Folklore: Expressions lost/gained with SI measures

Subject: RE: Folklore: Expressions lost/gained with SI measures
From: Joe Offer
Date: 13 Sep 07 - 08:08 PM

I'm allergic to acronyms. What does SI stand for?
Special Intelligence?

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Folklore: Expressions lost/gained with SI measures
From: Rowan
Date: 13 Sep 07 - 08:00 PM

Declan,
As one o' them furriners (or "colonials") I take it you're referring to a "a pint". In Oz there weren't many pints drunk in a pub; instead they had
pony
glass
middy
schooner
etc, all referring to different sizes (in fluid ounces) and differently applied to the same sizes in different states. They still are referred to in these days of SI but contain metric volumes instead.

Nicholas,
We too lost our ha'penny (ha'pennorth, if dealing with value)
penny (ditto)
tuppence
thruppence (for polite ladies) and trey (for us hoi polloi)
zac (although the five cent coin was the equivalent in value and size)
deena (ditto for 10 cent coin), "bob" and the boy scout "Bob a job Week"
florin (although that term wasn't used much), "two bob" and it's derisive use "not worth two bob"
half a crown hadn't been in common use for a while anyway
"Bent as a three bob note"; there never had been such a thing
crown (ditto for half a crown), often earlier called a "dollar" as a result of American troops
ten bob, half a quid (became a dollar)
quid (leading to loss of "not the full quid" meaning "two bricks short of a wall) etc)
guinea (thank goodness)

The song "Five and a zac" became a museum piece when dismal guernsey came in.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Folklore: Expressions lost/gained with SI measures
From: Bonecruncher
Date: 13 Sep 07 - 07:58 PM

We seem to have lost the "tuppence" and "threppence" from the coinage, they having been replaced by the "pee" and the totally illogical and grammatically incorrect "one pence" when "pence" in the plural of "penny".
The "bob", for a shilling, saw it's demise with the coin, as did the florin (incidentally, Britain's first attempt at decimalisation in 1840).
A "Devon Mile" still exists, where, particlarly in North Devon one mile on the map is about one and a half miles by road, due to the contours.

Colyn.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Expressions lost/gained with SI meas
From: GUEST,Nicholas Waller
Date: 13 Sep 07 - 07:30 PM

Tommy Steele in "Half a Two and A Half New Pence"

When I was about nine I went to buy an Airfix model. However, models were 2/3 then; I thought I had a half a crown (2/6) but I only had a florin (2/-). That's OK, said the owner, you can give me the thruppence (3d) next time you come in. Then my family went abroad for 10 months. When I came back to Blighty I went to the model shop and gave the man his thruppence. He'd forgotten about it all by then, but recognising an attempt at honesty rewarded me with a couple of tubes of modelling glue worth a tanner (6d).

Let's see, in modern parlance: I went to buy a 11 and 1/4p model, but I only had 10p when I thought I had 12 and 1/2p. That's OK, bring me the extra 1 and 1/4p next time....etc etc.

No, tell it to the kids today and they won't believe you. No-one hands two tubes of glue to a nine-year-old these days.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Expressions lost/gained with SI measures
From: Declan
Date: 13 Sep 07 - 07:22 PM

A friend of mine and I like to meet for a 578 on occasion (or is it a 587)?

There was a radio presenter in Ireland called Miles Furlong whose entire name was ruled obsolete by an EU Directive a few years back.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Expressions lost/gained with SI measures
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 13 Sep 07 - 06:57 PM

There was a crooked man
Who walked a crooked 1.61 kilometers
He found a crooked 2 and 1/2 new pence
Upon a crooked style


DC

Subject: RE: Folklore: Expressions lost/gained with SI measures
From: Rowan
Date: 13 Sep 07 - 06:50 PM

Quite, Liz. Spot on.

And "Doing the ton" when I was a lad meant driving at 100 mph, which was regarded as a rite of passage by many and was terminal for quite a few. 100 kph is the routine rural speed limit in Oz so doesn't have quite the same cachet (or attract the same expression) and 160 kph doesn't exactly roll of the tongue either.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Folklore: Expressions lost/gained with SI measures
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 13 Sep 07 - 06:40 PM

Half a league, half a league on - wouldn't be quite so evocotave if it were 2.75 kilometres, 2.75 kilometres on...

LTS

Subject: Folklore: Expressions lost/gained with SI measures
From: Rowan
Date: 13 Sep 07 - 06:37 PM

There's a thread in the BS ("Below the line") debating people's experiences with conversion (or non-conversion) to SI measures from the Imperial system, as it was once known. Without wishing to bring the merits or nonmerits of such conversions 'above the line' it occurred to me that there were many expressions we all use that derive their power from the older systems and that appear to have no replacements using SI units. There may be others that have appeared in SI units that had no direct equivalents in Imperial measures, although none yet come to mind.

To start off, a couple that have no SI equivalent include

"A country mile" which, in Oz, still means 'a distance known to the speaker that has relevance to the listener but for which there is no "real" value"

and

"Give him an inch and he'll take a mile", most often used (in my experience) by young women when dealing with young men with exploratory and amatory intent.

I'm sure there are many others I once knew and still more that I've never heard. but that 'catters have in their repertoire.

Cheers, Rowan