Re:What Does Pi Have To Do With Gravity?
by Aardwolf on Saturday March 09, 2013 @07:04PM
(#5350072)
Why is meter spelled "metre" in English? English is a Germanic language, and Germanic languages like Dutch and German happen to have the perfectly reasonable word "meter" for this. But for some reason English chose the romance French spelling "metre", that looks really odd outside of French. Why?
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Because the word has its origin in the Greek metron, and has nothing to do with Germanic languages whatsoever.
Besides, there are countless precedents of English words with a mute final "e" and a schwa inserted between two consonants, e.g. "little".
It's consistent with "centre" vs American "center"