[meteorite-list] avoirdupois ?

From: rochette <rochette_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:22:35 2004
Message-ID: <a05100301bb0a173ee722_at_[193.250.222.128]>

Sterling wrote:
>Hi, Tom aka James,
>
> "Avoirdupois" is the fancy French term for common British measures
..

Well list I object!

  this is not genuine french, just a british expression forged to look
like french. In the Web page:
http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2000/08/29.html
you read:

avoirdupois is from Middle English avoir de pois, goods sold by
weight, from Old French aveir de peis, literally, goods of weight,
from aveir, property, goods (from aveir, to have, from Latin habere,
to have, to hold, to possess property) + de, from (from the Latin) +
peis, weight (from Latin pensum, weight).

Avoirdupois weight is a system of weights based on a pound containing
16 ounces or 7,000 grains. Compare apothecaries' weight and troy
weight.
****
The correct French could be "avoir du poids", which in fact describe
someone suffering obesity or being important in the society! In
french there is no such term "avoirdupois" to describe prescientific
units still in use by remote tribes who have still not taken profit
of the second leg of arithmetic (multiplication, the first being
addition) when making measurements. We just use the local name. By
the way in latin languages thinking and weighing have the same
origin. Interesting, isn't it?

-- 
Pierre

Received on Mon 09 Jun 2003 06:56:00 AM PDT