Tonne - Origin and Spelling

Origin and Spelling

In France and the English-speaking countries that are predominantly metric, tonne is the usual formal usage in writing, usually pronounced the same as ton /tʌn/ but with the final "e" pronounced /ˈtʌnɪ/ when it is important to clarify that the metric, rather than Imperial, term is meant. Before metrication in the UK the unit used for most purposes was the Imperial ton of 2,240 pounds avoirdupois (usually referred to as the long ton in the US), equivalent to 1,016 kg, differing by just 1.6% from the tonne. The UK Weights and Measures Act 1985 explicitly excluded from use for trade many units and terms, including the ton and the term "metric ton". However, for many purposes the Imperial and metric tons are so similar that it is not important to distinguish them, even in writing, and the long-standing spelling "ton" continues to be widely used where strictly speaking "tonne" is meant. For example, even the Guinness Book of World Records accepts metrication without marking this by changing the spelling. In the United States metric ton is the name for this unit used and recommended by NIST; an unqualified mention of a ton almost invariably refers to a short ton of 2,000 pounds (907 kg), and tonne is rarely used in speech or writing.

Ton and tonne are both derived from a Germanic word in general use in the North Sea area since the Middle Ages (cf. Old English and Old Frisian tunne, Old High German and Medieval Latin tunna, German and French tonne) to designate a large cask, or tun. A full tun, standing about a metre high, could easily weigh a tonne. An English tun (an old wine cask volume measurement equivalent to 954 litres) of wine weighs roughly a ton (of any type), 954 kg if full of water, a little less for wine.

The spelling tonne pre-dates the introduction of the SI in 1960; it has been used with this meaning in France since 1842, when there were no metric prefixes for multiples of 106 and above, and is now used as the standard spelling for the metric mass measurement in most English-speaking countries. In the United States, the unit was originally referred to using the French words millier or tonneau, but these terms are now obsolete. The Imperial and US customary units comparable to the tonne are both spelled ton in English, though they differ in mass.