The one that gets me is they bitch about calling the season Fall. They claim that Americans are so basic and stupid that we can only think to name the season after the leaves falling. They think that the name Autumn (which we also use), borrowed from French, is a far better name for the season.
First of all, we get it. You have your nose firmly up the collective asses of the French, Britain. It's a very pretty language, but maybe you could stop butchering their language for 5 minutes if you're going to be criticizing others for their English.
Second, you are the ones who came up with the name "Fall", Brits. Fall is indeed short for "The Fall of the Leaf". That term predates the US entirely, by almost two centuries, at least. And while you may think to judge us for continuing to use such an obvious name, I have bad news. Because you still use its complement, Spring, short for "The Spring of the Leaf". Say what you will about American English, but at least, in this, we're consistent.
A friend of mine from my TV days was working in South Africa when they hosted the association football World Cup and wound up talking to a woman who worked for the Football Association (the sport’s governing body in England and the reason the sport is called association football). She was angrily insisting to him that Americans invented the name “soccer” and that it never had that name in England. She might have been inebriated, but that was a lot to be confidently incorrect about her own employer.
Mr.Webster of dictionary fame decided to only use Aluminum in his publication so that took over.
The bigger player here is probably Charles Martin Hall, who invented* a cheap method of refining it. Turns out yeah, if it's marketed and sold as aluminum in the US that's what people will know it as.
Although I guess it is possible Webster's dictionary influenced Hall's naming choice.
I wouldn't mind if we went back to calling it alumium, though.
* as a sidenote, also invented in France in the same year (coincidence) by Paul Héroult, thus called the Hall-Héroult process
IIRC the -ium ending denotes a place of origin. I.e Magnesium was first find in Magnesia. Now, the Brits thought the -ium ending sounded posher, so they called it aluminium ... but Alumnia isn't a place, so they're wrong.
Oh I agree with you. It's the rest of the world that doesn't seem to. And I kind of agree with them too. Let me 'splain.
I think the Brits drive on the wrong side of the road. If you look at the origins of this you will find that they are actually driving on the correct side of the road and due to the evolution of the subject it is the rest of the world that messed it up. But... It's the rest of the whole friggin world. I mean it's just a handful of countries that drive on the left. Get your shit together people. So by that logic... aluminium.
I heard it was a bad transmission of the telegram announcing it's discovery. The Americans got it without the I so just started using that word instead. Everyone else got the correct word.
This is not true. The initial discoverer, Sir Humphrey Davy, named it alumium and later changed it to aluminum. British chemists changed the name adding the I. Websters dictionary sealed the deal in 1925 by standardizing the name.
You know the funny thing about that is some Minecraft mods use Bauxite as the name for the ore and ingots to sidestep the debate on how to spell/pronounce the metal lol
It's pseudocode, since I don't know how to program in Java
Technically no, because it's not modifying the item's forge dictionary internal ID, just the displayed string in the two-word combination (IE: "Bauxite Ingot" -> "Aluminum Ingot")
Potassium (K) is called Kalium in New Latin and a variation thereof in plenty of languages. It makes far more sense. The symbol's K in the periodic table an the eymological link with alkali is in the word. The Brits don't have a leg to stand on.
Then again, Americans are stupid about the metric system. Think they can't visualize what 1 meter is, but almost every American can visualize the length of an M16A4 just fine.
Most Americans aren't actually too biased against metric, I'd say that's a stereotype boosted by an extremely vocal minority. The real problem is that most of us can't visualize the length of a yard or mile any better than we can a meter or kilometer. It's more an across the board lack of education.
You know what really grinds my gears as a non-native speaker? Salmon. Why in the motherfuckium does that word have a silent L?? Get a spelling reform you assholes.
Because the position was literally the “left tenet of the king.” His most trusted advisor would be on his right tenant and the left would be the person protecting his blind non dominant side.
Now funny enough both Leuf and lieu spellings exist since about the same time. The lieu tenant comes from the French “in lieu of,” so in lieu of the king that was the next commander. I am not etymologist but from what I understand both explanations are correct. Basically convergent evolution of the word and its meaning.
