Editing Gram (section)

== History ==
The word ''gramme'' was adopted by the French [[National Convention]] in its 1795 decree revising the metric system as replacing the ''gravet'' (introduced in 1793 simultaneously with a base measure called [[Grave (unit)|''grave'']], of which ''gravet'' was a subdivision). Its definition remained that of the weight of a cubic centimetre of water.<ref>
{{cite web
 |url         = http://mjp.univ-perp.fr/france/1793mesures.htm
 |title       = Décret relatif aux poids et aux mesures du 18 germinal an 3 (7 avril 1795)
 |language    = fr
 |trans-title = Decree of 18 Germinal, year III (April 7, 1795) regarding weights and measures
 |work        = Grandes lois de la République
 |publisher   = Digithèque de matériaux juridiques et politiques, Université de Perpignan
 |access-date  = November 3, 2011
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20130510150614/http://mjp.univ-perp.fr/france/1793mesures.htm
 |archive-date = May 10, 2013
}}
</ref><ref>Convention nationale, décret du 1er août 1793, ed. Duvergier, ''Collection complète des lois, décrets, ordonnances, règlemens avis du Conseil d'état, publiée sur les éditions officielles du Louvre'', vol. 6 (2nd ed. 1834), [https://books.google.com/books?id=0mYZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA70 p. 70] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402120318/https://books.google.ch/books?id=0mYZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA70 |date=2015-04-02 }}.
The ''metre'' (''mètre'') on which this definition depends was itself defined as the ten-millionth part of a quarter of Earth's [[Meridian (geography)|meridian]], given in [[Units of measurement in France before the French Revolution|traditional units]] as 3 ''[[foot (unit)|pieds]]'',  11.44 ''lignes'' (a ''ligne'' being the 12th part of an ''pouce'' (inch), or the 144th part of a ''pied''.</ref>

French ''gramme'' was taken from the [[Late Latin]] term ''{{lang|la|gramma}}''. This word—ultimately from Greek {{lang|grc|γράμμα}} (''grámma''), "letter"—had adopted a specialised meaning in [[Late Antiquity]] of "one twenty-fourth part of an ounce" (two [[oboli]]),<ref>Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, ''A Latin Dictionary'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3Dgramma2 s.v. "gramma"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150717095000/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=gramma2 |date=2015-07-17 }}, 1879</ref> corresponding to about 1.14 modern grams. This use of the term is found in the ''carmen de ponderibus et mensuris'' ("poem about weights and measures") composed around 400 AD.{{efn|The date and authorship of this Late Latin didactic poem are both uncertain; it was attributed to [[Priscian]] but is now attributed to Rem(m)ius Favinus/Flav(in)us.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Knorr|first1=Wilbur R.|editor1-last=Hornblower|editor1-first=Simon|editor2-last=Spawforth|editor2-first=Antony|title=The Oxford Classical Dictionary.|date=1996|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=019866172X|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780198661726/page/292 292]|edition=3rd|chapter=Carmen de ponderibus et mensuris|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780198661726/page/292}}</ref> The poem's title is reflected in the French phrase ''poids et mesures'' ("weights and mesures") in the title of the 1795 National Convention decree, ''Décret relatif aux poids et aux mesures'' that introduced the gram, and indirectly in the name of the [[General Conference on Weights and Measures]] responsible for the modern definition of the metric units.}}
There is also evidence that the Greek {{lang|grc|γράμμα}} was used in the same sense at around the same time, in the 4th century, and survived in this sense into [[Medieval Greek]],<ref>Henry George Liddell. Robert Scott. ''[[A Greek-English Lexicon]]'' (revised and augmented edition, Oxford, 1940)   [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=gra/mma s.v. γράμμα] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150717095023/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dgra%2Fmma |date=2015-07-17 }}, citing the 10th-century work ''[[Geoponica]]'' and a 4th-century papyrus edited in L. Mitteis, ''Griechische Urkunden der Papyrussammlung zu Leipzig'', vol. i (1906), 62 ii 27.</ref> while the Latin term died out in [[Medieval Latin]] and was recovered in [[Renaissance]] scholarship.{{efn|In the Renaissance, the ''carmen de ponderibus et mensuris'' was received as a work of the 1st-century grammarian [[Remmius Palaemon]] edited in 1528 by Johann Setzer of [[Hagenau]], together with works by [[Celsius]], [[Priscian]] and Johannes Caesarius; ''Aurelij Cornelij Celsi, De re medica, libri octo eruditissimi. Q. Sereni Samonici Praecepta medica, uersibus hexametris. Q. Rhemnij Fannij Palaemonis, De ponderibus [et] mensuris, liber rarus [et] utilissimus''}}

The gram was the base unit of mass in the 19th-century [[centimetre–gram–second system of units]] (CGS). The CGS system coexisted with the [[MKS system of units|metre–kilogram–second system of units]] (MKS), first proposed in 1901, during much of the 20th century, but the gram was displaced by the [[kilogram]] as the base unit for mass when the MKS system was chosen for the [[SI base units]] in 1960.