2 ms·
We here in Ireland decided to move away from dual use of units (miles and km) to just km a few years back. Sure, we're not a big country, but we also have more
by talideon 12y ago
We here in Ireland decided to move away from dual use of units (miles and km) to just km a few years back. Sure, we're not a big country, but we also have more road per capita than anywhere else in the EU at the very least. Given within a relatively short amount of time, the use of miles for non-trivial distances practically disappeared. Now it's only used in colloquialisms (e.g. "it's a few miles away") or for familiar distances (e.g. "the graveyard is a mile that way"); anything else is km, and sooner or later we'll likely be using km everywhere.
- Someone 12y agoI think you can forget that "sooner" part. Colloquialisms are very, very, stubborn. For example, German and Dutch still have the word "ellenlang" (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ellenlang http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ellenlang), literally "ells long", but typically used to describe durations (a long boring talk can be 'ellenlang'), even though the meter has been the unit of length for almost two centuries. Similarly, "miles long" is still in use for long, tedious or annoyingly large distances.
- jacquesm 12y agoThey still exist but fewer and fewer people even know the origins of those words.