The Word "Gigawatt"

[rbattelle]

So I've always pronounced "gigawatt" with a "G" sound like the word "gig" or "gone".



To my surprise, I found out today that "jigawatt" is also a correct pronunciation! And all this time I thought Doc Brown from Back to the Future pronounced it with a "J" sound because he was goofy.



Link to definition.



I think maybe I'll switch to the "J" variant.



Ryan

[Why did I write this thread? Heck, I don't know. ]

 

[HOBrian]

When was Back to The Future on for you to think of this?

 

[lmills]

LOL Ryan

 

[Little Bill]

Jiggle what ?

 

[kowaliga]

That pronunciation is not politically correct. Used down South, you'd be labled racist.

 

[Little Bill]

Yea, it right up there with the website "www.jigzone.com"

 

[rbattelle]

When was Back to The Future on for you to think of this?

It came up in conversation yesterday. A friend has a Infinity G37s with every option. A couple of us asked where the flux capacitor was. That lead to the "jigawatt" discussion.

That pronunciation is not politically correct. Used down South, you'd be labled racist.

Are you serious? I had no idea the term had anything to do with race. To me, a gigawatt is a billion watts. How does race fit in?



Ryan

 

[Loghead]

Since word meanings/pronounciations can change over time, I'd stick with the hard "G".

We don't hear computer jocks talking about "jigabytes" , when expressing a computer's memory capacity, do we?

So unless your goal is to get funny, quizzical stares when you're talking about your electric bill... .

 

[kowaliga]

It came up in conversation yesterday. A friend has a Infinity G37s with every option. A couple of us asked where the flux capacitor was. That lead to the "jigawatt" discussion.







Are you serious? I had no idea the term had anything to do with race. To me, a gigawatt is a billion watts. How does race fit in?



Ryan

One could imagine that amount of electricity used by Compton, Calif.

 

[Ram4Sam]

Hear it from the man himself... .



YouTube - 1. 21 Giga Watts!?!

 

[fest3er]

Since word meanings/pronounciations can change over time, I'd stick with the hard "G".



We don't hear computer jocks talking about "jigabytes" , when expressing a computer's memory capacity, do we?



So unless your goal is to get funny, quizzical stares when you're talking about your electric bill... .

And I've never heard an EE or RF engineer speak of 'jigahertz'. The G has always been hard. Prolly the first time I ever heard a soft G used was in BTTF.