I’m an American. Native speaker. Do countries that use the metric system have their own word for milestone or is it not an American-specific word?

In turkish it's literally kilometerstone

The term predates the kilometre.

Milestone is actually from the Roman mile, where they marked each mile on the road by a stone

I use milestone here in Singapore. Do note that the Brits formalised the imperial system, so imperial units show up in the English language fairly often.

Australian- Milestone, but only metaphorically. In terms of how far to a place, that's just signs.

Australian here: we tend to use imperial measures in metaphorical ways. Call it a linguistic holdover. Milestones are fine. Also sayings like missed it by a mile, inches from disaster, thousand yard stare etc. I'll be interested to see what non-English speaking people say.

Thanks to the Imperial system being the original, it's in use in old words pretty much everywhere as far as I'm aware, heck, a lot of phrases still use inches and miles thanks to the fact they're way easier to say due to the few hundred years the words had to naturally develop, for example, you wouldn't say "walk a kilometer in his shoes" you'd be far more inclined to use "a mile in his shoes".

The imperial system is older than the metric system, although a Roman mile was 1,5 kilometers and not 1,6andsomething kilometers. So the imperial system had some changes too. However, the metric system was introduced to make it easier and unite different measurements of the imperial system. Milestones, however, are a lot older than the metric system, and are therefore called milestones in a lot of Germanic, Roman/Latin languages (dunno about the rest). The name just stuck. Also, since they are so old, calling them Kilometerstones wouldn't be correct, as the distance between two stones isn't a kilometer, but 1,5 kilometers (which was considered a mile in the old Roman Empire). But there are Kilometerstones, mainly all the stones that got installed after the metric system was implemented. We still call them milestones, because it's a well-known and used word, and most of us don't care if the distance covers a mile or a kilometer

In Vietnamese a milestone is called a "number post". This word is in turn used coloquially to refer to a kilometer.

The word milestone has existed longer than an independent USA, and longer than the Metric system. We did not get rid of every reference to miles/inches/etc when we changed measurement system, and at least in the UK most people are pretty familiar with the Imperial system and prefer it for certain applications despite using metric generally.

It is not uncommon in some metric countries to still default to imperial solely for the height of people. So while we describe and measure everything else in metric units, in spoken English it is very common to hear people still described in feet and inches. And yes, we use all the common imperial idioms and metaphors.

Not American specific. In Poland we say kamień milowy

Does any country that has English as an official language or widely used second language not have words like *mile, inch, foot,* and *yard* in their vocabulary? Actual milestones are few and far between (excuse the pun), but the language has many expressions like "give him an inch and he'll take a yard."

In Australia we still use a lot of words from "the old system", but probably not the same way Americans would. Milestone is used for a significant point in a process. People still say miles and inches, but they mean "several km" and "a few cm" respectively. So I'd say things like "He lives miles away" or "the bullet missed by inches". But I really only have a vague idea of what miles and inches are. On hot days in the high 30s, the forecaster might say things like "That's over 100 degrees in the old scale" to make it more dramatic. Just on a personal note, I have taken vacations in the US half a dozen times and I love everyone using the old system - it feels so old-timey and quaint. On the other hand I struggle to work out how long it's going to take to drive somewhere based on the distances on signs, and the temps on the weather forecast literally mean nothing to me.

I think it's just a common expression at this point. You won't hear anyone saying 'I won't touch this with a 3.048-meter pole'.

Had no idea till now that milestone comes from stones marking a mile. It’s literally an abstract business concept to me. So… no, a metric alternative to that would be pointless.

I mean, even in the US, milestone isn’t normally used to denote objects that signify miles. Usually an object that does that would be called a mile marker or reference marker, and milestone is relegated to abstract purposes.

It's not American-specific, and it pre-dates the metric system.

Am Australian. From now on I’m going to use kilometrestone.

Australian, things like walking for miles, milestone, moving something a few inches, or a gallon of something are used but as general terms with no actual measurement associated. For example a gallon of paint would be used to describe a large container of paint, not a litteral gallon.

