AmE vs BrE pronunciation of "piste"

According to this extract from Wikipedia, the pronunciation of the term piste meaning "a ski run of compacted snow.":

  • varies slightly in English, with British English using a long "e", (e.g. rhymes with "beast"), and American pronunciation using a short "i" (e.g. rhymes with "list").

Actually, references such as the Cambridge Dictionary or the ODO suggest that the pronunciation is the same in both dialects, that is, with a long "e".

Does the AmE pronunciation of "piste" really differ from the BrE one, or are both versions correct?


Neither pronunciation of piste (with /ɪ/, like pissed, or with /iː/, like pieced) seems to be strictly localized to a specific geographical region (which is not surprising, I think, given that it's a rarely-heard word and it's likely a fair amount of people base their pronunciation on its spelling).

Currently, in both regions it seems the /ɪ/ pronunciation is rare and the /iː/ pronunciation is predominant. The comments by Peter Shor indicate that it's possible the /ɪ/ pronunciation is more common in the context of fencing. However, I only saw one person in this forum thread who mentioned hearing or using this pronunciation, and BladorthinTheGrey left a comment here saying "I live in Britain and I am a fencer, I have never heard anyone pronounce it with an /ɪ/". So it seems even in fencing it is quite a minority pronunciation.

The Oxford English Dictionary records the "long e" pronunciation as current for both British and American English, and it also has a note saying the N.E.D.(1907) gave the pronunciation /pɪst/ for the variant of this word spelled pist.