Grammar Girl here, I'm Minion Fuggedy and this week I have a quick and dirty tip about

Centigrade versus Celsius, a meaty middle about between and among, and a featured listener.

And now let's talk about the difference between the words Centigrade and Celsius.

Anders Celsius was a Swedish astronomer who invented a thermometer based on the boiling

point and freezing point of water. We know a slightly improved version of his thermometer

by the Celsius name and by the word Centigrade. The words Celsius and Centigrade mean the

same thing, but style guides say don't bother with Centigrade anymore. Use Celsius.

The original Celsius thermometer had water boiling at zero degrees and freezing at 100 degrees.

Yet other scientists flipped those numbers for more practical measurements of extreme heat.

Each degree of temperature later was called Centigrade from the Latin words Centum and

Greyduce or 100 steps. This Centigrade thermometer was named in honor of Celsius in 1948

at the 9th International Conference of Wates and Measures. Since then, degrees Centigrade

has diminished in use and degrees Celsius has become the more common term.

Celsius is capitalized just as we capitalized Fahrenheit named for a German physicist

and Kelvin named for a British physicist. Style guides do agree that Celsius should be

used instead of Centigrade, but they disagree on how to write the abbreviated form except

that there's no need for the period after C. The associated press style book doesn't

use the degree symbol and puts a space between the number and the symbol, 32 space capital

C. Scientific style in format uses the symbol and puts a space after the numeral, 32 space

degree symbol C. The Chicago Manual of Style and the National Geographic Style Manual say

no spaces, so 32 degree symbol capital C. And that seems to be the prevalent format.

And that was your quick and dirty tip. Use the word Celsius, which honors the inventor

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