Had no idea till now that milestone comes from stones marking a mile

In German both Meilenstein and Kilometerstein exist, the latter referring only to litteral signs you put on a highway to mark what kilometer of that highway you are at, the former still being in use in a figurative sense of having something that shows your progress in something or something you aspire to as a step along the way to a bigger objective. But as others have pointed out: the concept of a milestone is very common in European languages with them being an invention of the Romans.

lol

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And kilometers to go before I sleep,

In Britain, they use miles. So it could be just an english speaking idea.

In Polish it's called kamień milowy where kamień=stone and milowy=of mile(adj.), but I don't know its etymology

Even in Germany we use the Meilenstein, even though we've been metric since the 1870s... The French do not refer to the mile, though.

In England, we still use the word, and we still have many examples of the physical mile stones at the side of roads. We used imperial measures for a long, long time before we went metric, and still show miles on our road signs. I suspect the use of American productivity software will keep the word alive for a long time in the global consciousness.

In France there’s a card game called *Mille Bornes* which is translated into English as “a thousand milestones”. In this case *mille* means a thousand (the English word *mile* is derived from the same, since a mile is roughly 1000 paces) so i guess a *borne* is a kind of milestone? Otherwise if you google translate there is *jalon* or *compteur kilométrique* as options

In Swedish we have ”milsten” (”mile stone”) and ”milstolpe” (”mile pole”) referring to the same thing. They were established in 1649 and used the old Swedish mile, which was about 18 000 ”alnar” (equivalent to ca 10 688 meters). They were ”decommissioned” in 1891 when the Swedish mile was changed into 1 mil = 10 km.

No I think it’s pretty common the world over as a general name for “accomplishment” or “metric for grading progress to accomplishment” Nothing will ever be as dumb as ft/lbs though. Units are chaotic and often don’t make much sense. This isn’t even specific to imperial, sometimes units just like collapse in on themsleves into “what does this even mean”. This is especially true in chem.

In Ukrainian, it's a віха (vikha) - a wooden stick with a віхоть (vikhot) - bundle of straw, hay, weed, or a cloth on top - to mark a distance or area, as a marking pole, a ranging pole. Outside of some very specific professional fields (navigation, geodesy) it lost its original meaning as a marking device, and is used figuratively the same way as a milestone - a significant stage or event in the development of something.

People in countries that speak Germanic languages still generally use pre-metric words with that meaning: *Meilenstein* in German, *mijlpaal* in Dutch, *milepæl* in Danish, *milstolpe* in Swedish, etc.

In Hungary, its used when a certain goal was reached/needed to be reached. Usually busniess or pr related slang. Some people like using it, but we have our own word for it. So its just one of the english words that get slipped in with the western media and get adapted in the language. The word itself was literally translated btw. "Mérföldkő - Milestone"

In French it’s “borne kilométrique”. Unfortunately I have no idea what they said before moving to metric… maybe just “borne”.

We still use miles for phrases like "milestone", "walk a mile in their shoes", "miles and miles away", and inches for a dude's... measurement, your height, inch worms, inching along, giving an inch and taking a mile. The kilometres are only used for math and actually measuring things. Metric just doesn't hit the same way in terms of vibes and language.

To all potential English speakers I would just block this man 😂

Ingrained in many languages since Roman times. In Dutch it's "mijlpaal" i.e a mile pole. In German it's "Meilenstein", i.e. a milestone.

There's many sayings referring to the imperial system that's still used in metric countries like: "Every inch of my body" "He won by a mile"

>Do countries that use the metric system have their own word for milestone or is it not an American-specific word? No, it is not an "America-specific" word. Very few words are. The US is not the only country to have ever used miles, therefore it's not the only country to have ever used milestones. The English language is not American.

As far as I’m aware, the entire Anglosphere *used* to use imperial units, and these kinds of terms generally persist.

