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A weird set of clues this week! Is the entry required for 22ac (From what we hear, girl could be this sort of radical [5]) ETHEL or ETHYL?

Is Ethyl a radical?

ETHYL is a radical, but it isn't pronounced like Ethel! It's EE THILE

I think the US pronunciation might be a bit closer to Ethel, though...

Have you heard the song 'What kind of fuel am I?' by Ethyl Merman.
A bad cracker joke!

ChrisE, Ethyl as in Ethel is perfectly fine for Chambers (and not listed as American) so is perfectly fine for the clue!

Hi malone
I did teach it for 40 odd years! I'm sure that the "ethel" pronunciation is American - you would get a very funny look if you said it in a lab in this country.

ChrisE, I have never needed to say the word in a lab, and don't expect that to change. In conversation, Ethel would suit me, non-scientists and Chambers....oh, and the clue under discussion!

Thanks for the interesting conversations! But........is it ETHYL or ETHEL that needs to be entered? The clue can surely be interpreted either way. And is ETHYL a radical? I'm not even sure that I know what a radical is (in chemistry terms).

I've just had another thought - could it be ETHAL? Chambers gives the definition as "same as CETYL ALCOHOL (see under CETYL)".

CETYL is given as a univalent radical. This seems to be favourite - which still begs the question - which is entered in the grid ETHAL or ETHEL?

I'll repeat the gist of a comment I posted in the pedants thread just a couple of weeks ago. I was brought up in Scotland and graduated in chemistry a long time ago. Until I subsequently moved to England for further study I had never heard "eethile" or "meethile" spoken by anyone. I went back for a class reunion dinner a few years ago and was pleasantly surprised to find that the pronunciations I grew up with were still extant.