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I like to call it, "The Mighty Sister Act of Ducks II" »

*srah ducks the flying jealous blows*

Due to great controversy and confusion over my weight yesterday, I hopped on the scale for the first time in over a year. The verdict: 101 lbs. Perhaps I ought to go to the gym with Robin and Becky, and put on some muscle-weight.

I find it interesting that the British money and the weight are both called "pounds" but are abbreviated £ and lbs., respectively. I don't know where the word "pound" comes from, but I bet the £ and lbs. come from the same source as their French translation, livre, and the zodiacal sign Libra, the scales (for weighing money or other things). This doesn't, however, explain why the French word livre also means "book". Maybe the word comes from records of money exchange and bartering being kept in books. Language is fun to speculate about.

srah - Tuesday, 17 June 2003 - 10:42 AM
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Comments (9)

gravatar katie - June 17, 2003 - 10:54 AM - ℓ

I thought that the currency "pounds" came from the fact that at one time the 1 pound coin was made from exactly 1 pound (weight) of silver.

gravatar srah - June 17, 2003 - 11:13 AM - ℓ

Yes, but where does the name for the weight come from?

gravatar katie - June 17, 2003 - 11:17 AM - ℓ

Big guys, who weigh a lot, say "I'm going to pound you into the ground, dweeb!"

Remember, that's another meaning for the word.

gravatar Jez - June 17, 2003 - 11:27 AM - ℓ

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.

I could just let you believe I wrote that couldn't I? Well, I'll 'fess up. I didn't know it before I did a little Internet search.

gravatar srah - June 17, 2003 - 12:03 PM - ℓ

Thank you, Jezzles. May I call you Jezzles? Oops, too late.

gravatar Jez - June 17, 2003 - 2:03 PM - ℓ

You can call me Jezzles if you wish, Professor McNittagall.

gravatar Erica - June 17, 2003 - 3:19 PM - ℓ

And, if you want to get into the physics of it, lb is also a unit of mass and a unit of force necessitating a subscript "m" or "f" and requiring you to say "pound-mass" or "pound-force." Which is the kind of b.s. that makes everyone want to use metric.

gravatar srah - June 17, 2003 - 3:54 PM - ℓ

"Professor McNittagall" makes me want to snort with glee.

If one can do such a thing.

gravatar alfie - June 17, 2003 - 5:20 PM - ℓ

I'm scared.

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