Yes. Idiomatic phrases still use the imperial system, "give him a inch and he'll take a mile", "you're miles wrong" "I can see for miles" Also people's height is often still measured in feet, the difference between being 1.80m and 1.82m is nothing really, but the gap between 5 11 and 6ft is vast

In Norway we say milepæl. 10km = 1 mil

Meilenstein is used in German, too, btw. The word "mile" is common in a lot of European languages, and is used simply to mean a long distance. Everyone else has already explained why (the Romans), I just thought this might add additional interesting context.

In Dutch it's "mijlpaal" (mile pole) and it's a relic of the past. Just like how people still say they hang up the phone even though we don't physically hang them up anymore

Words like this have been divorced from their origin. So a milestone was literally a stone every mile of road, it’s now been co-opted to mean a significant part of a ‘journey’. I’m sure there are plenty of other words like ‘inching’ for moving in small increments.

In the UK we have physical milestones dotted around the country. It has been a term for centuries.

We say 'mijlpaal' in Dutch, one of the last uses we still have for the word Mile.

We have a similar word in Estonian language. It's VERSTAPOST - "a roadside post, pole or stone to mark the distance of one 'verst' ". Verst is an old Russian unit of distance, 1.1 km or 0.66 miles. The meaning is about the same as "milestone" in English. So yes, the word exists not only in other versions of English, but also in other languages. The same word in Finnish would be "virstanpylväs". In our case is is referencing an archaic unit which is similar to "mile" but lacks the Roman form of the word.

In French it’s borne and can definitely be used to describe a figurative milestone.

The Americans brought the miles from Europe like everything and never replaced the awkward system. Other European countries use the word milestone for historic reasons.

In Australia some states still have milestones that date back to colonial times, but the word is now used only, in general conversation,  as a  metaphor for any significant life moment (such  as finishing a degree  18th birthday).  Obviously is someone points out a milestone on the edge of the road we'd still use that word to describe it.  For road distance we no longer have regular markers and instead have roadsigns at road junctions or perhaps every 50kms on long country roads.  So 'kilometrestones' isn't ever going to be a thing, we might refer just to distance signs or markers.

In German a milestone is **Meilenstein** (literally mile + stone). Also **Fanmeile** (Fan + Mile) which is a gathering place for fans during/after a game; I cannot think of an English word for this.

It's Meilenstein in German.

It’s a British word, in use since Roman times

Wait what milestone is a unit of measurement????? What the heck is the amount?

In Czech language, both exists and are used in different contexts: * **milník** as a metaphorical term (and occasionally a real historical milestone from \~18th century) * **kilometrovník** as a pole (usually plastic or metal, sometimes stone) at the side of a road or a railway track; it is almost never used in the common speech and the work **patník** is used instead (although officially it means "jostle stone" and maybe "bollard") All the metaphorical uses of old pre-metric measurements are still valid, like in all other langauges mentioned in other comments. Newer metaphores just use metric measurements.

Imperial units are from the British Empire. Milestone as a term predates the founding fathers by a few decades, and comes from Britain. Its well integrated into the English language and is among many archaic terms that are no longer literal bit have become figurative. For example: you still "hang up" the phone even though cell phones aren't hung off the wall.

Pietra miliare it's the italian term for milestone, but unlike English it indicates those signs alo g the road that indicates how far away you are from the nearest city (or from Rome). The English milestone, as a key step in a development is more likely to be "tappa" (stage).

The metric system is pretty recent. So naturally you’ll find lots of words that predate it. There’s no need to update these to metric versions, in fact many people won’t even think about why they are the way they are. It’s similar to the design concept of the [skeuomorph](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorph) Why does the Save icon on your laptop look like an obsolete magnetic data storage disc? Same reason a metric-using English speaker can talk about milestones in a business presentation. Or churn, in investing, or having a wild thatch of hair, or going the whole nine yards, or whatever.

No. The word milestone comes from the Roman empires use of stones every thousand paces (milia passus) to mark the roads. The Roman mile is where the word for the modern measurement derives from. The word milestone and its international synonyms (e.g. in German Meilenstein) are significantly older than the introduction of the meter.

