Dear John, At one time in the history of England the acre had multiple definitions including how far the acre was from the local town market. I understand that this was to allow folk further away to defray their travel costs (more feed for the horses or bullocks to get produce to market).
Cheers, Pat Naughtin Geelong, Australia On 2011/02/01, at 05:41 , John M. Steele wrote: > In light of "commercial acres" that can be nearly any size, I would say the > term should be banned as undefined, and we should use hectares. > > --- On Mon, 1/31/11, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: > > From: [email protected] <[email protected]> > Subject: [USMA:49718] Re: [SI] A mole hill into Himalaya > To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> > Date: Monday, January 31, 2011, 1:25 PM > > John, > > Would you go for "aker" or "eker" rather than "acre"; or deprecate all but > "hectare" which does have good "-re" phonetics as it stsands? > > Gene. > > ---- Original message ---- > >Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2011 09:29:47 -0800 (PST) > >From: "John M. Steele" <[email protected]> > >Subject: [USMA:49715] Re: [SI] A mole hill into Himalaya > >To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> > > > > Ha ha. You hit on my exact problem with -er vs -re > > endings in British English. I could never keep > > track of which to expect. American English is > > generally -er, with -re used only in cases like > > acre, where an -er ending would make a soft c. > > > > American English still has abundant opportunity for > > simplified, more phonetic spelling, but in my view, > > it has made some progress over British English. I > > prefer to go forward, not backward. However, I > > respect the right of the British to spell as they > > wish, and most times, I can understand the word. It > > is obviously a YMMV situation. > > > > --- On Mon, 1/31/11, [email protected] > > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > From: [email protected] <[email protected]> > > Subject: [USMA:49713] Re: [SI] A mole hill into > > Himalaya > > To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> > > Date: Monday, January 31, 2011, 11:54 AM > > > > John, > >... > > To continue your play on a mole hill, my fathre > > taught physics, chemistry, and biology (at the > > high school level), my mothre taught English > > (American standard), and my brothre taught > > mathematics (at the college level). I nevre had a > > sistre, but I do have a daughtre, and a > > granddaughtre. > > > > Gene. > . > Pat Naughtin LCAMS Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, see http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html Hear Pat speak at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lshRAPvPZY 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 for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected] or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
