Pint

An imperial pint of beer

The pint (abbreviated as "pt" or "p") is a unit of volume or capacity in both the United States customary and imperial measurement systems. The imperial pint (≈ 568 mL) is used in the United Kingdom 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). Each of these pints is one-eighth of the respective gallon; but because of differing definitions of the gallon, the imperial pint is about 20% larger than the US liquid pint. This difference dates back to the British Weights and Measures Act of 1824, which standardised various liquid measures throughout the British Empire; the US measures were unaffected by this and can be traced back to pre-1824 English ones. The imperial pint consists of 20 imperial fluid ounces and the US liquid pint is 16 US fluid ounces, thus making the imperial fluid ounce about 4% 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 in common use in these countries, it may not refer to the imperial pint originally used throughout the Commonwealth. In the United Kingdom, the imperial system is still in use for certain purposes: although metric units are defined as the primary units in some specific circumstances, the pint is still the primary unit for beer, cider and milk. A pint of beer served in a tavern outside of the United Kingdom and the United States may be an imperial pint, a US pint, or something different, depending on local laws and customs.^[1]

Historically, units called a pint (or the equivalent in the local language) were used across much of Europe, with values varying between countries from less than half a litre to over one litre. Within continental Europe, the pint was replaced with the metric system during the 19th century. However, in the United States, the United Kingdom, and various other Commonwealth countries, the unit has continued to be in use. There is also limited use of the term in parts of France, Quebec ("une pinte") and Central Europe, notably some areas in Germany and Switzerland.

Definitions

Imperial pint

The imperial pint is equal to one eighth of an imperial gallon.^[2]

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 1 1⁄4 lb (567 g) of water at 62 °F (16.7 °C)

United States liquid pint

The United States liquid pint is equal to one eighth of a United States liquid gallon.^[2] It is used commonly in the United States.

1 US liquid pint	=	1⁄8	US liquid gallon
	=	1⁄2	US liquid quart
	=	2	US cups
	=	4	US fluid gills
	=	16	US fluid ounces
	=	128	US fluid drams
	=	28.875	cubic inches (exactly)[5]
	=	473.176473	millilitres (exactly)[6] ≈ 473 mL
	≈	0.83267418463	imperial pints
	≈	0.85936700738	US dry pints
	≈	the volume of 1.041 lb (472 g) of water at 62 °F (16.7 °C)

United States dry pint

1 US dry pint	=	1⁄8	US dry gallons
	=	1⁄2	US dry quarts
	=	33.6003125	cubic inches (exactly)
	=	550.6104713575	millilitres (exactly)[6] ≈ 551 mL
	≈	0.96893897192	imperial pints
	≈	1.1636471861	US liquid pints

Other pints

Labeled in English (1 US DRY PINT) and in French (1 CHOPINE SÈCHE US 551 mL) for sale in the US and Canada. The coin has a diameter of 1.04 inches (26 mm).

Blueberries labeled in English (1 US DRY PINT) and French (1 CHOPINE SÈCHE US 551 mL) for sale in the US and Canada.

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 equals 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] 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.^{[citation needed]}

Equivalence

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." In fact, 1 US pint of water weighs 1.04375 pounds. However, the statement does not hold outside of the US because the imperial pint used in Britain and its former colonies weighs 1.25 pounds. A different saying for the imperial pint is "A pint of pure water weighs a pound and a quarter."

History

The pint was defined as one eighth of a gallon. Other versions of the gallon were defined for different commodities, and thus there were equally many versions of the pint.

America adopted the British wine gallon, defined in 1707 as 231 cubic inches exactly (3 × 7 × 11 in) as its basic liquid measure, from which the US wet pint is derived; and the British corn gallon (¹⁄₈ 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 the various 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 current UK pint is derived.

Effects of metrication

In 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, except for the sale of draught beer and cider, and milk in returnable containers.^[9] The pint can still be used in those countries as a supplementary unit in all circumstances. Local legislation in 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. Many recipes published in the UK and Ireland still give ingredient quantities in imperial, where the pint is often used as a unit for larger liquid quantities.^{[citation needed]} The Guild of Food Writers recommends that new recipes be published in metric units.^[10]

The British Virgin Islands^{[citation needed]} also require that beer and cider be sold in pints. Also in Canada water amounts in air purifiers are advertised in pints as well as BTUs ("British thermal units"), see metrication.

In Australia and New Zealand, a subtle change was made to 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 the bottles was unaffected, but the shape was 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. However the "pint glass" in pubs in Australia remains closer to the standard imperial pint, at 570 mL. It holds 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".^{[citation needed]}

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 US pints, quarts, and half-gallons.^[11] Liquor in the US has been sold in metric-sized bottles since 1980 although beer is still sold in US traditional units.^[12]

In France, a standard 250 mL measure of beer is known as un demi ("a half"), originally meaning a half pint.

Etymology

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.^[13]

References and notes

External links

Look up pint in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pint.

• European Commission press release (IP/07/1297, 11 September 2007): Pints and miles will not disappear due to European Commission proposal