Mile has a very old history outside of the US, at least as far as Roman times. It's still used in the UK for road distances and speed limits. Elsewhere it survived in certain expressions such as the famous Italian road race the *Mille Miglia.* I.e. one thousand miles. So, yes milestone is used wherever English is spoken and in many languages it exists in more or less direct translation e.g. Dutch or Italian. It's also worth noting that since the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 the metric system is the, "preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce". It's also the fact that the imperial measures in use in the US are defined in relation to SI units so they rely on the metric system as well.

I think I’m just troubled by the “American. Native speaker” part, as if American is its own language.

Duh, that word is "OnePointSixKilometersStone"

In Swedish we have the word milestone (milsten), but more commonly used is milepost (milstolpe). And while a mile with the English pronounciation refers to the imperial unit, the Scandinavian mil (pronounced like meal) is today equal to 10km.

Nobody uses metric terms for poetic use or colloquial sayings.

We say kilometre

Yeah, like instead of saying a "pinch" of salt we also a "pcentimeter" of salt

I wonder if the OP was referring to calques, like literal loanwords, skyscraper for example, in other languages is literally the other languages' words for sky and scrape. Is milestone used in that sense?

by the way https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Conversion_Act the metric system is the preferred system even in america homie

In dutch they say mijlpaal wich translates to milepole. But its used the same way. And references a mile.

Is interesting that in all the connected that I read, not all of course, none refer to them as achievements. Nowadays, the term is more generally used for that than for distances. In that case, it doesn't have a straight translation to Spanish.

Milestones were in use, and stopped being used, long before kilometers were invented.

Milles Bornes!

My son tried to give our copy of Milles Borne to the thrift store. Nooooooooooo!

Milestone comes from the Romans, not America.

There is/was an English mile, a Danish mile, a Swedish mile and so on. All different and useless in an international world. So milestones are not related specifically to America miles. In Danish we nowadays have kilometer posts or markers, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are some stones as well. The only sensible mile is the nautical as this one actually relates directly to the degree, minute, second system of maps. Milestones however do not function very well at sea :)))

Milestone doesn’t having anything to do with a mile anymore so same word.

Finland here: we call them "virstanpylväs" but the word doesn't refer to physical markers anymore. Funny coincidence, the distance is little over 1km.

The imperial system predates America. The Metric system was popularized after the french revolution, before that standardized measurements weren’t a global fenomenon. The word “mile” appears in a lot of European languages, and doesn’t nessecarily correlate to the exact same distance. So “milestone” is not even English-specific, in Danish we use “milepæl” wich means “mile-pole”. The concept of marking distances along roads goes back to the romans, if not further. So no, it’s not “America specific”.

Dutch here We say 'mijlpaal' ('milepole') Some of us know it comes from 'mijl' ('mile'), but that doesn't make it less outdated

Swedish uses a metric mile (mil in Swedish) in our system. A Swedish mile is 10 km and it’s the most common way to give distances, so much so that even the smaller ’halvmil’ (half mile) might be more commonly used than ’5 kilometer’. That said, the Swedish use of ’milstenar’ (milestones) in the concrete sense predates the metric mile. The older mile in use at the time was defined as 18 000 ells, which in metric is 10 688 metres.

I’m Vietnamese, we use a word “cột mốc “ that directly translated to “a column people use to mark a certain distance”

I live in Cornwall and we have a couple of villages called Threemilestone and Sevenmilestone. Yes, they are three and seven miles away from the capital Truro.

I tell you what is frustrating. In cars, the speedometer is in kilometres, the odometer is in kilometres. all the road signs are in kilometres, and the fuel (petrol/diesel/gasoline) is priced in litres. But when you go to buy a new car and ask about fuel efficiency you're told "it gets 50 miles to the gallon"

English does not seem to have a good alternative for "mileage". I find it interesting because it is not an old concept like "milestone".

