"How the heck do you pronounce 'cwt'?" Topic

How did folks in the Commonwealth armies of WW2 (or now) pronounce the 'cwt' part of their truck ratings?

C.W.T.?

Centum Weight?

something else?

Personally, I prefer going all Welsh and pronouncing it 'coot' ^,^

Hundredweight. :)

Damn, beaten to it. Yep, hundredweight.

Oh, and to avoid any confusion – a British hundredweight is 112 pounds…. ;-)

I'm a Yank and even I call it "hundredweight".

Yup, that avoids confusion… er…

Perfectly logical no?

Een Russia, dah is beeg trukk ohr not so beeg trukk.

Oh, and to avoid any confusion – a British hundredweight is 112 pounds….

Oh, of course it is.

Is that sort of like the "Sidkafizzes?" :)

Damon.

link

I'll bet most of us aren't quite perfect in our pronunciation of all the words on this list.

I prefer the Welsh option (although 'coot' doesn't quite get it right).

In "Astraya" we pronounce it "unndredwate".

Go and have a quick look at caernarfon castle. Lovely…

It actually makes sense if you have a public school education!
C (as in the roman numeral for 100) and wt (short for weight).

How many "pecks" or "bushels" in a cwt ?

Pecks and bushels are a measure of dry goods by volume not weight.

I was being ironic.

You've got to be careful employing sarcasm and irony around many Brits – we don't tend to get them…. ;-)

An American and an Australian walk into a bar with english men, someone tells a joke, everyone laughs but the Englishman…….until the english men get it. Bwah hahaha

"It actually makes sense if you have a public school education! C (as in the roman numeral for 100) and wt (short for weight)."

It also makes sense if you are old enough to have had a state school education where they taught you Latin.

An American and an Australian walk into a bar with english men, someone tells a joke, everyone laughs but the Englishman…….until the english men get it.

irony
[ahy-ruh-nee, ahy-er-]

noun, plural ironies.
1. a man from Kentucky making a joke about how the English are slow on the uptake…. ;-)

Well, I have studied Latin, and alas am over-educated enough to know that cwt is the abbreviation for centum weight. So, in true British fashion, it's spelled 'centum' but pronounced 'hundred'.
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So, in true British fashion, it's spelled 'centum' but pronounced 'hundred'.

Precisely – we like to keep things simple. ;-) In all fairness, I believe you guys share the abbreviation "lb" for pound….

I've always preferred to pronounce it "Throat-Wobbler-Mangrove".

link

I believe the proper pronounciation is "throat warbler mangrove."

One more time round the pole everyone….

YouTube link

I just had a piece of ghoti that was good enough for Jehovah…

It's our language so we'll pronounce it how we like. If it was easy anyone could do it, and then who would we have to feel superior to? It's tough getting over the loss of an empire – I bet the later Romans spent all their time sneering at how the barbarians pronounced Latin.

When I'm in a hurry I pronounce it " Sea-Wait". Or 8 stones.

Boy, spontoon, you must have a cluster?!

I had an Aussie State School education, did not study Latin and still understood the question, does that count?

I'm guessing this is the same reasoning behind why the US 100 dollar bill is called a "C note"? I used to think it was because it was either marked with a C for the series identifier or the serial number started with a C, but the one in my pocket is technically an "F note"… now I am curious…

I thought it was because they all had traces of cocaine on them.

Surely it's pronounced 'roughly 50 kilos'? to avoid discussions about a 'long hundred'?

In US state = public. An elementary or secondary school that charges tuition is a Private school.

Well, if it was a 'short hundred', then you would also have to have discussions about it only being about 7 1/7 stones. And that would confuse everyone.

How many spuds in a cwt sack?

How many firkins in a hogshead?

None, they are different chains.

Thomally,

The same is nearly true in the UK. Only some private/independent schools are public schools. Wikipedia links this to public not religious entry, but it is more likely linked to the publishing of results before required by law. Something the Headmasters' Conference Schools have done for some time – membership of which is now seen as a key distinction between independent and public schools.

As to pronunciation – they rarely had more than one type so it would be 'lorry'…just like complicatedly named rifles become 'the rifle'.

Spontoon,

LH's excellent reply aside, there are 6 Firkins (9 gallons) per Hogshead (54 gallons). Firkins were dead easy to handle, but Hogsheads were a job for forklifts or shire-horses…

Adam – actually it'd be the truck – in WW2 British parlance, little ones (ie. those measured in hundredweight) were trucks, while lorries were x tonners.

Yes, also like "Lieutenant" pronounced "LEF-tenant". I never understood that even though I was one once.

I think for the same reason that your trains have 'buffy cars' and your elite troops wear 'berries'. Above all, one must pronounce French words in ways that could never possilbly sound like you might be speaking French!

You've been watching too much Dick van Dyke, haven't you?

Apparently so – this Englishman has always had buffay cars, and in the cadets wore a berray.

Elite troops indeed: The Airborne Tactical Commandos.

Even worse – I was a sea cadet. If you need any limpet mines attaching, I have the skills. Probably wouldn't fit in the canoe now though…. ;-)

Long ago when I was on the train from London to Edinburgh, the announcement definitely came over the speaker: "This is the god speaking, the buffy car is now open." Didn't sound like Dick van Dyke, but who knows who the mysterious god of the train is!

Dom,

You say that now! It's rather late to 'come out'! You'd let me go all this time thinking that we were friends… I'd booked the flowers, booked the reception, told my mum…

Mini,

Ah, that's because they only employ ill-bred oiks to work on the trains. They send the better class of gentlemen joining the railway to be signalmen.