How should 密钥 be pronounced?

Question

密钥 is a technical term in cryptography referring to cryptographic keys used to encrypt and decrypt messages, (and sign and verify, but that's whole another story)

Given that a physical door key or a safe box key is often used as metaphore when explaining a cryptographic key, the 钥 in 密钥 should corresponds to 钥匙, which is pronounced as yàoshì, by this logic, it should probably be pronounced as mìyào. However, my collegues from financial department says the government clerks they communicate with pronounce it as yuè and 密钥 as mìyuè.

So by the end of day, how should 密钥 be pronounced? And why?

Answer 1

Short answer is, all correct.

钥 can be pronounced as yao, and yue. Both have the same meaning (tools to lock or unlock). When in the word 锁钥，it pronounced as "yue", whereas in the word "钥匙", it pronounced as "yao". In addition the 密钥 is a new word (only about 1 hundred years old), so its pronunciation has nothing to do with ancient Chinese. In the old version of the Chinese dictionary, 密钥 was pronounced as "mi yue", and in newer version, 密钥 was pronounced as "mi yao". (Because of the ease of use, the new version of the dictionaries keep simplifying many polyphonic characters, such as 铁骑 etc.). Many hosts of CCTV (they will be fined for reading wrong words) read “mi yao”. So in summary, "mi yao" is the more correct one although they are all correct.

https://tv.cctv.com/2022/01/20/VIDEWvjUdDMDdBDGGrW3rYXd220120.shtml

the above link is a record of 新闻联播 which includes the pronounciation of 密钥 (around 2'03").