The first pronunciation follows a pattern in English whereby SI units are pronounced with the stress on the first syllable (as inkilogram,kilojoule andkilohertz) and the pronunciation of the actual base unit does not change irrespective of the prefix (as incentimetre,millimetre,nanometre and so on). It is generally preferred by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).[citation needed]
Many other users, particularly in countries where SI (the metric system) is not widely used, use the second pronunciation with stress on the second syllable.[2][3] The second pronunciation follows the stress pattern used for the names of measuring instruments (such asmicrometer,barometer,thermometer,tachometer, andspeedometer). The contrast is even more obvious in countries that use the American spelling of the wordmetre. This pronunciation is irregular because it makes the kilometre the only SI unit with the stress on the second syllable.
After Australia introduced the metric system in 1970, the first pronunciation was declared official by the government's Metric Conversion Board. However, the Australian prime minister at the time,Gough Whitlam, insisted that the second pronunciation was the correct one because of the Greek origins of the two parts of the word.[4]
By a decree of 8 May 1790, the FrenchNational Constituent Assembly ordered theFrench Academy of Sciences to develop a new measurement system. In August 1793, the FrenchNational Convention decreed themetre as the sole length measurement system in the French Republic and it was based on1/10 millionth of the distance from theorbital poles (either North or South) to theEquator, this being a truly internationally based unit. The first name of the kilometre was "Millaire".Although the metre was formally defined in 1799, themyriametre (10000 metres) was preferred to the "kilometre" for everyday use. The term "myriamètre" appeared a number of times in the text of Develey's bookPhysique d'Emile: ou, Principes de la science de la nature,[5] (published in 1802), while the termkilometre only appeared in an appendix. French maps published in 1835 had scales showingmyriametres and "lieues de Poste" (Postal leagues of about4288 metres).[6]
The Dutch, on the other hand, adopted the kilometre in 1817 but gave it the local name of themijl.[7] It was only in 1867 that the term "kilometer" became the only official unit of measure in the Netherlands to represent1000 metres.[8]
Two German textbooks dated 1842[9][10] and 1848[11] respectively give a snapshot of the use of the kilometre across Europe: the kilometre was in use in the Netherlands and in Italy, and the myriametre was in use in France.
In 1935, theInternational Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) officially abolished the prefix "myria-" and with it the "myriametre", leaving the kilometre as the recognised unit of length for measurements of that magnitude.[12]
The symbolkm for the kilometre is in lower case and has been standardised by theBIPM.[13][14] A slang term for the kilometre in the US, UK, and Canadian militaries isklick.[15]
Some sporting disciplines feature1000 m (one-kilometre) races in major events (such as theOlympic Games). In some disciplines—although world records are catalogued—one-kilometre events remain a minority.
1 km world records for various sporting disciplines
^Jones, Daniel (2003) [1917], Peter Roach; James Hartmann; Jane Setter (eds.),English Pronouncing Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,ISBN3-12-539683-2
^Jacob de Gelder (1824).Allereerste Gronden der Cijferkunst [Introduction to Numeracy] (in Dutch). 's-Gravenhage and Amsterdam: de Gebroeders van Cleef. pp. 155–156. Retrieved2 March 2011.
^"[News from] Nederland"(PDF).De Locomotief. Nieuws, handels en Advertentie-blad. 12 August 1869. p. 2. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 27 February 2017.
^Ferdinand Malaisé (1842).Theoretisch-practischer Unterricht im Rechnen [Theoretical and practical instruction in arithmetic] (in German). München. pp. 307–322. Retrieved26 March 2011.
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