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	Nucular - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Nucular is a metathesis of the word nuclear which represents the commonplace [ˈn(j)uːkjə.lə(ɹ)] (in IPA) pronunciation of that word instead of [ˈn(j)uː.kli.ə(ɹ)] or [ˈn(j)uː.kli͡ə(ɹ)].
		The reason why nuclear becomes nucular is founded in the phonotactics of the English language.
		"Nucular" is also the pronunciation preferred by Homer Simpson, and his confident use of it in The Simpsons exemplifies a level of cultural information that is largely overheard at some distance, second-hand, rather than read.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Nucular (532 words)

	Nucular
		"Nucular" is an intentional misspelling of the word "nuclear" which is usually intended to express contempt or amusement towards the commonplace noo`kyu-ler pronounciation of that word.
		A possible explanation for the pronunciation nucular is the prevalance of other -cule nouns and -cular adjectives in English and science (molecular, etc.) and the rarity of -cleus or -clear words.
		"Nucular" would apparently be the adjective form of the "little nut" root; "nuculear" (so far unused) would be the adjective of the alternative spelling of "kernel".
	www.ebroadcast.com.au /lookup/encyclopedia/nu/Nucular.html (202 words)

	Nucular: Facts and details from Encyclopedia Topic (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		Nucular is an intentional misspelling of the word nuclear nuclear quick summary:
		A possible explanation for the pronunciation nucular is the prevalence of other -cule nouns and -cular adjectives in English and science (molecular, EHandler: no quick summary.
		(nucular seems to be the addition of the regular suffix -ular to the colloquial form (which would make it a case of false etymology Fake etymology quick summary:
	www.absoluteastronomy.com /encyclopedia/n/nu/nucular.htm (1140 words)

	Language Log: The thin line between error and mere variation II: going nucular
		What Nunberg doesn't stress is that these days virtually everybody who says "nucular" is in the second group; though the support of other -ular words helps to make "nucular" sound right, these people are saying it because other people say it.
		In particular, he cites at least one speaker for whom "nucular" refers specifically to nukes, with "nuclear" used in expressions like "nuclear family" and "the nuclear material of the cell".
		Nunberg is inclined to see GWB as having chosen the "nucular" variant, to project a particular persona; in even less neutral phrasing, GWB "puts on" his folksy, Texas-rancher, hypermasculine persona, with the linguistic accoutrements that go along with that.
	itre.cis.upenn.edu /~myl/languagelog/archives/001134.html (1073 words)

	Andrew Moroz's Blog: Nuclear vs. "nucular" (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		We all know that Bush pronounces the word nuclear like "nucular." I talked to Nick about this, and he emphasized the point that Bush is incorrect in his pronunciation; of course, Nick is a die-hard Democrat, so this was to be expected.
		A new definition of a word is acceptable when it starts to be used regularly is magazines, newspapers, etc. I remember that she had to create definitions for word phrases such as "balsamic vinagrette" and "visibile pantyline." So, I guess dictionaries aren't as stuffy as they sometimes appear.
		Pronouncing Nuclear "Nucular" and saying that because so many do it, it becomes correct is tantamount to saying that irregardless is now synonymous with regardless - just because so many educated people use it (and an appalling number do).
	www.princeton.edu /~amoroz/2004/07/nuclear-vs-nucular.html (613 words)

	ipedia.com: Nucular Article (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		" Nucular " is an intentional misspelling of the word " nuclear " which is usually intended to express contempt or amusement towards the commonplace noo`kyu-ler pronunciation of that word.
		This pronunciation is disapproved of by some who consider it a mispronunciation, although at least one leading American dictionary references it.
		Merriam-Webster receives sufficient questioning of their listing of this pronunciation, that it (along with "February") are singled out in their FAQ.
	www.ipedia.com /nucular.html (364 words)

	Geoffrey Nunberg - Going Nucular (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		Take the pronunciation of nuclear as "nucular." That one has been getting on people's nerves since Eisenhower made the mispronunciation famous in the 1950's.
		In the mouths of those people, "nucular" is a choice, not an inadvertent mistake -- a thinko, not a typo.
		If he says "nucular" all the time, then it's most likely a faux-bubba thing.
	www-csli.stanford.edu /~nunberg/nucular.html (926 words)

	Hit and Run
		Comment by: methodman at January 31, 2006 10:00 PM Hahahahaha--you said "nuclear." It's "nucular." The S is silent.
		Comment by: mac at January 31, 2006 10:04 PM Drilling him to say "nucular" consistently was the greatest challenge.
		He may have been a "nucular" scientist, but he was only a nuclear engineer, taking coursework for his position in the Navy.
	www.reason.com /hitandrun/2006/01/bush_goes_nucul.shtml (1401 words)

