this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2025
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It was pronounced aluminum first. The Brits changed it purposely to sound fancy.
Proof.
https://youtube.com/shorts/Gfxm2qqghsQ
IIRC the -ium ending denotes a place of origin. I.e Magnesium was first find in Magnesia. Now, the Brits thought the -ium ending sounded posher, so they called it aluminium ... but Alumnia isn't a place, so they're wrong.
Mendelevium? Ruthorfordium? Uranium? Plutonium?
We performed an autopsy on mendelev and found a new element in there
They discovered those inside Mendel and Rutherford. ... And there's reason Uranium and Plutonium weren't discovered until Bruce Willis went to space.
You know what, it's something I heard once, but doing some research it doesn't really hold water.
Actually I believe it was pronounce alum first. It's changed more than once. Anyway, the discoverer gets to name it.
The discoverer named it aluminum
Yeah, that's my point. The world blames America for getting it wrong but it was really the discoverer that messed it up.
I mean... They didn't really mess it up, Argentum, Molybdenum, Lanthanum, Aurum, Stannum
It's a pretty standard latin element naming, just not AS common as -ium.
Oh I agree with you. It's the rest of the world that doesn't seem to. And I kind of agree with them too. Let me 'splain.
I think the Brits drive on the wrong side of the road. If you look at the origins of this you will find that they are actually driving on the correct side of the road and due to the evolution of the subject it is the rest of the world that messed it up. But... It's the rest of the whole friggin world. I mean it's just a handful of countries that drive on the left. Get your shit together people. So by that logic... aluminium.
I heard it was a bad transmission of the telegram announcing it's discovery. The Americans got it without the I so just started using that word instead. Everyone else got the correct word.
This is not true. The initial discoverer, Sir Humphrey Davy, named it alumium and later changed it to aluminum. British chemists changed the name adding the I. Websters dictionary sealed the deal in 1925 by standardizing the name.
Common sense says this is likely an urban myth / made up.
Nice. “I heard” this bullshit so I’m gonna roll up in here and repeat it without verifying it.