Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various units of weight used in southeast Asia and China and equal to 100 catties, especially a Chinese unit equal to 133 1/3 pounds (about 60 kilograms).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A weight in use in China and the East generally, containing 100 kin or catties, and equal to about 133⅛ pounds avoirdupois. By the Chinese it is called tan.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A commercial weight varying in different countries and for different commodities. In Borneo it is 1355/8 lbs.; in China and Sumatra, 1331/2 lbs.; in Japan, 1331/3 lbs.; but sometimes 130 lbs., etc. Called also, by the Chinese,
tan .
WordNet 3.0
- n. a unit of weight used in some parts of Asia; approximately equal to 133 pounds (the load a grown man can carry)
Etymologies
- Malay pikul, to carry the heaviest load a man can carry.
Examples
“The cotton, in the seed, is sold by the picul, which is”
““In the central provinces of China, especially in Hubei and Hunan, nearly every government organization has come to depend on opium revenue for maintenance,” said one authority, citing figures from a particular locality in which one picul approximately 140 pounds of opium cost $400.”
“Given these favorable circumstances, the village-leasehold auction of 1651 brought in more revenues than any auction up to that point. 82 But the price of venison in China continued to drop, falling below 10 reals per picul.”
“It produces in one year two hundred piculs of wax, fifty piculs of tortoise-shell, ten piculs of best camphor, and as much inferior; ten piculs of birds'-nests, at ten dollars the catty; 1st camphor, twenty-five; rattans, one dollar per picul; tortoise-shell, one dollar the catty; wax, twenty the picul.”
The Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. Dido For the Suppression of Piracy
“The quantity of mother-of-pearl-shell, _communibus annis_, sold there is two thousand piculs, at six dollars a picul.”
The Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. Dido For the Suppression of Piracy
“The only stock procurable here were hogs at ten dollars the picul, and water shipped off in”
The Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. Dido For the Suppression of Piracy
“Trees which have produced the average quantity of a picul of 125 lbs. Dutch 280 248”
“Chinese ever offer a bounty for; the price fluctuates according to the seasons, from one and three-quarter dollars to eight dollars per picul.”
“An inferior sort of tea, with a leaf twice or thrice as large as that of Bohea, grows wild in the hilly parts of Quang-ai, and is sold at from 12s. 6d. to 40s. the picul of 133lbs.”
“We may reckon that 1,200 to 2,000 piculs of 133 lbs. are yearly produced; the prices vary much, being from 50 to 75 florins per picul.”
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