This may seem silly but I have been a Type I Diabetic for 44 yrs. When I was diagnosed Diabetes was always pronounced Di-a-be-tus. Now everyone says Di-a-be-tees. It drives me crazy!! I know there are plenty of more important things to be bugged by. 
I want to know when this words pronunciation changed. Any oldies that I know always use Di-a-be-tus. I have a young friend with Type I. I’m old enough to be her Mother. She laughed at me when I pronounced it the old fashioned way. I said Hey I say it the correct way! LOL!!! Even good ole Wilford Brimley says it the way I do. So any thoughts on this? I have never found a definitive answer on this one.
Hmm… I think it happened around the same time they changed the way we pronounce the name of the planet Uranus.
Personally I like the fact that different people have different accents and pronounce words differently. Viva la difference!
My friend is a psychiatrist, MD and all that, and says beat-us. It makes me cringe.
“Diabetus” has always driven me crazy. My mom says it and it drives me nuts, maybe because I associate it with Wilford Brimley. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4LyaNgzy6U
I can’t think of the guys name but it is a talk show that comes on after Letterman. He was mocking Wilford Brimley last night. Perfect timing for this post!
I think the Wilfred Brimley clip answers the question better than anyone could. Thank you. It gave me a much needed laugh.
I’ve said Di-a-be-tees for 27 years. I just don’t see how you can pronounce DiabetES as DiabetUS. I don’t see it. It’s not spelled that way. Mr Brimley does make me laugh every time I hear him say that.
I have always said it as tees also. I was diagnosed almost 28 years ago but my grandmother and aunt also had it also long before I ever did.
I like the new tease.
Acidrock, you have made my day with Brimley who I couldn’t stand before & muted. Now there’s a beat in my head with him, and I’ll be more gentle with the remote.
I couldn’t help looking it up
Perhaps a better term would be dialect. Here's a wikipedia article on the New England dialect Characteristics are distinctive ways of pronouncing vowels and emphasizing or leaving off certain consonants. I think of the Di-a-be-tus pronounciation as more western, its how a cowboy form Texas might say it. Of course the fact that you an Ohioan says it that way shows this is all way beyond my pay grade:)
Any way it was a good excuse for AR to post the Wilford video.no matter how you slice it : it’s the first part of the word, that gets me : DIA… …sounds like DI…E …???
I agree w/ Nel about the unpleasant connations of the first part of the word.
It occurred to me that since diabetes is Greek in origin and we don’t pronounce Thucydedes “thu-sid-id-duhs” nor Demosthenes “Dem-ahs-then-us”, Wilford Brumley is incorrect and the “ees” have it.
I say it the old way…Dia-bee-tus…too! Maybe it’s just the veterans that say it this way!
I just googled it on 5 or 6 famous dictionary sites, and guess what – we’re all right. Some of the dictionaries put “diabeetus” first, some put “diabeeteez” first, some give only the one, and some give only the other.
I grew up hearing it as “diabeetus” (I’m from the West) and that’s how I say it. I’m not going to put down other people or laugh at them or cringe because they say it the other way. It’s sort of like the song “You say tomayto, I say tomahto”. Language always has variants, and that’s just the way it is. I’d rather worry about more important things, like finding a cure!
Diabetes sounds way too much like Diarrhea. Both unpleasant, but one of them lasts a lifetime!
i have always heard it said both ways. when i was Dx’d 14 years ago, my doctors were split on how they said it. diabeeteez just stuck for me
I was diagnosed 30+ years ago. At least in the part of the midwest I was from, the docs always called it Di-a-be-tees.
But certainly in my head it was the old-timers and my grandma who called it di-a-be-tus.