As I get older, I must also be becoming more grouchy and less tolerant. More stupid things seem to annoy me and one of the things that annoys me most is the pronunciation of the word 'kilometre', though there are others.
Yes, it's pretty silly to get annoyed about the way in which a word is pronounced but 'kilometre' does it for me. It turns up regularly on television, spoken by so many supposedly educated and intelligent people, as well as presumably illiterate 'voice over' artists, that it drives me insane.
The word is clearly composed of 2 parts - 'kilo' and 'metre' and so it is correctly pronounced as such : kilo-metre. Horribly and for no reason other than a lazy Americanised version of English, it so VERY OFTEN turns up as 'kilom-etre'. WRONG !!!!!
No one says 'kilog-ram' or 'kiloc-ycle'; we don't have 'centim-etre' or 'millil-itre'. When talking bombs, we don't say 'kilot-on', so why are we assailed with 'kilom-etre' ?
The 'kilo' indicates a thousand and 'metre' is self explanatory, and so the word is 'KILO-METRE ! I don't ask for much in life but to never again hear the egregious 'kilom-etre' would be the fulfilment of a dream.
CAN I SHOUT IT ANY LOUDER ?
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