> simultaneously, petulantly perhaps, spelling the units differently Utter nonsense. The majority of native English speakers are American. Does that mean Brit

> simultaneously, petulantly perhaps, spelling the units differently Utter nonsense. The majority of native English speakers are American. Does that mean Brits, Australians, etc. are being “petulant” by spelling various words differently from Americans? Of course not. That’s just not how language evolution and standardization works. By the way, nobody had to decide that “meter” specifically should be spelled that way. It follows the normal American spelling pattern in which all words ending in the consonant cluster /tr/ are spelled with “-ter”. Commonwealth English is actually more inconsistent as it sometimes renders the French “-tre” as “-tre” (metre, centre, theatre) and sometimes as “-ter” (master, plaster).