"Mileage, 89000 km." Sheesh.
cm -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Scott Hudnall Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 18:19 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:39044] Re: Non-metric idioms and figures of speech I think words persist long after anyone know their meaning. For instance, video is mostly digital these days, and measured in by time index in seconds, rather than by the foot - but the term "footage" still persists. I am almost 40 years old, and have taken medications only in milligrams my whole life. Since I was never taught the unit "grains" in school, it was not until I began participating on this listserve that I understood the phrase "take it with a grain of salt" was referring to an actual quantity. In Canada, vehicle mileage is listed in kilometers. Here is a link for a car for sale .. check it out! http://driving.canada.com/buy/used/details.spy?carid=1385886 On Tuesday, July 10, 2007, at 02:29PM, "Michael Palumbo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >This may seem like a silly question, but it's been bothering me lately. > >In colloquial English, we have a lot of odd phrases & words that refer >to our customary/imperial system of measure. A few that come to mind are: >- Mileage >- Milestone >- Mile a minute >- Miles & miles >- Missed by a mile >- Inched forward >- Every inch a [blank], i.e. "every inch a king". >- Inch by inch >- Within an inch of >- The whole nine yards > >The list goes on and on. > >Both the beauty and difficulty of our language is how much of it is >culled from other sources. So what are we to do with such phrases? >Should we even trouble ourselves to their existence? With words such as >"mileage", is there a metric substitute such as "metreage"? It doesn't >make sense to me to say, "My auto has low mileage" when I'm not counting >it's use in miles. Should we start referring to project progress points >as "kilostones"? ;) > >Cheers, >Mike > > >
