While I've heard people pronounce it that way, given that "var" is short for "variable" or "varying" (as in capable of changing), I've primarily heard people pronounce it as the first syllable of "variable": vair.
(I have also, rarely, heard people pronounce "variable" as though the first syllable rhymes with "far".)
Isn’t there a US/UK difference? It seems to me that English people pronounce this closer to (though not exactly) a as in “jar” than to e as in “very”, though I think I’ve heard both ends of the spectrum.
To my (admittedly non-native) ears, an open and long sound is strange in such a word, and the closed a sounds better. Same with i versus ai in bin or lib.
While I've heard people pronounce it that way, given that "var" is short for "variable" or "varying" (as in capable of changing), I've primarily heard people pronounce it as the first syllable of "variable": vair.
(I have also, rarely, heard people pronounce "variable" as though the first syllable rhymes with "far".)