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Do you ever wonder if someday, things that we say and use every single day will be totally obsolete? I’m not talking technology—of course something bigger and better than the cell phone will eventually come along, and desktop computers are already practically becoming a thing of the past. I’m talking about things that seem unchangeable, like units of measurement. Can you imagine “inch” and “kilometer” being completely foreign words to your grandkids? It could happen—these 10 units of measurement certainly didn’t stand the test of time, and maybe ours won’t either.
1. The atom. Not the unit of matter—obviously we’re still using that. The atom used to actually refer to time—the teeniest, tiniest unit of time, to be exact. In some medieval writings, the atom was referred to as 1/564 of a momentum, which is 15/94 of a second.
2. Dessiatin. In tsarist Russia, “dessiatin” referred to about 2.7 acres.
3. Peck. My grandma used to sing a song that went, “I love you, a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck.” It was a long time before I figured out that what in the heck that meant—a bushel I knew, of course, but a peck? And “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers?” How much is that? It’s an old type of dry measurement that equals out to about eight dry quarts. Two pecks make a kenning and four pecks equal a bushel. The term is still used from time to time, especially in agriculture (apples, specifically), but for the most part, you’re not going to hear it in day-to-day conversation.
4. Hobbit. And it’s not the size of a fictional clan of diminutive people with large, ugly feet, either. The Hobbit was a form of measurement used in Wales before the Winchester measure was introduced. The problem was, hobbits (or hobbets) seemed to differ based on what was being measured. One document shows that a hobbet of beans was 180 pounds, a hobbet of barley was 147 pounds, and a hobbet of wheat was 168 pounds.
5. League. Of course we all know 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but do you know what that’s actually measuring? Me neither. Actually, it depends on where you were. In English, it usually meant about three miles. In ancient Rome, it meant about 1.5 miles. And in general, it referred to how far a person or horse could walk in an hour. Not very precise, was it?
6. A lot. From the middle ages to just about 100 years or so ago, if you said you had “A lot” of something, you were actually referring to a specific unit of measurement as opposed to a vague term meaning “many” like we use it today. A lot was a European unit of measurement meaning 1/30 or 1/32 of a pound, depending on the value of a local pound at the time.
7. Spat. A spat was equal to about one billion kilometers. One of the only places you would use a spat to measure something, of course, is in space. “Spat” actually comes from the Latin word “Spatium” – space.
8. Pood. Until it was declared obsolete in 1924, a pood was a unit of measurement that basically meant 40 Russian pounds. It’s apparently still used occasionally for agriculture purposes. There’s an old Russian saying that translates to, “You never know a man until you have eaten a pood of salt with him.” Which… ew.
9. Faggot. Scrabble and language aficionados probably already know that a faggot refers to a bundle of sticks, which is probably where the British slang word for cigarette came from. But long ago, it used to refer to a specific amount of sticks. One short faggot of sticks was a bundle that was about 2 feet wide by 32 inches long, one long faggot of sticks was about two feet wide and four feet long, and a faggot of iron was two feet wide by one foot long.
10. Poncelet. This was basically what “horsepower” was before metric horsepower came along. The Poncelet measured an amount of power – specifically, how much it took to get something that weighed 100 kilograms at the rate of one meter per second.
Are any of these actually still in use in your area of the world? I can’t say I’ve heard any of them recently, except for literary references to “hobbit” and “league.”
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Comments (55)
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I don’t know that the hobbit (or hobbet) would vary as much as you think. If it is a measure of volume, the different densities of beans, barley, and wheat might account for the different weights.
Also, anyone find the irony in “a lot” actually being very little of something. Roughly half an ounce?
posted by Jonny on 12-1-2009 at 5:43 pm
“A lot” would still be a lot if you were measuring something like gold, worth about $600 today, at $1200/oz.
posted by Alex on 12-1-2009 at 6:02 pm
I’m surprised we don’t still use poncelets. 100kg@1m/s. Genius!
posted by Bakedpotatoes on 12-1-2009 at 6:05 pm
Completely random, but we’re on MentalFloss. The song, “A bushel and a peck” is from Guys and Dolls.
posted by Brad on 12-1-2009 at 6:58 pm
I hear “peck” a lot from August to November — it’s apple season, and a peck of apples is a commonly used measurement, even in grocery stores.
posted by MH on 12-1-2009 at 7:00 pm
Along with number 9, a “pimp” is a smaller measure.
