Indict

Do you ever wonder why we pronounce indict as ‘indite’?
 
We don’t say ‘verdite’ instead of ‘verdict’ or ‘edite’ instead of ‘edict’? Why is this?
 
Words such as indict, verdict, and edict have their origins the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root deik (to show), Latin dicere (to say, to speak), and Latin dictare (to declare, dictate). Latin indictare means to declare, accuse, proclaim in writing.
 
The verb ‘to indict’ came to English around 1300. However, at that time, the original English spelling of indict was endite from its source in Old French enditer (to dictate, compose; legally indict). The French pronunciation of ‘enditer’ (en + dite) also came to English at this time.
 
Three hundred years later, scholars changed the spelling of endite to indict in order to reflect the original Latin source indictare. They changed the spelling but they didn’t change the pronunciation.
 
So, to this day we still pronounce indict as ‘endite’. Looks like, in this case, the spoken word trumped the written word.
 
Words like verdict and edict didn’t go through such a transition.
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/pronunciation-of-indict
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