Regarding Uranus...

01/05/04 | vanity

[genefromjersey]

Most of us know there are 9 planets in our solar system.....and one of them is Uranus.

This simple statement is more apt to produce a snicker than a nod of agreement : mainly because,a long time ago,English-speaking people started Anglicizing words and names borrowed from other languages.

For example: Renee is about as likely to be pronounced " REEN-ey" as " Rhen-AY " ( and I know some of you folks west of the Mississippi have probably never heard this French name pronounced "Rhen-AY" ! )

This brings us back to the problem of...well,how can I put it delicately ? Uranus.

A few years ago,the TV newspeople had the same problem-and tried to get around it by changing the pronounciation to "URINE-ous".

Not much of an improvement !

Here's my suggestion: Let's go back to the good ol' Graeco-Roman pronounciation of the name (It IS a Graeco-Roman name,after all.)

Oor-AH-us - or, if you absolutely have to have the Yoo sound (Uranium)*-pronounce it Yoor-AH-nus.

Repeat this sentence aloud,using the old pronounciation: "If you can't find Uranus with either hand,use a telescope."

Now use the corrected pronounciation: " If you can't find Oo-RAH-nus with either hand,use a telescope."

(Problem is, nobody would laugh at the second one, would they ? )

*Strictly speaking we should probably refer to Oo-RAH-nee-um, if we start fooling with Uranus.

[Brett66]

Do you think a man will ever land on Uranus?

Sorry, I had to.

[perfect stranger]

No more Scotch for you tonight. LOL

[Gerasimov]

It IS a Graeco-Roman name,after all.

I shoulda guessed that the Greeks were somehow involved in naming Uranus.

[Lady Jag]

Ahem.

Uranus moons

[baltodog]

You probably won't believe this, but I swear:

I was talking to a girl at work about my telescope. Her name is Renee. I told her how Venus and Uranus appear to be close to each other.

We joked about the name of that planet.

[Lady Jag]

[brityank]

Does Uranus have an aurora?

[DouglasKC]

I loved that episode of Star Trek where they went around Uranus wiping out Klingons.

[jigsaw]

Yeah, they really wrecked 'em.

[Charles Henrickson]

It IS a Graeco-Roman name, after all.

Yes, it is. And as one who has studied Latin and has taught Greek, I'll try to provide a little background.

The Greek word is transliterated, ouranos, and is pronounced, "oo-rah-NOS." The word means, "heaven" or "sky."

"Uranus" is a Latinized spelling of the Greek word. A Latin pronunciation would be "oo-RAH-nus."

In neither language would there be a "Y" sound at the start.

[Charles Henrickson]

BTW, is there a gaseous cloud around Uranus?

[irishtenor]

Wrecked um? Darn near ruined em, from what I hear.

[Snagglepuss]

Get Uranus in gear.

[irishtenor]

But... I drive a Saturn!

[Adder]

Isn't this kinda like goin around yer AHN-us to scratch yer elbow?

[ntnychik]

I looked and looked, but couldn't find Ben Stein anywhere on this thread!

[Mr. C]

When I was growing up the joke went like this:

What does the USS Enterprise and Toilet Papaer have in common?

Give Up?

They both scan URANUS looking for Klingons!

heh heh