I had no problem finding the answer w/ Opera, but can’t now with FF.
Found here originally:
http://huntergathercook.typepad.com/huntergathering_wild_fres/2009/07/the-treehouse-diaries-in-print-perch-and-outwitting-pigeons.html
posted by anomdebus on 12-1-2009 at 7:05 pm
I can’t believe you left out the cubit! Everyone who ever heard Bill Cosby’s rendition of the story of Noah remembers Noah’s question at the end of receiving directions on building an ark…What the hell’s a cubit?
posted by HC on 12-1-2009 at 7:47 pm
Does anyone know how much one stone weighs? (It’s an old British unit of measure)
posted by DW on 12-1-2009 at 8:43 pm
DW–a stone is 14 pounds.
posted by Laruchka on 12-1-2009 at 9:10 pm
I thought a stone was 20 pounds.
posted by V on 12-1-2009 at 9:16 pm
How about the unit of a jiffy? Heard that was a 1/1000th of a second. not sure
posted by brian from boston on 12-1-2009 at 9:17 pm
There is also the grain which is a way to measure medicine. I have asked pharmicist and experencied nurses who have not seen it in a long time because it is not neat as precise as using milligrams.
posted by Kris on 12-1-2009 at 9:22 pm
DW, although the stone is slowly becoming obsolete, the English still present human weights in the form “stones, pounds”.
Ex: Jonny Wilkinson, English rugby player – http://www.rfu.com/SquadsAndPlayers/EnglandElite/JonnyWilkinson.aspx
posted by Tom in GA on 12-1-2009 at 9:23 pm
There’s also hog’s heads and rods!
Slightly related – I had an English teacher, who was British, wore a three-piece suit every day (lighter colours and thinner fabrics in warmer weather!) and spoke fluent Latin, French, German and something else. He believed in reading the classics, and often supplemented classes by reading to the class.
He got in trouble once when a younger teacher heard him reading The Hobbit, and he got to the part where the Elves of Rivendell were singing – apparently singing the terms ‘gay’ and ‘faggot’ were incredibly offensive to her and he almost lost his job.
posted by Luis on 12-1-2009 at 9:37 pm
How about a “hand” of measure? I know folks use it to measure the size of horses (and maybe other animals?), but is it used in any other contexts? Anybody know?
posted by Lynley on 12-1-2009 at 10:17 pm
Right off the bat #1 is still used..
Haven’t you seen atomic clocks?
posted by dbus on 12-1-2009 at 10:45 pm
dbus–I do not think that word means what you think that it means.
In other words, that’s not why it’s called an atomic clock.
posted by Inigo on 12-1-2009 at 11:04 pm
Inconceivable!
posted by Vicini on 12-2-2009 at 1:40 am
Some obscure imperial measures are still used here (the UK). Horse-racing uses furlongs (1/8 mile) and a chain (22yards) is the length of a cricket pitch, though it now usually given the rather awkward name of ‘the length of a cricket pitch’.
As a child, I had to learn the tables of imperial measurements. Length and volume seemed to have the strangest terms: rod=pole=perch =5.5 yards; pecks etc have been dealt with, but there is also the gill, which is/was the basis of selling measures of spirit drinks: bar-owners have to state whether they use 1/6 gills or metric measures for these drinks. Our gill is 1.2 of yours, apparently. Do you use quarts?
Apparently rods/poles/chains come from measuring fields, though how a perch found itself in a field is hard to fathom – coincidentally another unit, of depth now). What fun!
posted by sticks on 12-2-2009 at 3:13 am
Yeah, 1 ‘atom’ in terms of a caesium atomic clock would be about 1/9,192,631,770 of a second. Im pretty sure medieval science was never that accurate!
posted by Hugh on 12-2-2009 at 7:48 am
We stayed in a fancy hotel in Venice last year, and the bathroom had a scale that measured in stones! I was really excited.
