This was a pronunciation error that I myself was totally unaware of until just a few years ago. To most English speakers, the * symbol is called an asterick. Notice that I spelled it without an s because that is exactly how many people pronounce it. For some reason, the little s sound is too difficult to pronounce, so it is simply omitted altogether. It is not a silent sound, however. Remember to say it with the s sound.
well, I was taught to pronounce the omnipresent ‘*’ mark as
‘asterik’ and not ‘aster-isk’. Just like schedule which I was asked to pronounce as Shed-yule’ and not as
‘sked-dool’. Maybe, people switched to the new form after Asterix comics caught on.