Pronouncing "centimeter"

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This has perplexed me for awhile. Anyone know why so many physicians pronounce it "sonometer"?
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They are Canadian...
 
This is a mystery to anyone 35 and under. Part of it is inertia, I think - even if you were raised on "cent", hearing your seniors say "sont" and wanting to emulate them will cause some drift.

However, I think the Commonwealth thing (UK, Canada, India, Aus, NZ) may have some legs as far as "sont" goes.
 
southerndoc said:
I sometimes slip up and call it a sontometer. I'm not Canadian, but many of my attendings and professors pronounced it as sontometer. Maybe they were anal retentive?

I also pronounce medulla as "muh-dull-uh" instead of "muh-dU-la".
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centimeter: one tenth of a meter. A standardized unit of measure that even the French can agree on, even French Canadians.

saunameter: A device that measures the temperature and humidity index of a sauna. They pronounce it saunameter because of their desire to take steam, which is also why they try to humiliate residents at conferences.

Anal retentive? Perhaps. Pretentions of brilliance? Certainly.
 
I have no idea. It smacks of pretention to me. And I find it puzzling that only MDs do this. I've never heard a scientist or engineer pronouce it that way.
 
it's Hopkins thing from what I understand. A lot of ppl that trained there, and then they trained other people...
 
They say "Sont-a-meter" all over the south. I've no idea why. I wonder if it's got anything to do with the south being the old french part of the country. I'm pretty sure the french would say it that way, "sont-a-meet-air".

The english/canadians/aussies etc. don't say "sont-a-meter" BTW.
 
FACS said:
I'm pretty sure the french would say it that way, "sont-a-meet-air".
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That reminds me of a great Simpson's Quote:

"It's Chow-dah, say it Frenchie, it's Chow-dah!!!"
"Chau-duuur"




As for centimeter, I believe the French say it "son-tee-meh-tre"
 
I always thought it was the surgeons saying "sontimeter" . . .
 
I've wondered if these people also say that 2 quarter is "50 sonts."
 
On a similar note:

Is it um-bih-li-kiss or um-bih-LIKE-iss?

I always thought it was the first one but everyone seems to say the second one.
 
Oh brother. The first time I heard sontimetres was in a neuroanatomy class and everyone just cracked up laughing at this neurosurgeon. It's become a running joke in our class now.

As for Um-bi-like-cus we had an anatomy teacher sit down one day and explain to us that this was the correct pronunciation and that we were all saying it wrong for years. He's rather caught up in things like that so most of us started saying it his way. It's just easier. 2 weeks ago, he was walking past a group of us and heard a 1st year say sys-tole (and not sys-tole-ee) all of us 2nd years started laughing as he launched into an impromptu lecture about how the correct pronunciation has 3 syllables. There's a pool going for when he'll finally convince the faculty to let him teach a medical pronunciation course.
 
Mayhem said:
There's a pool going for when he'll finally convince the faculty to let him teach a medical pronunciation course.
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I think I'd actually take that course. Took me forever to get "air-eh-thema" right. I still have difficulty with "air-eh-theme-ah-tuss" sometimes. :(
 
FYI....It is an accepted pronunciation according to Webster's.

In addition, it comes from the French centime (from which our word cent is derived), which IS pronounced santi-meter.

Some of us were trained by others who pronounced it in this fashion and in addition, in my case, speak French, hence the preferred (or habitual), albeit much deried in this country, "santimeter". I never found it pretentious; least not nearly so much as those who try to correct others.

While we're on the subject, anyone else hear the pronunciation "fee-moral"? I've heard a couple use it, and THAT drives me nutty. :laugh:
 
I thought It was a surgeon thing... my dad was a cutter and says : "so-no-meter"
Originally, as I kid, thats how I thought it was pronounced...
 
The thing is, I never hear regular people saying "sontimeter," only medical people.
 
centimeter: one tenth of a meter. A standardized unit of measure that even the French can agree on, even French Canadians.
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1/10th of a METER? Hello? am I the only anal retentive around here?
 
