R or W?

[Jdsk]

That one's easy - the full word for Al isn't...

Sir Humphry made a bit of a mess of naming this new element, at first spelling it alumium (this was in 1807) then changing it to aluminum, and finally settling on aluminium in 1812. His classically educated scientific colleagues preferred aluminium right from the start, because it had more of a classical ring, and chimed harmoniously with many other elements whose names ended in -ium, like potassium, sodium, and magnesium, all of which had been named by Davy.

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) officially standardised on aluminium in 1990, but those who live north of Mexico haven't bothered.

IUPAC recognises aluminum as an alternative. Pronunciation follows.
https://iupac.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Red_Book_2005.pdf

Jonathan

[Jdsk]

If you really want a fight...

Aluminium, or Aluminum?

Nuclear or nucular?

That one's easy...

IMO there's a false attraction to molecular. And it's easier to say with the consonants separated.

Jonathan

[[XAP]Bob]

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) officially standardised on aluminium in 1990, but those who live north of Mexico haven't bothered.

IUPAC recognises aluminum as an alternative. Pronunciation follows.
https://iupac.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Red_Book_2005.pdf
Jonathan

Yep - I can't remember when they recognised it as an alternative, and it still grates when I hear it.
The prescriptivist in me has calmed down a lot about it having looked back over it's history.

IMO there's a false attraction to molecular. And it's easier to say with the consonants separated.

As in people relate the words molecular and nuclear? That seems a bit tenuous to me, but it could easily be true.
Having just tried to get those to words to end the same I'm struggling to work out how that would come together in someone's head. I can only assume that people have heard it wrongly, and it's caught on... but someone must have said it first...
I can't imagine that it was said like that from *reading* it, can it? Is there a similarly spelled word with a different pronunciation?