It seems to have the same reason: English scholars thinking that it would be smart to adopt an orthography that doesn't match the pronounciation, to be more consistent with latin. i.e. the opposite of what modern-day spelling reforms usually try to do.
But the spelling is fucked up because they changed the spelling to the Italian one without changing the pronounciation. It's like the worst of both worlds, the "worlds" being "keep the French version" and "change spelling and pronounciation to the Italian version".
All the weird words for military purposes especially relating to officer ranks come from french. You can blame the Normans (and by extension once again everything is scandavia's fault) or that whole time period where England and France were basically constantly at war, or once again everything is Napoleon's fault.
France had a long period as the dominant land power of Europe and that resulted in a lot of military organization words in most European languages being pulled from them. It's similar to how a lot of military traditions and styles come from Prussia.
Apparently the word had quite the journey on its way to American mouths. It seems to have started its life in Italian as "colonnello," meaning "column of soldiers," derived from "colonna" meaning "column". And then the French got a hold of it... I believe I dont need to explain any further why the word became so fucked... lol.
The word in French is pronounced exactly the way it's spelled, with the same linguistic origins as in Italian. It's really the British that fucked up the pronunciation all on their own.
I guess I'm numb to -ough because it's a relatively common letter sequence in English, i.e. it kind of follows a rule, but salmon is pretty much unique. And 'through' doesn't have that absurd origin of "let's add a silent letter to make it more similar to latin".
Did you also get that factoid from vsauce back in like 2013?
Edit: https://youtu.be/e5jDspIC4hY factoid starts at about 40 seconds in. The entire video is a good watch, though. My, how our attention has changed since 2013...
IDK if I've heard aluminum by itself called an alloy. I do know that steel wheels are typically not called "alloy wheels" for some reason; that's reserved for wheels made from an aluminum alloy.
Bike parts. Lots of bike parts are made of aluminum-based mystery alloy so they're marketed as just "alloy". It's pretty annoying when you're a casual builder who actually cares what your bike is made out of.
We say aluminum in Canada too. I heard it was because aluminum was the original name but was changed to match the other elements shortly after. I guess NA never got the message though
If we're trying to fix inconsistencies in English, the periodic table is barely worth mentioning. Why are read (reed) and read (red) spelled the same? Why don't cow and tow rhyme?
We should probably just abandon English for something better planned like Esperanto.
I'm honestly a fan of having the option to use standardised/latinised chemical element names.
Cu = Cuprum = Copper.
Hg = Hydrargyrum = Mercury. Hydrargyrum is still sometimes (very very rarely) used in English.
Pb = Plumbum = Lead. The French for lead is plomb, for example. Would clear up a lot of confusion with homographs. We already use plumb in English, as in plumb line. (The fact that it's plumbum, not plumbium, does undermine the whole aluminium>aluminum argument obviously).
Argentum instead of silver. Plenty of languages use a variation of that already. English already uses argent in some contexts, like heraldry.
Same thing for natrium instead of sodium, also common to have a variation of that in plenty of languages.
IRC Silicium was the originally proposed name for silicon. Plenty of languages also use a variation of that.
I picked these various elements because they end in -um rather than -ium when described by their Latin names. Because I think it is funny to complain about aluminum ending in -um.
TBH in the past, I've argued both for the -um ending, and for the -ium ending. It really annoys some people. It's even more annoying, when they realise that you've managed to annoy them with such a pedantic point.
Another one is skeptical/sceptical. "I think you'll find it comes from the Greek, so it should be with a k."
Or the plural octopus. "I think you'll find it comes from the Greek, so it's octopodes. Octopi is certainly wrong, because it doesn't come from latin."
PRECISELY! Thank you for proving it! If a single maths-based event occurs then it is called 'mathematical', as in the singular! Meaning that the term 'mathematics' is plural <3
I love British pronunciation most of the time, except for the word arse. That one for some reason grinds my gears. While Rs are mostly not pronounced in their dialects, when it does get pronounced, it goes hard.
