-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Ziser, Jesse
Sent: Thursday, 11 September 2008 3:04 PM
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:41677] Re: metre or meter
Being a fan of American spelling (though less a fan of other American
things, like our silly
units) I find myself occasionally having to defend our spelling of
meter. This is a nice essay to
be able to refer to.
In the rare case in which disambiguation between the two meanings of
the word is necessary, I
suggest that Americans just resort to the use of a more explicit
synonym such as "measuring tool"
or "SI meter". This has the advantage of allowing disambiguation in
spoken language too, and for
written documents it avoids the possibility that someone will just
misinterpret the different
spelling as a typo and not recognize that a distinction in meaning was
intended.
I've nothing against the international spelling in an international
context, of course. Just my
two cents regarding US domestic usage.
--- Pat Naughtin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Dear All,
There is an interesting historical glimpse of the debate over the
spelling of metre or meter at:
http://books.google.com/books?id=N6vfLU-
RfmYC&pg=PA66&lpg=PA66&dq=gram+gramme+meter+metre+agreement&source=web&
ots=6l4DHvuPUH&sig=1m_frOYXwtUe07JnEfHfbo-
j_ZQ&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result#PPA65,M1
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
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modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they
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Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST,
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