Sticks, yes the quart is used commonly in the US for liquid measurement.
posted by Erin on 12-2-2009 at 8:25 am
While I was in high school, I worked at an orchard, and they sold apples by the peck and half peck. The orchard is still in operation, and I’m sure they use the same system (and the same bags that are in the picture)
Also, I do a workout called crossfit, and one of the workouts was measured in pood. We substituted that weight with a weight we were used to, but funny that it’s on your list.
posted by Kate on 12-2-2009 at 9:26 am
Kettlebells, cast iron weights with a handle, are still measured in poods/half poods, etc. and are gaining popularity in the U.S. as weightlifting tools.
40 Russian pounds is approximately 36 lbs. to those of us not familiar with the Russian variety.
posted by Steven on 12-2-2009 at 9:39 am
yes – I use kettlebells, and the pood measurement is often used. (Although kg/lbs is usually what is printed on the side or bottom).
The cheap scale I bought a few months ago has a “st” setting for stones(as well as “kg” and “lb”) – tried a few times, can’t even imagine getting used to it as a unit as measure!
posted by swss on 12-2-2009 at 11:45 am
Anybody have any idea why those medieval folks needed a word for “1/564 of a momentum, which is 15/94 of a second”?
Seems to me to be an odd fraction to require its own name. What shall we call 8/565 of an acre, or 29/649 of an inch?
(ReCaptcha: facto oddly)
posted by Betsy on 12-2-2009 at 12:20 pm
Laruchka, V and Tom in GA: Thanks for your answers.
Wheat is still measured in bushels.
A shick was used to measure the first lasers. Scientists would pulse a laser at a bunch of Shick rasor blades and see how many it would burn through. If it burned through three rasor blades it would have a strength of three shicks.
posted by DW on 12-2-2009 at 1:41 pm
I took the Russian saying about poods to mean that it would take you a really long time to get to know someone well (based on the little amount of salt you use normally). Not that one would consume that much salt all at once.
Just my humble interpretation though.
posted by Brit on 12-2-2009 at 2:14 pm
What? No cubit?
posted by PartiallyDeflected on 12-2-2009 at 4:18 pm
10. Poncelet. This was basically what “horsepower†was before metric horsepower came along. The Poncelet measured an amount of power – specifically, how much it took to get something that weighed 100 kilograms at the rate of one meter per second…To get something to do what? A typo or am I missing something???
posted by Doflitchit on 12-2-2009 at 4:30 pm
Auctioneers will still talk about “lots” all the time, a different sense of the word again, but still relevant. Bonus points for anyone who can state the difference in quantity between a london firkin and a country firkin.
posted by Jamie Fehr on 12-2-2009 at 5:56 pm
what about a slug?
posted by Claire Whit on 12-2-2009 at 10:02 pm
10. Poncelet is apparently a unit of power, but the definition you gave is for energy. Something weighing 100kg moving at 1m/s has 1/2*m*v^2 = 50J of energy. Power is energy per unit time, while your definition of Poncelet is just energy.
posted by Dan Lorenc on 12-2-2009 at 10:10 pm
We have a local apple orchard called The Apple Castle, so I do here the word peck quite a lot.
posted by Aaron on 12-2-2009 at 10:41 pm
There is, of course, the smoot.
posted by Curtis on 12-2-2009 at 10:50 pm
you ask \are any of these in use in your area\, as if they could never be, yet you include a *picture* of a peck bag, indicating that it clearly still is in use…
posted by joe on 12-2-2009 at 10:50 pm
Well at first glance, I would say that a “London Firkin” is a unit of measurement whereas the “Country Firkin” is an actual object, such as a small wooden keg, cask or barrel.
Since you asked about the quantitative difference, however, the best answer I can come up with is that a Country Firkin is a smaller quantity than a London Firkin.
Or maybe they are the same amount. Google failed me on this one …
posted by Firkin Master on 12-2-2009 at 10:54 pm
You missed the most obvious:
Imperial/US customary units
All of them!
posted by Graham Green on 12-2-2009 at 10:55 pm
and you can also add the inch, foot, mile, ounce, pound, pint and quart (unless you live in South Yemen or the USA).
posted by Karl Stephens on 12-2-2009 at 11:02 pm
Doflitchit:
It’s a casual construction but what you’re getting the hundred kilos to is a rate of 1 meter per second.