Joel Fleischman said:
I thought It was a surgeon thing... my dad was a cutter and says : "so-no-meter"
Originally, as I kid, thats how I thought it was pronounced...
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The reason I think it's pretentious is because you have to learn how to pronounce it like that. Other than Joel Fleischman, most of us learned "centimeter." To become a "sontimeter" person, at some point during your medical education, you would have to change how you say it. I don't think I could say it with out busting out laughing.
 
Duodenum is another one that gets me.

I feel like I should be walking around barefoot with banjo music in the background when I pronounce it duo-dee-num but I do it anyway.
 
Dunce said:
Duodenum is another one that gets me.

I feel like I should be walking around barefoot with banjo music in the background when I pronounce it duo-dee-num but I do it anyway.
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That's the way I used to think it was pronounced. Apparantly the correct way is Doo-AWE-den-um.
 
i think saying "santimeter" is a bit ostentatious.

do these same people say "santury" instead on century? i don't think so, unless you are french/canadian.

do you think carpenters and construction workers say "santimeter" ?
 
um·bil·i·cus -> 2 alternate pronunciation (ŭm-bĭl'ĭ-kəs, ŭm'bə-lī'kəs)
This site has a link to an audible pronunciation -> http://www.answers.com/Umbilicus

cen·ti·me·ter (sĕn'tə-mē'tər) http://www.answers.com/centimeter
ĕ sounds like e in pEt
ə sounds like a in about, u in circus, e in item. This means that the 2nd syllable 'ti' should NOT be pronounced like 'tĭ ' or 'tī ' ( ĭ sounds like i in pit & ī is like y in by).
Unfortunately many ppl do pronounce 'ti' like tĭ instead of tə.
 
Kimberli Cox said:
FYI....It is an accepted pronunciation according to Webster's.
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Webster's? i tried their online dictionary, but it is'nt showing any other accepted pronunciation. EDIT: oh wait saw it on merriam-webster..alternate usage is 'sän-' where ä sounds like a in father.

Kimberli Cox said:
In addition, it comes from the French centime (from which our word cent is derived)..
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comes from centime? and cent is derived from it?

centimeter
1801, from France, coined from Latin centum (hundred) + French metre.

cent
c.1400, from Latin centum (hundred). M.E. meaning was "one hundred," but shifted to "hundredth part" under infl. of percent. Chosen in this sense in 1786 as name for U.S. currency unit by Continental Congress. The name was first suggested by Robert Morris in 1782 under a different currency plan. Before the cent, colonial dollars were reckoned in ninetieths, based on the exchange rate of Pennsylvania money and Spanish coin.

centi-
a metric prefix meaning one hundredth, or 0.01. The prefix comes from the Latin word centum for one hundred.

meter
"unit of length," 1797, from French mètre, from Greek metron "measure," from PIE base *me- "measure" (cf. Gk. metra "lot, portion," Skt. mati "measures," matra "measure," Avestan, O.Pers. ma-, L. metri "to measure"). Developed by Fr. Academy of Sciences for system of weights and measures based on a decimal system originated 1670 by Fr. clergyman Gabriel Mouton. Originally intended to be one ten-millionth of the length of a quadrant of the meridian.
 
matakanan said:
Webster's? i tried their online dictionary, but it is'nt showing any other accepted pronunciation. EDIT: oh wait saw it on merriam-webster..alternate usage is 'sän-' where ä sounds like a in father.


comes from centime? and cent is derived from it?

centimeter
1801, from France, coined from Latin centum (hundred) + French metre.

cent
c.1400, from Latin centum (hundred). M.E. meaning was "one hundred," but shifted to "hundredth part" under infl. of percent. Chosen in this sense in 1786 as name for U.S. currency unit by Continental Congress. The name was first suggested by Robert Morris in 1782 under a different currency plan. Before the cent, colonial dollars were reckoned in ninetieths, based on the exchange rate of Pennsylvania money and Spanish coin.

