Re: Having seen Iron Man

Michael Ash wrote:

> Wikipedia claims that the National Bureau of Standards had a
pronunciation 
> guide which showed it as being pronounced like "jiga" for about a 
> twenty-year period, and the source word for the prefix is pronounced in 
> this way:
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giga
> 
> Alas both citations are to offline sources.

Hurray!  Wikipedia to the rescue, as usual.

Even if this is all true, it doesn't explain why it generated scoffing 
_at the time it came out_.  "Official pronunciation" isn't very 
meaningful, outside of maybe France.  (And even there, the "official 
pronunciation" surely is deliberately flaunted.)

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