matter why. Asked and answered.