The city of Westminster has been around for a while … since 1911, to be exact.
Even so, people still don’t know how to pronounce its name. It doesn’t seem necessarily difficult, involving a common cardinal direction and only three vowels. But there’s enough confusion that Rob in Arvada asks, “Why do some people incorrectly call the suburb Westminster by the name, WestminISter? Can they not read? Do they think it’s funny? Help me understand this annoying topic!”
For the latest edition of our Weekly WTF series, we dove into how to say Westminster.
West… Minister?
- Medical marijuana has been rescheduled. Does that mean I can fly out of Denver with it?
- What’s with the poor air quality and dirty clouds in Denver?
The answer is pretty simple: the word “Westminster,” which describes a central borough (originally in England), is pronounced West-min-ster, not West-min-ister. There’s no extra “i,” but people have been getting it wrong for decades. No, it’s not just recent transplants to Denver who can’t pronounce the name of one of the metro’s most prominent cities. In fact, the problem may be embedded in the city’s history…