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noun A unit of weight equal to 16 ounces (453.592 grams).
noun A unit of apothecary weight equal to 12 ounces (373.242 grams). See Table at measurement.
noun A unit of weight differing in various countries and times.

A fundamental unit of weight or mass. In the English system, both in the more antiquated form retained in the United States and under the improvements established by the British government, two pounds are used—the pound avoirdupois (divided into 16 ounces) for all ordinary commodities, and the troy pound (divided into 12 ounces) for bullion, and in the United States for a few other purposes. But, while troy ounces and their subdivisions are often used, the pound itself is hardly employed. In Great Britain and its colonies the legal original standard weight since 1856 has been the imperial pound avoirdupois, which is a cylindrical mass of platinum, having a groove round it near the top, and marked P. S. 1844 11b. The letters P. S. stand for “Parliamentary Standard.” The so-called “commercial pound” is only an ideal brass pound to be weighed in air. The troy pound in Great Britain is defined as 5,760 grains of which the avoirdupois pound contains 7,000. From 1824 to 1856 the only legal original standard weight in Great Britain was a troy pound constructed in 1758 and denominated the imperial standard troy pound; and the avoirdupois pound was defined as 7,000 grains of which the troy pound contained 5,760. The present imperial pound avoirdupois probably does not differ by grain from the previous avoirdupois pound. Before 1824 the legal standards had been certain weights, both troy and avoirdupois, constructed under Queen Elizabeth in 1588. These standards had not been very accurately constructed, and became worn by continual use; but it is probable that the avoirdupois pound had been equal to 7,002 of our present grains, of which the troy pound may have contained 5,759. The two pounds were not supposed to be commensurable. The Elizabethan avoirdupois pound remains, in theory, the legal avoirdupois pound in the United States; but of late years the practice has been to copy the British imperial pound avoirdupois. Congress has made a certain pound-weight kept in Philadelphia the troy pound of the United States; but this is a hollow weight (and therefore of an inferior character, and such as no European nation would be content to take for a prototype), and consequently its buoyancy is uncertain, and its mass cannot be ascertained with great accuracy. Practically, the British troy pound is copied. The pound avoirdupois was made a standard by Edward III., according to official evidence. From his 56-pound weight Elizabeth's standards were copied, although standards had been made in 1497, direct copies from which still exist. The troy pound was the pound of the city of Troyes, where a great annual fair was held. In 1497 it was made the legal weight in England for gold and silver, and it was generally used for other costly things, such as silk. The old books say it was used for bread; but Kelly, writing before the abolition of the assize of bread, says the pound used for that purpose was one of 7,600 grains, which he calls “the old commercial weight of England.” The monetary pound which the troy pound displaced had been used from Saxon times. It was equal to 5,400 or 5,420 of our present grains, and was divided into 12 ounces or 20 shillings. Contemporaneously with it there existed a merchants' pound containing 15 of the same ounces, making 6,775 grains. The avoirdupois and troy pounds are respectively about 453.6 and 373.26 grams. Other pounds have been in use in England. An act of 12 Charles II. legalizes the Venetian pound for weighing Venetian gold. This pound was a variation of the ancient Roman pound. The pound of Jersey and Guernsey was the French poids de marc. The Scottish Troyes or tron pound varied at different times, but latterly it was about 492 grams, being identical with the Dutch pound. Local pounds of 17, 18, 21, 22, and 24 ounces were in use until recently. Before the metric system, many hundreds of different pounds were in use in Europe, mostly divided into 16 ounces, but many into 12 ounces. The principal types were as follows. (1) Polish pounds, of values clustering about 405 grams, containing 16 ounces of about 25 grams each, from the old Warsaw pound of 378.8 grams to the old Cracow pound of 405.9 grams. The latest Polish pound was 105.504 grams. (2) The pounds of High Languedoc and the “table-weight” pounds of Provence, of values clustering about 410 grams, from the pound of Salon of 376.6 to that of Embrun of 435.0 grams. Some of the table pounds, as that of Ain (438.3 grams), were divided into 14 ounces; so the chocolate pound of Vienna had 28 loth, weighing 490 grams. Also, certain silk-pounds were divided into 15 ounces; but these were of greater weight. This was the case with the ordinary pound of Geneva of 458.9 grams, which was equal to the silk-pound of Lyons. The silk-pound of Patras in the Morea had also 15 ounces, but its value amounted to 480 grams. The 15-ounce merchants' pound of England of 437 grams had ounces of the same value as the old 12-ounce moneyers' pound of the Saxons. (3) Baltic pounds, of values clustering about 422 grams (making the ounce about 26½, grams), from the Russian pound of 409.5174 grams to the Dantzic pound of 435.5 grams. The Swedish pound was 425.04 grams. (4) The Italian pounds, of values clustering about 326 grams (having 12 ounces of about 27 grams each), the great majority between 300 and 350 grams. The following are examples:

Grams.
Venice, light pound	301.29
Sicily	319.06
Naples, silk-pound	320.70
Milan, light pound	327.02
Rome	339.16
Tuscany	339.58
Piedmont	368.88
Ragusa, in Dalmatia	374.07
Venice, heavy pound	477.12