centi-
a metric prefix meaning one hundredth, or 0.01. The prefix comes from the Latin word centum for one hundred.

meter
"unit of length," 1797, from French mètre, from Greek metron "measure," from PIE base *me- "measure" (cf. Gk. metra "lot, portion," Skt. mati "measures," matra "measure," Avestan, O.Pers. ma-, L. metri "to measure"). Developed by Fr. Academy of Sciences for system of weights and measures based on a decimal system originated 1670 by Fr. clergyman Gabriel Mouton. Originally intended to be one ten-millionth of the length of a quadrant of the meridian.
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Thank you for (so thoroughly) correcting me.
 
Kimberli Cox said:
FYI....It is an accepted pronunciation according to Webster's.

In addition, it comes from the French centime (from which our word cent is derived), which IS pronounced santi-meter.

Some of us were trained by others who pronounced it in this fashion and in addition, in my case, speak French, hence the preferred (or habitual), albeit much deried in this country, "santimeter". I never found it pretentious; least not nearly so much as those who try to correct others.

While we're on the subject, anyone else hear the pronunciation "fee-moral"? I've heard a couple use it, and THAT drives me nutty. :laugh:
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All very good, but most people trained in US medical schools speak the US dialect of English.

An bug with 100 legs, centipede or sontipede? A unit of measure designating 100 years, a sontury or a century?

Umbi-like-us ir umbili-cus? Do we say, " umbi-like-al" cord or umbilical cord?
 
I know lots of people that say umbi-like-us except when using it as an adjective. By the way, in English, "an bug" is incorrect. :p
 
according to the little voice emerging from my computer (thanks to Stedmans Electronic Medical Dictionary, ver 6.0 (2004) it's not son-anything.
 
When I was a first year med student I was transcribing for my cardiovascular physiology class when the professor starting talking about sonimeters. After spending 10 minutes online looking for the spelling of this unit of measure that I assumed was specific to some modality of cardiac imaging, I finally broke down and asked my second year roommates, who broke out into raucous laughter and explained the sonimeter to me. I would sooner give up my MD to become a chiropractor then give in to the sonimeter crowd.
 
Here's one:

One of the Ophtho attendings I used to worked with pronounced the eye muscles as "Obe-like."

This is him dictating..."we have an orbital floor fracture with an entrapment of the inferior OB-LIKE!" Come to think of it, he also pronounced centimeter as "sonimeters."

Great guy, though.
 
Kimberli Cox said:
Thank you for (so thoroughly) correcting me.
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LOL .. did'nt realise that i was correcting you.. was adding to your statement, from what i had read on etymology and dictionary sites.
I thought yours was a legitimate alternate version of how 'cent' came from 'centime'... don't tell me u were just bull****ting :D


turtle said:
What about vertigo? Ver-tie-go or vert-i-go?
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ver·ti·go -> vûr'tĭ-gō' ....which means it is ti and not tie. Plus the 'go' is short and stops suddenly, and not stretched.
1528, Middle English, from Latin vertīgō, from vertere, to turn.
If u notice in the Latin vertigo, ti is like tie and go is stretched like toe. So choose ur pick ...if u want to sound Middle English or Latin.

But if enough ppl pronounce a word in a unique way (i rather not say wrong way), that soon becomes an acceptable alternate pronunciation. So every faction will keep saying it in the way they want it pronounced, in the hopes that it becomes the dominant form of pronunciation.
 
Furrball2 said:
Umbi-like-us ir umbili-cus? Do we say, " umbi-like-al" cord or umbilical cord?
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They say umbi-like-al cord.
 
matakanan said:
LOL .. did'nt realise that i was correcting you.. was adding to your statement, from what i had read on etymology and dictionary sites.
I thought yours was a legitimate alternate version of how 'cent' came from 'centime'... don't tell me u were just bull****ting :D



ver·ti·go -> vûr'tĭ-gō' ....which means it is ti and not tie. Plus the 'go' is short and stops suddenly, and not stretched.
1528, Middle English, from Latin vertīgō, from vertere, to turn.
If u notice in the Latin vertigo, ti is like tie and go is stretched like toe. So choose ur pick ...if u want to sound Middle English or Latin.

