tare - verb

[Victor Steinbok]

There is another meaning of the combination "tare up" that predates
Whole Foods. When you buy bulk items in plastic containers, the cashier
is supposed to push the "tare" button to deduct the expected weight of
the container to lower the "zero" of the scale (or is "to raise the
zero"?*). To perform this function is to "tare up" the product--or, at
least, it was in the 1980s. The same happens when the containers are
prepackaged, although, in this case, the scale is zeroed out with an
empty container, prior to packaging.

Deli counters also used to subtract the supposed weight of the wrapping
material prior to weighing, but I am not sure this is still done.
Perhaps that's one way for supermarkets to push up the margins.

     VS-)

*: I believe, mathematically, you "raise the zero", in order to get the
"negative weight" of the tare, prior to weighing the product. But, in
practice, the expression might be in reverse.

On 12/27/2011 7:12 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
> Whole Foods has signs saying "tare it up," meaning to weigh your empty containers that you bring from home before filling them up with bulk foods.
>
> Being this is a pun, I don't take it too seriously, but the OED does have this use with citations ranging from 1812 to 1890. Google Books indicates that this has continued in common use up until the present day, at least in technical contexts; perhaps Whole Foods and the green movement will spur this into popular use.
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Seattle, WA

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