Pronouncing "centimeter"

[Meat Cookie]

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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.

Definitely NOT a Canadian thing, we pronounce it sent-a-meter like most everyone else. And du-wad-en-um is an ugly pronunciation for a beautiful structure. Duo-dee-num please.

 

[matakanan]

I have never seen such a word in any dictionary that I've looked in...

Here is one dictionary -> http://www.answers.com/topic/dilatation

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

Hmm... i can assure u that Indians trained in english (and usually it is RP english) don't say 'sont'.

 

[Apollyon]

Hmm... i can assure u that Indians trained in english (and usually it is RP english) don't say 'sont'.

So, now, for the third time (Canada, UK, and India) has corrected me.

1. read the thread - I acknowledged this

2. I GET IT!

On the flip side, if you're just affirming your point of view, I appreciate it.

I see that it does NOT have legs. And, therefore, I have NO idea where it comes from.

 

[fomites]

This has perplexed me for awhile. Anyone know why so many physicians pronounce it "sonometer"?

'sontimeter' people should be beaten with the ugly stick, as should the 'shed-yule' people

 

[fomites]

um, also very annoying: 'naw-zha' (nausea)

 

[NinerNiner999]

I think the whole "sonimeter" thing comes from a northeastern pronunciation (i.e. Boston)...

 

[southerndoc]

I think the whole "sonimeter" thing comes from a northeastern pronunciation (i.e. Boston)...

I pahked my cah a sonimeter from yous cah in the Hahvad yahd.

 

[Nerdoscience]

Hmm..... well in the Latin word vert?g?, ? is pronounced as in tie and ? is pronounced like in toe.
For it to be pronounced ware-tee-go, instead of ? it should have been ? and instead of ? it should have been ? (that is vert?g?)

You are confusing the Latin and English pronunciation guides. The i with the line (macron) over it in Latin means it is long (literally) like a stretched out "ee". In Latin, unlike English, vowel length matters.

Not that this is relevant in life anyway, unless you are a linguist, which I am.

 

[orientedtoself]

Not that this is relevant in life anyway, unless you are a linguist, which I am.

So Mr. Nerdoscience, what is the origin of the sontimeter?

 

[f_w]

do you think carpenters and construction workers say "santimeter" ?

They say 'two by four' (never heard them refer to a 5.08cm by 10.16cm board).

 

[Nerdoscience]

So Mr. Nerdoscience, what is the origin of the sontimeter?

It is French influence, as has been determined earlier in this thread. The metric system has many historical ties to France, but I honestly don't know if that's why the pronunciation exists. Merriam Webster has both "senti" and "sonti" listed as acceptable pronunciations.

 

[boulux]

All these words are really easy to pronounce for me since I speak almost exclusively french. Words like centimeter, acetylcholine or whatever are really easy to pronounce for us.

 

[asdfaa]

All these words are really easy to pronounce for me since I speak almost exclusively french. Words like centimeter, acetylcholine or whatever are really easy to pronounce for us.

Centimeter is not "difficult" for anyone to pronounce. There's just two versions. You can use the mainstream (sent-ah-meat-er) or the minority pretentious frenchy sounding version (sont-ah-meat-er) that is found only in medicine. That's all.

 

[matakanan]

You are confusing the Latin and English pronunciation guides.

Thank you...I stand corrected.

 

[Zummy]

They say 'two by four' (never heard them refer to a 5.08cm by 10.16cm board).

 

[carrigallen]

The transitive verb de jour that I dislike:

"prognosticate" - ie to predict. Why not just say, "predict"?, instead of wasting another hundred syllables trying to sound smart?

I agree there is never any valid reason to say "dilatation" instead of just "dilation".

Another unique pronunciation I is "pulp-pit-tations", turning it into 4 syllables.

 

[ekydrd]

Hmmm... interesting thread. Reminds me of a professor teaching us about diffusion who said "cuh-PILL-ary" in med school. Took us the whole lecture to figure out she was saying capillary. She studied her doctorate in England. Also made me think about the doctor (don't remember which country he was from) who kept saying AH-set-uh-MAH-nefen during the lecture on pain control. Guess he couldn't say Tylenol.

I noticed that I just say those words the way what ever attending I'm working with does.

 

[cfdavid]

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.

Yep, pretention. I've heard attendings speak of "during my rausidency".........

 

[anon-y-mouse]

I have heard two pronunciations of ibuprofen... one with emphasis on 'bu' and the other with 'i' and 'pro' emphasis. What's the deal with this?

