One of my beta readers questioned why I used miles instead of kilometers in Heartless. Her question actually floored me; it was something I'd never really thought about. I knew miles to be the unit of measurement used during the Regency but I wasn't sure when kilometers came into use in Britain.
So I decided to look it up. The metric system was created in France in 1790 and adopted by the French government in 1795, though the common people weren't required to use it until 1840. (Strange that they'd be worrying about units of measure in the midst of the French Revolution, but humans ever were odd creatures.) According to Wikipedia, "...the United Kingdom announced its metrication program in 1965..."* This definitely would not allow me to use kilometers in a Regency.
While we're on the subject of words one cannot/should not use in a historical novel, the phrase go to pot, used in the sense that a person has allowed their looks to go to pot, should not be acceptable in a historical novel supposedly taking place in 1165. According to the online etymology dictionary, "phrase go to pot (16c.) suggests cooking."**
(Sorry, bit of a mini rant there.)
While we're on the subject of words one cannot/should not use in a historical novel, the phrase go to pot, used in the sense that a person has allowed their looks to go to pot, should not be acceptable in a historical novel supposedly taking place in 1165. According to the online etymology dictionary, "phrase go to pot (16c.) suggests cooking."**
(Sorry, bit of a mini rant there.)
*For more info on the metric system, check out the article called History of the Metric System at Metric! Metric!; A Brief History of Measurement Systems (PDF located at standards.nasa.gov); Wikipedia article History of the metric system
**History of the word "pot" at Etymonline.com.
**History of the word "pot" at Etymonline.com.
