What does Europeans call the measuring system that uses feet 2004-07-02 - By Allen Cobb
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Thanks, Kris, for the interesting factoids. Here are a couple of
others, in response to your query...
Stone - A "stone" is a UK weight of 14 pounds, unless applied to
meat (a Smithfield stone), in which case it's only 8 pounds.
Pound - The Latin word "pondus" means "weight" and from that we
get pound, ponderous, pendant, etc.
Ounce, Inch - Curiously, the Latin word "unus" means "one"
(unus, duo, tres, quattuor, quinque, sex, septem, octo, novem,
decem, etc. <bowing to thunderous applause>). It's the origin
for another Latin word "uncia," which means 1/12, and is the
origin of both ounce and inch. Obviously, "ounce" was once 1/12
of a Roman pound, known as a Troy pound (bad sense of
geography?). A pound in current use is 16 ounces; this system is
called "avoirdupois," which is French for "goods of weight."
Ironically, the French may have been responsible for both the
inconvenient weights and measures of the recent past, as well as
the more sensible metric system of the present (excluding the US
and UK and a few other die-hards).
Peck - In the US, 1/4 bushel. The old English "pek" was from an
old French term whose origin or original meaning I couldn't
find.
Bushel - Unclear origins in old Celtic, related to Middle Irish
"boss, bass" meaning palm of the hand.
Most of this info came from a few quick lookups in my CD of
Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. I don't go around
actually knowing this stuff! (Other than counting in Latin...)
Allen Cobb
-- --Original Message-- --
From: TSML [mailto:truespace@(protected)]On Behalf Of K M
Krieger
Sent: Friday, July 02, 2004 12:44 PM
To: truespace@(protected)
Subject: Re: [TSML] What does Europeans call the measuring
system that
uses feet and i...
At 12:22 PM 02-07-04, Richard Jennings wrote:
>Imperial...
It's also called that in the US.
More of "Kris' fun factoids":
The reason for the name is that the measurements were originally
based upon
size of various of the the King's body parts. So they were
"imperial"
measurements since they originated from the ruler of the realm.
An inch is
about the width of the thumb, foot is self-explanatory, a hand
(also
self-explanatory) is 4" (tho' the term currently is only used
in relation
to the height of horses). I forgot how much a Stone is, tho'
I'm thinking
16 pounds but check that. I unfortunately don't recall the word
origins of
things like pound, ounce, peck, inch, and others.
Also unfortunately, I forgot when it was that they became
standardized,
i.e., fixed, given permanent values (sorry for the memory lapse,
OTOH I
*idi* learn this stuff back in the 70's, so I guess I'm lucky to
remember
much of anything at all <LOL!>). But I think it was fairly
early on so as
to avoid confusion, esp. in cases where a building project (such
as a
cathedral) lasted beyond a single monarch's rule, or somethnig
like a good
ship design was used over a long period of time. Weights
eventually had to
be fairly standard because of coinage and so on. I can't recall
exactly
(again =:-( !) but I think that slid ounces were related to
some number of
grains of wheat or barley, but I'd have to check on that; can't
recall
anything about how liquid ounces or pints/quarts were arrived at
=:-( .
I also think that the standarized values eventually also had to
be approved
of and decreed by the Monarch. So that's probl another reason
why they're
called "Imperial Units".
Metric, OTOH, was created by French scientist-philosophers based
upon
calculations performed on various proportions of the earth and
on various
bits of physics. For example, one gram equals the weight of 1
cubic
centimeter of pure/distilled water at sea level and (*I think* -
check me
on this one!) whatever Celsius temperature equates to around 72
degrees
Farenheidt (i.e. "room temperature". Again, check me on the
temperature
part. But Celsius degrees are also based upon water, with 0
being the temp
at which pure water at sea level freezes, and 100 being the temp
at which
it boils. Meters and their related units are beased upon the
proportions
of the Earth, tho' now I forget exactlyhow it was divvied up - I
want to
say it's related to various sections out of 360 degrees (despite
the fact
that the Earth is not a perfect sphere, but rather,is a bit
flattened at
the rotational exes).
At any rate, the US "inherited" Imperial measurements because
the original
Colonists came from the British Empire. They were retained,
along with the
name "Imperial", because of the historical Isolationism of the
U.S.. Most
people still use Imperial, although metric equivalents do show
up on
labeling (such as the 750ml bottle of wine and other spirits)
(it figures
that's the one Iremember <L!>) and, of course, the sciences (and
therefore
scientific education) use the metric system because it is more
rational, it
is universal, and it's a lot easier to deal with mathematically
since all
units are in powers of 10 (so, a millimeter is a tenth of a
centimeter
which in turn is a tenth of a meter, and so on).
HTH
- Kris K.
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