"Saunameters"

[Pachinko]

Where does this pronunciation come from? The only people I have ever heard use it are older nurses. Please explain. Someone tell me you know what I'm talking about, at least.

[OCNRN63, RN]

Let me guess you like eating pe-CAHNS instead of PE-cans too?

Yes, I say "pe-cahn." So what?

[AmyRN303, BSN, RN]

Potato, potahto. I have heard both from my OBs and midwives, both older and younger. I say "sent-i-meter." But I also say "pe-cahn".

[OCNRN63, RN]

Funny, I started a thread on this same subject when I first joined the forum. At first I noticed that only the more advanced practice nurses mispronounced centimeters. I took it as a way of sounding more highly educated than the rest of us, it has always irritated me. I asked my mother, who has her doctorate in nursing, if she also mispronounced centimeters, she did until I corrected her. When I asked her why she pronounced it the way she did, she didn't know, only that it was how her peers pronounced it and she just picked it up.

I think nursing has a bit of an identity crises and at some point some nurses just picked it up and stuck with it, consciously or not, because it made them sound smarter.

Again, it is not a mispronunciation. If you look it up in the dictionary, there are two approved ways to pronounce "centimeter." Just because someone else says it differently than how you're accustomed to hearing it doesn't make it wrong.

I can't speak for others, but I don't need to speak in a certain manner because I think it makes me sound smarter. I already know I'm smart.

[AmyRN303, BSN, RN]

I can't speak for others, but I don't need to speak in a certain manner because I think it makes me sound smarter. I already know I'm smart.

Exactly.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

My grandmother put up to-MAH-toes from the gahden, and shared them with our ahnts (the skins went to the ants in the gahden), and so do I. Regional accents do not confer any other special qualities (positive or negative) on the speakers, and no one should think they do. :)

[OCNRN63, RN]

My grandmother put up to-MAH-toes from the gahden, and shared them with our ahnts (the skins went to the ants in the gahden), and so do I. Regional accents do not confer any other special qualities (positive or negative) on the speakers, and no one should think they do. :)

I say "ahnt" for "ant."

[Emergent, RN]

I always wondered why some people say Heigth for Height, pronouncing the 'th' at the end of the word. Are they dyslexic or is this a regional thing? I know the gh doesn't make sense in that word, have NO idea why it's there.

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

The first time I heard "sont" a meter . . .was in a childbirth class 31.5 years ago. It sounded odd to me. I've heard it off and on during the years since then.

I say "cent" a meter. I say "ant" for Aunt.

It bugs me too . . . like when people say "orientate" instead of "orientation".

Yeah, they are in the dictionary but mean different things.

There are SO many threads about this on AN.

[Been there,done that, ASN, RN]

They say saunti, you say centi..

Agree with Munro that the french dialect had an influence.

If that's the worst irritation of the day... it was a good one :)

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

I used to say pee-can when referring to a favorite nut. And then someone told me a 'pee-can' was just another name for 'toilet', LOL, and I quickly adopted 'peh-CAHN'!!