	'Nucular' bombs \| The San Diego Union-Tribune
		He points out that Bush is hardly the first person to say nucular – he's not even the first president: Eisenhower did it, and Clinton sometimes did it.
		But Eisenhower was 55 when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, so it's easy to understand that he might struggle with a word like nuclear that became common late in his life.
		But why Bush persists in saying nucular is a question that lingers.
	www.signonsandiego.com /uniontrib/20040620/news_lz1v20nucular.html (1106 words)

	24 Hour Campfire: Clintons sold nucular secerets to the Chinese.. is this accurate?
		Not sure which is worse: a VP that takes 300K from the Red Chinese or a man who can't hold his tea.
		I still remained fuzzy, regarding the campaign cash in exchange for ICBP technology to assist the Chinese in their goal of maximizing the amount of mass destruction.
		Clinton did allow the Loral coroporation to sell rocket launching technology to the Chinese, advancing their launching capabilities 20 years ahead of where they were.
	www.24hourcampfire.com /ubbthreads/showflat.php?Number=503999 (646 words)

	sciforums.com - Nucular Power
		Australia is about to start using nucular power, booooooooooo.
		Nucular power, is that where they split nuculuses?
		Same as New Zealand now, what has happened is with the privatisation of electricity the new owners are wanting to switch to nuclear power.
	www.sciforums.com /showthread.php?p=822623 (1093 words)

	Pam's House Blend
		C- Augustus trumpeted the beginning of Operation Kick The Oil Addiction on his Saturday radio address, which I listened to because I'm a fan of unintentional comedy.
		Nucular power generates large amounts of low-cost electricity without emitting air pollution or greenhouse gases.
		Our goal is to start the construction of new nucular power plants by the end of this decade.
	www.pamspaulding.com /weblog/2006/02/addicted-to-oil-try-nucular-power.html (545 words)

	Going Nucular: Language, Politics, and Culture in Controversial Times
		Going Nucular, besides having one of the more whimsical titles to come along in a while, offers up scores of chapters, each examining specific words, phrases, or verbal tendencies.
		And while words like "terrorism", "fascism", "appeasement", and "Caucasian" (and even the hapless "like" and "ain't") are tossed about regularly in contemporary usage, achieving an understanding of their origin and evolution can serve to better explain not just the word but the issue to which it is attached.
		Going Nucular is much more than a nudge and a wisecrack to self-appointed word cops, it's an insider's tour of the vernacular by the English teacher you only wish you had.
	www.tutorgig.com /store/PR1586482343 (941 words)

	Why does Bush go "nucular"? By Kate Taylor
		I realize that Websters and many "educated" people use the term "Nucular" rather than "Nuclear" and feel that since they are who they are that it is correct.
		I understand what Websters is saying in regard to the English language, but I do feel that there should be a somewhat close correlation between the spelling and the pronunciation of a word.
		I cringe when I hear "idear", "eksetera", "pronounciation", "nucular", and on and on, no matter whose mouth these words are coming from.
	www.slate.com /id/2071155 (830 words)

	DrikoLand (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nuclear whoops Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular
		Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular Nucular
		"nucular" 12 times, but one awful, horrible mispronunciation is enough for me, so you can imagine my consternation.
	www.driko.org /archive/2003_01_28_archive.html (633 words)

	Going Nucular -- and George Lakoff's work
		My mother, in an attempt to help dispell the fog of ignorance from my mind, bought me both "Going Nucular" by Geoffrey Nunberg, and "Metaphors We Live By" by George Lakoff -- we were actually looking for "Moral Politics" and I wanted "Women, Fire and Dangerous Things" by the same author, but no joy.
		But aside from my own psychopathology and how it relates to this book, I can and will and do recommend Going Nucular to anyone who has an interest in reading good essays in general, and in the meanings contained in language usage in particular.
		He's an engaging writer, and his focus is on understanding the messages contained within the words he analyses, rather than criticizing the words used to contain them.
	www.dr-bob.org /babble/books/20040616/msgs/372043.html (343 words)

	OpinionJournal - Taste
		But when speakers go "nucular" not by design but by accident, it can backfire.
		And ever since the original "atomic bombs" were replaced by those phonetically daunting "nuclear weapons," plenty of commentators have taken to their typewriters and later to their keyboards to complain.
		For Americans, one linguistic remedy might be simply to meld "nucular" into the lexicon--something the Merriam-Webster dictionary has halfway tried, with the disclaimer that the mistake, though common, is not "acceptable." As for asking our leaders to enroll in speech therapy, forget about it.
	www.opinionjournal.com /taste/?id=110002596 (853 words)

	Nucular Weppins
		Here was a welcome sign that Republicans were going to begin their immediate withdrawal in November 2006, ushered out by the voting public.
		There are now new allegations by British memos that accused the Americans of little or no post-war planning.
		The bottomless capacity for subterfuge by the Bush Administration would be amusing or laughable if it didn't result in the loss of lives, billions of dollars, and the United State's stature in the world community.
	nucularweppins.blogspot.com (2065 words)

