[Ads-l] pronunciation of "fentanyl" (was "pronunciation of ((anti)semitic"

[James Landau]

On Fri, 2 Dec 2022 19:53:26 Zone - 0500   Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> posted:>>, "fentanyl" is usually pronounced "fentanol" (like
>"alcohol").
>>For daring to say "fentanyl" (rhymes with "cancer pill"), I was recently
>and emphatically told by a highly educated person that the "correct
>pronunciation" is "fentanol.">
Laypeople might not notice, but to a chemist the pronunciation is critical.  A chemical name ending in "-ol" signifies an alcohol, that is a chemical in which an OH radical is attached to a carbon atom.

Fentanyl has 28 hydrogen atoms but only one oxygen atom and that oxygen is double-bonded to a carbon atom and does not have a hydrogen atom attached to it. 

 See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fentanyl


James Landau
jjjrlandau at netscape.com

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org