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Metric version of “footage”?


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1















I'm in the US, and it would be common at my workplace to refer to the linear measurement numbers stamped on a cable as "footage". For example, "what was the footage of the cable where you spliced it?"



I'm now working an a system that will record some of these measurements on cables. But I'm having a hard time calling it "footage" because in the context, it would be very easy (possibly even likely) in the future for the unit of measure to be meters. And while the system itself could display the in feet or meters based on user preference, it is likely to store meters in its database, which will also require a name for the data field.



"footage" from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition:



 n. Length, extent, or amount based on measurement in feet.


What would the word be if the "in feet" part of that definition became "in meters" or just went away entirely? Is there a generic word for this regardless of the unit of measure? Or is there a metric system version of "footage"? Or is it normal in places that use the metric system regularly to say "footage" even when the unit of measure is meters? What would someone in Britain say (where they once used feet but now presumably use meters)?



I'd like something short, one word would be preferable.










share|improve this question









New contributor



Azendale is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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    1















    I'm in the US, and it would be common at my workplace to refer to the linear measurement numbers stamped on a cable as "footage". For example, "what was the footage of the cable where you spliced it?"



    I'm now working an a system that will record some of these measurements on cables. But I'm having a hard time calling it "footage" because in the context, it would be very easy (possibly even likely) in the future for the unit of measure to be meters. And while the system itself could display the in feet or meters based on user preference, it is likely to store meters in its database, which will also require a name for the data field.



    "footage" from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition:



     n. Length, extent, or amount based on measurement in feet.


    What would the word be if the "in feet" part of that definition became "in meters" or just went away entirely? Is there a generic word for this regardless of the unit of measure? Or is there a metric system version of "footage"? Or is it normal in places that use the metric system regularly to say "footage" even when the unit of measure is meters? What would someone in Britain say (where they once used feet but now presumably use meters)?



    I'd like something short, one word would be preferable.










    share|improve this question









    New contributor



    Azendale is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
    Check out our Code of Conduct.






















      1












      1








      1








      I'm in the US, and it would be common at my workplace to refer to the linear measurement numbers stamped on a cable as "footage". For example, "what was the footage of the cable where you spliced it?"



      I'm now working an a system that will record some of these measurements on cables. But I'm having a hard time calling it "footage" because in the context, it would be very easy (possibly even likely) in the future for the unit of measure to be meters. And while the system itself could display the in feet or meters based on user preference, it is likely to store meters in its database, which will also require a name for the data field.



      "footage" from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition:



       n. Length, extent, or amount based on measurement in feet.


      What would the word be if the "in feet" part of that definition became "in meters" or just went away entirely? Is there a generic word for this regardless of the unit of measure? Or is there a metric system version of "footage"? Or is it normal in places that use the metric system regularly to say "footage" even when the unit of measure is meters? What would someone in Britain say (where they once used feet but now presumably use meters)?



      I'd like something short, one word would be preferable.










      share|improve this question









      New contributor



      Azendale is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.











      I'm in the US, and it would be common at my workplace to refer to the linear measurement numbers stamped on a cable as "footage". For example, "what was the footage of the cable where you spliced it?"



      I'm now working an a system that will record some of these measurements on cables. But I'm having a hard time calling it "footage" because in the context, it would be very easy (possibly even likely) in the future for the unit of measure to be meters. And while the system itself could display the in feet or meters based on user preference, it is likely to store meters in its database, which will also require a name for the data field.



      "footage" from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition:



       n. Length, extent, or amount based on measurement in feet.


      What would the word be if the "in feet" part of that definition became "in meters" or just went away entirely? Is there a generic word for this regardless of the unit of measure? Or is there a metric system version of "footage"? Or is it normal in places that use the metric system regularly to say "footage" even when the unit of measure is meters? What would someone in Britain say (where they once used feet but now presumably use meters)?



      I'd like something short, one word would be preferable.







      synonyms






      share|improve this question









      New contributor



      Azendale is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.










      share|improve this question









      New contributor



      Azendale is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.








      share|improve this question




      share|improve this question








      edited 7 hours ago







      Azendale













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      asked 8 hours ago









      AzendaleAzendale

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      Check out our Code of Conduct.
























          2 Answers
          2






          active

          oldest

          votes


















          2














          You can't use "meterage" as this has a different meaning, the act of measuring. See Colins Dictionary. So I think you would have to record it as "The length in meters" to avoid possible confusion in situations where both imperial and metric units might be used. It's far safer to do so as there have been several recorded accidents, failures and near accidents where one unit was interpreted as the other.

