When I started teaching elementary school (as a second career in 1995), I was very surprised to find all the new textbooks now referring to the centigrade scale as the Celsius scale. Of course they are the same thing, but I wondered why the textbooks were now using this term when I had never heard it growing up. Now, I know why.
The short answer is that people continue to call a thing by the same name they, themselves, learned while growing up. Most adults, and just about everyone in academia through the 1980s, grew up hearing “centigrade” and continued to use that term with their own students throughout high school and university.
The new name, “Celsius,” disturbed me ever since I began hearing it in the mid-1990s; but now that I know there was an actual reason for the name change, it no longer bothers me. A unit of measurement, called a “grade,” was actually in use. Therefore, in 1948, the Conference General de Pois et Measures (in France) decided to change the name of the scale to “Celsius.”
The International System of Units
A second reason for the change in name was that the Conference General de Pois et Measures decided that “All common temperature scales would have their units named after someone closely associated with them; namely, Kelvin, Celsius, Fahrenheit, Réaumur and Rankine.”
The change in elementary-school textbooks began to take place around 1968, and during the 1970s, as districts began to replace their former textbooks. In the meantime, parents, scientists, and college professors continued to use the name they had grown up with. Only students born in the 1970s and later would have grown up calling the scale “Celsius.” (I continue to catch myself saying “centigrade” to my own students.)
In England, the BBC Weather did not begin using the term Celsius until 1985, and the word centigrade continues to to be commonly used in England, according to some sources.
Swedish Astronomer Anders Celsius (1701-1744)
The centigrade scale was known as such from 1743-1954. In 1948, the scale was renamed the Celsius scale, after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701-1744) who developed a SIMILAR scale (but not actually the same scale). Interestingly, Celsius’ original scale was the reverse of today’s scale; “0” indicated the boiling point of water, while “100” indicated the freezing point of water.
Swedish Zoologist and Botanist Carolus Linnaeus(1708-1777)
The Swedish zoologist and botanist, Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778), remembered for giving us the basis of taxonomy (classification of living things into genus and species), reversed Celsius’ original scale so that “0” indicated the freezing point of water, while “100” indicated the boiling point. As the older generations retire and pass away, the new name change will become universal. It seems to take about three generations for a name change to really become universally accepted in society.
–Lynne Diligent
Tags: Anders Celsius, are you bothered by the name Celsius for the centigrade thermometer, Carolus Linnaeus, Conference General de Pois et Measures, famous Swedish scientists, how long do scientific name changes take, is it correct to say centigrade or Celsius, name changes take time, reasons for the name change from centigrade thermometer to Celsius thermometer, resistance to name changes, what is the reason for the name change from centigrade to Celsius
Dilemmas of an Expat Tutor 
February 14, 2013 at 4:26 pm |
Interesting. Thanks!
February 15, 2013 at 12:31 am |
I’ve never paid attention to this, but I think we still use both Centigrade and Celsius in Arabic.
Thanks Lynne
February 15, 2013 at 4:02 pm |
Kelvin, not Celsius. is the SI unit, I have sometimes slipped and said centigrade instead of Celsius. That causes confusion, so Celsius should be the relative (to water) unit. Ultimately, they need to understand why Kelvin in the.theoretical and absolute temperature scale.
February 22, 2013 at 2:51 am |
The other reason for the change might be that the Fahrenheit scale is also a “centigrade” (centi=100 grade=degree) scale. Fahrenheit divided the range between the coldest temperature he could make consistently, the freezing point of a specific concentration of salt water and another consistent temperature, human body temperature, by 100. His measurements were a little off due to the level of technology so human body temperature ended up at 98.7 rather than 100. So his was a centigrade scale as well. It Jan be shown that the Kelvin scale is also a “centigrade scale albeit with a different 0 refer ant than the Celsius scale. .
February 22, 2013 at 2:53 pm |
Thank you, Joe, for this additional and interesting information.
April 25, 2017 at 12:19 am |
It took longer than three generations for Kobila to become Crombie, however it may only take three generations of Crombie to change it back to Kobila.
42+58=100
THE GREEN WOODPECKER
October 18, 2017 at 6:58 pm |
The REAL reason we don’t use centigrade is that there is a unit for angular measurement called the GRADIAN (a French unit – what do you expect!) and centigrad was confused between angles and temperature. Hence celcius (and NO capital letters if you write out any SI unit!!!!!!!)
March 12, 2019 at 12:53 pm |
Leslie Wilson: Actually, the SI coherent derived unit with a special name for Celsius temperature is the degree Celsius. See the SI Brochure, Table 3. So, the degree Celsius is absolutely an SI unit
March 12, 2019 at 12:57 pm |
John Filipinos. I agree that no SI unit starts with a capital letter. However, “degrees Celsius” starts with a “d”. See the first paragraph in Section 5.2 of the SI Brochure.
April 5, 2018 at 9:46 pm |
Not correct to suggest that degree Celsius is the same as centigrade. There is no longer any reference to freezing and boiling. It is all defined in terms of kelvins. Which also has no reference to boiling. Cf cl 2.1.1.5 of the Brochure.
April 25, 2018 at 6:01 pm |
David, where can I read about this? Which brochure? Thank you.
April 25, 2018 at 9:02 pm
Lynne – The Brochure is the Constitution for the Land of SI. It sets out the fundamentals, the theories behind the System, and gives quite a bit of history. It is surprisingly readable. All the changes I referred to happened in 1967-1968. https://www.bipm.org/utils/common/pdf/si_brochure_8_en.pdf
April 26, 2018 at 9:46 pm
Thank you, David, I will take a look.
December 11, 2018 at 4:17 am |
I was taught centigrade so to me C stands for that… Can’t get used to this “celcius” thing. Also can’t do “farenheight” because that’s before my time. So yes generational. Funny how centigrade only seemed to last a few years in the 80s though!
February 20, 2019 at 5:40 pm |
i just measure temperature by centiheit degrees
June 16, 2019 at 4:29 pm |
Thank you Lynne!!!!! I have been curious about this, having started elementary school in the late 50’s. They sure didn’t teach that in Omaha Public Schools unless it was mentioned in passing. Thank you again, Gary Centigrade.