ASUS

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When first getting into the IT field I wasn't sure how to properly pronounce many words/terms such as daemon, sql... I am curious what terms people continue to hear mispronounced along with the correct pronunciation.

edited May 30 at 18:36

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2 revs, 2 users 100%
James Moore

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I think what we learn from this is that if you don't want people to mispronounce your name, don't pick an idiotic name. OS X comes to mind as idiotic for this reason. – Daniel Straight May 30 at 18:38

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Questions like this should really be community wiki. It's not really a question anyone can give a definite answer to. – Lasse V. Karlsen May 30 at 19:09

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@DanielStraight I don't get it? The pronunciation "OS ten" seems perfectly natural to me. I'd argue my point fully, but I'm in a rush atm (my friend Tiberius is giving me a lift to the coliseum in his chariot, and I'm late to meet him) – username May 30 at 22:12

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2 revs username · Answer 1 · 2009-05-30 19:45:47Z

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Mac OS X

It is correctly pronounced "Mac OS Ten," not "Mac O S X"

But don't take my word for it, open Terminal and ask your Mac:

say "Mac OS X"

edited May 30 at 19:45

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2 revs
username

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does that mean i can pronounce vi as "six"? – Nick Kavadias Oct 6 at 13:58

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Jon B · Answer 2 · 2009-05-31 00:47:31Z

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Let's not forget the great GIF/"JIF" debate.

answered May 31 at 0:47

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Jon B

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Juliet · Answer 3 · 2009-05-30 18:53:22Z

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ASPX - "ass picks"

answered May 30 at 18:53

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Juliet

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2 revs lepole · Answer 4 · 2009-05-31 19:40:45Z

to quote linus: "hi my name is linus torvalds and i pronounce linux as "linux""

i have to admit it works better when you hear it ;) used to be a wav file on every linux kernel mirror!

[edit]

now i can post links ;)

http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/SillySounds/english.au

adolfojp · Answer 5 · 2009-05-30 18:11:54Z

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I don't know how to pronounce router. English is my second language and most of the time I learn these terms from books, not from other people.

Should it be pronounced as rout-er or as root-er?

answered May 30 at 18:11

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adolfojp

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Depends where you are. Probably the correct pronounciation in most english speaking palces is rooter. However in Australia the word root (pronounced as it is spelled) is slang for having sex, so we tend to say router. Most Americans and Brits I know look at me funny when I say router so I think most of them say rooter. – Jason Tan May 30 at 18:26

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In the US it is rout-er. In the UK it is root-er. – g. May 30 at 18:30

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username · Answer 6 · 2009-05-30 17:43:59Z

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SUDO

Should be "su doo," not "su doh" - but when was the last time you met someone who pronounced it correctly?

answered May 30 at 17:43

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username

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today ... but then I tought the guy .. and talking about 'dough' (money? bread, where's the context?), when I mean doing, never occured to me .. – lexu May 30 at 17:59

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Pseudo make me a sandwich. – Joseph May 31 at 16:31

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do by itself == "doo", at the end of words it's "doh" - creedo - libido - aikido - avocado - tuxedo – kdmurray May 31 at 17:57

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username · Answer 7 · 2009-05-30 17:46:15Z

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MySQL.

Should be "My S Q L" but commonly mispronounced "My sequel." I admit I actually prefer the latter.

answered May 30 at 17:46

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username

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I like Sequel, it's easier to say - and really, it's more of a nickname. It's like saying "Jim" is an incorrect pronunciation of "James" The whole "correct" thing boils down to philosophy, as with spelling. It makes sense to me that if enough people use a pronunciation or spelling, it should be considered correct. At the end of the day, all dictionary editors eventually adopt misspellings... though it can take centuries in some instances. – username May 30 at 19:17

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Martin P. Hellwig · Answer 8 · 2009-05-31 00:04:51Z

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Not really mispronounced, more like misinterpreted; the forward and backwards slash.

answered May 31 at 0:04

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Martin P. Hellwig

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grawity · Answer 9 · 2009-05-30 18:17:25Z

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TeX (should be pronounced 'tekh')

answered May 30 at 18:17

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grawity

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Mikeage · Answer 10 · 2009-05-31 10:47:02Z

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According to RMS, most people say mispronounce the system as Linux instead of GNU/Linux. ;)

answered May 31 at 10:47

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Mikeage

2 revs grawity · Answer 11 · 2009-05-31 14:18:56Z

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C# is sometimes called C Pound.

(The correct pronunciation is C Sharp (C♯), Microsoft says so)

edited May 31 at 14:18

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2 revs
grawity

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Its also called C-Hash sometimes – Rashmi Pandit May 31 at 9:28

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don't forget the (correct) c-octothorpe. pronounced Cock-tow-thorpe. :) – gbjbaanb May 31 at 14:08

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pete · Answer 12 · 2009-05-31 00:39:30Z

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RSS -- arse

answered May 31 at 0:39

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pete

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I hate it when people forget about the existence of Atom feeds. – grawity May 31 at 14:23

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keeper · Answer 13 · 2009-05-30 17:21:22Z

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SCSI

pronounced "skuzzy"

answered May 30 at 17:21

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keeper

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I remember an ad where they were trying to convince people it was "sexy" not "scuzzy". – Brad Bruce May 31 at 13:41

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Lazlow · Answer 14 · 2009-05-30 22:42:36Z

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SQL originated as SEQUEL, but had the E/U dropped. I refer to it as SEQUEL rather than S-Q-L as it's quicker to say.