Canada. We only say milestone. I don't even know an alternate word

Hello, I’m Brazilian. We have the direct translation to every word you guys use as metric system, but for milestone we use “milha”

Milestone is older than America.

Do note that there's cognates in other languages, regardless of the imperial measurement. In Swedish and Norwegian a 'mil' is equal to 10km, it's an old measurement which was slightly adjusted to align with the metric system. 'Milstolpe' means mile-pole and carries the same meaning as the English term.

Do Americans have imperial versions of thermometers?

Australia switched to metric several decades ago, but we still use imperial expressions: Don't give him an inch. Go the extra mile. She's achieved a career milestone. Six feet under. Kilos and kilometres are very much the default measures, but informally we'll still describe a person's height in feet and rural land in acres.

Yes, because the term "mile" isn't originally british/american. It's roman. The romans left milestones all over their empire's vast road network. In italian it's "pietra miliare", idk about other languages.

No, different miles were common in most European countries/areas. Ever heard of seven-mile-boots? That doesn't come from imperial miles. Similar thing for pound and many others for which similarly named units traditionally existed all over the world.

The German word for a measuring stick is "Zollstock" (="inchstick"). That doesn't refer to the imperial "inch".

It’s an English word…. From you know…. England.

Do Americans often forget how young their country is? Many European countries have several units of measument that went out of use before the US even existed. Some of them persist in expressions though.

Nope. They're still milestones. The word predates the metric system, and imperial measurement has existed for millennia... Well, in spirit. The actual lengths have changed.

Yes. Even places that use the metric system don't forget all of the idioms that came out of the English Imperial units system. They can even be frightened to within an inch of their lives.

Yeah they call it a shitpost.

The Imperial system of measurements, alongside its “U.S. Customary” variant, are inherently English-language systems. Therefore, “milestone” is an inherently English word to whom its native unit of measurement is bound. This also occurs in Chinese. The Great Wall is called 萬里長城, with 里 (lǐ) as a Chinese unit of measurement similar to a mile, so you could translate it as “the ten-thousand-mile-long wall”, but it’s not actually measured in miles.

In Australia we retain heaps of these old references to imperial units, even though today the metric system is firmly established and nobody understands what many of the old units really are. Some examples: - milestone (still used figuratively, but not to name markers on a road) - “they live miles away” (idiom) - inch (v. “to move forward by small increments”) - inchman (n. “a species of large and aggressive ant”) - “don’t give them an inch more room!” (idiom) - pint (n. “a size of beer glass” - 570ml or 425ml in different states) - “I wouldn’t touch that with a ten foot pole” (idiom)

The Korean equivalent of "milestone" is 이정표 *ijeongpyo*, which is written as 里程標 in *Hanja* form, where: 이 (里) = archaic distance unit (in Korea, this was equivalent to 400 meters or 1/4 mile) 정 (程) = path (in this context; means other things like "limit" elsewhere) 표 (標) = marker So... marker on a path to denote a mile. A milestone. Variants of the word 里程標 like 里程碑 and 里程表 exist in both Chinese and Japanese languages, so you can easily guess that it predates the kilometer.

Do Americans call their electricity meter an "electricity foot"? No.

It's an english word. From England. Americans use it too. In Canada we know what it means and we know it is no longer a literal "mile" marker.

In Spanish milestone (as a sign post in a road) is Piedra Miliar, and mostly refers to the Roman milestones, though it can be used in formal speech for contemporary markers. In informal language I would probably say marcador (thing that marks) Milestone is the figurative sense of goal does not exist in Spanish. You would say etapa , objectivo intermedio, or something similar

Wait a minute…. Do they say “you give someone an inch and they take a kilometer”?

I've never even considered that milestone referred to the mile measurement. I don't think there's a kilometrestone

Milestone is not a word in any American languages so how could it possibly be American- specific? And you haven't specified which language you speak , is it Navajo, Cherokee, Dakota, Cree? Which?

I'm Canadian, it's still commonly said. Similarly, people don't call inchworms "centimetreworms" haha.