BillFitzmaurice.info

UROK wrote:
My father, rather confusingly, well into the 21st century, continued to talk about "LSD values" by which he meant 'pounds', 'shillings', and 'pence', the imperial units of currency.

Should not a pound be 'P', a shilling 'S' and a pence 'P'? Ohh...that's two 'P's. Good enough, but then why not use 'P' for either pounds or pence, rather than neither?
Makes one wonder if that other LSD didn't have something to do with the origins of English currency.

Bill Fitzmaurice wrote:

UROK wrote:
My father, rather confusingly, well into the 21st century, continued to talk about "LSD values" by which he meant 'pounds', 'shillings', and 'pence', the imperial units of currency.

Should not a pound be 'P', a shilling 'S' and a pence 'P'? Ohh...that's two 'P's. Good enough, but then why not use 'P' for either pounds or pence, rather than neither?
Makes one wonder if that other LSD didn't have something to do with the origins of English currency.

Nothing as colourful as that, I'm afraid, Bill. From fusty old Europe. Latin, I believe. Think it's: 'librae', 'solidi', 'denarii' or something along those lines.

All the same, calculating 4 farthings to a penny, 12 pence to the shilling (Harley's 'bob'), and 20 shillings to the pound...

Edit: I think 'solidi' is the origin of the word 'soldier'. Someone please correct me if I have got that wrong.

WB wrote: Ou A la poulet is all I remember from 2 years of French class.

Which means nothing. "Poulet" is chicken, but the rest is gibberish.

The English currency system actually originated in France, introduced by Charlemagne in the first century: Livre, Sous and Denier

horst wrote:The English currency system actually originated in France, introduced by Charlemagne in the first century: Livre, Sous and Denier

Ce n'est pas possible!

Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas Day 800.

UROK wrote:Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas Day 800.

Merry Christmas! You get to be king of something that's not holy, or Roman, or even an empire. Yay!

Bet he was stoked.

UROK wrote: I think 'solidi' is the origin of the word 'soldier'. Someone please correct me if I have got that wrong.

I thought it was something you had to be careful of when squeezing out a fart.

Bill Fitzmaurice wrote:Makes one wonder if that other LSD didn't have something to do with the origins of English currency.

According to The Oxford Dictionary;

What is the origin of the pound sign (£)?

This sign is simply a capital letter L, written in an old-fashioned handwriting style and with one or two crossbars to show that it is being used as a symbol or abbreviation. The L stands for the Latin word libra, the name of a Roman unit of weight.

Frederic Gelinas wrote:

WB wrote: Ou A la poulet is all I remember from 2 years of French class.

Which means nothing. "Poulet" is chicken, but the rest is gibberish.

Which probably explains my low grades.

Online translator tells me I should have spelt: Où est le poulet? Something we didn't have in 1977. (The online translator, not the chicken)

UROK wrote:

horst wrote:The English currency system actually originated in France, introduced by Charlemagne in the first century: Livre, Sous and Denier

Ce n'est pas possible!

Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas Day 800.

Right. If it came from France it was brought there by my namesake (whom one of my ancestors accompanied on the trip) in 1066. Now, pourquoi le poulet traverse la rue?

Bill Fitzmaurice wrote: Now, pourquoi le poulet traverse la rue?

pour obtenir de l'autre côté

Tom Smit wrote:

Bill Fitzmaurice wrote: Now, pourquoi le poulet traverse la rue?

pour obtenir de l'autre côté

Nice try though that would translate back to English: "To own the other side". You should say: "Pour se rendre de l'autre côté".

French is much more complicated than metric, and any currency. The original analogy is not valid after all. At least, you can convert inches to mm with accuracy on Google.

Frederic Gelinas wrote:

Tom Smit wrote:

Bill Fitzmaurice wrote: Now, pourquoi le poulet traverse la rue?

pour obtenir de l'autre côté

Nice try though that would translate back to English: "To own the other side". You should say: "Pour se rendre de l'autre côté".

French is much more complicated than metric, and any currency. The original analogy is not valid after all. At least, you can convert inches to mm with accuracy on Google.

I confess that I used Google Translate...so I blame them (not me, haha, cuz I'm lousy at French)

Bill Fitzmaurice wrote:

UROK wrote:

horst wrote:The English currency system actually originated in France, introduced by Charlemagne in the first century: Livre, Sous and Denier

Ce n'est pas possible!

Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas Day 800.

Right. If it came from France it was brought there by my namesake (whom one of my ancestors accompanied on the trip) in 1066. Now, pourquoi le poulet traverse la rue?

millennium, first millennium

Frederic Gelinas wrote:

Tom Smit wrote:

Bill Fitzmaurice wrote: Now, pourquoi le poulet traverse la rue?

pour obtenir de l'autre côté

Nice try though that would translate back to English: "To own the other side". You should say: "Pour se rendre de l'autre côté".

French is much more complicated than metric, and any currency. The original analogy is not valid after all. At least, you can convert inches to mm with accuracy on Google.

Computer software translation? I used one of those once to translate some phrases into Russian. When I translated the Russian back to English I got a totally different phrase. I discovered the only way to be sure it was right was when the phrase would translate in both directions with the same result. Doing so required very simple text. French to English and vis-versa is a pain, the one using Latin grammar rules and the other Germanic. It's worse going between Germanic and Slavic, as even the alphabets are different.

I see what you mean Bill. After Frederic's response, I actually read what I had posted...and realized that "obtenir " looks like "obtain" (Latin root word?), so therefore I should have looked for another possiblilty.