Omicron? Why are we calling it omnicron?

[immersivereader]

Is it me or are people adding an 'n'? Because it's easier to say?

Because humans are not perfect I guess?

I've never heard anyone call it omnicron.

It was mispronounced regularly at first in the broadcast media. I'm guessing people aren't all up on their ancient Greek.

That said, most people have got the hang of it. Generally seems to just be those who are on the anti-vax/anti-lockdown/COVID denier end who are still having problems or even dare I suggest deliberately mispronouncing it for effect?

The reporter on the local BBC news says Omnicron. Drives me crackers

And why have we jumped from Delta to Omicron? What happened to Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta etc?

I can't help but say oh-my-cron. Like the first bit of microwave.

Omicron is a bit Sainsbury's Taste the Difference when in reality it's so much more Tesco Every Little Helps.

I'm pretty sure I heard a presenter on LBC say Omnicron today. It's bizarre.

@BellaChagall

I'm pretty sure I heard a presenter on LBC say Omnicron today. It's bizarre.

Why is it bizarre?

I'm a lingust and even I had trouble with it the first few times.

Probably because not a lot of people speak Greek, but a lot of people have heard of the prefix "omni" and so apply that to the word.

Las time I moaned about this I discovered I was auto correcting it to omicrom, so no comment from me

@chardonnayspetdragon

What's wrong with "Expresso".

Nothing, it's French rather than Italian, that's all. That comment confused me too

Sorry that was to @VeniVidiWeeWee

If it helps, think of the two Greek letters:

O-micron (as in very small) and
O-mega (as I'm very big).

Micron and mega, for small and big O

I actually learned some Greek and that never occurred to me,

Squeezita i suppose because I would expect a presenter to say it correctly and to know the origin of the word. It's not a made up word. But in the great scheme of things it doesn't really matter!

Because there's some kind of eyedrop medication called opticrom, I think people are combining the two!

Mary Beard reckons we're all saying it wrong and it should be oh-MY-cron. With the emphasis on the MY.

I've seen Ovicron, Ovicrom, Omicrom, Omnicrom. Its only 7 letters its not that hard.

Why indeed? Why is it not called Covid? Did we specifically name the other variants like they were a disease in itself?

@VoluptuaGoodshag

Why indeed? Why is it not called Covid? Did we specifically name the other variants like they were a disease in itself?

We did with Delta when that was the newest variant

@VoluptuaGoodshag

Why indeed? Why is it not called Covid? Did we specifically name the other variants like they were a disease in itself?

Covid is frequently referred Delta since that variant arrived back last spring to distinguish it from Alpha and the original variant (and also form Beta and Gamma but we didn't really get that here until Delta effectively took over).

@immersivereader

Is it me or are people adding an 'n'? Because it's easier to say?

Maybe they're getting it confused with the omnium. Lots of cycling round and no one having a fucking clue what's going on.

@alongwayhome

Because there's some kind of eyedrop medication called opticrom, I think people are combining the two!

Don't forget the binoculars called Opticron.