I’ve read Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land” many times. So, I’ve seen “demob” at least conceptually as a root in print, though I can never recall actually having heard “demob.”
The word used in Eliot’s published version of the poem is “demobbed” which may have assisted my failure in recalling hearing/seeing “demob” itself in actual use:
<snip>
Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door.
When Lil’s husband got demobbed, I said -
I didn’t mince my words, I said to her myself,
HURRY UP PLEASE IT’S TIME
<snip>
I thought that maybe if I’d been more sure of the pronunciation of “demob,” I might have better remembered encountering it--even if only as a root of “demobbed” from the poem.
So, I wondered about generally accepted pronunciation of “demob.”
Is the pronunciation “di-ˈmōb” or “dē-ˈmōb”
Or is it “‘di-mōb” or “‘dē-mōb”
And, I wondered, what of the second syllable? Is it ever usually “mäb” as in “The Mob” of the stereotypical organized crime sense?
My personal preference is: “‘dē-mōb”