answered May 30 at 22:42

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Lazlow

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Structured Query Language originated as "SEQUEL?" – kdmurray May 31 at 18:09

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The original IBM project was named SEQUEL (Structured English QUEry Language). It was later renamed SQL I believe when the standardisation took place. – Lazlow Jun 1 at 11:52

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL - third paragraph mentions the original name. – Lazlow Jun 28 at 9:30

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To avoid the controversy, I call it 'Squeal'. The first SQL tool I release will be called 'SQL Like a Pig'. – Nerdfest Oct 9 at 17:27

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RichardOD · Answer 15 · 2009-06-27 19:46:07Z

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I often see object-orientated instead of object-oriented on people's CVs.

answered Jun 27 at 19:46

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RichardOD

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+1 made me laugh – Oskar Duveborn Jun 27 at 22:12

JFV · Answer 16 · 2009-05-30 17:27:12Z

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McAfee (MAC-a-fee) not McAfee (Mc-AF-ee)

I still get this all the time...

answered May 30 at 17:27

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JFV

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If it was MAC it would be spelled MacAfee, not McAfee. – Kibbee Jun 28 at 0:15

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jholloway7 · Answer 17 · 2009-05-30 18:45:14Z

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.gif (pronounced with soft-g as in jif according to its creators, not hard g)
Ubuntu (pronounced oo-BOON-too, not uh-bun-too)

answered May 30 at 18:45

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jholloway7

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It stands for Graphics internetchange format, and Graphics has a hard G, So I think it should be pronounced with a hard G. I think this is one place where the creators actually pronounced it wrong. – Kibbee Jun 28 at 0:17

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Stewart Robinson · Answer 18 · 2009-05-31 10:59:27Z

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It's not exactly a mispronunciation but I hear people say http protocol when the p in http is protocol.

answered May 31 at 10:59

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Stewart Robinson

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gbn · Answer 19 · 2009-05-30 17:44:41Z

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A lot boils down to the flavour of English. UK vs US vs Australian etc

Dah-tabase or Day-tabase? My Oz colleague bugged me with his "dah"...

answered May 30 at 17:44

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gbn

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which gives me the excuse to link to Kraftwerk youtube.com/watch?v=EEBPzD3MPWE who sing "♬♩ dah tah base, dah tah base ♬♩" – username May 30 at 17:56

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Alex Jurkiewicz · Answer 20 · 2009-05-30 17:22:17Z

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Linux! (should be Linix, as per the question about this already).

Adobe is often said wrongly too (should be Adobee).

answered May 30 at 17:22

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Alex Jurkiewicz

l0c0b0x · Answer 21 · 2009-05-30 20:34:31Z

Not exactly a computer term, but you just can't speak vendor Motherboards without mentioning:

ASUS

There's always been that great online debate whether it's "Ah-soos" or "A-soos". You can really call it what you want since most people know about the two version, and only hardcore pronunciation sticklers will try to 'correct' you by telling you the real pronunciation, which is:

"Ah-zoos"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asus

cop1152 · Answer 22 · 2009-05-30 23:26:19Z

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I was going to say GIFF, but someone beat me to it. How about when someone wants Acrobat Reader (I prefer Foxit) installed on their machine and asks you to install 'Adobe'...that happens frequently in my neck of the woods.

answered May 30 at 23:26

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cop1152

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bwb · Answer 23 · 2009-06-27 04:08:21Z

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My mom used to carl URL "Earl", in fact she once asked me who this Earl person was everyone talked about...

answered Jun 27 at 4:08

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bwb

JFV · Answer 24 · 2009-05-30 19:48:20Z

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Another one of my favorites:

I was called by a recruiter asking if I knew anything about 'C-Hash'. I guess he didn't get the memo that it's 'C-sharp'!

answered May 30 at 19:48

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JFV

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I am a fan of C-Octothorpe myself. – adolfojp May 30 at 20:04

Jon B · Answer 25 · 2009-05-31 00:49:11Z

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How about GNU. Silent G or no?

answered May 31 at 0:49

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Jon B

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It's "guh-noo." – mlambie May 31 at 16:34

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Obviously you never watched The Great Space Coaster en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Space_Coaster youtube.com/watch?v=mAwVIZDAUF0 – jholloway7 Jun 1 at 6:27

Kara Marfia · Answer 26 · 2009-05-31 01:33:49Z

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UNIX - pronounced: eunuchs ;)

(bummer, I can't seem to track down the Dilbert strip for this)

answered May 31 at 1:33

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Kara Marfia

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Clinton Blackmore · Answer 27 · 2009-05-31 04:50:34Z

Well, database was mentioned, but what about data? In Star Trek: The Next Generation, only one character pronounced it dah-tuh instead of day-tuh. Merriam-Webster Online says it can be pronounced three ways.

How often do you hear the word used as a "count noun" (like "coin"), with the singular "datum", instead of as a non-count noun (like "money"). It would seem that "Where are my data?" is more correct usage that has fallen out of style.

Rashmi Pandit · Answer 28 · 2009-05-31 09:31:19Z

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Tuple (′tü·pəl) is always mispronounced.

answered May 31 at 9:31

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Rashmi Pandit

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grawity · Answer 29 · 2009-05-31 14:21:40Z

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The bunch of 16x16 icons next to the clock (in Windows taskbar) is often called systray. (According to Raymond Chen, it's "notification area", but nobody actually uses that.)

answered May 31 at 14:21

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grawity

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