A Miss is a s good as 1.6 Kilometres

[flecc]

Oddly it does wheel sizes for the speedometer config in inches. Why don't the Europeans use metric for those too?

I think it was because we were the first with bicycles (the ordinary or penny-farthing) which had it's wheel sizes in inches. These in turn became the gear inches for safety bicycle's gear measures, and they were also a British first. That left the inch for bicycles firmly embedded internationally.

 

[Scimitar]

We lost a lot of our tradition then of course, farthing, ha'penny, copper, tuppence, thruppenny bit, tanner, bob, shilling; florin, half-crown, quid, guinea, tenner etc.

Translation for the young:

Farthing = a quarter penny piece; Ha'penny = half-penny; Copper = a penny piece; Tuppence = two pence; Thruppenny bit = three pence piece; Tanner = six pence piece; Bob = shilling = 12 pence piece or 12 pence; Florin = 24 pence piece; Half-crown = thirty pence piece; Quid = a pound; Guinea = 21 shillings (now £1.05); Tenner = ten pounds.
.

"Fiver, Tenner" are used still, even in Euro and Dollar lands. "Quid" made a point of not dying away when the Euro came in here, as the official word doesn't trip off the tongue.

 

[flecc]

Yes, fiver, tenner and quid persist in England too Dave, and of course we still have the guinea in horse racing and even in a small sector of the antiques market.

 

[mike killay]

Tuppence h'appeny as perjorative ie' 'I wouldn't give tuppence ha'penny for it'
Also the Euro itself. Here and in Ireland it is called the You-ro. In Europe it is the Err-ro

 

[bode]

"You daft 'aporth" (= silly half-penny-worth).

 

[OxygenJames]

Pounds shillings and pence ha! Yeah I remember learning that as a kid - you had to use base 10 to add the pounds - base 20 for the shillings and base 12 for the pence! And I was 6 I think at the time.

And you had to walk to school in short trousers no matter what the weather. Kids of today dont know how lucky they are!

 

[OxygenJames]

Those thruppeny pieces were a work of art huh? They felt good in your pocket. You could get a decent amount of sweets with thrupence!