The term 'K' as in thousand.

[wildcat45]

People started using the term 'K' in the late 1980s. Or so I thought.

Yuppies in £50k or whatever. By the 1990s I assumed the term was in general use.

I assume the term came from the IT world - Commidire 64 or something.

Now I've had a but of time in my hands today (Manflu so decided to veg) and I caught an episode of Kojak - dating from the mid 1970s I guess looking at the cars. The date ended XXV on the credits. One of the characters used the term 'K' when referring to money. ''I'm sitting on 100K here'

It's clearly not a 1980s term.

Anyone know how long it's been in use it it's origin?

[Mr MXT]

Kilo.

Its latin.

ETA or greek?

Edited by Mr MXT on Wednesday 23 September 15:31

[redddraggon]

Ancient Greek times....


Kilo (from the Greek χίλιοι, literally a thousand)

[Nick Grant]

I would think that Kilo has something to do with it Kilometer, Kilogramme, etc all 1000s

[happygoron]

Since the late 1700s.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilo-

[okgo]

Mr MXT said:

Kilo.

Its latin.

Jesus wept.

Where do you find these people PH!!

[Foliage]

lol

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_prefix

[Mr MXT]

okgo said:

Jesus wept.

Where do you find these people PH!!

F*** off, I was closer than the OP!!

[TheEnd]

1 megatron = 1000 killerwales
1 killerwale = 125 octopi
125 octopi = countless bananos

[wildcat45]

Thanks. Every day a school day.

[boyse7en]

K = kilo we've established for metric units of measurement,

But when did "K" become a verbal shorthand for thousand pounds (or dollars)?

Nobody ever says "oh that weighs 20k" meaning 20kg,
But it does get used for distance – "I ran a 10k on Sunday"

[98elise]

boyse7en said:

K = kilo we've established for metric units of measurement,

But when did "K" become a verbal shorthand for thousand pounds (or dollars)?

Nobody ever says "oh that weighs 20k" meaning 20kg,
But it does get used for distance – "I ran a 10k on Sunday"

Its not just shorthand for pounds though is it?

You've already given an example for distance, and there are other examples (like computer memory). When you know the context you don't need to be explicit about the units, the k is fine for 1000.

[DIW35]

boyse7en said:

K = kilo we've established for metric units of measurement,

But when did "K" become a verbal shorthand for thousand pounds (or dollars)?

Nobody ever says "oh that weighs 20k" meaning 20kg,
But it does get used for distance – "I ran a 10k on Sunday"

As has already been stated, k in it's shorthand form is used to denote a thousand, so when someone says they earn 100k a year, you know they mean £100,000 (or dollars or whatever, depending on country). I guess one reason it is not used when referring to weight, is that you haven't established a base. If I said something weighs 2k, you might think I mean 2kg, but I could in fact mean 2,000 tons (or pounds, or ounces). Yes I know it would make more sense to use it when referring to grams, but grams are not used exclusively as a measure of weight.

[sunnydude]

I find Indian orders of magnitude more confusing;

10^5 (one hundred thousand) = 1 Lakh
10^7 (10 million) = 1 Crore
10^9 (1 billion) = 1 Arab

But seeing as the INR/GBP exchange rate is approximately 1 rupee per GBP penny, it actually works out quite nicely; 1 Lakh Rupees is £1,000 and 1 Crore Rupees is £100,000

[Doofus]

wildcat45 said:

People started using the term 'K' in the late 1980s. Or so I thought.

Yuppies in £50k or whatever. By the 1990s I assumed the term was in general use.

I assume the term came from the IT world - Commidire 64 or something.

Now I've had a but of time in my hands today (Manflu so decided to veg) and I caught an episode of Kojak - dating from the mid 1970s I guess looking at the cars. The date ended XXV on the credits. One of the characters used the term 'K' when referring to money. ''I'm sitting on 100K here'

It's clearly not a 1980s term.

Anyone know how long it's been in use it it's origin?

fk me.

[robemcdonald]

Doofus said:

wildcat45 said:

People started using the term 'K' in the late 1980s. Or so I thought.

Yuppies in £50k or whatever. By the 1990s I assumed the term was in general use.

I assume the term came from the IT world - Commidire 64 or something.

Now I've had a but of time in my hands today (Manflu so decided to veg) and I caught an episode of Kojak - dating from the mid 1970s I guess looking at the cars. The date ended XXV on the credits. One of the characters used the term 'K' when referring to money. ''I'm sitting on 100K here'

It's clearly not a 1980s term.

Anyone know how long it's been in use it it's origin?

fk me.

Not while there's dogs on the streets.

Greek, Latin. It's all French to me.

[okgo]

wildcat45 said:

Thanks. Every day a school day.

Just use google next time, would save you some face

[wildcat45]

So when, why and how did the term get into general use?

I imagine if you went back to the 1950s for example and told someone you were paying 2K for a house of whatever, they'd not have a clue what you meant.

[daddy cool]

[groucho]

boyse7en said:

K = kilo we've established for metric units of measurement,

But when did "K" become a verbal shorthand for thousand pounds (or dollars)?

Nobody ever says "oh that weighs 20k" meaning 20kg,
But it does get used for distance – "I ran a 10k on Sunday"

We used to use k for kilos when in the gym.