OT: getting stone-d, was Re: [LMB] Miles's exact height?

[Phil Boswell]

On 02/08/06, louann at millerdome.com <louann at millerdome.com> wrote:
> At 09:01 AM 8/2/2006 +0100, Derry Thompson wrote:
> > James at cessnadriver at gmail.com said on Tue, 1 Aug 2006 23:08:25 -0700
> > >Which then begs the question, does anyone regularly give their weight
> > >in stones versus pounds these days? Or do people actually actively ask
> > >for a person's weight in stones?
> > >Or do people do it to be fancy?
> > Using stones is the default in the UK.  I don't think I've ever heard
> > anyone here give their weight in pounds. The younger generation use Kilos :).
> To a native speaker of UK English, is stone the normal method of giving
> any _other_ weight besides human beings? E.g. "I don't think that
> ultra-compact hybrid car weighs over forty stone, I'd be afraid to drive
> it on the M1."

Animals of comparable weight to a human being. Anything from a
reasonably large dog/giant cat up to quite a big pig. Past that we
start talking fractions of a ton...and not a tonne you will note ;-)

> Also is there a minimum age/weight of person below which it would sound
> silly to use stone? E.g. "The baby was growing so fast we were afraid he'd
> be a full stone when he was born," or "That child must be three stone
> already, he's all muscle."

Both of those sound fine, as confirmed with the SOU. Pounds-only is
for less than a whole stone.

HTH HAND
-- 
Phil