this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2025

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TIL that "nginx" is pronounced "engine-x", and not "n-jinx" (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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nginx ("engine x") is an HTTP web server, reverse proxy, content cache, load balancer, TCP/UDP proxy server, and mail proxy server. […] [1]

I still pronounce it as "n-jinx" in my head.

References

Title (website): "nginx". Publisher: NGINX. Accessed: 2025-02-26T23:25Z. URI: https://nginx.org/en/.
- §"nginx". ¶1.

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[–] MTK 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I really dislike the trend of made up pronunciations. I can accept that gnome is with an audible g since that makes more sense than a silent g, but nginx can be at best similar to engine-x, but even then it's more like the n in dnd rather than en.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

It took a while for me to get it, but it still read ngnix as "n.g. -nix" in my head.

[–] Limonene 15 points 1 day ago

One time I was getting estimates for server software for an embedded device I had made. In a teleconference, I told one company that our prototype server ran on nginx. They emailed us an estimate saying we had to switch our embedded system to Windows 10 IoT Enterprise, and put the server on Microsoft's cloud, because "Engine X is not an enterprise web server."

[–] SpaceNoodle 12 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I always heard it as /ŋiŋks/ in my mind

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Ok so I know what ŋ sounds like but I bet there are some idiots here who don’t, so maybe explain it.

For them

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In relation to English, it's the "ng" sound in the common "-ing" ending or suffix.

Wikipedia has an entire article on it (of course): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_velar_nasal

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

For some reason if you put that sound at the beginning of a word most English speakers can't say it.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I can't stop pronouncing USAID as u said even after i finally heard it instead of just reading it

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I will be dead and buried in the ground before I call nginx "engine x"

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

“Nugginx” is how I have always read it

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Does this mean when you go into an airport bathroom and see the hand dryer, you know it's called an XLerator (ex-LAIReighter)?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

I just kind of knew that, but not sure how.

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