Metricate

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To change a system of measurement, such as weights or distances, over to the metric units based on the metre and kilogram
2. To switch a country's or organization's measurements from older units to the decimal metric system
3. Converting measures like length and mass from traditional units into the internationally standard metric scale

Etymology: The verb "metricate" is a simple formation: it is the word "metric" with the verb-forming suffix "-ate" attached, so it means to convert something to the metric system. The suffix itself is old. It descends from Latin "-atus" and the verb ending "-are", which English borrowed in countless words such as "activate" and "estimate", and it is the same ending that turns a noun or adjective into an action, as in "hyphenate" or "chlorinate". The base word has a more recognisable history. "Metric" comes from the French "métrique", tied to the "mètre" (metre), the unit that the French introduced during their revolutionary-era reform of measurement. The metre was defined in terms of the Earth's circumference, and the decimal system built around it gave the whole family of measurement terms its shared "metr-" element.

Synonyms: metricize