This has caused a lot of beer exchange chez nous - would like to expand it to the further community.

How do *you* produce Fresnel?

i) Frennel
ii) Frez-nell

So where are you from? ...

Maybe it's a US/UK thing (UK likes 'Fillet', US likes 'Filay', so UK likes 'Frez-nell' and I guess the US likes 'Frennel')...

I guess the US likes 'Frennel')...

Yep, that's the way I have always heard it pronounced during 40 years working backstage in theatres in the US. If you said "frezz-nell" the stagehands would literally laugh at you here :-)

Now "fillet" is a little more complicated. As a technical term related to drafting, carpentry or welding we would always say "fill-ett." But if you're ordering a steak in a restaurant you'd say "fil-lay minn-yon"

I have the Concise OED and it recommends "fray-nell", though I just say "fruh-nell".

fre-nel

It's French, man.

Where's the accent? I've been saying fre-NEL. Is that right?

Accent on second.

A fur-NELL has a frez-nul lens on it. Everybody I know says fur-NELL.

Probably the same ones who think "Smooth Operator" is a song by someone named Sharday. :)

My Frezznel is the shizznit!

From the Wiki:

Augustin-Jean Fresnel (pronounced [freɪ 'nel] in AmE (or fray-NELL), [fʁɛ nɛl] in French) (May 10, 1788 – July 14, 1827), was a French physicist who contributed significantly to the establishment of the theory of wave optics. Fresnel studied the behaviour of light both theoretically and experimentally.

I stopped calling them Fresnel lights and now call them Freedom-lights.

Yep, that's the way I have always heard it pronounced during 40 years working backstage in theatres in the US. If you said "frezz-nell" the stagehands would literally laugh at you here :-)


So THAT'S what they were laughing about. All this time, I thought they were laughing with me, not at me. hehehe

Merriam-Webster on-line pronounces both Fray-nel and Frez-nel for lenses. Go figure! You can hear the pronounciation at http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary