money querie

[evelyn]

when you use the wording �100k and it means 100 thousand pounds. where does the k come from

[wildwood]

I presume it pertains to "kilo" as in kilometer and kilogram meaning thousand.

[Gef]

I agree with wildwood. 10k race = 10000 kilometres etc.

[FredPuli]

Ancient Greek: kilioi mans a thousand. So the prefix kilo- means a thousand of what follows -gram, -metre and so on. It is a suffix here because it looks better to us that way. We always put the � sign first and there is, as yet, no official unit of measurement 'the kilopound' ( k� ). So we have the k standing in for the ' 000'.

[Pinotage]

A bit more to the saga of the K used with a money sum. The K does in fact mean thousand as already said and it came into everyday usage in the late 70's or early 80's as a result of the computer business. Here K means (of course) 1024 but computer people began using computer terms in everyday life and discussed pay as -say 20K. Computer newspapers such as Computer Weekly, Computer Link etc then began advertising jobs using K as shorthand for thousand and from there it gradually moved into mainstream job advertisements.

[Maudlettice]

K = one thousand came in with decimalisation in the early 70's. Prior to that the Roman M = one thousand was used, and had been for centuries. There was a confusing period during the 70's when both M and K were used - K was strongly opposed by some people who thought that it as a nasty bug sent by the French to undermine the English.

[AnnaBa]

I agree with you, Maude.

[AnnaBa]

I agree with you, Maude.

[Janetex]

It must, however, be a lower case k not an upper case K, denoting something enirely different.

[Maudlettice]

I don't think that there would be misunderstanding between �100K and �100k. Similarly, in the old days there was no misunderstanding between �100M and �100m, although the use of an upper or lower case M today would mean million.