"Saunameters"

msygrnbw · Mar 30, 2014

I had an instructor who pronounced it Saunt-ih-meters and it drove me crazy. I never understood it either! I still call it sent-uh-meters, but that's what everyone I have ever known other than her has pronounced it like.

nursej22, MSN, RN · Mar 30, 2014

I believe it is a French pronunciation. I only ever here OB staff pronounce it sauna-meters.

THELIVINGWORST, ASN, RN · Mar 30, 2014

I was told that is apparently a measurement of electricity. Sonometers

TU RN, DNP, CRNA · Mar 30, 2014

People sometimes pronounce the word "centimeter" (SEN-ti-me-ter) SAHN-ti-me-ter to sound more sophisticated. There's no alternative pronunciation to the word "tool" though

MunoRN, RN · Mar 30, 2014

The French came up with the metric system, which is supposedly why some use the french pronunciation of part of the word and call it a "SAWN-timiter", although I'm not sure why the French accent is only applied to the "cent" portion since the whole word comes from the French, if you're going to use the French pronunciation then it should be SAWN-ti-mett-truh.

I would find it less annoying if people who used this term at least fully committed to this practice. "Cents" as in "a quarter is 50 cents" has the exact same origin, so why don't people say "I have 50 sawnts"?

kakamegamama · Mar 30, 2014

Maybe it's similar to: "Aunt"---either it's "ant" or "ahnt". It does seem, however, to be dependent on the area of the country in which a person has been raised. I have heard "Sawn-ti-meters" as well, and sometimes it takes me a minute to figure out what the word is. Of course, that could be my Texan/Southern ears trying to decipher non-English, oops, non-Texan pronunciation

clarabow · Mar 30, 2014

One of my nursing instructors (a midwife) pronounced it like that. She would also say "dilatation" instead of "dilation". She was from the south.

applewhitern, BSN, RN · Mar 30, 2014

I agree it is probably a hangover from the French pronunciation. The only people I ever heard use it were older people, years ago. (Younger nurses may not realize this, but we did not use the metric system routinely until I was in high school.) Now it is used extensively, commonplace, and there is no reason to use the French pronunciation.

Caffeine_IV · Mar 30, 2014

Only people I've heard pronounce it were a certain group of pretentious ICU nurses I worked with in the past. Sounds silly although I do pronounce it that way to annoy my coworkers.

klone, MSN, RN · Mar 30, 2014

In OB, only the much older RNs pronounced it like that. "Dilatation" is fairly commonly heard, though. Not sure the origins of that. Not sure why everything else in the world merely dilates, but apparently cervixes (cervices?) "dilatate".

OCNRN63, RN · Mar 30, 2014

People sometimes pronounce the word "centimeter" (SEN-ti-me-ter) SAHN-ti-me-ter to sound more sophisticated. There's no alternative pronunciation to the word "tool" though

Nice. These people who you are ******* and moaning about who say "sahn-ti-meters"...are they bad coworkers? If they do their jobs, are good to work with, what's the big deal? For all you know, you may do/say something that annoys them. If you look up the word in the dictionary (at least in mine--Merriam-Webster), there are two approved pronunciations. Contrary to popular belief, the derivation of this word is British, not French. Every time this discussion comes up, which is a lot, the conversation frequently turns to French-bashing.

I say "sahn-ti-meter." I don't remember saying it any differently. I'm not trying to sound sophisticated, and I'm not a tool.