4 ms·

Not heard this used before so nice to learn something, thanks! Is it said in a neutral sense like yardstick or is it an ideal to aspire to like exemplar or par

Not heard this used before so nice to learn something, thanks! Is it said in a neutral sense like yardstick or is it an ideal to aspire to like exemplar or paragon?

thiht 3y ago
It's neutral. For example, it was used with metric system definitions: at some point the "kilogramme-étalon" was literally an object weighing 1kg (by definition, the kg was this object). You can see here a kilogramme étalon: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Standard_kilogram%2C_2.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Standard... and a mètre étalon: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Mètre-étalon_Paris.JPG https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Mètre-ét... Edit: for completeness sake, a litre and décalitre (10L) étalon: https://portail.polytechnique.edu/musx/sites/pf_191/files/accueil/litre_decalitre.jpg https://portail.polytechnique.edu/musx/sites/pf_191/files/ac...