On 19/07/2013 11:15 PM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>
> According to Wikipedia, it also measures beer, cornmeal, Portland
> cement, sugar, flour, lime and cranberries.

"Also" is a good word. It means that my vague memory is correct. Phew!

-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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> According to Wikipedia, it also measures beer, cornmeal, Portland
> cement, sugar, flour, lime and cranberries.

I should perhaps clarify that it's "lime" as in calcium hydroxide, not 
as in the fruit. (How would THAT work?? Then again, cranberries...)

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On 19/07/2013 11:48 PM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>> According to Wikipedia, it also measures beer, cornmeal, Portland
>> cement, sugar, flour, lime and cranberries.
>
> I should perhaps clarify that it's "lime" as in calcium hydroxide, not
> as in the fruit. (How would THAT work?? Then again, cranberries...)

Do you have any idea why Americans call us Limeys?

-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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Am 19.07.2013 23:00, schrieb Stephen:
> On 19/07/2013 8:45 PM, clipka wrote:
>>
>> BTW, does anyone outside the world of printed circuit board design ever
>> use the measurement "mil"?
>
> I've never used it.
> I have used Mils and thought that was generic British for I'm working in
> that foreign stuff.

That "mil" I'm speaking of (plural "mils", but I've never encountered 
that in the PCB layout software I'm using) apparently is American 
English for "thou".

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Am 19.07.2013 23:55, schrieb Stephen:
> On 19/07/2013 11:48 PM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>>> According to Wikipedia, it also measures beer, cornmeal, Portland
>>> cement, sugar, flour, lime and cranberries.
>>
>> I should perhaps clarify that it's "lime" as in calcium hydroxide, not
>> as in the fruit. (How would THAT work?? Then again, cranberries...)
>
> Do you have any idea why Americans call us Limeys?

Because (or so claims Wikipedia) your forefathers, when going to sea, 
added lemon or lime juice to their grog to prevent scurvy.

Germans used Sauerkraut for the same purpose (or so I've heard tell), 
hence the Americans calling us Krauts.

Not sure what the Americans used themselves; I must presume they were 
just too plain stupid to do anything about it :-P

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On 19/07/2013 11:57 PM, clipka wrote:
>
> That "mil" I'm speaking of (plural "mils", but I've never encountered
> that in the PCB layout software I'm using) apparently is American
> English for "thou".

It rings a bell but I've never used it myself. But then I worked in 
manufacturing. PCB's were either bought in to assemble or to fit in a 
machine. Not even systems, some of them.

-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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On 20/07/2013 12:09 AM, clipka wrote:
> Am 19.07.2013 23:55, schrieb Stephen:
>> On 19/07/2013 11:48 PM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>>>> According to Wikipedia, it also measures beer, cornmeal, Portland
>>>> cement, sugar, flour, lime and cranberries.
>>>
>>> I should perhaps clarify that it's "lime" as in calcium hydroxide, not
>>> as in the fruit. (How would THAT work?? Then again, cranberries...)
>>
>> Do you have any idea why Americans call us Limeys?
>
> Because (or so claims Wikipedia) your forefathers, when going to sea,
> added lemon or lime juice to their grog to prevent scurvy.
>
> Germans used Sauerkraut for the same purpose (or so I've heard tell),
> hence the Americans calling us Krauts.
>
> Not sure what the Americans used themselves; I must presume they were
> just too plain stupid to do anything about it :-P
>


They used lemons which are a better source of vitamin C.
There was some skulduggery going on at the time between us and the rest 
of the world. And no one would sell the Brits lemons. So we used limes 
from one of the islands in the Caribbean. Hence Limeys.

-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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On Sat, 20 Jul 2013 00:31:27 +0200, Stephen wrote:

> On 20/07/2013 12:09 AM, clipka wrote:
>> Am 19.07.2013 23:55, schrieb Stephen:
>>> On 19/07/2013 11:48 PM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>>>>> According to Wikipedia, it also measures beer, cornmeal, Portland
>>>>> cement, sugar, flour, lime and cranberries.
>>>>
>>>> I should perhaps clarify that it's "lime" as in calcium hydroxide,
>>>> not as in the fruit. (How would THAT work?? Then again,
>>>> cranberries...)
>>>
>>> Do you have any idea why Americans call us Limeys?
>>
>> Because (or so claims Wikipedia) your forefathers, when going to sea,
>> added lemon or lime juice to their grog to prevent scurvy.
>>
>> Germans used Sauerkraut for the same purpose (or so I've heard tell),
>> hence the Americans calling us Krauts.
>>
>> Not sure what the Americans used themselves; I must presume they were
>> just too plain stupid to do anything about it :-P
>>
>>
> 
> They used lemons which are a better source of vitamin C.

Not initially, though.  They used "rob", which was a mix of sauerkraut 
and a concentrated fruit juice mixture, which was boiled.  Well, I guess 
the fruit juice concentrate could have been (or had as a component) 
lemon, so fair play on that. :)

> There was some skulduggery going on at the time between us and the rest
> of the world. And no one would sell the Brits lemons. So we used limes
> from one of the islands in the Caribbean. Hence Limeys.

First recorded use of "Lime juicer" (which became "limey") to refer to a 
Brit was 1859.

Jim

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On 20/07/2013 12:50 AM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> Not initially, though.  They used "rob", which was a mix of sauerkraut
> and a concentrated fruit juice mixture, which was boiled.  Well, I guess
> the fruit juice concentrate could have been (or had as a component)
> lemon, so fair play on that.:)
>
>> >There was some skulduggery going on at the time between us and the rest
>> >of the world. And no one would sell the Brits lemons. So we used limes
>> >from one of the islands in the Caribbean. Hence Limeys.
> First recorded use of "Lime juicer" (which became "limey") to refer to a
> Brit was 1859.

I did not know any of that. I only found out about the embargo, recently.
I tried looking it up and guess it was another Stephen Fry lie, said in 
a convincing manor.

-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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On Sat, 20 Jul 2013 01:27:21 +0200, Stephen wrote:

> On 20/07/2013 12:50 AM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> Not initially, though.  They used "rob", which was a mix of sauerkraut
>> and a concentrated fruit juice mixture, which was boiled.  Well, I
>> guess the fruit juice concentrate could have been (or had as a
>> component) lemon, so fair play on that.:)
>>
>>> >There was some skulduggery going on at the time between us and the
>>> >rest of the world. And no one would sell the Brits lemons. So we used
>>> >limes from one of the islands in the Caribbean. Hence Limeys.
>> First recorded use of "Lime juicer" (which became "limey") to refer to
>> a Brit was 1859.
> 
> I did not know any of that. I only found out about the embargo,
> recently.
> I tried looking it up and guess it was another Stephen Fry lie, said in
> a convincing manor.

Well, I'll cop to my source being John Lloyd for that, and it wouldn't be 
the first time that I'd seen/heard something in one of his books that I 
knew wasn't quite correct.

OED cites an example from 1888 as its earliest citation, but OED doesn't 
always have the earliest, since the quotations are just examples. But it 
does confirm something I thought was the case, which is that it wasn't 
common to the US, but more common to other colonies, notably Australia, 
New Zeland, and South Africa. At least as an "English Immigrant".

In the US, the term comes along later (or at least the earliest quote 
citing it is later, 1918), referring to an English or British sailor. 
That actually does match up with the information in the Second Book of 
General Ignorance (the quotation uses "lime-juicer" to refer to the ship, 
and "limeys" to refer to the sailors).

But Mr. Fry doesn't do the research, generally, for QI.  I don't know 
that Lloyd does that much of it any more, either. ;)

Jim

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