Pulled from another thread

[JohnW2]

At school, we were served each day with a 'gill of milk', which was 1/4 pint.

Indeed -since that's what a gill was, and always has been.

My uncle used to 'nip to the pub, for a quick gill', which was a 'swift half'.

... but that's wrong!

 

[SUNRAY]

At school, we were served each day with a 'gill of milk', which was 1/4 pint. My uncle used to 'nip to the pub, for a quick gill', which was a 'swift half'.

Our milk was 1/3 of a pint, the metal crates were marked as 1 gallon.

 

[SUNRAY]

Indeed -since that's what a gill was, and always has been.

... but that's wrong!

my Gill is not ¼pint

 

[JohnW2]

my Gill is not ¼pint

Nor is mine (my wife)

 

[JohnW2]

Our milk was 1/3 of a pint, the metal crates were marked as 1 gallon.

I really can't remember much about it, other than I hated it (particularly when warm, after sitting in crates in the playground for ages) and therefore virtually never drank it, but I suspect it may well have been 1/3 (rather than 1/4) of a pint.

 

[SUNRAY]

Nor in mine (my wife)

My Fiancee of 33 years

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

... but that's wrong!

Yes, but that is what he called it

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I really can't remember much about it, other than I hated it (particularly when warm, after sitting in crates in the playground for ages) and therefore virtually never drank it, but I suspect it may well have been 1/3 (rather than 1/4) of a pint.

I don't remember it being too warm, but I do remember it in the winter, being icy cold, sometimes frozen, and having to be melted before it was drinkable.

 

[ebee]

I suppose someone being nearly half his age could mean (in this case) half of 55 being 27.5 so the term "nearly" could be plus or minus some small amount , usually we might expect it to mean less than but who says that it can not mean more than?

 

[ebee]

At school, we were served each day with a 'gill of milk', which was 1/4 pint. My uncle used to 'nip to the pub, for a quick gill', which was a 'swift half'.

Is it a local thing Harry? I have no idea how where and when it came about! What about the word "Couple" it means two but how often is it spoken to mean "About Two" therefore perhaps 2 or 3 or 4 even?