Why Does Bush Go “Nucular”?

When speaking about nuclear weapons, George W. Bush invariably pronounces the word “nucular.” According to this article, changing “nu-clee-ar” into “nu-cu-lar” is an example of what linguists call metathesis, the switching of two adjacent sounds. Why do people do it? One reason, offered in a usage note in the American Heritage Dictionary, is that the “ular” ending is extremely common in English, and much more common than “lear.”

Bush isn’t the only president to mispronounce nuclear. At least three other presidents – Eisenhower, Carter, and Clinton – have mangled the word. Carter was the senior officer of the pre-commissioning crew of the Seawolf, the second nuclear submarine. So clearly he was familiar with the word. But Carter had a strong Georgia accent so his rendering (something like “newkeeuh”) was probably as close as he could manage.