	Blogger: Email Post to a Friend (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		Last night's State of the Union speech — and today's water-cooler conversation — compelled me to research the whole "nucular" thing.
		Changing "nu-clee-ar" into "nu-cu-lar" is an example of what linguists call metathesis, which is the switching of two adjacent sounds.
		One reason, offered in a usage note in the American Heritage Dictionary, is that the "ular" ending is extremely common in English, and much more common than "lear." Consider particular, circular, spectacular, and many science-related words like molecular, ocular, muscular.
	www.blogger.com /email-post.g?blogID=4116689&postID=90250403 (190 words)

	It's Pronounced Nucular \| improvident lackwit
		There are at least two occurrences of "nucular" in The Simpsons.
		The other time "nucular" makes an appearance is in the episode where Homer is assigned to weekend warrior submarine wargames, and we hear Captain Tenille (!) speaking to Homer:
		The the guide for that episode mentions that "nucular" is also mentioned in the episode where Bart gets an elephant.
	www.improvidentlackwit.com /lackwit/2005/03/its_pronounced_.html (252 words)

	Powell's Books - Going Nucular: Language, Politics and Culture in Confrontational Times by Geoffrey Nunberg (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		He pronounces that: " 'Blog' is a syllable whose time has come," and that "You don't get to be a verb unless you're doing something right," with which he launches into the effect of Google on our collective consciousness.
		"Going Nucular," the title piece, is more than a bit of fun at the President's expense.
		As Nunberg's title suggests, pronunciation can also be political: President Bush's much-lampooned utterance 'nucular' could be either a nod to 'Pentagon wise guys' or a sly 'faux-bubba' gimmick to curry favor with some voters.
	www.powells.com /cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=65-1586482343-1 (784 words)

	Blogcritics.org: Book Review: Going Nucular by Geoffrey Nunberg
		In Going Nucular Geoffrey Nunberg talks about the way he sees words demonstrate our changing ideas and sensibilities; one word replaces another, an old word is adopted to a new point of view, or sometimes it's just the way little words like and or of are used.
		Words usually have something to hide--you have to shake them until the top pops off and some revelation tumbles out, an insight into some attitude that it would be hard to put your finger on by any other means.
		Nucular according to the author is the standard way of pronouncing weaponary at the pentagon.
	blogcritics.org /archives/2005/07/29/054316.php (2121 words)

	Urban Dictionary: nucular
		Something you never, ever want to hear coming from the lips of a man who controls a nuclear arsenal large enough to destroy the entire world eight times over.
		He was the first Nucular Engineer to become president.
		My 8 year old daughter Amy's biggest worry is nucular proliferation.
	www.urbandictionary.com /define.php?term=nucular&defid=1014966 (320 words)

	Nucular?
		We know who thunders on about “nucular” - I still wonder how someone sitting over the world’s biggest pile of nuclear arsenal can complain about others having it.
		So, it is extremely disheartening to sit and listen to President George W. Bush go on an on about "nucular" concerns.
		I find myself yelling at the television and, as hard as I try to stay focused on his valid points, am often distracted by my frustration over this pet peeve of mine.
	vsbabu.org /mt/archives/2002/09/19/nucular.html (731 words)

	Daily Times - Site Edition
		So when Bush says “nucular,” he means nuclear, as in weapons of mass destruction — a subject that is much on his mind these days.
		Webster’s, by far the most liberal dictionary, includes the pronunciation, though with a note identifying it as “a pronunciation variant that occurs in educated speech but that is considered by some to be questionable or unacceptable.”
		We are definitely not advocating that anyone should use the pronunciation ‘nucular’ or that they should abandon the pronuciation ‘nuclear.’
	www.dailytimes.com.pk /?page=story_21-9-2002_pg3_8 (902 words)

	Geoffrey Nunberg, clever media linguist, examines what our words really mean, including the way Bush says 'nucular'
		"In the mouths of those people, 'nucular' is a choice, not an inadvertent mistake -- a thinko, not a typo," says Nunberg, who is a senior researcher at the Center for the Study of Language and Information and a linguistics professor at Stanford.
		"If Bush's 'nucular' is a deliberate choice, is it something he picked up from the Pentagon wise guys?" Nunberg asks.
		But if he only says 'nucular' for weapons, it's probably a bit of borrowed Pentagon swagger," he says.
	www.sfgate.com /cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/07/08/DDG1P7HEVA1.DTL&type=printable (959 words)

	Language Log: Axe a stupid question
		I would have thought that the title of Geoff's book would be a pretty clear hint that the pronunciation nucular was going to be discussed somewhere in the volume.
		(Back on 7/3/04, in fact, Alison Murie suggested on ADS-L that nucular might be a reanalysis in which the root is the word nuke, and the word nucleus isn't involved at all.
		To get towards nucular, that second syllable would have to lose its accent (this is not particularly unlikely), yielding /nuk
	itre.cis.upenn.edu /~myl/languagelog/archives/001999.html (641 words)

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