Jim Frysinger asked in USMA 9891: >A young (eighth grade) correspondent in Egypt has asked a question I >cannot answer. Who was it that coined the term "metric" (or perhaps >"metrique"?) in regards to the metric system. My dictionary shows its >date of origin as 1797. Can we identify the person who suggested the >term? In 1675 the Italian Tito Livio Burattini proposed to use the length of a pendulum that beat seconds as the universal unit of length which he named "m�tre catholiqwe" or "mesure universelle" The Acad�mie des Sciences in 1792 adopted the name "m�tre" for the proposed new unit of length. The name is attributed to Borda. The name "m�tre" was used in the decree of 1793 August 1. The term "syst�me m�trique" was used before 1795 to designate a system of more or less coordinated measures no matter what was the base of such a system. The new metric system became known as "le syst�me m�trique d�cimal", which was the name used in the decree of 1795 April 7.
