gallon, tempo

[Benjamin Barrett]

It's been more than 30 years, now, but I recall my grandmother saying she needed to pick up a little (small?) quart of milk and my brother suggesting a big pint instead. 

Isn't an easier solution to say that measurements can refer to containers, just like contents can (a beer = a bottle of beer)?

I also recall when Matanuska Maid had a production problem around 1978 that resulted in the gallon containers of milk being spoiled right after that size had been introduced. As a result, they pulled the gallon-sized milk from the shelves for quite a while before reintroducing them. My memory isn't good enough to recall, but surely what people said was, "Pick up two half-gallons of milk."

FWIW
Benjamin Barrett
Seattle, WA

Learn Ainu! https://sites.google.com/site/aynuitak1/videos

On Aug 5, 2013, at 12:22 AM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:

> OED has for "gallon":
> 
>> 1. a. An English measure of capacity. The imperial gallon contains
>> 277¼ cubic inches: the winegallon of 231 cubic inches is the standard
>> in the United States.
>> b. As a dry measure for corn, bread, etc.
>> c. fig. A large amount.
>> †2. A vessel for holding liquids (tr. Latin lagena).
>> 3. attrib., as gallon-bottle, gallon-measure, gallon-pot.
> 
> Note, in particular, that 2. is obsolete (with citations only from
> 1382-1459) and 3. involves gallon as an attributive with a modified
> noun, not by itself.
> 
> Admittedly, an expression such "pick up a gallon of milk at the store"
> may sound ambiguous. But what if I contrast this with "pick up two
> half-gallons of milk at the store"? Is each of "gallons" in this case
> referring to the measure or to the respective container holding the
> requisite amount? If a wife sends a husband to the store to pick up a
> gallon of milk, she does not expect him to come back with two
> half-gallon packages instead. But I digress.
> 
> Let me offer a more direct example.
> 
> http://goo.gl/hfBWZl
>> Sources said that a water supply agency near the Machchli Gaon used to
>> supply water to the school. However, villagers noticed that tempos
>> returning from the school after supplying water were carrying gallons
>> full of a liquid.
>> 
>> The villagers on Sunday stopped one such tempo and found that the
>> gallons were full of liquor.
> 
> No ambiguity here--the word "gallon" refers to the container (and,
> ambiguously, to a container of unknown capacity, as all measurements
> otherwise seem to be metric!). AHD4 does have the appropriate definition:
>> 2. A container with a capacity of one gallon.
> 
> However, the reality of it is that the capacity of a "gallon" is only
> approximate--people commonly refer to any container of approximate shape
> and size as a "gallon", where the actual capacity may range from as much
> as three-quarters of a gallon to 1.5L. So you may actually hear a
> reference to a "small gallon" and "large gallon". Nonetheless, the
> origin does not appear to be OED's obsolete 2., but a shortening of 3.
> "gallon container".

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org