the meaning behind your username..

[Sayonara]

I loved the idea of the Greeks discovering pi to figure out circles and phi as the Golden Mean. I always thought phi was pronounced FYE until someone told me it was pronounced FEE.

Who told you that? I'm pretty sure it's incorrect.

[atinymonkey]

I thought it was pronounced as PIE. Is that just me?

[Sayonara]

I thought it was pronounced as PIE. Is that just me?

No, Pi is a completely different letter.

[Guest foofy25]

one of my many nicknames + my age

[Phi for All]

Who told you that? I'm pretty sure it's incorrect.

As a Greek letter, it is pronounced FEE when used after a vowel, and when it is used to represent the Golden Mean it is also pronounced FEE. Greeks actually pronounce it more like the I in FILTER, but that's closer to FEE than FYE. I found this link from an actual Greek to back me up.

 

I sure HOPE I'm pronouncing it right. Britney and I got tattoos...

[Dave]

As a Greek letter' date=' it is pronounced FEE when used after a vowel, and when it is used to represent the Golden Mean it is also pronounced FEE. Greeks actually pronounce it more like the I in FILTER, but that's closer to FEE than FYE. I found this link from an actual Greek to back me up.

 

I sure HOPE I'm pronouncing it right. Britney and I got tattoos...

 

All my lecturers seem to use the pronunctiation that sounds like "thigh". Never mind, we don't usually say it all that often, just write it again and again and again and...

[Sayonara]

As a Greek letter, it is pronounced FEE when used after a vowel, and when it is used to represent the Golden Mean it is also pronounced FEE. Greeks actually pronounce it more like the I in FILTER, but that's closer to FEE than FYE. I found this link[/url'] from an actual Greek to back me up.

Errr... I didn't ask about the pronunciation, I asked who told you that.

 

The reason being (as I was saying to Tesseract before chopping a load of posts out of this thread) that in 5 years of being taught Ancient Greek by two chaps with pedigree classics qualifications, and 7 years of physics/maths taught by similarly academically endowed people, I never once heard anyone pronounce it "fee".

 

I was just wondering what sort of insight this source of yours had.

 

It did just occur to me though that the pron. in modern Greek may have changed.

 

[edit] Also I just realised (after looking at the link) you're talking about how it's pronounced in words, and I'm talking about what it's called.

[NSX]

I dont know about that ...

 

My physics professor was greek, and he always pronounced it as fye

[YT2095]

it would make sense realy, when you consider that Pi is PIE that Phi would sound like FIE or FYE.

 

fee fye fo fum!

[Phi for All]

Errr... I didn't ask about the pronunciation, I asked who told you that.

Mea culpa. It was a friend who doesn't have your credentials, but had a math professor in college who pronounced it that way. My wife tells me that Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code uses that pronunciation as well. Perhaps I felt a vicarious thrill at going against the fraternal grain. I can be that way, you know.

[Sayonara]

lol

 

Good answer!

 

I'm inclined (like you) to go with the Greek man's pronunciation in modern greek words. Reciting the alphabet in Ancient Greek is another matter though, unless all the classics teachers in England need hitting with a slipper. Actually, thinking about that...

[Dave]

unless all the classics teachers in England need hitting with a slipper. Actually, thinking about that...

 

I know of a few who'd probably like that sort of thing, but I won't get into that here

 

(Did latin up to 5 years with some extra Greek, never heard it pronounced like that either, just to put this post reasonably on topic)

[Sayonara]

Yeah, I had the Latinese too. What fun.

 

"Puella est in canem" etc.

[AtomicMX]

Mine is... atomic, made of atoms and MX because i am mexican.

[mossoi]

I got Mossoi from a sequence of saved games of Doom one night in 1993/4. It was late and we were determined to complete it so the save names became more abstract.

 

The sequence went something like this:

 

Level 1 Near the End

Level 2 Dying

Arrrrg

Frank Boff [sic]

Francis Boff

Francino Boff

St Francis of Boff

Whips n Chains (A prize for anybody who can find the link between Frank Bough and whips and chains)

Frank Moosoid

Moosoid

Mossoi.

 

So I guess Mossoi is just a typo of Moosoid.

[PerpetualYnquisitive]

But I will anyway.

 

You all know at least one kid that won't accept your answers without proof, questions authority figures and always asks Why even when you give an answer that they accept, well I'm that little kid's curiosity, Cubed.

[ydoaPs]

my name was cut off (. it is supposed to be "yourdadonapogostick." the people in my school aren't very mature. they would always say "ur mom" so i decided to b different and said "ur dad." being the trendsetter that i am, people started saying "ur dad", so i decided to add something differnt to it. i added "on a pogo stick." since then, i have used "yourdadonapogostick" as a screen name for several things. i previously was "Ezra Maliki."

[pulkit]

No meaning just a reason : Elation at knowing that no other pulkit was around these parts, almost never get my real name as a user name anywhere else.

 

Even the somewhat exclusive gmail won't lemme have it

[coquina]

I like geology - Coquina is a kind of sandstone that is impregnated with shells. It is also the common name for Donax variabilis, a tiny clam that is my avatar until I find something better. http://www.jaxshells.org/track4.htm Besides - I just like the sound of it.

[inamorata]

I use this username on every forum I am a member of.

 

in·am·o·ra·ta

 

A woman with whom one is in love or has an intimate relationship.

[it. innamorata, fem., innamorato, masc., p. p. of innamorare to inspire with love. See Enamor.] A woman in love; a mistress. ``The fair inamorata.'' --Sherburne.

 

Syn: Goddess.

 

I just like the name of it, I guess. And the fact it is a synonym for Goddess.....

[ydoaPs]

I use this username on every forum I am a member of.

 

in·am·o·ra·ta

 

A woman with whom one is in love or has an intimate relationship.

[it. innamorata' date= fem., innamorato, masc., p. p. of innamorare to inspire with love. See Enamor.] A woman in love; a mistress. ``The fair inamorata.'' --Sherburne.

 

Syn: Goddess.

 

I just like the name of it, I guess. And the fact it is a synonym for Goddess.....

 

if that is your pic, ur a synonym for goddess

[Chem-Maniac]

My name consists of two parts: Chemistry and Maniac.

Chemistry is what I'm studying and working on, it's the thing I'm mostly interested in, and Maniac, well, I'm just crazy about it all right? I'm serious, once I spent a whole week in the lab of my university without going home for a shower, a bed or anything else,just because I wanted to find out the structure of 4 different samples, an assignment which was due for a month.

[Thales]

Just out of curiousity, what is the relevence behind some of your nicks. I'm sure some of you might not have a particularly meaningful one but I find the multitude and varity of nicks quite interesting.

 

My nick, Thales, is the name of the man many historians consider to be the 'founder' of science. At least thats how Aristotle saw it naming him the 'father of natural philosphy'. He was an Ionian(pre-greece) and was reknowned for his pursuit of almost every area of science. While I respect and admire this man, I in no way compare myself to him as that would be egotistical to say the least. I do however share his passion for all things scienctific and thats why I'm here

 

What about yourselves?

[MolecularMan14]

Well I think of things on a molecular level. Its not so much that Im into chemistry, (Im definitely more biological), but I figured I needed something with a ring to it. And I signed up on my 14th birthday, signifying the 14

[5614]

its a username i was given in school, i use it for everything dont ask why though, i dunno, just comes naturally.

 

i could have written it 5614 in binary, to show the computer/physics side of me, but that would be a bit tooooo long [for those who know binary, you'll understand how long that number would be!]