On 2006-01-13, Nancy1 > wrote:

> Yeah, but the Brits say "al-u-min-ium," and spell it like that, I
> believe. We can forgive them on the Mexican stuff.

Something to think about while you're donning your AFDB:

"** HISTORICAL FOOTNOTE: Aluminum was originally named "alumium" by
Sir Humphry Davy, who later changed it to "aluminum" (perhaps in an
attempt to make it more Latinized since alumen is Latin for alum, the
aluminum compound that the name is derived from). The British (and
allied English speakers) shortly thereafter changed the name once
more, this time to "aluminium" so that it would again match the
pattern of most other elements (helium, sodium, etc.), while the North
Americans eventually decided to keep the second, slightly more
traditional name. I predict that North Americans will adopt the more
regular "-ium" spelling by the year 2050, prompting the British to
start calling it "alumininium". At that point debate can begin on
changing "platinum" to "platinium"."

http://zapatopi.net/afdb/

nb