          There is no metric equivalent to the word footage that I, as an engineer and native BrE speaker, have ever heard.






          share|improve this answer
























          • I was hoping for something shorter. Being a database field name as the_length_in_meters is a bit unwieldy. Maybe I need to make my own word. At least for the internals of the system. meetage or mootage? I appreciate the BrE perspective.

            – Azendale
            7 hours ago






          • 2





            @Azendale For a database field, you could call it susan (or meetage, or mootage) and it would still work. What's wrong with footage -- as long as you know what the units are, why does it matter? This is why naming is off-topic. Your question as it stands is on-topic: thank you for that.

            – Andrew Leach
            7 hours ago











          • @Azendale A field name could be called LEN_MTR it doesn't have to be a valid word, but it's highly desireable that it somehow represents the contents.

            – Peter Jennings
            5 hours ago











          • ‘Meterage’ would work perfectly well. OED gives ‘Action of measuring a quantity of goods, or commodity. Also: the quantity recorded by such measuring..’. Much the same as ‘measurement’ can be the act or the outcome.

            – Spagirl
            4 hours ago











          • @Azendale, displaying it to a user or customer, as an engineer I'd use something like "length (m)". How you represent this in your database column names doesn't have to be visible to anybody but the programmers and DBAs.

            – The Photon
            2 hours ago



















          2














          The answer is in your question: 'length'. No value is added by introducing the unit of measurement into the concept. But in the UK we inconsistently still talk about 'mileage' driven in our cars whilst measuring our carpets in metres.






          share|improve this answer
























          • Even more inconsistently we buy fuel in litres, measure distance travelled in miles and vehicle fuel consumption in miles per gallon involving a conversion between litres and gallons before we can work out our fuel consumption. No wonder people think metrication is difficult.

            – BoldBen
            1 hour ago














          Your Answer








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          2 Answers
          2






          active

          oldest

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          2 Answers
          2






          active

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          active

          oldest

          votes






          active

          oldest

          votes









          2














          You can't use "meterage" as this has a different meaning, the act of measuring. See Colins Dictionary. So I think you would have to record it as "The length in meters" to avoid possible confusion in situations where both imperial and metric units might be used. It's far safer to do so as there have been several recorded accidents, failures and near accidents where one unit was interpreted as the other.

          There is no metric equivalent to the word footage that I, as an engineer and native BrE speaker, have ever heard.






          share|improve this answer
























          • I was hoping for something shorter. Being a database field name as the_length_in_meters is a bit unwieldy. Maybe I need to make my own word. At least for the internals of the system. meetage or mootage? I appreciate the BrE perspective.

            – Azendale
            7 hours ago






          • 2





            @Azendale For a database field, you could call it susan (or meetage, or mootage) and it would still work. What's wrong with footage -- as long as you know what the units are, why does it matter? This is why naming is off-topic. Your question as it stands is on-topic: thank you for that.

            – Andrew Leach
            7 hours ago











          • @Azendale A field name could be called LEN_MTR it doesn't have to be a valid word, but it's highly desireable that it somehow represents the contents.

            – Peter Jennings
            5 hours ago











          • ‘Meterage’ would work perfectly well. OED gives ‘Action of measuring a quantity of goods, or commodity. Also: the quantity recorded by such measuring..’. Much the same as ‘measurement’ can be the act or the outcome.

            – Spagirl
            4 hours ago











          • @Azendale, displaying it to a user or customer, as an engineer I'd use something like "length (m)". How you represent this in your database column names doesn't have to be visible to anybody but the programmers and DBAs.

            – The Photon
            2 hours ago
















          2














          You can't use "meterage" as this has a different meaning, the act of measuring. See Colins Dictionary. So I think you would have to record it as "The length in meters" to avoid possible confusion in situations where both imperial and metric units might be used. It's far safer to do so as there have been several recorded accidents, failures and near accidents where one unit was interpreted as the other.

          There is no metric equivalent to the word footage that I, as an engineer and native BrE speaker, have ever heard.






          share|improve this answer
























          • I was hoping for something shorter. Being a database field name as the_length_in_meters is a bit unwieldy. Maybe I need to make my own word. At least for the internals of the system. meetage or mootage? I appreciate the BrE perspective.

            – Azendale
            7 hours ago






          • 2





            @Azendale For a database field, you could call it susan (or meetage, or mootage) and it would still work. What's wrong with footage -- as long as you know what the units are, why does it matter? This is why naming is off-topic. Your question as it stands is on-topic: thank you for that.

