On 2006 May 26 , at 12:22 PM, Robert H. Bushnell wrote:
2006 May 26
... 6836 Harry Wyeth reports location "within two feet".
Then he says there is "great footage".
So, all of you: what do we say instead of "footage"?
Please help.
How about "DISTANCE" or "LENGTH".
Same thing for "yardage".
I know of know of no instance of the use of "inchage".
Thank goodness for small favors.
Of course, we do have "acreage" which is just another word for area
(usually used only for land area).
Yes, I do understand that when someone says "acreage" he/she usually
means "the area AS MEASURED IN acres" (and "yardage" is intended to
mean "the distance in yards", etc.). But if the speaker doesn't know
that the generic term is "area", how can he/she even ask how to
measure "it" in metric.
Dare he/she ask "What is the acreage in square metres?" ( or ... in
hectares?")
May I answer that the acreage is 40 hectares?
... or that the yardage is 10 metres?
... or that the poundage is 35 kilograms?
... or even that the wattage is 300 HP?
And what about "milage"? Unfortunately "mileage" has come to mean
something else entirely. Mileage is not even measured in miles; here
in the US, mileage generally means how many miles you can drive your
car on a gallon of gas and so it is measured in miles per gallon
(MPG)). This example of the inconsistency of usage is just one more
argument against this "age" old practice.
This practice:
tacking on the suffix "-age" to a unit of measure and
using that suffixed word to mean the quantity being measured
is a travesty. Such usage ... (Oh, oh! Do I need to eliminate
"usage", too? Tsk, tsk!) ... Such usage should be avoided at all
costs and deprecated everywhere.
Call the distance "distance" (or length, or height, etc), not footage
or yardage.
Call call the electric current "current", not amperage.
Call the power "power", not wattage.
Call the area "area", not acreage.
Call the electric potential difference "potential" (for short), but
not voltage
Call the mass "mass" (or even "weight"), not tonnage or poundage.
Let us leave the Dark "Ages" and call things by their proper names.
Bill Hooper
74 kg body mass*
Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA
* plus or minus a kilogram or two
