The pint (abbreviated as "pt" or "p") is a unit of volume or capacity that was once used across much of Europe with values varying from state to state from less than half a litre to over one litre. Within continental Europe, the pint was replaced with the metric system during the nineteenth century. However, in the United States and various Commonwealth countries the unit has continued to be in use.
The imperial pint (568 mL) is used in Britain and Ireland and to some extent in other Commonwealth nations. There are two customary pints used in the United States: a liquid pint (473 mL) and a less common dry pint (551 mL). This difference dates back to the British Weights and Measures Act of 1824, which standardised the various pints in use at the time to a single imperial pint througout the British Empire. The US pints were unaffected by this and can be traced back to pre-1824 English pints. Each of these pints are defined as one-eighth of the respective gallons but because of differing gallon definitions, the imperial pint is approximately 20% larger than the US liquid pint. However, whereas the imperial pint is divided into 20 fluid ounces, there are 16 US fluid ounces to the US liquid pint making the imperial fluid ounce slightly smaller than the US fluid ounce.
Various Commonwealth countries, such as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, converted to the metric system in the 1960s and 1970s; so while the term "pint" may still be used colloquially in these countries, it may not be the same as the imperial pint originally used throughout the Commonwealth. A "pint" of beer served in a tavern outside Great Britain and the United States may be an imperial pint, a US pint, or something different, depending on local laws and customs.
Contents |
| 1 imperial pint | = | 1⁄8 | imperial gallon |
| = | 1⁄2 | imperial quart | |
| = | 4 | imperial gills | |
| = | 20 | imperial fluid ounces | |
| = | 568.26125 | millilitres (exactly)[3][4] ≈ 568 mL | |
| ≈ | 34.677429099 | cubic inches | |
| ≈ | 1.2009499255 | US liquid pints | |
| ≈ | 1.0320567435 | US dry pints | |
| ≈ | the volume of 11⁄4 lb (567 g) of water at 62 °F (16.7 °C) | ||
| 1 U.S. liquid pint | = | 1⁄8 | U.S. liquid gallon |
| = | 1⁄2 | U.S. liquid quart | |
| = | 2 | U.S. cups | |
| = | 4 | U.S. fluid gills | |
| = | 16 | U.S. fluid ounces | |
| = | 28.875 | cubic inches (exactly)[5] | |
| = | 473.176473 | millilitres (exactly)[6] ≈ 473 mL | |
| ≈ | 0.83267418463 | imperial pints | |
| ≈ | 0.85936700738 | U.S. dry pints | |
| ≈ | the volume of 1.041 lb (472 g) of water at 62 °F (16.7 °C) | ||
| 1 U.S. dry pint | = | 1⁄8 | U.S. dry gallons |
| = | 1⁄2 | U.S. dry quarts | |
| = | 33.6003125 | cubic inches (exactly) | |
| = | 550.6104713575 | millilitres (exactly)[6] ≈ 551 mL | |
| ≈ | 0.96893897192 | imperial pints | |
| ≈ | 1.1636471861 | U.S. liquid pints |
The United States dry pint is equal to one eighth of a United States dry gallon. It is used in the United States but is not as common as the liquid pint.
A now-obsolete unit of measurement in Scotland known as the Scottish pint or joug and equal to three imperial pints. It remained in use until the 19th century, and survived significantly longer than most of the old Scottish measurements.
The French word pinte is etymologically related, but historically described a larger unit. The Royal pint (pinte du roi) was 48 French cubic inches (952.1 ml).[7] but regional pints varied in size depending on locality and on commodity (usually wine or olive oil) varying from 0.95 L to over 2 L.[7] Thus, in French Canada, une pinte refers, by federal law, to the imperial quart whereas the imperial pint is called une chopine[8][9][10][11] Confusingly, in some parts of France and French Canada, une pinte is used to describe a 500 mL glass of beer.
In Flanders, the word pint, pintje, refers only to a 250 mL glass of lager. Some West- and East-Flemish dialects use it as a word for beaker. In the Netherlands, the word pint is used in the phrase pint bier or pintje bier, meaning a 500 mL glass of beer.
