Pronunciation

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

What is the deal with some dr's/nurses pronouncing

"centimeters" like "sontimeters"???? I've heard this a few times and it puzzles me. Are these people from Boston or something???

SONTimeter always sounds pretensious to me.

:w00t: :w00t: :w00t:

It grates on me . . . the first time I heard it was in a childbirth class when I was pregnant with my first child.

steph

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Has nothing to do with sonograms (??????)

"(Sahhhn)imeter" is just the French/European pronounciation of "centimeter" (which is, after all, where the metric system came from in the first place). Saying "(sahhhn)imeter" instead of "CENTimeter" is no different than pronouncing "filet" as "fi-LAY" rather than "FIL-let."

Yes, it is the French pronunciation.

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Specializes in Day Surgery/Infusion/ED.
Has nothing to do with sonograms (??????)

"(Sahhhn)imeter" is just the French/European pronounciation of "centimeter" (which is, after all, where the metric system came from in the first place). Saying "(sahhhn)imeter" instead of "CENTimeter" is no different than pronouncing "filet" as "fi-LAY" rather than "FIL-let."

LOL! So true!

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In French it would be "centimetre" pronounced "sontemetra" with a throaty "r" sound and just a hint of the "a" sound at the end. So as a French speaker the sontimeter thing just sounds pretentious to me, LOL :)

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from dictionary.com:

cen-ti-me-ter (sebreve.gifnprime.giftschwa.gif-memacr.giflprime.giftschwa.gifr)

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Specializes in Day Surgery/Infusion/ED.

And my dictionary lists both pronunciations as correct.

Maybe we should be spending less time worrying about how it's pronounced (and imputing false motives on those who...shudder...pronounce it as "sahn"), and just be glad people are actually assessing whatever needs to be measured.

Real nice that people assume someone like myself is pretentious purely on how I pronounce a word. :uhoh3:

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ElkPark, you have me ROFL laughing again!

Same reasons people pull bed sheets "taunt"... people buying houses use

"relators"... exacerbations are "exasperations"... Cardizem is "Cardiazem"... fibrillation is "fibulation"... I could go on and on... but my toes are curling up...

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Specializes in Med onc, med, surg, now in ICU!.

Here in Australia, where we use centimetres all the time, we all say CENTimetre. The only time I have ever heard anyone say SONTimetre was when we watched a promo video for a chest drain, and the strange lady (who happened to have an American accent - that's not why she was strange, lol!) kept saying SONTimetre. Our whole class was in stitches every time she said it.

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In French it would be "centimetre" pronounced "sontemetra" with a throaty "r" sound and just a hint of the "a" sound at the end. So as a French speaker the sontimeter thing just sounds pretentious to me, LOL :)

I didn't mean to be rude. What I actually meant was purposely affecting a French accent to say it the way they do because that's where it came from would be pretentious. Just prounouncing it that way because you've always heard it that way is not pretentious. I am from a small midwestern town and sound like the cable guy if I don't watch my pronunciation, so I have no right to call someone pretentious.

What's really pretentious is me coming on here and giving a lecture on French pronunciation, LOL.

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And how about "dilation" vs. "dilitation"??

DILITATION is not a word, from what I can tell, and yet many people (usually the same ones who use "Sahntimeter" ;-) pronounce it this way.

oldiebutgoodie

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I didn't mean to be rude. What I actually meant was purposely affecting a French accent to say it the way they do because that's where it came from would be pretentious. Just prounouncing it that way because you've always heard it that way is not pretentious. I am from a small midwestern town and sound like the cable guy if I don't watch my pronunciation, so I have no right to call someone pretentious.

What's really pretentious is me coming on here and giving a lecture on French pronunciation, LOL.

So I guess you do say "FIL-let" instead of "fi-LAY", huh?? 'Cause you'd be "pretentious" if you said "fi-LAY"?? ... :chuckle

I am also a French speaker and well aware of the "pure" French pronounciation of "centimetre," which is why I referred to "French/European" pronounciation. My original intent was only to clarify the issue and provide info for people who were wondering if the alternate pronounciation had something to do with sonograms(!!) Either pronounciation is acceptable in this country (in the sense that neither is really wrong) -- as another poster noted, it's just the old "tomAto - tomAHto" thing. :)

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So I guess you do say "FIL-let" instead of "fi-LAY", huh?? 'Cause you'd be "pretentious" if you said "fi-LAY"?? ... :chuckle

I am also a French speaker and well aware of the "pure" French pronounciation of "centimetre," which is why I referred to "French/European" pronounciation. My original intent was only to clarify the issue and provide info for people who were wondering if the alternate pronounciation had something to do with sonograms(!!) Either pronounciation is acceptable in this country (in the sense that neither is really wrong) -- as another poster noted, it's just the old "tomAto - tomAHto" thing. :)

In Illinois, there is a town called Morificeilles, pronounced Mar-SALES. Don't ask me what that has to do with anything! :rotfl:

oldiebutgoodie

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