Why is CET called MET?

[sgh at banshee.cb.lucent.com]

> From: Peter Hullah <Peter.Hullah at eurocontrol.fr>
> Organization: EUROCONTROL European Organisation for the Safety of Air
>	Navigation
> Date: Tue, 18 Jun 1996 15:06:45 +0200
> 
> I was under the impression that the correct term was "Coordinated Universal
> Time" and its abbrevation was "UTC" ("CUT" having, so I heard, been ruled
> out as it's a vulgar word in Dutch!)

Actually, I was told that the designation was a compromise between several
European nations.  It was decided that the common time reference would still
be Greenwich, England (instead of some other city on the same longitude),
but the compromise was that its name would be French (the French for
"Universal Time Coordinated" -- I don't speak French) -- thus UTC.


---
Scott G. Hall
Lucent Technologies, Bell Labs, BCS