            – Andrew Leach
            7 hours ago











          • @Azendale A field name could be called LEN_MTR it doesn't have to be a valid word, but it's highly desireable that it somehow represents the contents.

            – Peter Jennings
            5 hours ago











          • ‘Meterage’ would work perfectly well. OED gives ‘Action of measuring a quantity of goods, or commodity. Also: the quantity recorded by such measuring..’. Much the same as ‘measurement’ can be the act or the outcome.

            – Spagirl
            4 hours ago











          • @Azendale, displaying it to a user or customer, as an engineer I'd use something like "length (m)". How you represent this in your database column names doesn't have to be visible to anybody but the programmers and DBAs.

            – The Photon
            2 hours ago














          2












          2








          2







          You can't use "meterage" as this has a different meaning, the act of measuring. See Colins Dictionary. So I think you would have to record it as "The length in meters" to avoid possible confusion in situations where both imperial and metric units might be used. It's far safer to do so as there have been several recorded accidents, failures and near accidents where one unit was interpreted as the other.

          There is no metric equivalent to the word footage that I, as an engineer and native BrE speaker, have ever heard.






          share|improve this answer













          You can't use "meterage" as this has a different meaning, the act of measuring. See Colins Dictionary. So I think you would have to record it as "The length in meters" to avoid possible confusion in situations where both imperial and metric units might be used. It's far safer to do so as there have been several recorded accidents, failures and near accidents where one unit was interpreted as the other.

          There is no metric equivalent to the word footage that I, as an engineer and native BrE speaker, have ever heard.







          share|improve this answer












          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer










          answered 8 hours ago









          Peter JenningsPeter Jennings

          6752 silver badges13 bronze badges




          6752 silver badges13 bronze badges













          • I was hoping for something shorter. Being a database field name as the_length_in_meters is a bit unwieldy. Maybe I need to make my own word. At least for the internals of the system. meetage or mootage? I appreciate the BrE perspective.

            – Azendale
            7 hours ago






          • 2





            @Azendale For a database field, you could call it susan (or meetage, or mootage) and it would still work. What's wrong with footage -- as long as you know what the units are, why does it matter? This is why naming is off-topic. Your question as it stands is on-topic: thank you for that.

            – Andrew Leach
            7 hours ago











          • @Azendale A field name could be called LEN_MTR it doesn't have to be a valid word, but it's highly desireable that it somehow represents the contents.

            – Peter Jennings
            5 hours ago











          • ‘Meterage’ would work perfectly well. OED gives ‘Action of measuring a quantity of goods, or commodity. Also: the quantity recorded by such measuring..’. Much the same as ‘measurement’ can be the act or the outcome.

            – Spagirl
            4 hours ago











          • @Azendale, displaying it to a user or customer, as an engineer I'd use something like "length (m)". How you represent this in your database column names doesn't have to be visible to anybody but the programmers and DBAs.

            – The Photon
            2 hours ago



















          • I was hoping for something shorter. Being a database field name as the_length_in_meters is a bit unwieldy. Maybe I need to make my own word. At least for the internals of the system. meetage or mootage? I appreciate the BrE perspective.

            – Azendale
            7 hours ago






          • 2





            @Azendale For a database field, you could call it susan (or meetage, or mootage) and it would still work. What's wrong with footage -- as long as you know what the units are, why does it matter? This is why naming is off-topic. Your question as it stands is on-topic: thank you for that.

            – Andrew Leach
            7 hours ago











          • @Azendale A field name could be called LEN_MTR it doesn't have to be a valid word, but it's highly desireable that it somehow represents the contents.

            – Peter Jennings
            5 hours ago











          • ‘Meterage’ would work perfectly well. OED gives ‘Action of measuring a quantity of goods, or commodity. Also: the quantity recorded by such measuring..’. Much the same as ‘measurement’ can be the act or the outcome.

            – Spagirl
            4 hours ago











          • @Azendale, displaying it to a user or customer, as an engineer I'd use something like "length (m)". How you represent this in your database column names doesn't have to be visible to anybody but the programmers and DBAs.

            – The Photon
            2 hours ago

















          I was hoping for something shorter. Being a database field name as the_length_in_meters is a bit unwieldy. Maybe I need to make my own word. At least for the internals of the system. meetage or mootage? I appreciate the BrE perspective.

          – Azendale
          7 hours ago





          I was hoping for something shorter. Being a database field name as the_length_in_meters is a bit unwieldy. Maybe I need to make my own word. At least for the internals of the system. meetage or mootage? I appreciate the BrE perspective.

