Why are many international organizations commonly abbreviated in their French translation?

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A couple examples of this:

“SI units”, or the system of units based on the fundamental units of measurement (seconds, meters, amperes, candelas, moles, kilograms, kelvin) is short for *Système international*.

“FIFA”, the corrupt international soccer organization is short for *Fédération Internationale de Football Association* (same as FIBA)

Is this just a coincidence?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

David McCullough wrote a good book, *The Greater Journey* which tells how in the 1800s, Paris was the centre of the intellectual world. Regardless of your field of study, Paris was the place to learn it. One corollary of this situation was that French became the common language of higher learning. The Russian aristocracy spoke better French than Russian. Also also, pretty much every major global society was formed in Paris, and many of them are still there. The FIA is another example. And don’t forget that it was the French who invented the metric system after the revolution, so naturally they got to name it.

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