Dear Word Detective: I have a question about which is the original spelling of the word "aluminium" (or "aluminum" depending on where in the world you grew up). I have been told that the English spelling with the extra "i" is correct, yet a lot of Americans swear that it is spelled incorrectly outside of the U.S. -- G. Craven, Phoenix, AZ.
Golly, can't we all just get along? Then again, I must admit that the British pronunciation "al-yoo-min-ee-um" has been driving me mildly bats since I first heard it on TV when I was about ten years old. I remember staring at the American spelling "aluminum" in a magazine shortly thereafter and wondering where on earth the Brits had found that extra "i." (While we're at it, the other thing that has been bothering me for years is the British pronunciation of "Nicaragua," which is along the lines of "nick-uh-rahg-yoo-ah." Something about that gives me the fantods.)
In the case of "aluminum" (as I will spell it because this is, after all, my column), we can pin the whole mess on Sir Humphry Davy, the English chemist who discovered the stuff back in 1807. Indulging in the perversity of which historical figures seem fond, Davy named his discovery not "aluminum," nor even "aluminium," but "alumium," basing the term on the Latin "alumen," meaning "alum," a substance drawn from the same mineral that had been used since ancient times for dyeing hides and the like. This is all a bit confusing, but we can take comfort in the fact that Davy was apparently a bit befuddled too. Around 1812 he decided that the proper name of his discovery was not "alumium," but actually "aluminum." Almost immediately Davy was besieged by other scientists who pointed out that if Davy would just add an "i" to make the term "aluminium," it would fall into line with such other substance names as "sodium" and "calcium" and, in their words, "sound more classical." So Davy named it yet again, this time to "aluminium," and the "ium" form became standard in both the U.S. and Great Britain.
Unfortunately, many people in the U.S. had evidently stopped listening by that point and continued to call the stuff "aluminum," and this spelling became so widespread that it was eventually adopted as the standard in the U.S. "Aluminium," however, is the official spelling used by international chemical societies. One hopes that Sir Humphry Davy, wherever he may be, is at last happy.