Well, the problem is saying that almost all the elements end with -ium, which makes this a non-issue from the jump.
Also, according to the wiki article on aluminum, the US and UK basically swapped their preferred spellings - the -ium form was first preferred in the US, while the UK preferred the -um form, then they each adopted the other instead.
131 Comments
FilthyHands@sh.itjust.works · 125 pts · 283d
Platinum enters the chat.
BlueLineBae@midwest.social · 62 pts · 283d
*Platuminium
SuperNovaStar@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 88 pts · 283d
Technically the guy who discovered it named it Alumium.
MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io · 72 pts · 283d
Alumium first, but then called it aluminum
It kinda reminds me of how the Brits invented the word “soccer” and now get their knickers in a twist if you say it in front of them.
kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 283d
The one that gets me is they bitch about calling the season Fall. They claim that Americans are so basic and stupid that we can only think to name the season after the leaves falling. They think that the name Autumn (which we also use), borrowed from French, is a far better name for the season.
First of all, we get it. You have your nose firmly up the collective asses of the French, Britain. It's a very pretty language, but maybe you could stop butchering their language for 5 minutes if you're going to be criticizing others for their English.
Second, you are the ones who came up with the name "Fall", Brits. Fall is indeed short for "The Fall of the Leaf". That term predates the US entirely, by almost two centuries, at least. And while you may think to judge us for continuing to use such an obvious name, I have bad news. Because you still use its complement, Spring, short for "The Spring of the Leaf". Say what you will about American English, but at least, in this, we're consistent.
tomenzgg@midwest.social · 14 pts · 282d
jqubed@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 283d
A friend of mine from my TV days was working in South Africa when they hosted the association football World Cup and wound up talking to a woman who worked for the Football Association (the sport’s governing body in England and the reason the sport is called association football). She was angrily insisting to him that Americans invented the name “soccer” and that it never had that name in England. She might have been inebriated, but that was a lot to be confidently incorrect about her own employer.
Deceptichum@quokk.au · 48 pts · 283d
resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 283d
Same Brits tricked us into calling it soccer then changed their minds.
insomniac_lemon@lemmy.cafe · 16 pts · 283d
The bigger player here is probably Charles Martin Hall, who invented* a cheap method of refining it. Turns out yeah, if it's marketed and sold as aluminum in the US that's what people will know it as.
Although I guess it is possible Webster's dictionary influenced Hall's naming choice.
I wouldn't mind if we went back to calling it alumium, though.
* as a sidenote, also invented in France in the same year (coincidence) by Paul Héroult, thus called the Hall-Héroult process
edgemaster72@lemmy.world · 68 pts · 283d
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 282d
Yes, but only Argon. Nitrogenium, Carbonium, Phosphorusium, Hydrogenium, Xenonium…
BotsRuinedEverything@lemmy.world · 58 pts · 283d
It was pronounced aluminum first. The Brits changed it purposely to sound fancy.
Bennyboybumberchums@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 283d
BotsRuinedEverything@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 282d
Proof.
https://youtube.com/shorts/Gfxm2qqghsQ
Taniwha420@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 283d
IIRC the -ium ending denotes a place of origin. I.e Magnesium was first find in Magnesia. Now, the Brits thought the -ium ending sounded posher, so they called it aluminium ... but Alumnia isn't a place, so they're wrong.
vithigar@lemmy.ca · 17 pts · 283d
Mendelevium? Ruthorfordium? Uranium? Plutonium?
m532@lemmy.ml · 8 pts · 282d
We performed an autopsy on mendelev and found a new element in there
Taniwha420@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 282d
They discovered those inside Mendel and Rutherford. ... And there's reason Uranium and Plutonium weren't discovered until Bruce Willis went to space.
You know what, it's something I heard once, but doing some research it doesn't really hold water.
