If your friend’s professors are teaching in a French-speaking country, they may pronounce it that way. However, that’s not how we pronounce centimeter in the U.S. By the way, the word originally derives from Latin.

What say you?

The American Heritage Dictionary defends “zoo-ology” to some extent, but dictionaries are notoriously erratic when it comes to pronunciation. Charles Harrington Elster, a renowned pronunciation scholar, rejects “zoo-ology” and insists on zoe-ology.

That “[n]o other element is treated this way” is incorrect. Don’t forget molybedenum, tantalum, and platinum. Aluminum is actually the older spelling. Neither spelling is considered superior to the other; it’s just that one is used in North America and the other outside North America.

It has always been acceptable, but grade-school teachers discourage it, which is OK, because youngsters need to learn to write crisp sentences above all. And and but lead to run-on sentences.