Day 15: aluminium

I have never quite understood why the U.S. pronounces aluminium without the second ‘i’.

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@JohnPhilpin Because we don't spell it with the second i.

@KimberlyHirsh well - there is that. That said, 'aluminium' is 'today's word' so I wonder where the prompts are coming from? @jean ?

@jean @JohnPhilpin @KimberlyHirsh Because you know, deep in your heart, this is the way.

@SimonWoods @jean @JohnPhilpin @KimberlyHirsh I read once that the American spelling is the older one. I guess the colonists took it west with them and kept it, while we modernised it to match cadmium, rhodium, thorium, etc.

@JohnPhilpin Wikipedia has the answer, both spellings existed simultaneously once, and, yet again, still do. It’s an invented word anyway, based on the source, clay earth containing the element bonded to oxygen, which is why it’s so abundant in the Earth’s crust to begin with. Alumina comes to mind, the oxidized substance.

@devilgate Oh interesting. Like "soccer".