I have also always pronounced /etc as "etsy". I'm always thrown off when people say "ee tee see" or "etcetera", but that's pretty rare in my experience.
The people who pronounce /usr as "you ess are" instead of "user" kind of drive me crazy though.
I almost always have to say "you ess are" because while many people I talk to confuse etc and etsy, nearly everyone tries to type "/user" when I tell them to go to "forward slash user". Even people who should know better.
Interesting. I wonder if the "forward slash" bit is making people start thinking literally rather than making associations to what they already know?
If I'm talking about a common system location, I don't even mention the slashes, e.g. "user bin", "etsy init dot dee", "var log httpd" and so on. If someone started off telling me to go to, say, "forward slash user forward slash library" I would just start transcribing /user/library, assuming it was something nonstandard. For /usr/lib, I'd expect to just hear "go to user lib".
I've always called /etc "etss", /usr "user", /tmp "temp", /var "varr" (like a pirate would I guess), and /dev "dev".
Then again, I never liked "scuzzy" for SCSI, it felt awkward in conversation even with other techies. It grew on me about the time the protocol was dying out.
Also..."gif" as in "gift" or "jif" as in the peanut butter? ;-)
I came of age in IT around 2005/2006, and it took me a really long time to connect the "scuzzy" people were talking about with SCSI as written. I always kinda liked the pronunciation though, once I figured out what it was referring to.
GIF as in gift, and all the other root-level directories you named, I'm on the same page as you.
My high school graduation present in 1995 was a TI TravelMate 4000M laptop computer. It had no built in CD-ROM drive (I don't think any laptop did until the late 90s) but it had a full size SCSI port on the back. I promptly went to the local electronics superstore and asked for a "Ess See Ess Eye" external CD-ROM drive. The clerk looked at me like I was smoking something, then said "Oh, you mean a 'scuzzy' drive, sure we've got those!" I distinctly remember thinking at first the guy must not be proud of his product lineup. A few moments later the acronym and his pronunciation clicked and I felt really embarrassed.
I've never been able to say "scuzzy". My grandparents used that word to mean trashy or dirty people, and I've never been able to use it in a professional context.
In current Unices, /usr is where user-land programs and data (as opposed to 'system land' programs and data) are. The name hasn't changed, but it's meaning has narrowed and lengthened from "everything user related" to "user usable programs and data". As such, some people may now refer to this directory as meaning 'User System Resources' and not 'user' as was originally intended.
