As a noun, my Webster also gives: a standard for measuring or evaluating something, a basis for assessment and gives the example "a new metric for judging success."
Business has adopted this usage big time and we may as well get over it. ________________________________ From: Phil Chernack <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Thu, March 7, 2013 3:21:11 PM Subject: [USMA:52465] Re: Use of the Word "Metric" Hey, don't go verbing my nouns! Anyway, I thought that a verb used as a noun ending in ing is a gerund, like the building of the dam. Anyway, here are 2 sets of definitions from dictionary.com: Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013. met·ric 1 [me-trik] Show IPA adjective pertaining to the meter or to the metric system. Origin: 1860–65; < French métrique, derivative of mètre meter1 ; see -ic met·ric 2 [me-trik] Show IPA adjective 1. pertaining to distance: metric geometry. 2. metrical. noun 3. Mathematics . a nonnegative real-valued function having properties analogous to those of the distance between points on a real line, as the distance between two points being independent of the order of the points, the distance between two points being zero if, and only if, the two points coincide, and the distance between two points being less than or equal to the sum of the distances from each point to an arbitrary third point. Origin: 1750–60; < Latin metricus < Greek metrikós of, relating to measuring. See meter2 , -ic Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition 2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009 metric (ˈmɛtrɪk) — adj 1. of or relating to the metre or metric system 2. maths denoting or relating to a set containing pairs of points for each of which a non-negative real number ρ( x, y ) (the distance) can be defined, satisfying specific conditions — n 3. maths the function ρ( x, y ) satisfying the conditions of membership of such a set (a metric space ) metrical or metric (ˈmɛtrɪk ə l, ˈmɛtrɪk) — adj 1. of or relating to measurement 2. of or in poetic metre metric or metric — adj 'metrically or metric — adv -metry — n combining form indicating the process or science of measuring: anthropometry ; geometry [from Old French -metrie, from Latin -metria, from Greek, from metron measure] -metric — adj combining form On Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 2:55 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: Re: [USMA:52457] Reuse of Word > >An interesting point. The venerable Webster's Unabridged Second Edition, >which >is still used by careful writers, does not list "metric" as a noun. The Third >Edition does, so the word gained recognition after 1960. Accurate writers now >use "SI Metric" to designate the Modern Metric System. > >The usage that really bugs me is the run-away usage of "vouns," that is, verbs >used as nouns. We are commonly hearing now, except from the most careful >broadcasters, "the sequester" instead of "the sequestration." We have long >heard in recent decades about doing "an install" instead of "an installation." > This confusing peculiarity of English works the other way too. For example, >some would "mustard" their hot dog, using the noun as a verb. > >