Professorozone@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 283d
Actually I believe it was pronounce alum first. It's changed more than once. Anyway, the discoverer gets to name it.
kerrigan778@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 14 pts · 282d
The discoverer named it aluminum
Professorozone@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 282d
Yeah, that's my point. The world blames America for getting it wrong but it was really the discoverer that messed it up.
kerrigan778@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 282d
I mean... They didn't really mess it up, Argentum, Molybdenum, Lanthanum, Aurum, Stannum
It's a pretty standard latin element naming, just not AS common as -ium.
Professorozone@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 281d
Oh I agree with you. It's the rest of the world that doesn't seem to. And I kind of agree with them too. Let me 'splain.
I think the Brits drive on the wrong side of the road. If you look at the origins of this you will find that they are actually driving on the correct side of the road and due to the evolution of the subject it is the rest of the world that messed it up. But... It's the rest of the whole friggin world. I mean it's just a handful of countries that drive on the left. Get your shit together people. So by that logic... aluminium.
purplemonkeymad@programming.dev · 0 pts · 282d
I heard it was a bad transmission of the telegram announcing it's discovery. The Americans got it without the I so just started using that word instead. Everyone else got the correct word.
syreus@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 282d
This is not true. The initial discoverer, Sir Humphrey Davy, named it alumium and later changed it to aluminum. British chemists changed the name adding the I. Websters dictionary sealed the deal in 1925 by standardizing the name.
Saryn@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 282d
Common sense says this is likely an urban myth / made up.
WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 282d
Nice. “I heard” this bullshit so I’m gonna roll up in here and repeat it without verifying it.
Filthmontane@lemmy.zip · 52 pts · 283d
So true! The next three elements that come right after it are Siliconium, Phosphorusium, and Sulfurium! So why wouldn't it be Aluminium?! LOL
Elgenzay@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 283d
I mean, they did write "Almost"
rumschlumpel@feddit.org · 4 pts · 283d
Alumin would be an acceptable compromise.
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 33 pts · 283d
Alum-
A lu min-
Alumi-
Refined Bauxite.
Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 18 pts · 283d
You know the funny thing about that is some Minecraft mods use Bauxite as the name for the ore and ingots to sidestep the debate on how to spell/pronounce the metal lol
Goretantath@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 283d
I never realized that, time to make a mod that renames those instances aluminum!
Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 283d
if(item(forgedict:bauxite)){
replacePrefix(Aluminum)
};
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 282d
Uh, does that break every single mod with a recipe involving bauxuminium, or no?
Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 282d
It's pseudocode, since I don't know how to program in Java
Technically no, because it's not modifying the item's forge dictionary internal ID, just the displayed string in the two-word combination (IE: "Bauxite Ingot" -> "Aluminum Ingot")
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 281d
Hey fair enough, its been... a number of years since I ran a MC server!
I ... don't actually remember the precise syntax anymore either, lol.
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 283d
I'm going with 'box-ite', and if that's wrong somehow, I'm removing it from the server, rofl.
infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net · 30 pts · 282d
It was a British guy who first fucked it up. Cope, Brits.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 282d
Same as with soccer
Hyperrealism@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 281d
Potassium (K) is called Kalium in New Latin and a variation thereof in plenty of languages. It makes far more sense. The symbol's K in the periodic table an the eymological link with alkali is in the word. The Brits don't have a leg to stand on.
Then again, Americans are stupid about the metric system. Think they can't visualize what 1 meter is, but almost every American can visualize the length of an M16A4 just fine.
infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 281d
Most Americans aren't actually too biased against metric, I'd say that's a stereotype boosted by an extremely vocal minority. The real problem is that most of us can't visualize the length of a yard or mile any better than we can a meter or kilometer. It's more an across the board lack of education.
Hyperrealism@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 281d
A kilometer is 1000 M16A4s.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org · 24 pts · 283d
You know what really grinds my gears as a non-native speaker? Salmon. Why in the motherfuckium does that word have a silent L?? Get a spelling reform you assholes.
NewSocialWhoDis@lemmy.zip · 35 pts · 283d
Now try: "Colonel"
As a native speaker, I think it's orders of magnitude worse.
sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 13 pts · 282d
Y'all are out here gonna ignore "Lieutenant" as 'LeFtenant' ?