          – Azendale
          7 hours ago




          2




          2





          @Azendale For a database field, you could call it susan (or meetage, or mootage) and it would still work. What's wrong with footage -- as long as you know what the units are, why does it matter? This is why naming is off-topic. Your question as it stands is on-topic: thank you for that.

          – Andrew Leach
          7 hours ago





          @Azendale For a database field, you could call it susan (or meetage, or mootage) and it would still work. What's wrong with footage -- as long as you know what the units are, why does it matter? This is why naming is off-topic. Your question as it stands is on-topic: thank you for that.

          – Andrew Leach
          7 hours ago













          @Azendale A field name could be called LEN_MTR it doesn't have to be a valid word, but it's highly desireable that it somehow represents the contents.

          – Peter Jennings
          5 hours ago





          @Azendale A field name could be called LEN_MTR it doesn't have to be a valid word, but it's highly desireable that it somehow represents the contents.

          – Peter Jennings
          5 hours ago













          ‘Meterage’ would work perfectly well. OED gives ‘Action of measuring a quantity of goods, or commodity. Also: the quantity recorded by such measuring..’. Much the same as ‘measurement’ can be the act or the outcome.

          – Spagirl
          4 hours ago





          ‘Meterage’ would work perfectly well. OED gives ‘Action of measuring a quantity of goods, or commodity. Also: the quantity recorded by such measuring..’. Much the same as ‘measurement’ can be the act or the outcome.

          – Spagirl
          4 hours ago













          @Azendale, displaying it to a user or customer, as an engineer I'd use something like "length (m)". How you represent this in your database column names doesn't have to be visible to anybody but the programmers and DBAs.

          – The Photon
          2 hours ago





          @Azendale, displaying it to a user or customer, as an engineer I'd use something like "length (m)". How you represent this in your database column names doesn't have to be visible to anybody but the programmers and DBAs.

          – The Photon
          2 hours ago













          2














          The answer is in your question: 'length'. No value is added by introducing the unit of measurement into the concept. But in the UK we inconsistently still talk about 'mileage' driven in our cars whilst measuring our carpets in metres.






          share|improve this answer
























          • Even more inconsistently we buy fuel in litres, measure distance travelled in miles and vehicle fuel consumption in miles per gallon involving a conversion between litres and gallons before we can work out our fuel consumption. No wonder people think metrication is difficult.

            – BoldBen
            1 hour ago
















          2














          The answer is in your question: 'length'. No value is added by introducing the unit of measurement into the concept. But in the UK we inconsistently still talk about 'mileage' driven in our cars whilst measuring our carpets in metres.






          share|improve this answer
























          • Even more inconsistently we buy fuel in litres, measure distance travelled in miles and vehicle fuel consumption in miles per gallon involving a conversion between litres and gallons before we can work out our fuel consumption. No wonder people think metrication is difficult.

            – BoldBen
            1 hour ago














          2












          2








          2







          The answer is in your question: 'length'. No value is added by introducing the unit of measurement into the concept. But in the UK we inconsistently still talk about 'mileage' driven in our cars whilst measuring our carpets in metres.






          share|improve this answer













          The answer is in your question: 'length'. No value is added by introducing the unit of measurement into the concept. But in the UK we inconsistently still talk about 'mileage' driven in our cars whilst measuring our carpets in metres.







          share|improve this answer












          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer










          answered 2 hours ago









          JeremyCJeremyC

          3,0894 silver badges14 bronze badges




          3,0894 silver badges14 bronze badges













          • Even more inconsistently we buy fuel in litres, measure distance travelled in miles and vehicle fuel consumption in miles per gallon involving a conversion between litres and gallons before we can work out our fuel consumption. No wonder people think metrication is difficult.

            – BoldBen
            1 hour ago



















          • Even more inconsistently we buy fuel in litres, measure distance travelled in miles and vehicle fuel consumption in miles per gallon involving a conversion between litres and gallons before we can work out our fuel consumption. No wonder people think metrication is difficult.

            – BoldBen
            1 hour ago

















          Even more inconsistently we buy fuel in litres, measure distance travelled in miles and vehicle fuel consumption in miles per gallon involving a conversion between litres and gallons before we can work out our fuel consumption. No wonder people think metrication is difficult.

          – BoldBen
          1 hour ago





          Even more inconsistently we buy fuel in litres, measure distance travelled in miles and vehicle fuel consumption in miles per gallon involving a conversion between litres and gallons before we can work out our fuel consumption. No wonder people think metrication is difficult.

          – BoldBen
          1 hour ago










          Azendale is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.










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