Adding the extra verb “moving” would have eliminated all doubt but it’s intelligible as it is.
posted by Stephen on 12-2-2009 at 11:09 pm
Yet another horsey thing is a ‘length’, somewhere around the distance between two fence posts. Of course the ‘knot’ for sea travel, measured by tying knots in a rope and dragging it behind, both commonly used but still weird. Oh and a stone is like a pound is like a mile is like a yard, all imperial units of measurement that for some reason the US seems to want to stick to, in part only.
posted by Warren on 12-3-2009 at 12:06 am
Don’t forget the fortnight, which is equivalent to 2 weeks or 14 days (FOURTeen).
Also, once in a blue moon is every 2.7154 years or 1.16699016 × 10-8 hertz.
posted by Harrison on 12-3-2009 at 12:54 am
And of course the fortnight. A period of time equal to two weeks/fourteen days.
Used also to measure velocity as in
“furlongs per fortnight”.
posted by Smedley on 12-3-2009 at 1:19 am
ten units of measurement that are obsolete
1) mile (1760 yards)
2) yard (3 feet)
3) foot (12 inchs)
4) inch (about 2.5 cm)
5) acre (43560 square feet)
6) pint (16.65 ounce)
7) quart (2 pints)
8) gallon (4 quarts)
9) barrel (31.5 gallons)
10) …every other imperial unit
These crazy units seemly made up of abitrary numbers of other units were replaced by the decimalised metric system. Ease of calulation is ensured as units always increase by a multiple of 10.
Sorry, couldn’t resist =D
posted by yupitsme on 12-3-2009 at 4:08 am
We still use hogshead. 1 Hogshead equals roughly 238.5 liters.
posted by Homer on 12-3-2009 at 9:18 am
When the Metric system was first introduced into the American school system, I had a teacher who pointed-out how many more ways that “12″ could be divided, than “10″. He used that to justify spending very little time on Metrics.
posted by gewf631 on 12-3-2009 at 9:32 am
Then there is the “reel”. Its an old unit of measure of movie film. Its equal to 1000 feet, the length that would fit on the most common size of physical reel way back in the 1910′s. But if you are talking about 16mm film, a reel equals 400 feet. It also evolved into a unit of time, 11 minutes for sound film, 16 minutes for silent film. Now most actual reels hold far more than 11 minutes of film. And most theaters do not use physical reels at all but still refer to films as “two-reelers” etc.
posted by ASTROBOY on 12-3-2009 at 10:00 am
Hectare? Its a metric measurement, used for land area, not widely used.
posted by John on 12-3-2009 at 10:30 am
Hectare is used almost everywhere outside the US. It’s the ordinary metric measurement for farm sizes, for instance.
posted by Roberto Alsina on 12-3-2009 at 8:28 pm
When I was travelling abroad, I listened to an American engineer whining about how the metric system was ‘stoopid’. Stupid for who…?
posted by PH on 12-4-2009 at 1:09 am
Anyone ever heard of a trot-line? Where you set the hooks as far apart as a horse trots?
Country folks can survive!
posted by adams on 12-5-2009 at 4:41 am
Stacy!
The song your grandma used to sing is one of the songs that Adelaide sings in her night club act in “Guys and Dolls”. Don’t bother trying to find it in the movie version, however; it was replaced by that travesty of a song, “Pet Me Poppa”. I believe there is an interesting story behind the change, but I can’t remember what it is for the life of me.
posted by Dunder on 12-6-2009 at 7:17 am
All the American/Imperialist units. Ypu should adopt the MKS system once and for all!!!!
posted by JONM on 12-6-2009 at 7:20 am
Stephen,
Moving wouldn’t have been an extra verb in an incomplete sentence. If it was intelligible as it is I wouldn’t have had to ask that question.
posted by Doflitchit on 12-6-2009 at 8:34 am
A ‘hand’ would be quite literally the width of a hand. This measurement was used by builders. To keep consistency, it was generally the Queen’s hand used for this measurement.
posted by Jurandr on 12-6-2009 at 5:08 pm
In engineering we use US customary units and one of the most bizarre in my opinion is the slug (a unit of mass).
1 slug = 1 lbf*sec^2/ft, or
1 slug = 32.17 lbm
I think the slug definitely belongs on this list. BTW, I also do crossfit and have thus become familiar with pood (36 lbm) as a kettlebell measure.
posted by EasterC on 12-6-2009 at 10:11 pm