Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
User Journal

Journal grub's Journal: R-oo-tur or R-ow-tur? 79

Journal by grub

No big discussion required, just wonder how you pronounce "router". You know, the things Cisco makes.

"r-ow-tur" ("ow" as in "ouch") or
"r-oo-tur" ("oo" as in "root")
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

R-oo-tur or R-ow-tur? More

R-oo-tur or R-ow-tur?

Comments Filter:
  • Of course. I'm a British citizen living in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. So I may pronounce it that way because I'm British or I may pronounce it that way because of America's influence on Canada.
    • As a British citizen living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, I can assure you, sir, that it's pronounced r-oo-tur :-)

      • Ah, but as a born-n-bred Calgarian living in Calgary AB, I can assure *you* sir, that it is pronounced r-ow-ter...

        Heheh, this is fun...

        Pixie
        • but as a born-n-bred Calgarian living in Calgary AB

          Wow, someone living in Calgary that was actually BORN there. I thought such a breed was nearly exinct (glad to see it isn't). I was starting to fear that the mass migration of Torontonians and Vancouverites to Calgary might distort the graviational field of Canada and shift the centre of the universe.

          As for how it is pronounced in that locale I'd say it is a toss-up. It seems that if you or your family came from out east you might be more inclined to
        • Another Calgarian (formerly an Ontarioian... I was invited out here by someone who was born here, if that helps ;) with a vote for rowtur.
    • My understanding is that "rowter" comes from the American (especially southern) pronunciation of the word "route" (as in, "what route do you take to work in the morning?"), but it's pretty common to hear that pronunciation in Canada too, I think due to exposure to American IT workers.

      Since most people here in Vancouver pronounce "route" "root", I've always said "rooter", and it's a pretty common pronunciation to hear here; but I definitely hear both, and since (apparently unlike other posters here) I'm not
      • Strange, I say 'root' when I talk about the route in to work. And yes, I understand that a router is something that routes ('roots') packets.
    • As a New Zealander, a rooter is *always* someone who roots. We use the American style - it means much less confusion for non-technical listeners. Of course, if the router is broken, it might be called a rooter in jest.
      Ashton
  • Rooter sounds dirty.
  • as in ouch
  • So, a few years back, one of my IT-ish cow-orkers asked me if I had an extra router he could borrow for a little bit. No problem, I bundled it all up and brought it in. Oddly enough, he wasn't looking for a piece of switchgear, he was after a woodworking tool (which I also had an extra of). The look on his face once he figured out what the heck was going on, was priceless. No point here, move along. As far as pronunciation, it sounds like it's spelled, of course.

  • router (Score:2)

    by nizo ( 81281 ) *
    A rooter is a pig, it is pronounced r-ow-tur, like a Mongolian leader routing armies as he pillages the countryside.
  • its fucking r-OWWWW!-ter.

    There is a Corporate song (McKinsey knowledge center? ERikson? I forget who) I have on MP3 and the lady says:

    "Wanna get your rooooting right, even in the darkest night, thats VPN, so let me tell you again"

    And she totally means ROUTING. Unless she means using a root-kit over vpn... but I'm not a master craxxx0r.

  • I pronounce it rowter; I've heard the other way but only very occasionally.

    • A router will route (root) a packet, whereas a router will rout (rawt) a piece of wood. The extra 'e' is there to soften the vowel sound, as in the words flute, plate and delete.

      I blame the filthy French, it's one of their words.

  • formal (Score:1)

    by http ( 589131 )
    route (v.t.)
    `__
    root
    [ snip ]
    2. Send, forward, direct to be sent, by a certain route.

    Source: The Concise Oxford Dictionary

    in case your browser mangles that, it's root' r
  • Everyone in Cincinnati I know says rowter.

    In fact the one person in my entire life who I ever heard say ROOTer was from New Jersey. But he could have just been an idiot. (The full sentence he uttered was "I need to recombobulate my rooter.")
  • I'd propbably laugh at anyone I heard calling it a roooter. Hehe. I've never once heard that in IT.
  • ...is someone who screws a lot. A "rowter" is a network device that does "rowting". I usually give people who call them "rooters" a funny look and then say, "what the hell are you going on about now"? ;P
  • "Rowter" for me.

    What about "cache" -- I've heard "cash", "caysh" and "catch". I think it's mean to be "catch" ("cachement" commonly used by newsreaders is pronounced in that way), but I use "caysh" because it leads to fewer misunderstandings in discussing PCs.
  • Wonderfully arrogant resoponses so far! In British English it's -rooter-. We pronounce the word 'route' similarly. Pronunciation varies by country, and even region, would you believe? I think the word 'parochial' can be pronounced in various ways outside the UK but I've never bothered looking outside my borders to find out.
  • I get my kicks, on route 66.

    I used to say rooter but have converted to rowter, mostly because I feel it's slightly easier to pronounce but also because three years of phone tech support to American e-mail admins numbed my soul.

  • I'm way ahead of you. [slashdot.org] ;-)

    And here is the reason for the poll [slashdot.org].

    Cheers,

    Ethelred

  • We pronounce route "root", as in a bus route (or, as in the song, "Route 66").

    But we call the transmission of packets to their correct destination "rowting", and the device that handles this is a "rowter".

    But then we are used to writing code with an American accent: we study Maths (note the 's'), but include math.h; we call red a colour, but in html we write "color=red".
    • I used to pronounce it rooter instead of rowter specifically because it directs things on a 'route' (root). And in CCNA class, that was changed to rowter.

      Sad, I always wanted to set up a roto-router.
    • OK, now I've gone and confused myself. I'd say bus (or paper) "root" but you find a different "rowt" to work.

