# Vernacular Units?



## graham-xrf (Dec 13, 2020)

Most times I can guess what is meant. Very common ones I know (thous). Others are a mystery. Some are (I think) Canadian or Navajo. Some overlap.

thous
tads
mils     (overlap! Apparently mills = thous and also mils = short for mm in places Imperial)
smidge
skooch
country mile
tenths
microns
gnat's knackers
skitchens
poofteenths
barns   (as in "barn doors")
chains
bee's dicks
skosh
K's (Australia)
Umpteenth = just enough to be irritating.
Gadzillions = a tad more than Michael Jacksons back catalog.

?? Yeah!


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## Reddinr (Dec 13, 2020)

Smidgen or smidge was popular on the east coast of US.
or "just a rat hair"
or "just shy of a sixteenth"
or a dog's age, as in "I haven't seen you in a dog's age."


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## Asm109 (Dec 13, 2020)

RCH


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## pdentrem (Dec 13, 2020)

Grandad’s property was measured in chains and links. Another lot was in rods and bars. Was a head scratcher for me as a lad, until dad explained it.
At work, I don’t like “mils”, it shows the age of the user. Imperial vs metric and the confusion that shows up when looking over the supplied drawings.


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## Gaffer (Dec 13, 2020)

Don't forget VFCH.


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## pontiac428 (Dec 13, 2020)

A weak sixteenth vs. a strong sixteenth (suitable for construction and putting work on the band saw)

quince pugalas y quarto

Thirteen and a half hands to the shoulder

A big summbish  (used for fishing) followed by summbody find that gaff...


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## graham-xrf (Dec 13, 2020)

Asm109 said:


> RCH


Wow! I had to find that one on Urban Dictionary.
Measured 1980 at Defense Mapping Bethesda, MD
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rch


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## graham-xrf (Dec 13, 2020)

pdentrem said:


> Grandad’s property was measured in chains and links. Another lot was in rods and bars. Was a head scratcher for me as a lad, until dad explained it.
> At work, I don’t like “mils”, it shows the age of the user. Imperial vs metric and the confusion that shows up when looking over the supplied drawings.


Agreed on mils!
In UK, the distance between the points on the handles of surveyor's a chain is 22 yards.
It ended up at 22 yards because that was 100 links in Gunter's chain. So 66ft.
Conveniently used for the length of a cricket pitch.

The furlong, 220 yards, or an eighth of a mile x 1 chain, yields the area 1 acre.
I just didn't know these, (because of hectares at school).

We had feet and inches, but also metres and centimetres, which were eventually the more prevalent.


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## 7milesup (Dec 13, 2020)

A gnat hair.
Finer than frog hair.
BFH


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## 7milesup (Dec 13, 2020)

Gaffer said:


> Don't forget VFCH.


Volunteer Fire Company of Halfway??


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## pontiac428 (Dec 13, 2020)

Yep, Americans purchase land in acres but manage it in hectares.  The county records are in chains and furlongs.  It's almost like we are trying to retard the movement to metric by keeping archaea alive.  As if 1000 x 10 meters is hard to remember.  Groan, I can hear it now- everybody knows what 5 acres should look like, but who really knows what 2 hectares is?  hey, I know I need 1 meter of bandage dressing for every meter I fall of a ladder.


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## pdentrem (Dec 13, 2020)

Very Fast CHoo


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## Gaffer (Dec 13, 2020)

7milesup said:


> Volunteer Fire Company of Halfway??


It’s a unit of measurement I learned from my father when I was a youngster. He was a career electrical engineer in the USAF, and that very likely had something to do with it. Hint: It’s a small unit of measurement involving a very fine type of hair.


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## Dabbler (Dec 13, 2020)

'jiffy' used to be straight 'in a quick time' in the very olden days... but computer nerds used it to describe 1/60 of a second in timekeeping for servers.  It has also been used to describe 1/100 of a second in some circumstances.


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## Ulma Doctor (Dec 13, 2020)

gnats nuts or the posterior of said gnat, used interchangeably


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## Lo-Fi (Dec 13, 2020)

"half a blond one"


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## graham-xrf (Dec 14, 2020)

pontiac428 said:


> Yep, Americans purchase land in acres but manage it in hectares.  The county records are in chains and furlongs.  It's almost like we are trying to retard the movement to metric by keeping archaea alive.  As if 1000 x 10 meters is hard to remember.  Groan, I can hear it now- everybody knows what 5 acres should look like, but who really knows what 2 hectares is?  hey, I know I need 1 meter of bandage dressing for every meter I fall of a ladder.


