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Metric or imperial?

  • The Battle of Hastings, 1066

    © alipaiman (The Bayeux Tapestry) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons WillelmDux

    Photo of the Bayeux Tapestry showing The Battle of Hastings (1066)

  • Norwich Market

    © Linda Steward/iStockphotos

    Photo of the Norwich Market

Metric or imperial?

Metric or imperial?

Have you heard of ounces, stones or pints? These are all used to measure things. They are part of the British Imperial system, but they have their roots in another much older empire, the Roman Empire. As you probably know, the Romans slowly conquered different parts of Britain from AD 43 and stayed there for almost 400 years. They left their mark on the English language and on everyday life. Did you know that the Romans counted distances in feet, for example? Each foot was divided into 12 inches (unciae in Latin). 5 feet made a pace and 1000 paces made a mile. That’s where the word mile comes from – mille passus in Latin.

How about volume? The English word pint comes from the Latin word picta (painted) via the Old French pinte. Remember the Romans conquered most of France and then the Normans conquered Britain in 1066. “Why pint or paint?” you might ask. Well, in the old days there was a mark painted onto a pot showing how much this amount was.

In Britain, ounces and pounds are used for small weights and for food. The abbreviation oz for ounces comes from Italian onza, and lb for pound comes from the Latin libra. In the US people say how much they weigh in pounds, for example “142 pounds”, whereas in Britain people usually say their weight in stones and pounds: “I weigh 10 stone 2 pounds”. In much of the rest of the world, people use kilos for body weight, of course.

Why do people still use the Imperial system of weights and measurements? If you live in England, it just doesn’t feel right to say your weight in kilos. It feels foreign. Who knows, in another hundred years or so, maybe that’ll have changed. In the meantime, you will have to learn some common English units of measurement!

LengthWeightVolume
1 inch 2.54 cm 1 ounce 28.35 g 1 pint 0.57 l
1 foot (12 inches)0.31 m1 pound (16 ounces)0.45 kg1 gallon (8 pints)4.55 l
1 yard (3 feet)0.91 m1 stone (14 pounds)6.35 kg
1 mile (1760 yards)1.61 km

DOCUMENT Getting the gist


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