 

[InfraMan]

I'm doing an internship between M1/M2 and I was in a patient room with the OB when she told ME her cervice was dilated 2 sontimeters then turned to the patient and told her that it was 2 centimeters!

Since then I've noticed she uses sontimeters with health care professionals and centimeters with patients. Too funny.

I'm an engineer and the word is centimeters - end of story.

 

[DOtobe]

I have heard two pronunciations of ibuprofen... one with emphasis on 'bu' and the other with 'i' and 'pro' emphasis. What's the deal with this?

I've only heard one pronunciation of ibuprofen... 😕 I've never heard "i-BU-profen" (luckily, because that would be annoying too )

 

[Morsetlis]

I love English ...

 

[Substance]

"Sontameeters" is a meaningless pronunciation.

The first part - sonta - is derived from the French dialect for the centi prefix.

The last part - meeters - is the English way of saying meters.

Combining them is ugly and unnecessary. If anyone had any class, they'd pronounce it "sonta-met", with both parts of the word staying within the French pronunciation.

If someone says "sontameeters" to me, it lets me know that they are ignorantly pretentious *****s who doubt their intelligence so much they have to resort to saying words that they think sound smart but are in actual fact about as dignified as ghetto slang.

Horrid.

 

[Morichka]

"Sontameeters" is a meaningless pronunciation.

The first part - sonta - is derived from the French dialect for the centi prefix.

The last part - meeters - is the English way of saying meters.

Combining them is ugly and unnecessary. If anyone had any class, they'd pronounce it "sonta-met", with both parts of the word staying within the French pronunciation.

If someone says "sontameeters" to me, it lets me know that they are ignorantly pretentious *****s who doubt their intelligence so much they have to resort to saying words that they think sound smart but are in actual fact about as dignified as ghetto slang.

Horrid.

I agree completely, Substance. Why mix two languages in order to sound smart? Even the first part is not pronounced correctly in French. The correct way to pronounce centimetre in French is:

sahn-tee-MET-ruh. Which is a far cry from SAHN-uh-mee-der.

Although the English language is far from pure, we are all educated enough to use the word that already exists in English, rather than propagating new versions.

 

[reno911]

I agree completely, Substance. Why mix two languages in order to sound smart? Even the first part is not pronounced correctly in French. The correct way to pronounce centimetre in French is:

sahn-tee-MET-ruh. Which is a far cry from SAHN-uh-mee-der.

Yeah, pretty much this. The most common way I hear people utter this atrocity sounds most like "sonometers". I never hear a "t" sound in the first syllable. If I did, I'd find it less objectionable, but still bad.

The only thing that I like about "sonometer" is that it has excellent predictive value for someone I'm going to think is a pretentious d-bag. It's at least 95% for me. This is handy sometimes.

 

[turquoiseblue]

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".

i think i pronounce it both ways...

 

[Ishie1013]

My mom's been an L&D nurse for 35 years. I grew up thinking a "sonometer" was a separate unit of measurement that exclusively applied to a woman's cervix. Sigh.

 

[daru1]

UTMB - Dr. Beach.

 

[Mattchiavelli]

the first time I heard this I was watching someone demonstrate an ultrasound procedure and I just thought it had something to do with sound with the "sono."

My other peeve was this derm attending that kept going on about "petrolatum"

 

[Tired Pigeon]

The only thing that I like about "sonometer" is that it has excellent predictive value for someone I'm going to think is a pretentious d-bag.

This.

 

[TGAmed]

the first time I heard this I was watching someone demonstrate an ultrasound procedure and I just thought it had something to do with sound with the "sono."

My other peeve was this derm attending that kept going on about "petrolatum"

Pretty much. Actually until just reading this thread I always thought it had to do with ultrasound measurement. Physicians got all excited about sonometers and couldn't stop themselves from using this "cool new" terminology instead. Hahaha.....so really its only excusable if you actually speak french 🙂

 

[The Undecider]

one that kills me, although I have no idea as to its legitimacy I just cringe when I hear it...

to me... anGINA =/= vaGINA

I feel like I also remember an article bringing up that the actual correct pronunciation of good ole c. diff was clostridium diffi-silly- . Im not in med school, so maybe its taught this way. Nobody at the hospital (myself included) says it like that, at the risk of more than a raised eyebrow. that is all. non-trad like me has sunday nights off, back to my te-KATE beer (temporarily in a redneck haven).

 

[Impromptu]

Pneumothoraxes vs pneumothoraces. English vs Latin grammar. I investigated this one when our old school MS3 surgery rotation director would mark people down on their presentations if they didn't use the Latin. Though, from what I have seen all of the current textbooks use English grammar.