But if enough ppl pronounce a word in a unique way (i rather not say wrong way), that soon becomes an acceptable alternate pronunciation. So every faction will keep saying it in the way they want it pronounced, in the hopes that it becomes the dominant form of pronunciation.
Click to expand...
In Latin, it would be something similar to ware-tee-go. And in American English, there is no difference between stretched out and non-stretched out vowels in most settings thanks to the Great Vowel Shift. As far as I know, the only proper pronunciation for vertigo is with a "short" i as in big, and stress on the first syllable.
 
Nerdoscience said:
In Latin, it would be something similar to ware-tee-go.
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Hmm..... well in the Latin word vertīgō, ī is pronounced as in tie and ō is pronounced like in toe.
For it to be pronounced ware-tee-go, instead of ī it should have been ē and instead of ō it should have been ŏ (that is vertēgŏ)
 
Furrball2 said:
All very good, but most people trained in US medical schools speak the US dialect of English.

An bug with 100 legs, centipede or sontipede? A unit of measure designating 100 years, a sontury or a century?

Umbi-like-us ir umbili-cus? Do we say, " umbi-like-al" cord or umbilical cord?
Click to expand...


Well, I wasn't trained in the US, and am used to the "santimeter" manner, and am simply making the point that both pronuciations are correct and that rather than wasting our limited time on correcting people for "mispronunciations" we should accept that the English language has many variables, some of which don't make sense.
 
matakanan said:
LOL .. did'nt realise that i was correcting you.. was adding to your statement, from what i had read on etymology and dictionary sites.
I thought yours was a legitimate alternate version of how 'cent' came from 'centime'... don't tell me u were just bull****ting :D

.
Click to expand...

NO not BSing, was told that it came from the Fr centime, but frankly didn't verify that myself (and as a Fr speaker saw no reason not to believe it). :D
 
i just call erverything borborygmous and skip over struggling with pronunciations.
 
"Sontometer" makes my skin crawl. I remember the first time I heard one of our professors (a GI doc) say this in lecture. I wasn't sure if he meant "centimeter" or there was another form of measurement I didn't know anything about :laugh:
 
Yay...thought I was the only one gritting my teeth every time an attending says sontimeter...

On a related note, it may be a Miami thing, but a lot of my attendings and professors used to say "dilatation" as in "aortic root dilatation". This used to absolutely drive me up the wall. You don't say "dilatate" when you inflate a balloon catheter in a stenosed vessel, it's "dilate". Similarly, it's "dilated cardiomyopathy" not "dilatated cardiomyopathy". So where on earth can't people say "dilation"?
 
MediCane2006 said:
On a related note, it may be a Miami thing, but a lot of my attendings and professors used to say "dilatation" as in "aortic root dilatation".
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There is actually a word called Dilatation, mostly used in the medical field and has the same meaning as dilation.
But there are no verbs like dilatate or dilatated, only an adjective (dilatational).
 
MediCane...

Just wanted to give you a thumbs up on your song choice on your myspace profile. :thumbup:
 
Apollyon said:
This is a mystery to anyone 35 and under. Part of it is inertia, I think - even if you were raised on "cent", hearing your seniors say "sont" and wanting to emulate them will cause some drift.

However, I think the Commonwealth thing (UK, Canada, India, Aus, NZ) may have some legs as far as "sont" goes.
Click to expand...

I grew up in UK. Always said cent. not sont. but I still say alumineeyum NOT aluminum. I HATE sont. ugh.

What about preventive vs. preventative?
 
matakanan said:
There is actually a word called Dilatation, mostly used in the medical field and has the same meaning as dilation.
But there are no verbs like dilatate or dilatated, only an adjective (dilatational).
Click to expand...

Really? Well then I stand corrected. I have never seen such a word in any dictionary that I've looked in, but I'll buy that it exists. Still annoying,though
 
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