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Just like when it comes to GIF, there's the "correct" pronunciation, and then there's the one that makes sense.

Indeed, I learned in school that it was short for "cat URL", since it functions like the standard `cat` command but takes a URL instead of a file or pipe.

Just goes to show that we are very good at coming up with incorrect justifications for things.

This reminds me of the time I wanted to build a URL shortener that handles lists and even hierarchies, and I bought the domain urls.cat (URLs `cat`). I realised then how close it was to "URL scat", so it's probably a good thing I abandoned the idea.

I think that's just the explanation of the name, not necessarily a rule how to pronounce it. As for pronounciation, let's compare: "see-you-are-el" vs. "curl". I think I'll stick with "curl" ;)

And Qt is officially pronounced "cute".

Curl is easier to say than c-url :)