# Tell me about Uranus **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 11, 2007, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-uranus/387491 "2007-01-11T01:59:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-uranus/387491/1 "2007-01-11T01:59:31Z")
more specifically, the pronounciation of the word. I just realized that for all I have read about Astronomy, I had never heard the word said aloud in english. I always thought it was said as “your anus” which made the juvenile jokes about Mr. Spock and toilet paper make sense. But today I was stuck at home watching the Science Channel and in about 4 shows, they always said it “U-rah-noos” or “OO-rah-noos”. What gives? Which is it? Has it changed recently? If it was never “Your anus” why the jokes? ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-uranus/387491/2 "2007-01-11T02:04:31Z")
AFAIK it was always pronounced “yer anus” until people got all giggly about that, and then some people changed the pronunciation to “YOO-rah-nus” to avoid having to say “yer anus.” BFD, says I. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-uranus/387491/3 "2007-01-11T02:12:18Z")
Your Anus is the pronunciation I always knew. Was it British people that were pronouncing it differently. They just do that sometimes (Proof: alumin **i** um instead of aluminum because it suits their style better.) ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-uranus/387491/4 "2007-01-11T02:27:55Z")
The Greek is _Ouranos_; the name was given at a time when Latinate adaptations of Greek names were SOP in cultured circles. OO-rahn-ohs would have been proper for the unadapted Greek. However, don’t forget that Englishmen adapted foreign names – the capital of France in English is Paris, rhyming with Harris, not Paree with a glottal R. “Mother’s bovine” (Moscow) rather than MAWSK-vah for Moskva. Florence for Firenze, Leghorn for Livorno, etc. So traditional English was Uranus, pronounced with a long A to match your anus. More properly it should have been you-RAH-nus and that was a minority pronunciation. But it got the palatalized initial English U, much like Ulysses (whose name never began with a YOU until it crossed the English Channel). Pedants will tell you to put the accent on the first syllable, but that only alters the pun, as it then is a homophone for “urinous” (redolent of urine). Maybe Herschel was right and we should have stuck with [“George.”](http://www.skyhound.com/george.html) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-uranus/387491/5 "2007-01-11T02:28:47Z")
The shows were narrated in American english. If they are changing it now to avoid the gigglishness, that’s lame. ---
**Author:** ![Barrington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Barrington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barrington)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-uranus/387491/6 "2007-01-11T02:30:44Z")
Here in Britain, it was just as **Jodi** said. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-uranus/387491/7 "2007-01-11T02:36:44Z")
[QUOTE=Jodi] AFAIK it was always pronounced “yer anus” until people got all giggly about that [/QUOTE] IIRC, Dan Rather pronounced it funny on the evening news back in the early 80’s. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-uranus/387491/8 "2007-01-11T03:08:13Z")
Yer-anus or Urine-us, either way the fourth graders are gonna giggle. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-uranus/387491/9 "2007-01-11T03:30:47Z")
> [@](#): > > Let us begin this section by saying we don’t want to hear any snickering. The correct way to pronounce Uranus is with an emphasis on the “Ur.” There is very little emphasis on the “a” syllable. You may now return to the discussion. Source: [http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/kids/science/Astronomy/Solar%20System/Uranus.htm](http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/kids/science/Astronomy/Solar%20System/Uranus.htm) > [@](#): > > There are two canonical pronunciations: > > 1. You Rain Us or Your Anus > > 2. Urine Us > > Generally, if I am giving a public talk to young people and teenagers, I use the scatological pronunciation. If I am giving a talk to an older audience, I opt for the more conservative ‘Urine-Us’ pronunciation. When talking to other professional astronomers, or when I overhear them talking to themselves, I hear both forms being used. Source: [http://www.tas.idv.tw/faq/q427.html](http://www.tas.idv.tw/faq/q427.html) > [@](#): > > so what is the proper way to pronounce Uranus. “YourAnus” (with accent on the second syllable and a hard ‘a’ or “Yuriness” (with the accent on the first syllable and a softer ‘a’)? > > – snip – > > I remember, many years ago, when Carl Sagan made one of his memorable appearances on The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson brought up the pronounciation of Uranus. It was at the time when the Voyager missions were beginning to make their first flybys of the outer planets and there was a lot of media attention being given to space science. > > Sagan, in his usual jovial and tongue-in-cheek style, admitted that the planet had been called “Your Anus” since its discovery; but now that there was so much mention of it on TV and radio, NASA officials had decided to try to stop the onslaught of predictable jokes by changing the pronounciation to “Urine-ess.” > > – snip – > > You can hear the pronounciation on an audio file here at the Nine Planets website: > [Uranus Facts | Rotation, Rings, Atmosphere, Size, History & Definition](http://www.nineplanets.org/uranus.html) Source: [http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2005/12/22/a-new-ring-around-uranus/](http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2005/12/22/a-new-ring-around-uranus/) \<\\> ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-uranus/387491/10 "2007-01-11T03:42:26Z")
