> FWIW, it German it's also "Meter". I think the spelling "metre" is 
> more
> latin-based, and possibly came to the British Isles by way of 
> France.
> Germanic languages seem to use more the "meter" version.

The French have naming rights. All others are impostors. And, the 
French will happily tell you that THEY ARE the world. You can choose 
whether to believe them :-).

I surprised that you don't side with me on this. When it comes to 
"standards" or proper names or similar the owner has bragging, and 
naming, rights. If others want to pick up their ball and run with it 
they arguably need an international standards committee involved. 
Which, in this case, they have very certainly got.

What would Napoleon have said? - even though his engineers got it 
wrong.
Puzzled. Note how large a quarter circumference of the world is in 
metres. Note that the figure is not exact - not even when the meridian 
used runs through Paris.



        Russell




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