What is a kil'ometer?

[Adam Pound]

Adam,
There are colder sections of Ontario than Ottawa, after all there is plenty of hot air in Ottawa when Parliament is in session.
BTW and the fun loving rabble. Keep your eyes peeled for SOKS nights.

LMAO!
If we ever get the coalition that's threatened, we'll have outright tropical storms up here!

[meinfs]

... Allmost universally these are pronounced as multiplier (brief pause) measure, as in centi-meter,, kilo-tonne, milli-litre.
...
Now we come to THE question - why is the kilo-metre pronounced by (mainly american) people as kil-ometer? After all we do not hear mill-imeter or kil-...

I don't hear it pronounced kil-ometer around here. More like ki-LOM-eter.
But more importantly, it doesn't matter much because we use miles, thanks to the English/British/Imperial system of measurement.

[SteveB]

Davedove beat me to it. Americans in the military have called Kilometres "Klicks" for decades.
Americans also have regional flavour to add to the pronunciation key. Heah in Bahston it is usually killahMETah. Then we have killahgrahms, usually abbreviated to just "kilo"s, killacycles, and of course the leetah.

For the rabble outside of the U.S.:
We but alcoholic beverages by the litre, and petrol by the gallon. Although beer is available by the litre and the pint. Soda-pop is sold by the litre, but milk is sold by the quart. Water is metered to the house in Cubic feet, but you can buy it bottled by the gallon, litre, or pint. I run in 10 kilometer races, but my motorcar travels by the mile.

For those of us in the mechanical trades, our toolkits are heavy.
Machinery made in the U.K. uses British Standard, and Whitworth fasteners. That which is made in the U.S. uses a combination of USS threaded and SAE threaded fasteners, with a few metric thrown in to keep us on our toes.
As a long time mechanic (U.S.)/ engineer (U.K.), I have acquired a huge collection of wrenches(U.S.)/ spanners(U.K.).

For the rabble from outside the U.S. and the U.K.:
Both those that are in the U.S. and the U.K. claim to speak "English", however the language has developed to be quite different on the two sides of the ocean. The real fun is that my Canadian rellies all spell like the U.K. but use many of the U.S. terms.
Slainte

[Jerry]

Since I worked as a Instrument Tech for about 30 years, I am used to calling it a kilometer, although I worked mostly with mm and cm. If they ever went to metric for fuel at the pumps and metric speed limits, I'd be in trouble. I'd never be able to plan trips or know how fast I was going.

[Thunderbolt]

I work with numbers every day, mostly in inches. But, it's a mixture of fractions and decimals...ugh...

Let's see, I have to cut a 1/2x28 thread (for simplicity!). So my mean dia. for a 3A is .4978. Wait, how do I convert decimals to fractions....um...yeah.

My lathe is all in .xxxx. It dosen't speak fractions. Many times machinists speak in decimials, as in "I need a .187 end mill." Not "I need a 3/16th inch end mill." We break everything down to 1/1000("One thou") of of an inch, sometimes 1/10,000 ("one tenth") if it's a precision part. (For my industry, anyway.)

I had to do a job in metric just the other day. Lucky enough, my readout ob the lathe can switch to mm. That made it easy, but I was still nervous in the beginning. But after I got going and got my head wrapped around it, it was suprisingly easy.

Metric is SO much easier than imperial. But the US has been doing things that way for a long time, and we're a stubborn lot! They're would be so much confusion over the switch...I can't even imagine the scene....

Most people I know pronounce kilometer as kill-OHM-eter.

Me thinks it's to avoid confusion with a 'kilo' of anything....


T.

[thanmuwa]

Metric is SO much easier than imperial.

Amen to that. 16 ounces in a pound and 14 pounds in a stone and however many stone in a tonne.... what a palaver!

Most people I know pronounce kilometer as kill-OHM-eter.

Me thinks it's to avoid confusion with a 'kilo' of anything....

T.

But it IS a kilo of something, it is a kilo of metres, same as a kilobyte is a kilo of bytes (almost!), a kiloHertz is a kilo of Hertz and a kilogram is a kilo of grams
T.

[meinfs]

Amen to that. 16 ounces in a pound and 14 pounds in a stone and however many stone in a tonne.... what a palaver!


But it IS a kilo of something, it is a kilo of metres, same as a kilobyte is a kilo of bytes (almost!), a kiloHertz is a kilo of Hertz and a kilogram is a kilo of grams
T.

And a kilobyte is ...

[arrogcow]

Down with metrics, we don't want a foreign ruler.

Join the fight against the metric system. Don't give an inch.

Sorry couldn't resist.

Adam

[meinfs]

... because we use miles, thanks to the English/British/Imperial system of measurement.

NOW what if:

The Scots won all of their battles and took over the British Empire,

then perhaps with these Scottish units of measurement :

your real estate might be measured in

Scottish rood (ruid in Lowland Scots, ròd in Scottish Gaelic)
Scottish acre = 4 roods

or
oxgangs (Damh-imir) = the area an ox would plow in a year (about 20 acres)
ploughgates = 8 oxgangs
Daugh (Dabhach) = 4 ploughgates

your taxes in:

Groatland or Còta bàn, a groat is a coin
Pennyland (Peighinn) = 2 groatlands
Quarterland (Ceathramh) = 4 pennylands (8 groatlands)
Ounceland (Tir-unga) = 4 quarterlands (32 groatlands)
Markland (Marg-fhearann) = 8 Ouncelands (varied)
Farthingland (Feòirling) – equal to half a pennyland.

Your alcohol in

Gill
Mutchkin
Chopin
Pint (Scots)/Joog
Gallon

Your weight in

Drop/drap
Ounce
Pound/Poon
Stone/Stane






Oh and your Tartan fabric in:

Ell – Elbow, 37 Scots inches, 94.50 cm

I'd like an 8-ell kilt, please.





Source: en.wikipedia.org

[CDNSushi]

The answer to this question (whether it is the correct answer or not I do not know) was explained to me by my high school math teacher. Technically speaking, (in his opinion), "ki-LO-meter" is a common mispronunciation and it should, in fact be: "KIL-ometer". However, in his opinion a "ki-LO-meter" is a legitimate word IF you were actually referring to a measuring device used to measure a kilometer, much like a "micrometer" pronounced: "miCROmeter" is a type of caliper used in extra-fine measurements, or as you mentioned, various other "-ometer" measuring devices.

Therefore, in summary, (the way it was explained to me):

KILometer and kiLOmeter are both acceptable pronounciations.. BUT

KILometer = a distance of 1000 meters
kiLOmeter = a (theoretical) device used to measure kilometers

Does that help?