police

1520–30; < Middle French: government, civil administration, police < Late Latin polītia citizenship, government, for Latin polītīa; see polity

Many English words exemplify the original stress rule of Old English and other early Germanic languages, according to which all parts of speech except unprefixed verbs were stressed on the first syllable, and prefixed verbs were stressed on the syllable immediately following the prefix. Although the scope of this rule has been greatly restricted by the incorporation into English of loanwords that exhibit other stress patterns, the rule has always remained operative to some degree, and many loanwords have been conformed to it throughout the history of English. For South Midland and Midland U.S. speakers in particular, shifting the stress in borrowed nouns from a noninitial syllable to the first syllable is still an active process, yielding [poh-lees] /ˈpoʊ lis/ for police and [dee-troit] /ˈdi trɔɪt/ for Detroit, as well as cement, cigar, guitar, insurance, umbrella, and idea said as [see-ment] /ˈsi mɛnt/, [see-gahr] /ˈsi gɑr/, [git-ahr] /ˈgɪt ɑr/, [in-shoo r-uh ns] /ˈɪn ʃʊər əns/, [uhm-brel-uh] /ˈʌm brɛl ə/, and [ahy-deeuh] /ˈaɪ diə/.