Metricat-/Americanis-ation of our Metres

KimYeovil

Just wondering. Does anyone know whensabout and why we started calling our utility metres 'meters' rather than 'metres'?

Magentasue

I resist americanisms but I use meter. I teach English and also help out with some maths and have to consciously think -re or er? I don't think I knew utility meters used to be metres? Or did I? We had coin meters as children but I can't remember how it was spelt then.

Oh dear. Don't think I can get my head round calling them metres.

SwanJon

The measuring device has always been a meter - the new ones measure in cubic metres.
I have no idea why we spell the unit differntly to the thing that measures the unit.
Isn't English a wonderful language?

Cardew

Not sure what you mean(or I have missed the joke?)

I did notice in another thread you wrote 'metre' when I assumed you meant 'meter'.

As far as I am aware both in 'our' English and the US version of our language(even before Microsoft!) a measuring instrument was always spelt 'meter'

In music the term for rythmic beats is spelt both ways - meter being the more usual form IMO

The term for measurement of length is often spelt 'meter' in the USA(the 100 meter dash in under 10 seconds) but in the technical community the accepted international term is 'metre'.

BexTech

KimYeovil wrote: »

Just wondering. Does anyone know whensabout and why we started calling our utility metres 'meters' rather than 'metres'?

We have always spelt the device for measuring a meter.

A meter doesn't have to measure metres, it can measure anything, such a volts, amps, miles, yards etc.

Same way you could ask when did we start spelling the word Red (for the colour) rather than read.

Both two different things.

Just happens that the device for measuring is called a meter, it could have easily been called a fyter. Then you might say, since when did we call it a fyter and not a fighter.

moonrakerz

Metre is the official international way of spelling -

"the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299 792 458 of a second"

it may well be measured by a meter !

WhistleBlower

I think Meter is a far older word used to describe the act of measuring, not a unit of measurement.

It possibly has it's origins in Mete, (pronounced like Meat) Eg "To mete out punishments"

According to teh interwebz It's actually of latin origin maening "to measure"

Note also Meter of a poem or song, which is the measure of the beats.

Incisor

KimYeovil wrote: »

Just wondering. Does anyone know whensabout and why we started calling our utility metres 'meters' rather than 'metres'?

As others have said, 'meter' is measuring device and always has been. 'metre' is the distance and is so spelled because the metre was originally defined in France. So it is not Americanisation rendering 'meter', is is Francification rendering 'metre' which you are doing mistakenly.