@Gargron My money is on Mr. Featherstonhaugh.

@Gargron At least Linus got the spelling right ;)

@Gargron it's apparently from middle french "coronel"
https://www.etymonline.com/word/colonel

@Gargron You have to ask mr bologna

@Gargron someone playing hard and loose with l instead of r sometime in the 16th century.

@Gargron

they really colonised that word

@Gargron Probably the french, who pronounce "oiseau" as "wazoo"

@Gargron That.

@Gargron UK /ˈkɜː·nəl/ US /ˈkɜr·nəl/
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-spanish/colonel

@Gargron I think it's either white people or rich people probably.

@Gargron
Because "Colon-El" sounds like God of the butts.

@Gargron I always figured it was a slow progression of people saying it really fast and then just being too lazy to enunciate the Ls. Then again, maybe the pronunciation came first and when it came time to spell it, different grammatical rules existed so that, at the time, that spelling made sense.

@Gargron colonel bernie sanders of course

@Gargron
I find far more puzzling the British pronunciation of "Lieutenant."