      And it's a "rowter".

      Hey I may be inconsistent, but you never have to stop and tell people what you're REALLY talking about...
  • I try not to get upset about little things like this, but it really upsets me when I hear that song "get your kicks on root 66". Bear with me, though:

    You see that thing over there with all the ethernet cables plugged into it? What would you say it does? That's right it routes ("r-ow-ts") packets on the network because it is a router ("r-ow-ter"), not a "rooter" that "roots" packets. "Roots" are something plants have, and I have no idea what a "rooter" would be (other than "roto-rooter").

    So there, no

    • As a followup, if it was meant to be pronounced "root" then why isn't it spelled that way?
    • Well, here in the UK route is pronounced "root", and router is pronounced "rooter" - a "rooter" "roots" packets along a "root" between two computers. And yes, plants have roots too, but obviously of a different kind...

      As for why it's not spelled that way, this is English you know - what do you want, consistency? How about cough ("coff"), bough ("bow"), Bough ("Boff", a surname), bow ("bow", part of a ship, etc), bow ("bo", a type of knot, the thing you fire arrows with, etc) and so on. English is littered
  • Check m-w.com, there are three words, the thing that routes is pronounced "rooter".

    HTH
    --Blerik
    • From m-w.com:
      Main Entry: 2router

      Pronunciation: 'rü-t&r, 'rau-
      Function: noun
      : one that routes
      Both pronunciations are listed there.

      • But when you click the little 'speaker', they pronounce it rooter. And the first pronunciation is always the preferred one in a dictionary (although they do acknowledge that people also use rauter).

        But they seem to have two pronunciations for 'routes', maybe there is more to it...

        --Blerik
  • Really...that is what feels natural... In norwegian it is rooter...just fyi

  • I vote for 'rooter', but hey, it's not that important. :)

    I'm British - that's my excuse. My only exposure to the other pronunciation was in:

    1. a rubbishy computer game, involving American soldiers saying they were "en rowt" - was that meant to be French? Hmm...
    2. Star Trek - "Re-rowting power to the shields" and so forth.

    But at least I'm consistent - my 'rooter' 'roots' packets, and I've got 'root'. So do trees. Some Americans seem to be getting themselves all confused over it.

  • One could make a case that is has to be R-ow-ter because the device does something (in this case it routes packets) meaning that it refers to the verb which is commonly pronounced "r-ow-te".

    The noun on the other hand which is commonlly pronounced "r-oo-te" would refer to a path or road, applying this to router it would be the equivalent of saying "Ethernetter" or "Internetter".

    I can't back this up via the dictionary [reference.com] but it works for me :-)
  • I pernounces it "row-ter." Although I knew one precious chap who pronounced it "reuwter" until the fateful day we met with the Cisco reps...
    Locale: Southwest US
  • My Pittsburgh relatives would say it's a RAH-ter. They live off RAHt 8, not dahntahn.
  • This issue comes about because of Americans having changed the pronunciation of the word 'Route'. Route (rhymes with root) is a path, whereas 'rout' (rhymes with pout) is to send your enemy fleeing in a chaotic manner. Thus, the woodworking tool is pronounced 'Rowtur' as is sends bits of wood flying off. To me (and I am American and an English major) referring to the networking device as a 'Rowtur' means you send your bits and packets in random directions, so I annoy people by saying 'rooter'.

    With the word
    • I love you man! I was just about to put the same logic in my reply before spotting this.

      -- Caution, phonetic spelling ahead!
      A rooter is something which roots packets on a network.

      A rowter is something used in woodwork to extract specific bits of wood without resorting to all kinds of messy shit with chisels and coping saws.

  • I'm from Pittsburgh, and we pronounce it RAH-ter. As in: "Yinz takin' that rahter up ta yer buddy in New Ken? Don't take Raht 28. There's a crash by the Blawnox exit, 'n'at."

  • Rooter sounds kinda gay... :)

  • Not unlike the Merriam-Webster, actually ;)

  • Even if the original "proper" pronunciation was "rooter", I shall say "rowter".

    Why?

    1. There is no other "rowt" to confuse it with. There is a "root". The root of a plant. A pig roots for truffles.
    2. The pronunciation and the spelling match if you actually pronounce the dipthong instead of making up some random pronunciation for the vowel pair (or, as it may have been originally, making up some random spelling for spoken word).
    3. "Rooter" sounds like it comes from my least favorite accents. "There's
    • Re your first point, you might want to check your dictionary for "rout". www.dict.org has a nice list of meanings, including (with editing to pacify the lameness filter):

      Rout (Rout) n. OF. route, LL. rupta, properly, a breaking, fr.
      L. ruptus, p. p. of rumpere to break. See Rupture, reave,
      and cf. Rote repetition of forms, Route. In some senses
      this word has been confused with rout a bellowing, an
      uproar. Formerly spelled also route.
      1. A troop; a throng; a company; an assembly; e
  • Here in Montreal, people tend to switch between english and french a lot. I always assumed that the incorrect pronounciation was yet another example of our two national languages bleeding into each other.

    In french, it's pronounced roo'tar (although that is what we call an anglicisme.)

    In English, it's supposed to be pronounced rou'ter. [reference.com]
  • No one other than me thinks someone saying "route" is talking about "root"? I tend to leap up and shout, "Hey! I'm root also! I've got root on more servers than I can count on my fingers, ohhhhh, OWNEDDD!!!!" only to find out that's not what they're talking about.

    For this reason only, it's "rowter" in my book.

Slashdot Top Deals

Overdrawn? But I still have checks left!

Close