December 3, 2020
美国英语称底楼为first floor，往上依次是second floor、third floor等，英国英语称底楼为ground floor，往上是first floor、second floor，至今仍然如此。欧洲各国遵循英国惯例，世界很多地区也是如此。但在拉丁美洲，楼层的编号采用英、美两种惯例的都有，决定于哪个国家，似乎看不出规律，可参见维基Storey条，但维基关于墨西哥是错的，他们用美国惯例。（注：说英国或美国惯例只是方便称谓，并不表明某地区的惯例的来源是美国或英国。）
历史变迁
一位澳大利亚网友说，大约5至10年前，新建的房子开始用美国的称谓，所以他们经常搞混。瑞典网友说他们那里规则不统一，是一片混乱。而从前作为英国殖民地的新加坡先前采用英国惯例，1980年代改为美国惯例，以便与其他亚洲国家协调。
“一国两制”
越南北部采用美国惯例，南部用英国惯例，但越南人之间交流并不会混淆，原因是北越人说Tầng即“层”而南越人说Lầu即“楼”，他们从用字就可以判断说话人用的是哪种惯例。
亚洲
印尼、菲律宾采用美国惯例。印度受英国殖民影响无疑用英国惯例，香港也是。新加坡、越南见上述。其他如日本、韩国等都用美国惯例。
中国
汉语似乎从来就说：底楼、底层或一楼，往上是二楼、三楼等等，即跟美国惯例相同，这应该是汉语本身的惯例而不是受了美国的影响。古代当然没有居住或办公的高楼，但有供眺望观景的高塔（也叫做楼），或佛塔，中国古籍中指塔的某层时大概都说“层”而不说“楼”，“层”当然是从一而不是零数起了。现代汉语“层”、“楼”两字可互换通用，“楼”无疑是被当作“层”的同义词使用，那么就碰巧跟美国而不是英国惯例相同了。
评价
如果我们咬文嚼字，英国惯例其实是不合逻辑的，底层叫ground floor（直译：“地楼层”），上一层叫first floor（“第一楼层”），既然底层用了floor这个词，就认可了它也是众多floors之一，但为什么它在floors集合中没有序数呢？如果你有三个儿子，老大可以叫大儿子，后面两个当然叫二儿子、三儿子而不可能叫第一儿子、第二儿子，无论老大多么特殊。所以，将“地楼层”与“第一楼层”分开是强词夺理的。这个惯例的起源暂不清楚，但英国殖民者来到北美后采用了我们熟悉的美国惯例无疑是更合理的。由于英国在历史上的影响，世界上采用英国惯例的国家更多，但以人口数量论，由于中国的惯例与美国相同，世界上用英国惯例的人即便包括印度人在内也可能更少。
参考：
https://facebook.com/groups/generallinguistics/permalink/10158626955249346/
https://facebook.com/groups/839957606051774/permalink/3308810692499774
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storey#Numbering
Blogger at August 12, 2021 at 6:09 PM said...
想象一个带刻度的温度计。以 0 °C 为基准。热 1 个单位就是，零上 1 °C；冷一个单位，就是零下 1 °C。
有些事物有 0，而有些事物没有 0。例如，带刻度的钟表以及 12 小时制，是从（凌晨）12 时开始的，而不存在 0 时。没有公元 0 年 0 月 0 日。不过，公元 1 年（0001）1 月 1 日在 ISO 8601 中记为 0001-01-01；而公元前 1 年（0000）12 月 31 日则表示为 0000-12-31；公元前 2 年（-0001）12 月 31 日则表示为 -0001-12-31。
Yong Huang at August 12, 2021 at 6:41 PM said...
English version
American and British floor
Americans call the ground floor "the first floor", and the floors above it "the second floor", "the third floor",... The British call the ground floor "ground floor", and those above it "the first floor", "the second floor",... European countries and many parts of the world follow the British convention. But Latin American countries could follow either the British or American convention, seemingly with no pattern. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storey for such information, except that some parts of Mexico may be following the American convention.)
There is a logical difficulty in the British usage of the word "floor". The phrase "ground floor" implies that this level is a member of the set (think of the concept of "set" in mathematics) called floor. Now think about the fact that the level above the ground floor is called "first floor". Unless we alter the meaning of the very basic word "first", the ground floor is excluded from the floor set due to the definition of the word "first" in human language. This logical difficulty could be resolved by calling the ground floor something not using the word "floor", such as "ground level" (just like some Mexicans call the ground floor planta baja and the next floor primer piso, using different words), and interpreting the word "floor" as denoting a level or layer definitely above (i.e. not including) the ground level. Here's an analogy. Suppose you have three sons. The oldest can be called "the oldest son". The second is of course "the second son", and the third "the third son". It will be wrong to call the second "the first son" and the third "the second son", no matter how special the oldest son is.
There is the phrase of "zeroth patient" or "patient zero (or 0)" in epidemiology. But when people use that phrase, do they call the (actually) second patient, i.e. the first one infected by patient 0, "first patient" or "patient 1"? It would sound strange but I'd like to know the thoughts of the experts in this field. If they do, it will have the same logical difficulty of including and at the same time excluding a member of a set. Is the zeroth patient a patient or not?
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