Heh Heh! +1 on the groan. I live in UK, but schoolboy times was in Africa (Rhodesia).
Everything in the shops was strongly influenced by what went on in RSA (South Africa), USA, and UK.
In South Africa, like in UK, the metric system started use in the 1800s, and was pretty much in place by the mid 1960s.

Leaving aside what happened in UK, in South Africa, they wanted to discourage multiple units systems, weights and measures in retail, etc, so they set in law that one could continue to use any units one was comfortable with, but that retail was metric. Sellers could provide conversions information, but the integer unit had to be the one in metric.
A garage conversion table had to be presented as numbers of litres, and the conversion unit with decimal fractions in gallons.

They also ruled that all new measuring stuff sold had to be metric. The tape, measure, the ruler, the micrometer, the lathe, the mill, whatever. A new one had to be sold metric. I came to UK, and found they were metric, with older folk hanging on to imperial.

On most of my posts here, I give a measure in both units, and also prices in both pounds and dollars


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## Braeden P (Dec 14, 2020)

pdentrem said:


> Very Fast CHoo


very fast choo choo as in a train????


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## pdentrem (Dec 14, 2020)

You got it! Could only take a guess at it. 

NMJ
FK


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## Braeden P (Dec 14, 2020)

??


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## higgite (Dec 14, 2020)

About that much.
Not enough.
Too much.
Close enough for gov’t work.
Two fingers (No, not what you’re thinking! It’s a measure of bourbon.   )

Tom


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## macardoso (Dec 14, 2020)

higgite said:


> Close enough for gov’t work.



I work in the defense industry, guy I work with had a Dilbert comic with a quote to that effect hanging in his cube. Got chewed out something fierce over it. Boss man didn't find it all that funny apparently.


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## pdentrem (Dec 14, 2020)

NMJ = not my job
FK = failed kindergarten


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## Lo-Fi (Dec 14, 2020)

I daren't go into fit tolerance descriptions... Pretty sure I'd break some forum rules.


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## Braeden P (Dec 14, 2020)

Lo-Fi said:


> I daren't go into fit tolerance descriptions... Pretty sure I'd break some forum rules.


not if you dont get caught.


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## mmcmdl (Dec 14, 2020)

My tolerance these days are +/- half a broom stick . And we have large brooms !


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## savarin (Dec 14, 2020)

I have no problems with any of these superb units of measurements but would really love to have a conversion chart for when I'm in different company.
I believe three tads = one smidgen and 5 smidgens = a bee's dick.


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## Braeden P (Jan 22, 2021)

Lo-Fi said:


> I daren't go into fit tolerance descriptions... Pretty sure I'd break some forum rules.


i would break some rules too so better not go there unless you want to be banned


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## graham-xrf (Jan 22, 2021)

Braeden P said:


> i would break some rules too so better not go there unless you want to be banned


Yup - when it comes to freely derived workshop expressions, there is no question that it steps out past the threshold of living room politeness!


That's just for benign stuff like fine units divisions. The contents of "_The Whacked Thumb Handbook_", and certain other situation guides are probably in a Twitter exclusion list!


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## Illinoyance (Jan 22, 2021)

pdentrem said:


> Grandad’s property was measured in chains and links. Another lot was in rods and bars. Was a head scratcher for me as a lad, until dad explained it.
> At work, I don’t like “mils”, it shows the age of the user. Imperial vs metric and the confusion that shows up when looking over the supplied drawings.


A chain is 66 ft long composed of 100 links.  There are 4 rods to a chain.  80 chains to the mile.  A rods was also called a perch ore a pole. 10 square chains was 1 acre.
The Gunter's chain and statute mile date to Queen Elisabeth I.


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## RJSakowski (Jan 22, 2021)

Of importance when calculating feed rates, a furlong/fortnight is equal to 1414.3 ipm (approx).


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## eugene13 (Jan 22, 2021)

Up a little....down a little....up a little.....down a little, when you're trying to get a big pin in a hole using a crane, and don't have a chain fall.


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## tq60 (Jan 23, 2021)

Frog hair.

Very tiny amount.

It just does not fit as it is a frog hair off.

Just a spring pass...

Darn it...loose as goose now...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk


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