Why do Americans say aluminum?
The American Chemical Society (ACS) officially adopted aluminum in 1925, but in 1990 The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) accepted aluminium as the international standard. And so we land today: with aluminum used by the English speakers of North America, and aluminium used everywhere else.
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary English chemist Sir Humphry Davy named the element alumium in 1808 and then changed it to aluminum in 1812. British editors changed it to aluminium to be more in keeping with other elements such as potassium and sodium, while the Americans retained the spelling as aluminum.
Aluminum and aluminium are two names for element 13 on the periodic table. In both cases, the element symbol is Al, although Americans and Canadians spell and pronounce the name aluminum, while the British (and most of the rest of the world) use the spelling and pronunciation of aluminium.
Why do the British use an 's' in words like 'realise' but the Americans use a 'z'? It's because American English spelling, many of the rules of which were devised by Noah Webster, who thought it would develop into a separate language, follows the rules of Latin and Greek, whereas British English uses those of French.
Nevertheless, other British chemists decided to adopt the name Aluminium. They thought it had a more classical sound and was in line with the ending of the other elements isolated by Davy. This confusion began the debate on the ending of the word that continues to our day.
Aluminum became preferred in the United States and Canada, while aluminium became favored throughout the rest of the English-speaking world.
They both call it aluminum. The Americans say Alum-inum. The Australians say Al-u-min-ium.
The slang or colloquial term tinnie or tinny has a variety of meanings, generally derived from some association with the metal tin, or aluminium foil which has a loose allusion to tin.
Gray and grey are both common spellings of the color between black and white. Gray is more frequent in American English, whereas grey is more common in British English. The varying usage of both grey and gray extends to specialized terms such as animal species (gray/grey whale) and scientific terms (gray/grey matter).
Webster had a choice between the original color or the more recent French influenced colour, both of which had existed in British English for a long time. Not surprisingly Webster chose the older and simpler “color” for inclusion in his dictionary. This is why most Americans spell it color rather than colour.
Why do Americans say Copacetic?
It was used by the tap dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (1877-1949) in radio broadcasts during the 1930's; Robinson claimed to have coined the word in an exchange of letters with the lexicographer Charles Earle Funke (see Funke's article "Bill Robinson's 'Copesetic'," American Speech, vol.
Mom and Mommy are old-English words, words that are stilled used in Birmingham and most parts of the West Midlands. It is said that when people from the West Midlands went to America many years ago they took the spelling with them, hence Americans use Mom and Mommy.
ELI5: Why do Americans say 'I could care less' instead of 'I couldn't care less'? If someone says 'I could care less', it implies that they do care - to some extent - about that thing. But, if someone says 'I couldn't care less', then that implies that they care about the thing as little as possible.
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary English chemist Sir Humphry Davy named the element alumium in 1808 and then changed it to aluminum in 1812. British editors changed it to aluminium to be more in keeping with other elements such as potassium and sodium, while the Americans retained the spelling as aluminum.
In Canada and the U.S. , the preferred spelling is aging. British usage favours the variant ageing, which is also accepted in Canada.
Under normal circ*mstances, aluminium is not magnetic, mainly because of its crystal structure. It's referred to as a paramagnetic material along with other metals like Magnesium and Lithium.
We Yanks spell it “aluminum,” which was originally used by the element's discoverer, the great British chemist Sir Humphrey Davy, in 1811. British English spells it “aluminium,” which was coined by the Danish chemist Hans Christian Ørsted.
These are perfectly polite terms. In the United Kingdom, “the loo” is a common term for toilet. 'The loo' is generally a safe term to use and likely won't offendanyone. 'Lavatory' is a good option for people looking for a very formal word to use in very formal occasions.
2 syllables: "THUR" + "stee"
In May 2013, Wilhite was presented with a lifetime achievement award at the annual Webby Awards honoring excellence on the Internet. Upon accepting the award at the ceremony, Wilhite displayed a five-word slide that simply read, in all caps: "It's pronounced 'jif' not 'gif'".
Why do English people say leftenant?
The Oxford Dictionary suggests that it might be because at some point, the "u" in the French word "lieu" was pronounced as a "v" (which was not uncommon in French given the derivation from the Latin "v" for many "u"s). "Leftenant" would then be easier to pronounce than "levtenant."
The word is from French "souder," but the L was put into the spelling on the basis of the Latin etymology (related to "solid"), and eventually a lot of people started pronouncing the L. This is very similar to what happened with "salmon" except that nobody pronounces the L in that one.
chuckle | American Dictionary
to laugh quietly: She was chuckling as she read the letter.
He said "EE-mooh" was listed as a standard US pronunciation in reference works such as the Merriam-Webster and Oxford English dictionaries. "I can unreservedly say that Americans are free to pronounce 'emu' with or without a palatal consonant: /ˈimju/ or /ˈimu/," he said.
Like fringe on Western wear, the fact that British people say Aluminum with more syllables has bothered me for some time. The Brits added a single letter “i” to aluminum and turned it into “alumin-ium” thus changing it from four syllables to five.
