# Aluminium vs Aluminum **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 19, 2012, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aluminium-vs-aluminum/644517 "2012-12-19T12:48:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hutchy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e274bd/32.png) [@Hutchy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hutchy)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aluminium-vs-aluminum/644517/1 "2012-12-19T12:48:45Z")
Why is it that Americans have dropped the “i” from the correct spelling of aluminium? This omission also changes the enunciation of the word, why is it so?😕 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aluminium-vs-aluminum/644517/2 "2012-12-19T13:02:25Z")
Why is it that the British, who changedc the ending of _aluminum_ so that it would be consistent with most of the other elements (we’ll ignore platinum for now) are the ones who insist on the inconsistent pronunciatioon _zed_ for the last letter of thre alphabet, instead of _zee_, which is consistent with the pronunciation of many other letters (we’ll ignore _double u_ for now)? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aluminium-vs-aluminum/644517/3 "2012-12-19T13:02:55Z")
Nothing like poisoning the well right at the OP! ---
**Author:** ![BorgHunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@BorgHunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BorgHunter)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aluminium-vs-aluminum/644517/4 "2012-12-19T13:07:09Z")
> [@Hutchy](#): > > Why is it that Americans have dropped the “i” from the correct spelling of aluminium? This omission also changes the enunciation of the word, why is it so?😕 You have as an assumption something (“the correct spelling”) which is not true. There are two correct spellings of the element in question, as accepted by pretty much everyone (including the IUPAC). The earliest name for element 13 was “alumium” ([cite](http://books.google.com/books?id=7Y8qAQAAIAAJ&lpg=PA190&ots=YU0Rq5anho&dq=%22alumium%22%20davy&pg=PA190#v=onepage&q=%22alumium%22%20davy&f=false)). Humphrey Davy then changed the name to its second spelling, “aluminum”, in 1812. “Aluminium” didn’t come about until 1824, courtesy of Friedrich Wöhler. ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aluminium-vs-aluminum/644517/5 "2012-12-19T13:07:47Z")
Oh well. I suppose Christmas is the time of year for old chestnuts :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aluminium-vs-aluminum/644517/6 "2012-12-19T13:08:43Z")
Humphry Davy first coined the name, as “alumium”, from alum (which is what he was trying to isolate the metal from, unsuccessfully as it turned out). Then he decided “aluminum” was a catchier name, but this later got corrupted to “aluminium”, on both sides of the Atlantic, in analogy with the other element names ending -ium. The British stuck with “aluminium”, while usage in America varied until they settled on “aluminum”, because that was what the main producers of alumin(i)um called it in the early 20th century. > **[Aluminium | Etymology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium#Etymology)** > > The names aluminium and aluminum are derived from the word alumine, an obsolete term for alumina,\[j\] a naturally occurring oxide of aluminium. Alumine was borrowed from French, which in turn derived it from alumen, the classical Latin name for alum, the mineral from which it was collected. The Latin word alumen stems from the Proto-Indo-European root \*alu- meaning "bitter" or "beer". Now can we all bitch about sulfur and cesium too? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aluminium-vs-aluminum/644517/7 "2012-12-19T13:10:47Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > … > > Now can we all bitch about sulfur and cesium too? 😛 I think you mean sulfurium and cesiumium old boy. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aluminium-vs-aluminum/644517/8 "2012-12-19T13:11:06Z")
You mean sulfurium? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BorgHunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@BorgHunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BorgHunter)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aluminium-vs-aluminum/644517/9 "2012-12-19T13:12:14Z")
No, it’s “sulphurium”, you heathens. ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aluminium-vs-aluminum/644517/10 "2012-12-19T13:12:38Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > You mean sulfurium? 🙂 Ninja’d 😛 ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aluminium-vs-aluminum/644517/11 "2012-12-19T13:12:49Z")
Oh hey, look here… which country has an element named after it? Britainium? Englandium? No… it’s Americium! And Francium… And Germanium… Fuck we even have Berkelium and Californium! We’ll spell and say elements any damn way we please, that’s why! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aluminium-vs-aluminum/644517/12 "2012-12-19T13:16:19Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Why is it that the British, who changedc the ending of _aluminum_ so that it would be consistent with most of the other elements (we’ll ignore platinum for now) are the ones who insist on the inconsistent pronunciatioon _zed_ for the last letter of thre alphabet, instead of _zee_, which is consistent with the pronunciation of many other letters (we’ll ignore _double u_ for now)? The British did not change the spelling. Humphrey Davy, who was British, discovered the element, and, after some wavering, gave it the name _aluminium_. Noah Webster later changed it in his Dictionary for Americans (as he did the spelling of certain other English words), mainly just because he thought, for nationalistic reasons, that American English ought to be different from British English. (Also, perhaps, he thought it would help the American economy if ink were used less profligately there. :)) In this case (in most similar cases, actually, but this one very clearly) the British spelling and pronunciation has precedence. However, the answer to the OP’s question is that, American English and British English are, by now, very slightly different languages (or dialects, or whatever), and this is one of the differences. _Aluminium_ is correct in Britain and (I think) most other English speaking countries; _aluminum_ is correct in the USA. Live with it. ---
