[bksvol-discuss] Re: lb for pound

  • From: talmage@xxxxxxxxxx
  • To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 01 Apr 2005 23:35:52 -0500

Thanks Cindy. I hoped someone would come up with an answer, and I was basically just too lazy to look.

Dave

At 10:35 PM 4/1/2005, you wrote:
Dave,

I haven't finished reading all 113 pieces of e-mail (I
was gone most of the day -- and so I've been attacked
by the April Fool) so I don't know if anyone else has
answered your question. I never thought about it
before, but it's a good question -- and once I hear
something like that I become obssessed with finding
the answer.

Thanks to google, (my eytymological dictionary didn't
help) here's the explanation.

 "Why are pounds, when used as a weight, abbreviated
lbs?"

The origin is in the Latin word libra, which could
mean both balance scales (hence the symbol for the
astrological sign Libra, which was named after a
constellation that was thought to resemble scales) and
also a pound weight, for which the full expression was
libra pondo, the second word being the origin of our
pound.

Guido, did you or Alyosius know that? Maybe I needn't
have looked it up (smile).

Cindy





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