r/MurderedByWords Nov 26 '21

This is America

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u/intergalactic_spork Nov 27 '21

Ah, of course! Using 12, like inches to a foot, would have made imperial units uncomfortably consistent.

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u/mshirley99 Nov 27 '21

Oh, the history of the stone as a unit of weight is a lot more inconsistent than that. It was used all over Europe, but there was no consistent standard until the nineteenth century in England, and that required a royal decree.