Heard spelling

ginoecium

Spelled gynoecium. y doing the work of i

Where does the y in gynoecium come from?

From Greek gyne, woman. The vowel was upsilon, and English transliterates upsilon as y.

That y says a short i in most mouths, which is why ginoecium looks so plausible. The same upsilon sits in gymnasium, gynaecology and glyph, none of which sound like their spelling either. Remember that the word opens with the same three letters as gynaecology and the rest of it stops being a guess.

Say

guy-NEE-see-um, and jy-NEE-see-um is heard just as often

Letters

G-Y-N-O-E-C-I-U-M