this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2026
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We spell that word aluminum, not aluminium. That's why we pronounce it that way. Why we spell it differently? No clue.
Also it's not just a billion. A trillion is a thousand billion on this side of the pond, and has been since well before any Americans were even close to being billionaires. We just use a smaller standard for counting, but that's also the standard French and Latin used, so I don't think it has anything to do with us.
Funfact the British USE to say that word the way Americans do now. Then changed later. Americans way of say aluminum is actually the original and accurate way that the British invented.
Why y'all changed is beyond me. We are using it the way YOU wanted us to originally.
In part it was because it was named out of standard through a misunderstanding but then it wasn't corrected...
You spell it differently so that you can pronounce it differently, as I say, to make it sound like a rare and valuable metal.
It is pure marketing.
Aluminium used to be hard to obtain. It was a rare metal and then some smart bastard worked out how to extract it using electrolysis and it became as common as dirt.
Some people had invested heavily in it as a precious metal and overnight their investment was worthless, so hence the reluctance to rebrand.
Ok, I can see that. There are a couple of State Capitol Buildings whose domes are covered in Aluminum Leaf, which would now be called aluminum foil, and I have square yards of the stuff in my kitchen and garage. At the time they were built aluminum was still difficult to get, less than two decades after they were built electrolysis guy did his thing, lol.
I knew that at one point King Louis the somethingth or other, had a full set of aluminumware to serve extremely important guests with. Like, not just cutlery. Plates, saucers, bowls, cups and goblets. The less distinguished guests had to eat and drink out of platinum, gold, or (gasp) silver.
I didn't know that about King Louis (n) ... That's a great fact!