I have hated this word since 2007.
"Why?" you might ask? Imagine you are in an English class, and the teacher decided to do the worst thing imaginable and have every student read out loud.
This sucks for everyone involved, from the people who suck at reading, to the people who suck at speaking in public, to the people who just don't want to participate in group activities. Nobody likes it.
I'm in the "if these 3rd-grade-reading-level-in-highschool-having-dumbasses weren't slowing me down I would be done with this book by now" crowd. It also used to irritate me to no end when people mispronounced (in my opinion as a teenager) easy words.
One fine day a particularly dense student comes across this "word of the year 2024 winner" of a word, hesitates slightly at the unfamiliar letter combination, and says..... "Dee-murrrrrr" like Dee the name, and the first half of "Murray"
The teacher is always quick to correct pronunciation, but for some reason... Doesn't.
Then the word pops up again. Same thing. "dee-murr". The next student reads the following handful of paragraphs. Comes to the word again, and says "dee-murr" with complete confidence.
Eventually it gets to me, and finally someone can correct the people who have been saying it wrong.
When I get to a sentence that has it, I pronounce it with a not-so-subtle emphasis to try and indicate in that undeservedly-areogant way that only a teenager can, I'm right, you're wrong. This is how you say it. way.
And the teacher fucking corrects me and says "Dee-murr"
I did a double take and said "It's pronounced demure." to which the teacher replied "It's dee-murr, just keep going"
Teenage me chose that hill to die on.
"I had a college reading level when I was in second grade, I corrected 3 elementary teachers grammar, and my family's library has more books than you even looked at in college, I know how to pronounce words, as you should the second you look it up in the dictionary." (paraphrased, I can't remember exactly what I said except the college reading level since I was quite proud of that in school)
Wouldn't you know it, the teacher apologized, asked me if I wanted to teach the class for the day, stood on his desk and said OH CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN and everyone clapped.
Or I got detention, hated that teacher for all time, and now every time I see or hear that godforsaken word the embers of rage stir deep within my soul...
Probably that second one.