**Author:** ![BorgHunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@BorgHunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BorgHunter)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aluminium-vs-aluminum/644517/13 "2012-12-19T13:20:11Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > The British did not change the spelling. Humphrey Davy, who was British, discovered the element, gave it the name _aluminium_. > > Noah Webster later changed it in his Dictionary for Americans (as he did the spelling of other English words), mainly just because he thought, for nationalistic reasons, that American English ought to be different from British English. Would you kindly provide a cite for the above? It’s in conflict with what I read, namely that Davy started with “alumium”, changed it to “aluminum”, and “aluminium” didn’t come on the scene until 12 years later, by way of Sweden (and thanks to Friedrich Wöhler, who was doing a translation of that Swedish paper). ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aluminium-vs-aluminum/644517/14 "2012-12-19T13:21:19Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > _Aluminium_ is correct in Britain and (I think) most other English speaking countries; _aluminum_ is correct in the USA. Live with it. Aluminum in Canada too. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aluminium-vs-aluminum/644517/15 "2012-12-19T13:30:03Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Nothing like poisoning the well right at the OP! I’d almost feel bad about it, except that this was just mulled over in another thread within the past week. And my recollection is the same as **BorgHunter** ’s ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aluminium-vs-aluminum/644517/16 "2012-12-19T13:47:58Z")
In many, probably most cases, differences in spelling between UK and US English _are_ the result of change on the American side. So it fairly easy to understand why someone would, on encountering such a difference, assume it was America that changed - this one just happens to be an exception, is all. Another one that often trips people up is usage of ‘gotten’ - rather than being a change on the American side, this is one that was once in common use in English and just fell out of use on the UK side at some point after the divergence of the two nations. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aluminium-vs-aluminum/644517/17 "2012-12-19T13:49:24Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > Oh hey, look here… which country has an element named after it? Britainium? Englandium? No… it’s Americium! And Francium… And Germanium… > > Fuck we even have Berkelium and Californium! > > We’ll spell and say elements any damn way we please, that’s why! 😉 Come back when you have four elements named after one [poxy little village](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ytterby). We’re lucky the names don’t all end in -iöm quite honestly. ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aluminium-vs-aluminum/644517/18 "2012-12-19T13:50:50Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > … > > Another one that often trips people up is usage of ‘gotten’ - rather than being a change on the American side, this is one that was once in common use in English and just fell out of use on the UK side at some point after the divergence of the two nations. Although is still does exist in UK English in the commonly-used (in the press at least) phrase “ill-gotten gains” ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aluminium-vs-aluminum/644517/19 "2012-12-19T14:09:59Z")
> [@BorgHunter](#): > > Would you kindly provide a cite for the above? It’s in conflict with what I read, namely that Davy started with “alumium”, changed it to “aluminum”, and “aluminium” didn’t come on the scene until 12 years later, by way of Sweden (and thanks to Friedrich Wöhler, who was doing a translation of that Swedish paper). OK, according to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium#History), metalic _aluminium_ was first isolated by Oersted or Wöhler, although Davy had already found evidence of the element’s existence, and given it a name. The article also says that the form “aluminium” came not from Davy himself, nor from Oersted or Wöhler, but from an anonymous (but, we can be confident) British reviewer of Davy’s book. In any case, it is apparent from that article that _aluminium_ soon became the accepted term, including amongst American chemists, until Webster decided to change it, as he also arbitrarily decided to change the spelling of _colour_, _honour_, and various other English words. (In a typical bit of Wikipedian misleading waffling, it is implied that “aluminum” may have been in “common usage” in America, as opposed to amongst chemists. This not actually backed by the cite they give, and is clearly nonsense. Aluminium at this time was a laboratory curiosity, and would virtually never have been mentioned by anyone but a knowledgeable chemist.) To sum up, the element’s existence was discovered in Britain, and it received its accepted name in Britain (though not from Davy). Although not the very first name to be applied to it, _aluminium_ quickly became the accepted name for it, used in Britain, used by the Swede or German (precedence seems to be disputed) who first isolated the metal, and used by those Americans aware of its existence until Noah Webster decided to mix things up. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aluminium-vs-aluminum/644517/20 "2012-12-19T14:17:27Z")
This site claims that Davy was writing _alumium_ five years before he started using _aluminium_, then switched to _aluminum_ before settling on _aluminium_ : > **[Aluminium versus aluminum](http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/aluminium.htm)** > > The different American spelling of what British English spells aluminium sometimes causes puzzlement as to how it could have come about. > [@](#): > > Sir Humphry made a bit of a mess of naming this new element, at first spelling it alumium (this was in 1807) then changing it to aluminum, and finally settling on aluminium in 1812. His classically educated scientific colleagues preferred aluminium right from the start, because it had more of a classical ring, and chimed harmoniously with many other elements whose names ended in –ium, like potassium, sodium, and magnesium, all of which had been named by Davy. > > The spelling in –um continued in occasional use in Britain for a while, though that in –ium soon predominated. In the USA, the position was more complicated. Noah Webster’s Dictionary of 1828 has only aluminum, though the standard spelling among US chemists throughout most of the nineteenth century was aluminium; it was the preferred version in The Century Dictionary of 1889 and is the only spelling given in the Webster Unabridged Dictionary of 1913. Searches in an archive of American newspapers show a most interesting shift. Up to the 1890s, both spellings appear in rough parity, though with the –ium version slightly the more common, but after about 1895 that reverses quite substantially, with the decade starting in 1900 having the –um spelling about twice as common as the alternative; in the following decade the –ium spelling crashes to a few hundred compared to half a million examples of –um. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aluminium-vs-aluminum/644517.md?page=2)