swordfis@pnet51.cts.com (Tim Mitchell) (08/22/88)
Has anyone else wondered how "lbs." got to be an abbreviation of "pounds"? Anyone know? UUCP: {rosevax, crash}!orbit!pnet51!swordfis INET: swordfis@pnet51.cts.com
papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) (08/23/88)
In article <3@orbit.UUCP> swordfis@pnet51.cts.com (Tim Mitchell) writes: >Has anyone else wondered how "lbs." got to be an abbreviation of "pounds"? >Anyone know? Well, that's easy for an Italian! "lbs." comes from the Latin word "libra" (libbra in Italian) which "was" a widely used measure of weight in Europe. I say "was" since almost all of Europe (but not the UK for example) now uses the metric system, and therefore kilograms and not pounds. -- Marco Papa 'Doc' -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= uucp:...!pollux!papa BIX:papa ARPAnet:pollux!papa@oberon.usc.edu "There's Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Diga!" -- Leo Schwab [quoting Rick Unland] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=