[OJFord]

SW, couldn't get much nearer the coast, yep.

I don't think it was ever common parlance, just important to disambiguate in some industries. Similarly I think 'thou' (-sandth of an inch) is preferred over 'mil' since that's such a common abbreviation of 'millimetre' (which =39thou, so you want to get that right).

[Jedd]

There was an article posted here a few months back on the subject of 'thousands of an inch', the misuse of 'mill', etc - and a slight digression around how our friends on the far side of the pond are fascinated by fractions.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34891145