NewSocialWhoDis@lemmy.zip · 11 pts · 282d
TBF, Americans say Loo-ten-unt. I don't know where the British got the F, but you can't use the meme from the post for it!
yeather@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 282d
How would you pronounce the lieu then? It comes out as leeu or loo.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 282d
Loo, leeu sounds not American English as a syllable
bobgobbler@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 282d
Because the position was literally the “left tenet of the king.” His most trusted advisor would be on his right tenant and the left would be the person protecting his blind non dominant side.
Now funny enough both Leuf and lieu spellings exist since about the same time. The lieu tenant comes from the French “in lieu of,” so in lieu of the king that was the next commander. I am not etymologist but from what I understand both explanations are correct. Basically convergent evolution of the word and its meaning.
Jax@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 281d
'Left tenet of the king' is simply untrue, the answer is that no one knows — hence the debate.
WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 282d
As an etymologist- this is… NONSENSE. Fucking WHY the need to weigh in on things you know nothing about?
Jax@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 281d
I went after 'em.
Edit: also, sorry admins — I have not read the rules I just try my best to not be shithead.
bobgobbler@lemmy.zip · -1 pts · 281d
Jax@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 281d
rumschlumpel@feddit.org · 10 pts · 283d
It seems to have the same reason: English scholars thinking that it would be smart to adopt an orthography that doesn't match the pronounciation, to be more consistent with latin. i.e. the opposite of what modern-day spelling reforms usually try to do.
https://nowiknow.com/the-silent-and-not-so-silent-l/
NewSocialWhoDis@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 283d
Apparently "coronel" was first borrowed from French. No surprise there I guess, with the superfluous vowel in the middle.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org · 11 pts · 283d
But the spelling is fucked up because they changed the spelling to the Italian one without changing the pronounciation. It's like the worst of both worlds, the "worlds" being "keep the French version" and "change spelling and pronounciation to the Italian version".
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 282d
All the weird words for military purposes especially relating to officer ranks come from french. You can blame the Normans (and by extension once again everything is scandavia's fault) or that whole time period where England and France were basically constantly at war, or once again everything is Napoleon's fault.
France had a long period as the dominant land power of Europe and that resulted in a lot of military organization words in most European languages being pulled from them. It's similar to how a lot of military traditions and styles come from Prussia.
cabillaud@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 282d
Jax@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 282d
Why'd you put cologne in your colon, Colonel?
Bennyboybumberchums@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 283d
"Why hello there, KERNULL! How goes the war?"
Apparently the word had quite the journey on its way to American mouths. It seems to have started its life in Italian as "colonnello," meaning "column of soldiers," derived from "colonna" meaning "column". And then the French got a hold of it... I believe I dont need to explain any further why the word became so fucked... lol.
scutiger@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 282d
The word in French is pronounced exactly the way it's spelled, with the same linguistic origins as in Italian. It's really the British that fucked up the pronunciation all on their own.
KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 10 pts · 283d
Assert your dominance, pronounce the L.
bss03@infosec.pub · 7 pts · 282d
Sometimes, I intentionally pronounce the 'b' in "subtle", just to make it clear I'm not.
Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 282d
Where's my "Wed-nes-day" crew? I can't be the only one who likes to phonetically pronounce that day.
See also: Feb-ru-ar-y
And for bonus points: my brother insists that "grand prix" be pronounced as grand pricks. I can't deny his logic.
bobgobbler@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 282d
I literally couldn’t pronounce that word as a child from like 8-16 once I saw the N. My brain would automatically split it into 3 syllables
bricklove@midwest.social · 2 pts · 282d
The word through exists and you're upset about a little silent L
rumschlumpel@feddit.org · 2 pts · 282d
I guess I'm numb to -ough because it's a relatively common letter sequence in English, i.e. it kind of follows a rule, but salmon is pretty much unique. And 'through' doesn't have that absurd origin of "let's add a silent letter to make it more similar to latin".
geissi@feddit.org · 1 pts · 281d
Dear English Language
Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz · 23 pts · 282d
You're right, we should fix that. Helum, Lithum, Beryllum, Sodum, Magnesum.