Re: Carl Sagan The first time I noticed that someone had changed the pronunciation was when Sagan did his **Cosmos** series on PBS. He pronounced it, approximately, “Oor-uh-nus.” For those who don’t remember, that was the program that gave birth to the phrase “BILLyuns and BILLyuns.” ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-uranus/387491/11 "2007-01-11T04:11:00Z")
You didn’t hear? They changed the name because everyone was sick of that stupid joke. It’s now called Urectum. ---
**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:** [January 11, 2007, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-uranus/387491/12 "2007-01-11T04:44:18Z")
**National Lampoon** once ran one of their fake letters complaining that none of the pronunciations was acceptable – “Your Anus” or "Urine Us’ or “You’re in Us”. As I’ve said before on this Board, I think any of these are more acceptable than its original name — “George”. That’s right. William Herschel, who discovered it, the first major planet to be found ince the days of antiquity, decided to use the occasion to brown-nose for royal favor by naming after Britain’s King George, suggestimg it be called “Georgium Sideris” Talk anbout Your Anus. The name was used for a while, too, although some people, wanting to give the discoverer credit, called it “Herschel”. Finally, folks decided to follow the pattern of the other planets, and name it after a Graeco-Roman deity, a practice they continued to follow with Neptune and Pluto and lors of other bodies until they ran out of Graeco-Roman names, at which point they started delving into other mythologies. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-uranus/387491/13 "2007-01-11T05:15:38Z")
[QUOTE=cmkeller] You didn’t hear? They changed the name because everyone was sick of that stupid joke. It’s now called Urectum. [/QUOTE] Thank you, Professor Farnsworth. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-uranus/387491/14 "2007-01-11T05:23:31Z")
The Sanskrit godname cognate of Greek Ουρανος is _Varuṇa_ वरुण whose name is translated ‘All-Enveloping Sky’. It’s easy to pronounce. It affords no giggles even to 3rd-graders (or the developmental equivalent thereof). We should rename the planet Varuna. Many years ago, Arthur C. Clarke promised in _Rendezvous with Rama_ that we would get some Hindu godnames for planets eventually. Well? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-uranus/387491/15 "2007-01-11T05:30:44Z")
[QUOTE=cmkeller] You didn’t hear? They changed the name because everyone was sick of that stupid joke. It’s now called Urectum. [/QUOTE] Urectum? U damn near killed 'um! ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-uranus/387491/16 "2007-01-11T05:51:44Z")
Isaac Asimov always had an aversion to this name. He thought with the scarcity of planets couldn’t they think of a better name? Asimov said even if you avoided the “Your Anus” pronunciation, you still have a pretty unpleasant connotation with the [urinous](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/urinous) pronunciation. (Isaac Asimov also had a complaint about naming many of those rare earth elements after the obscure Scandinavian locations where they were discovered). ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-uranus/387491/17 "2007-01-11T05:54:56Z")
[QUOTE=Johanna] The Sanskrit godname cognate of Greek Ουρανος is _Varuṇa_ वरुण whose name is translated ‘All-Enveloping Sky’. It’s easy to pronounce. It affords no giggles even to 3rd-graders (or the developmental equivalent thereof). We should rename the planet Varuna. Many years ago, Arthur C. Clarke promised in _Rendezvous with Rama_ that we would get some Hindu godnames for planets eventually. Well? [/QUOTE] Varuna is already the name of an object in the [Kuiper Belt](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20000_Varuna). I don’t know offhand whether any other planetary objects are named after Hindu deities. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-uranus/387491/18 "2007-01-11T08:23:32Z")
[QUOTE=wolf\_meister] Asimov said even if you avoided the “Your Anus” pronunciation, you still have a pretty unpleasant connotation with the [urinous](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/urinous) pronunciation. [/QUOTE] Thats just taking the p… 😉 Si ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-uranus/387491/19 "2007-01-11T12:00:47Z")
[QUOTE=Polycarp] “Mother’s bovine” (Moscow) rather than MAWSK-vah for Moskva. [/QUOTE] MOSS-co is more common than “Ma’s Cow” over here. In an English accent, no-one could mistake “moss” for “ma’s”. ---
**Author:** ![Flipshod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f19dbf/32.png) [@Flipshod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flipshod)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-uranus/387491/20 "2007-01-11T14:03:45Z")
[QUOTE=kunilou] For those who don’t remember, that was the program that gave birth to the phrase “BILLyuns and BILLyuns.” [/QUOTE] Except Mr. Sagan (R.I.P.) said in his last book that he never said “billions AND billions” in Cosmos–he just emphasized “billions” so much that the phrase made itself up and got stuck. (After all, why say the former when the latter means the same thing.) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-uranus/387491.md?page=2)