Astronomy Buff

How To Say The Word Nuclear

by Tony on January 17th, 2007

Am I the only one bothered by the fact that the President of the United States can’t pronounce the word nuclear? I’ve been told that’s he’s not the first:

Bush isn’t the only American president to lose the “nucular” war. In his “On Language” column in the New York Times Magazine in May 2001, William Safire lamented that, besides Bush, at least three other presidents—Eisenhower, Carter, and Clinton—have mangled the word.

Nuclear is an important word in astronomy, we use it all the time to describe processes within stars and the interactions between atoms in plasmas and the interstellar medium. In order to rise above the monkeys, we need to be able to use the language properly.

So, why won’t Bush correct himself? Is he trying to invent his own words? It’s not like the word is all that hard to say, try saying it three times fast: nuclearnuclearnuclear. It’s actually pretty easy, in fact for me, it’s harder to try and say newkewlar. Hearing the president say nuclear that way is fingernails on a chalkboard to me, I desperately wish he’d get an advisor to help him out.

Like it or not, the way a president speaks affects many, many people. From Slate:

In fact, Bush’s usage is so common that it appears in at least one dictionary. Merriam-Webster’s, by far the most liberal dictionary, includes the pronunciation, though with a note identifying it as “a pronunciation variant that occurs in educated speech but that is considered by some to be questionable or unacceptable.”

Questionable and unacceptable indeed.

From this article:

On the face of things, “nucular” is a typo par excellence. People sometimes talk about Bush “stumbling” over the word, as if this were the same kind of articulatory problem that turns February into “febyooary.” But nuclear isn’t a hard word to pronounce the way February is — try saying each of them three times fast. Phonetically, in fact, nuclear is pretty much the same as likelier, and nobody ever gets that one wrong. (”The first outcome was likular than the second”? ) That “nucular” pronunciation is really what linguists call a folk etymology, where the unfamiliar word nuclear is treated as if it had the same suffix as words like molecular and particular. It’s the same sort of process that turns lackadaisical into “laxadaisical” and chaise longue into chaise lounge.

Saying nuclear correctly is one of those things that make us human, like knowing what causes the seasons, it’s important. Our ability to use language properly and intelligently set us apart from everything else on this planet. Lets say it together now, loud and long so everyone can hear: new-clee-ar, new-clee-ar, NEW-CLEE-AR. There, doesn’t that feel better?

At least Laura Bush can say it.

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