One US fluid pint of water weighs approximately one pound (16 ounces), resulting in the popular saying, “The pint’s a pound, the world around.” The saying is incorrect, since 1 US pint weighs 1.04375 pounds, and does not apply the world around, because the imperial pint used in Britain and its former colonies weighs 1.25 pounds. A different, but equally useful saying for the imperial pint is “A pint of pure water weighs a pound and a quarter.”
The volume of one US fluid pint is approximately 29 cubic inches and thus a bit over a cubic palm (27 cubic inches). Hence, with small adjustment, the pint, pound, and palm (PPP) serve as a non-metric example of a set of inter-related units, similar to the milliliter-gram-centimeter, and kiloliter-tonne-meter.
The pint is defined as one eighth of a gallon. Other versions of the gallon were defined for different commodities, and there were equally many versions of the pint.
America adopted the British wine gallon (defined in 1707 as 231 cubic inches exactly (3 in × 7 in × 11 in)) as its basic liquid measure, from which the U.S. wet pint is derived, and the British corn gallon (⅛ of a standard “Winchester” bushel of corn, or 268.8 cubic inches) as its dry measure, from which the US dry pint is derived.
In 1824 the British parliament replaced all its variant gallons with a new imperial gallon based on ten pounds of distilled water at 62 °F (16.667 °C) (277.42 cubic inches), from which the UK pint is derived.
As part of the British and Irish metrication processes, the pint was replaced by metric units as the legally defined primary unit of measure for trading by volume or capacity, apart from for the sale of draught beer and cider and the sale of milk in returnable containers.[12] The pint can still be used in those countries as a supplementary unit in all circumstances. Local legislation in the both the UK and Ireland mandates the use of the pint as a measure for draught beer and cider (in pubs for instance). For milk, if returnable containers are used, the pint can still be the principal unit used, otherwise metric units (usually the non-SI litre) must be used. There is no requirement for the litre quantity to be round numbers; thus the quantity of milk sold in a non-returnable container may be 1 pint, but will have "568 mL 1 pint", or just "568 mL" on the label. Some recipes published in the UK and Ireland still provide ingredient quantities in imperial, where the pint is often used as a unit for larger liquid quantities. The Guild of Food Writers recommends that new recipes are published in metric units.[13]
Kenya and the British Virgin Islands also require that beer and cider be sold in pints.
In Australia and New Zealand, a subtle change was made in 1 pint milk bottles during the conversion from imperial to metric in the 1970s. The height and diameter of the milk bottle remained unchanged, so that existing equipment for handling and storing such bottles was unaffected, but the shape was subtly adjusted to increase the capacity from 568 mL to 600 mL – a conveniently rounded metric measure. Such milk bottles are no longer officially referred to as pints. The pint glass in pubs in Australia (which is so called) remains closer to the standard imperial pint, at 570 mL. A pint of beer in Australia is served in a 570 mL glass with about 500 mL of beer and about 70 mL of froth, except in South Australia where a pint is served in a 425 mL glass and a 570 mL glass is called an imperial pint. In New Zealand, there is no longer any legal requirement for beer to be served in standard measures; in pubs, the largest size of glass, which is referred to as a pint, usually contains 450 mL.
Since metrication, the "pint of beer" served in Canadian pubs and bars has been considered a colloquial term for "a large glass of beer"; however, according to Measurement Canada, vendors advertising a pint should deliver 568.26 mL, however it is not law.[14]
A 375 mL bottle of liquor in the US and the Canadian maritime provinces is sometimes referred to as a “pint” and a 200 mL bottle is called a “half-pint,” harking back to the days when liquor came in actual US pints, quarts, and half-gallons.[15] Liquor in the US has been sold in metric-sized bottles since 1980 although beer is still sold in US traditional units.[16]
In France, a standard 250 mL measure of beer is known as "a half" ("un demi" in French), originally meaning a half pint.
Pint comes from the Old French word pinte and perhaps ultimately from Latin picta meaning "painted", for a line painted on the side of a glass marking a one-pint volume of ale.[17]