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Quite. Unit is quite literally the same as Uno if you squint a bit. Both are Latin derived and both mean "one" - more or less. However I will accept that unit
by gerdesj 5y ago
Quite. Unit is quite literally the same as Uno if you squint a bit. Both are Latin derived and both mean "one" - more or less. However I will accept that unit is overloaded somewhat and I don't know much about the way that Spaniards use uno in their spare time.
So using a word that means one and then fiddling around with prefixes is either really clever or really daft depending on which side of the bottle of wine you happen to be.
On balance, for me, I'd be grateful if you leave one alone. To me it means a Platonic One which is unobtainium but I'll let you have one anyway! But only the one (no not that one, the other one.)
- riffraff 5y agoI'm Italian, where uno also means uno, so I'll offer my perspective. As a kid I was taught to use "unità" (unit) to refer to the numbers below ten (e.g. "add up the units first, then carry the tens.."). It is also used as an "accounting" unit (e.g. "there are 3 units left") in some cases, tho probably less commonly than in English, as it's often implicit. So yeah, unit seems a clear better choice than abusing the number one.
- ConceptJunkie 5y ago> As a kid I was taught to use "unità" (unit) to refer to the numbers below ten (e.g. "add up the units first, then carry the tens.."). Arithmetic instruction in English uses "unit" in the same way. However, since "unit" is a highly overloaded term, I think the idea of "uno" is a good one, at least for English. For Italian and Spanish, etc., probably not so much.