My comment was in line with a pint being a word now used that is equivalent to glass. Asking for a pint of beer is like asking for a glass of water or soda. You really don't expect to get a specific amount, you just get a glass full. When a specific size is intended, then you specify large, medium or small. These amounts can vary from establishment to establishment.
In countries that went fully metric, the old unit names were never made illegal, but the old units they represented did. Thus the old names were applied to something close in metric. For this reason you find a 500 g pound in many locations. People tend to use the old word with a new amount. I would tend to think that the word pint is frequently used to describe products that come in 500 mL amounts, even if only in common speech. Correct me if I am wrong, Pat, but I believe the word pint in Australia is a generic term usually referring to any size or amount between 400 and 600 mL. I'm curious though, how is the word pound is handled if encountered at the deli counter? Would the clerk treat it as 500 g? Jerry ________________________________ From: Pat Naughtin <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2009 4:16:44 PM Subject: [USMA:44162] Downsizing beer glasses On 2009/03/29, at 2:45 AM, Jeremiah MacGregor wrote: I'm sure Pat can tell us that the pint is still spoken in pubs in Australia, but no one would use it to mean a specific amount and thus the term has become generic. Dear Jerry, Sadly, it is true that the word, pint, is still used in Australian hotels. And it is still used, as it is in the UK, to hide a long period of downsizing by the beer companies in collusion with government consumer affairs officials. Let me explain what I mean. Years ago when a pint was served in an Australia or UK hotel or pub, the beer was served in a 22 ounce container to allow for a pint of beer and for a suitable 'head' of froth. Likewise a half pint of beer was served in an 11 ounce container to allow for the 10 ounce half pint and the appropriate head. Some time ago, in the order of 50 years I suspect, lobbyists from the beer companies were able to convince legislators (or was it regulation writers) that a pint of beer could be served in a pint container that held a pint of water when filled to the brim of the glass. The law makers suitably rolled over like little puppies to get their tummies tickled and, in both Australia and the UK, if you asked for 'a pint of beer' in the last 50 years you would have received very close to 500 millilitres of beer with about 70 millilitres of 'head'. I leave to others to calculate this roughly 10 % gain in profits by the beer companies deceit over this period of time. The next part of the campaign, as I observe it in the 21st century, is to downsize the beer glass from a pint (568 mL) to a rounded 500 mL glass. Naturally to do this the beer companies will need to reduce the size of the 'beer pint' even further. The Guinness company has already begun this process with their 440 mL can designed with enough beer to fit into a glass that holds 500 mL of air to the brim of the glass before you pour in the 440 mL of beer and the 60 mL of froth. I have noticed that this campaign has, so far, been tried in Australia and in Singapore. To answer Jerry's question a little more directly, it seems to me that the use of the word 'pint', and its continued encouragement and support by beer companies, is to maintain the illusion that drinkers are getting more beer that they actually receive. As a side issue, the word 'pint' is a relative to the word 'paint' from the time that Roman soldiers demanded that a paint mark be used on the side of (opaque ?) beer containers so that drinkers could check that the level of liquid beer was 'up to the paint'. Paint was gradually changed over the last 2000 years to the word, 'pint'. But you will note that the rapaciousness of beer makers and sellers is not a new thing! Cheers, Pat Naughtin PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com/ or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