We should also fix Platinium and Lanthanium.
QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 281d
Do we add ium to lead and gold?
Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz · 3 pts · 281d
Leadium and Goldium.
bobgobbler@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 282d
What about laudanum? I take that shit like magnesium anyway
towerful@programming.dev · 1 pts · 281d
Magnesum*
yakko@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 282d
Muhahahaha
lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com · 20 pts · 283d
Needs text alternative.
Molybdenium, platinium, lanthanium?
mikenurre@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 283d
Soccer
BakerBagel@midwest.social · 20 pts · 283d
You mean the word that was literally invented by the English to describe asSOCiation football?
EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com · 9 pts · 283d
Picking 3 letters in the middle of the word is strange to me. I think we should call it "asser"
PapaStevesy@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 282d
Assest
mikenurre@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 283d
Just trying to stir the pot a bit. :)
SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 283d
Did you also get that factoid from vsauce back in like 2013?
Edit: https://youtu.be/e5jDspIC4hY factoid starts at about 40 seconds in. The entire video is a good watch, though. My, how our attention has changed since 2013...
BakerBagel@midwest.social · 7 pts · 283d
No, my mom is from England and i have to stand my ground on a lot of stuff because I won't let a bunch of Limey's criticize me for their own doings
edgemaster72@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 283d
Just hit em with the Anakin when they don't want to take blame for their own doings
Sir_Simon_Spamalot@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 283d
That's not even an issue.
Try asking them why renaming Natrium to Sodium.
rbn@sopuli.xyz · 8 pts · 282d
Or Kalium to Potassium.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 283d
Why
mortemtyrannis@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 282d
They said to try ask that not actually do it!!!
hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 17 pts · 283d
I don't care which you use for alu
But if you're one of those who call it alloy, then I hope you step on a Lego.
Alloy is a mixture of different materials, not short for aluminium
mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca · 21 pts · 283d
who the fuck calls aluminum alloy
I have never heard of this before
I think you'd get laughed out of the room if you said that around us
sobchak@programming.dev · 6 pts · 283d
IDK if I've heard aluminum by itself called an alloy. I do know that steel wheels are typically not called "alloy wheels" for some reason; that's reserved for wheels made from an aluminum alloy.
infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net · 4 pts · 282d
Bike parts. Lots of bike parts are made of aluminum-based mystery alloy so they're marketed as just "alloy". It's pretty annoying when you're a casual builder who actually cares what your bike is made out of.
mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 282d
I have never noticed that on bike parts before, huh
hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 282d
It happens a lot in cycling circles
morphballganon@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 282d
Guy I went to high school with
He was the epitome of gullible, and had a conspiracy theorist dad
pixeltree@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 16 pts · 283d
Is it time to rename gold to Aurium instead?
18107@aussie.zone · 16 pts · 283d
Aluminuminium. Make everyone angry.
NotSteve_@piefed.ca · 15 pts · 283d
We say aluminum in Canada too. I heard it was because aluminum was the original name but was changed to match the other elements shortly after. I guess NA never got the message though
zipzoopaboop@lemmynsfw.com · 1 pts · 282d
How do you measure your height and what temp do you set your stove to
collapse_already@lemmy.ml · 9 pts · 281d
Copper ium? Gold ium? Lead ium? Mercury ium?
If we're trying to fix inconsistencies in English, the periodic table is barely worth mentioning. Why are read (reed) and read (red) spelled the same? Why don't cow and tow rhyme?
We should probably just abandon English for something better planned like Esperanto.
Hyperrealism@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 281d
I'm honestly a fan of having the option to use standardised/latinised chemical element names.
Cu = Cuprum = Copper.
Hg = Hydrargyrum = Mercury. Hydrargyrum is still sometimes (very very rarely) used in English.
Pb = Plumbum = Lead. The French for lead is plomb, for example. Would clear up a lot of confusion with homographs. We already use plumb in English, as in plumb line. (The fact that it's plumbum, not plumbium, does undermine the whole aluminium>aluminum argument obviously).
