Expand your vocabulary!

DrWatson · 2025-03-13T11:24:28-05:00

English Language - Expand your vocabulary! (7 replies).

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I love the old English. I used to wallow in Georgette Heyer Regency Romance novels, and she used "fortnight" and "sennight". AND lots of Regency England slang!

DrWatson · 70-79, M

@4meAndyou Someone told me that one evening, she and other science/engineering students were amusing themselves trying to come up with creative alternatives to metric versus imperial units. Their crowning achievement was to measure velocity in "furlongs per fortnight!"

ElwoodBlues · M

Yes, the FFF system: furlongs, fortnights, and firkins!
(a firkin contains 9 imperial gallons or 90 lbs).

Naturally you would use degrees Fahrenheit for temperature, and farads as the basis for electrical units!!

DrWatson · 70-79, M

@ElwoodBlues I have never heard of firkins before. I love the sound of it!

Quimliqer · 70-79, M

Thanks for the lesson!!

meJess · F

How many pecks in a bushel?

DrWatson · 70-79, M

@meJess

That was actually in our math books when I was in grade school. 1 bushel = 4 pecks.

The only way this information has ever helped me is to allow me to appreciate a little better what this song title means:

[media=https://youtu.be/C5BKa8xGlzo]

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