When did the pronunciation for the name of the planet Uranus change?

Question

When I was in school, Uranus was pronounced 'your-anus' (emphasis on first syllable) but now, it is commonly pronounced 'u-rain-us' (emphasis on second syllable). When did this change? What is the proper pronunciation?

Answer 1

Ouranus was actually a Greek God (the God of the skies) and as the other planets all had names from Roman mythologies, the name Ouranus was Romanised to Uranus.

Uranus was proposed as the name, in the wake of the Herschel's discovery of the new planet in 1781, by Johannes Bode, the director of the Berlin Observatory. He had helped plot its trajectory and he was the editor of an influential Astronomy yearbook as well, so he was listened to.

However being German, he had no idea how generations of smirking schoolboys in England would vulgarise the Romanised classical name into a smutty joke and he intended all along that it be pronounced with the emphasis on the second syllable.

The element Uranium is pronounced 'u-rain-ium' (emphasis likewise on the second syllable) and is named after the same God. No smutty jokes about "your anium" are however cracked as their is no word "anium" for it to have a scatalogical meaning. So I think it is clear that the original pronunciation is the correct one and the smutty "your anus" is a latter deviation from phonetic accuracy. which gets ever more tedious with every repetition.

Answer 2

Pronunciation Of Uranus

Answer 3

I know the exact day it changed. I remember the day the pronunciation of that planet's name changed. It was the day scientists discovered it has rings and on the news that night, the newscasters all said "Scientists have discovered rings around the planet "YUR in us". From the time I was a kid in the 1950s and I assume long before then, that planet was always pronounced "yur AY nus". I noticed the change immediately and assumed that the newscaster just mispronounced it because he didn't want people to laugh about "Rings around your anus". But I saw that all other newscasters had changed the pronunciation that same day and ever since EVERYONE pronounces is YUR in us, instead of the way it was always pronounced my entire childhood, yur AY nus. Anyone else ever notice that?

Answer 4

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
When did the pronunciation for the name of the planet Uranus change?
When I was in school, Uranus was pronounced 'your-anus' (emphasis on first syllable) but now, it is commonly pronounced 'u-rain-us' (emphasis on second syllable). When did this change? What is the proper pronunciation?

Answer 5

For the best answers, search on this site https://shorturl.im/av4r8

You're welcome to lobby for Kronos, but I believe there's already an asteroid or moon with that name. You could probably lobby more easily for a different pronunciation. In Greek, it wold be oo-RAH-nohs. But since all the other planets have the names of Roman deities, I think we're stuck with them for the time being, including Uranus.

Answer 6

The planets were all named in ancient times, so there's really not a lot we can do now to change it... By the way, the correct pronunciation of the planet's name is: Yu 'Rah' nus. Peace, B

Answer 7

Even back then both pronunciations were proper, but the "your anus" one was most common. But people are so sophomoric today that you can't use that one any more. Society and culture have really deteriorated in the last 50 years, with manners almost forgotten and 4 letter words no longer unacceptable. So now we can't say Uranus the same old way without a bunch is stupid jerks snickering and making rude comments.

Answer 8

I could guess that the reason was obvious. It's because of the "Beavis and Butthead" mentality that has prevailed recently. I would say that contempt for a free education is the original source of this change. I suppose someone decided to start pronouncing it differently to keep the class morons from snickering whey they heard the name.

Answer 9

I agree it s the cultural change. When I was a kid we had to shower after gym, nobody said a word about supermans bulge in his tights and having a roommate when you were poor was not "gay". Today, we are hypersensitive, and see sex in everything.
It makes it a very self conscious world , so If one of our leaders , like Putin the leader of Russia, gave a kid a raspberry on the stomach or had shirtless pictures of himself (both things he did), he would be run out of office. But, in most of the world they don t freak out over nudity or see any kind of touching as PERV. We have become a very neurotic country.

Answer 10

IT was a Ms. Marge Buttholowsky who got behind the movement and pushed out the old one. A Priggish school marm, she had a high sensitivity to double entendre. Butt I cant figure out why.