Argentum instead of silver. Plenty of languages use a variation of that already. English already uses argent in some contexts, like heraldry.
Same thing for natrium instead of sodium, also common to have a variation of that in plenty of languages.
IRC Silicium was the originally proposed name for silicon. Plenty of languages also use a variation of that.
collapse_already@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 281d
I picked these various elements because they end in -um rather than -ium when described by their Latin names. Because I think it is funny to complain about aluminum ending in -um.
Hyperrealism@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 281d
TBH in the past, I've argued both for the -um ending, and for the -ium ending. It really annoys some people. It's even more annoying, when they realise that you've managed to annoy them with such a pedantic point.
Another one is skeptical/sceptical. "I think you'll find it comes from the Greek, so it should be with a k."
Or the plural octopus. "I think you'll find it comes from the Greek, so it's octopodes. Octopi is certainly wrong, because it doesn't come from latin."
I think I may be an energy vampire.
mediOchre@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 281d
Cuprum, Aurum, Plumbium, Hydrargyrum.
They don't exactly end in -ium but close enough
collapse_already@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 281d
It's plumbum. Notice how they all end in -um? Just like aluminum? You almost caught the nerd joke.
rainbowbunny@slrpnk.net · 7 pts · 282d
And Mathematics is singular, not plural, so shortening it would be "Math" not "Maths."
But it's better to appreciate differences in the pronunciations and spellings of words
Stamets@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 282d
spicehoarder@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 281d
Stamets@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 281d
PRECISELY! Thank you for proving it! If a single maths-based event occurs then it is called 'mathematical', as in the singular! Meaning that the term 'mathematics' is plural <3
Agent641@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 281d
Math's
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 283d
Aluminium is more fun to say
RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com · 6 pts · 283d
just fuck it out and call it alum
MourningDove@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 283d
SurfinBird@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 283d
I’ll give you aluminium if you brits agree to stop pronouncing “ears” like “urrs” because it really weirds me out.
JargonWagon@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 283d
I didn't realize that was a thing.
I love British pronunciation most of the time, except for the word arse. That one for some reason grinds my gears. While Rs are mostly not pronounced in their dialects, when it does get pronounced, it goes hard.
NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone · 6 pts · 281d
In America do you call it copum?
moakley@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 282d
TheOakTree@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 282d
So is it Molybdenium now?
resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 283d
Okay, alumiNEEum it is, then.
Skullgrid@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 283d
don't have dubya pronounce nuclear
homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 283d
Dang. Late to the noo-kyu-lar.
Uiop@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 283d
Hurr gurr Al'memum
oyo@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 282d
I thought the Brits pronounced it "Deep Substrate Foliated Kalkite."
makyo@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 283d
Now do Londinium
epicstove@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 281d
This is really funny as a bilingual person.
When I speak English to my white friends I say Aluminum.
When I speak Sinhala to family I say Aluminium.
AckPhttt@beehaw.org · 2 pts · 283d
First rename "Platinum". Then we'll talk.
MaybeNaught@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 281d
Well, the problem is saying that almost all the elements end with -ium, which makes this a non-issue from the jump. Also, according to the wiki article on aluminum, the US and UK basically swapped their preferred spellings - the -ium form was first preferred in the US, while the UK preferred the -um form, then they each adopted the other instead.
Hyperrealism@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 281d
Also: the latin for lead(Pb) is plumbum, not plumbium. Same thing for gold(Au). It's Aurum, not Aurium. Same for Iron(Fe). Ferrum not Ferrium.
voxthefox@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 281d
Why say more syllable when few do
Lembot_0005@lemy.lol · 2 pts · 283d
Other English-speaking countries do that in a more adequate way?
marcos@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 283d
Yes.
biotin7@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 281d
Also Nucular vs Nuclear
some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 281d
Except one of those is not a word in any dialect, just an unfortunate mispronunciation. (Unless there's such thing as "American Idiot English")
DarkCloud@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 283d
I bet Iggy Pop could say it.