Pronunciation of the word "Ethernet"

[Halcyon]

Just something random I thought of today. I've heard it said both ways, but I've always used the former variant.

[StillTrying]

The quality of the posts here is getting lower and lower.

[Halcyon]

The quality of the posts here is getting lower and lower.

Either that or the quality of the audience is ;-)

Nothing like a bit of intellectual stimulation and conversation, even if it does start off as something minor like the pronunciation of words.

[StillTrying]

I've only heard it pronounced "Eth-er-net" 2 or 3 times, it's a good clue that you can ignore the rest of what they say because they're not going to know what they're talking about.

[jpanhalt]

According to these authorities, it's the first option:
https://public.oed.com/how-to-use-the-oed/key-to-pronunciation/
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/ether

[Black Phoenix]

I had listen other saying both ways, more with a long E that the other one.

I learned with the long E.

[mcovington]

There is a good reason to pronounce it with long E.  It is derived from the Latin word 'aether', from Greek 'aither', and 'ae' is a long vowel which always goes into English as a long E.

'Aether' meant extremely thin substance, and came into modern science meaning 2 things:

(a) A liquid that is on the verge of turning into a gas at room temperature.  This name stuck on two chemicals, diethyl ether (the anaesthetic) and petroleum ether (very light petroleum distillates).

(b) The substance that was formerly thought to fill the universe and carry radio waves.

Ethernet is so named because it's like radio communication inside a cable, with carrier waves.

Now you know...

[vk6zgo]

There is a good reason to pronounce it with long E.  It is derived from the Latin word 'aether', from Greek 'aither', and 'ae' is a long vowel which always goes into English as a long E.

'Aether' meant extremely thin substance, and came into modern science meaning 2 things:

(a) A liquid that is on the verge of turning into a gas at room temperature.  This name stuck on two chemicals, diethyl ether (the anaesthetic) and petroleum ether (very light petroleum distillates).

(b) The substance that was formerly thought to fill the universe and carry radio waves.

Ethernet is so named because it's like radio communication inside a cable, with carrier waves.

Now you know...

In other words, the name is total bollocks!

There is no ether, & even if there was one, signals sent down a cable wouldn't use it, as they have perfectly good copper conductors to be propagated through.

[mcovington]

In other words, the name is total bollocks!

There is no ether, & even if there was one, signals sent down a cable wouldn't use it, as they have perfectly good copper conductors to be propagated through.

You have a point!  It's named after what's not there, and they knew that when they named it!

[brucehoult]

With a hard "g".

[Circlotron]

(b) The substance that was formerly thought to fill the universe and carry radio waves.

One day "dark matter" may sound just as silly.

[IanB]

Just something random I thought of today. I've heard it said both ways, but I've always used the former variant.

"e" as in see, "th" as in think, "er" as in her, "net" as in net.

Reference:

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/pronunciation/english/ether
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/pronunciation/english/ethernet

[StillTrying]

(b) The substance that was formerly thought to fill the universe and carry radio waves.

One day "dark matter" may sound just as silly.

I think it already does, I think it's something to do with the way gravity travels through an expanding space, but I can't work it out.

[Syntax Error]

In London it's pronounced eFF-net.

Unless it's an I.T. manager when it's pronounced U-S-B.

[paullo]

It really depends which language you speak.

[StillTrying]

   English ( Scrambled )