These pounds would seem to be mostly modifications of the ancient Roman pound, the value of which was, according to the extant standards, 325.8 grams, but according to the coins 327.4 grams. There were, however, anciently other widely different pounds in Italy, from which some of the modern Italian pounds may have been derived. Many of the Italian cities had light and heavy pounds, the latter belonging to the class of pounds about 490 grams, or being still larger and containing more than 16 ounces. (5) Light-weight pounds, having ounces of about 29 grams. These include Spanish and Portuguese pounds, mostly ranging from 458.5 to 460.5 grams, Netherlands pounds. ranging mostly from 463 to 470 grams, and German light-weight pounds, ranging mostly from 467 to 468.5 grams. The Saxon moneyers' pound comes into this category, being 350 grams, or 467 grams for 16 ounces. The avoirdupois pound of 453.6 grams is either a very light Spanish pound or a very heavy Provencal pound. The German pounds are divided not into 16 ounces but into 32 loth. Some of the Spanish pounds contain only 12 ounces, the ounce retaining the same value. The following are examples:

Grams.
Portugal	459.00
Spain	460.14
Liège	467.09
Antwerp	470.17
Saxony	467.15
Prussia	467.7110
Würtemberg	467.75
Frankfort	467.88

(6) The German 12-ounce medicinal pounds, of values clustering about 358 grams (the ounce about 30), and mostly between 357 and 360. The Nuremberg pound, 357.854 grams, had much currency in different parts of Germany. (7) The heavy-weight pounds of France and Germany, of values clustering about 490 grams (making the ounce about 30¾ grams), being mostly included between 488½ and 498½ grams. But there were a few half-heavy pounds between the heavy and the light, having ounces of 29¾ grams. There were also a few extra-heavy, having ounces of 31¾ grams. The following are German examples:

Grams.
Nuremberg, goldsmiths' (half-heavy)	477.138
Hamburg	484.12
Cassel	484.24
Lubeck	484.72
Hanover	489.57
Dutch troy	492.16772
Bremen	498.50
Denmark	499.26
Nuremberg, commer. (extra-heavy)	510.22

But the most important pound of this class was the French mark-weight pound, of 489.50585 grams. This unit was so called because it had double the mass of a certain nest of weights, called a mark, which had been preserved in the Paris mint with scrupulous care from time immemorial. There is evidence that Charlemagne, under whom Western medieval coinage commenced, used a 12-ounce pound, the livre esterlin, whose ounces agreed with those of the Paris mark. It is said that Haroun al Raschid sent a standard pound to Charlemagne, and it has commonly been inferred that the livre esterlin was conformed to that, especially as Queipo found an authentic rotl of the same weight. Rotls, however, are of almost all weights, and there is no sufficient evidence of what one Haroun would have sent; besides, the fact that he sent a weight to Charlemagne affords no reason for thinking that Charlemagne would adopt it. We know that Dagobert, 150 years before, had kept a standard of weight in his palace, and it is quite likely that Charlemagne continued the use of that. Indeed, he had neither motive nor power to change the customary weight, such changes being effected only by changes in the course of commerce or by the hands of strong governments. (8) The South German pounds, of values clustering about 560 grams (making the ounce about 35¾ grams), from that of Fiume, in Croatia, of 558.7 to that of Münster of 576.4 grams. The Bavarian and Vienna commercial pounds were, by law. 560 grams. Besides the pounds above mentioned, there were some containing more than 16 ounces. The heavy pounds of Valencia (524.4 grams). Zürich (528.6), and Geneva (550.6) had 18 ounces. There is said to have been a heavy pound (575 grams) in the Swiss canton of Schaffhausen, having 20 ounces. The commercial pound of the Asturias, equal to 690.1 grams, seems to have been divided into 24 ounces. The heavy pound of Milan of 763.13 grams had 28 ounces, that of Bergamo (815.2 grams) 30 ounces, and the meat-pound of Valencia (1069 grams) 36 ounces. See mark, mina, rotl.

A money of account, consisting of 20 shillings, or 240 pence, originally equivalent to a pound weight of silver (or of the alloy used). It is usually discriminated from the pound weight by the epithet sterling. The pound Scots was equal to a twelfth only of the pound sterling; it also was divided into 20 shillings, the shilling being worth only an English penny. In the currency of the American colonies the pound had different values: in New England and Virginia it was equal at the time of the Revolution to 15s. sterling, or $3.33⅓; in New York and North Carolina, to 11s. 3d. sterling, or $2.50; in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, to 12s., or $2.66⅔; in Georgia, to 18s., or $4.00. These units of value did not at once disappear from local use on the adoption of the decimal system of coinage by the United States.
A balance. Mongst them al no change hath yet beene found; But, if thou now shouldst weigh them new in pound, We are not sure they would so long remaine. Spenser, F. Q., V. ii. 36.

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By most measures, she is slender, though the body has a roundness that marks five stubborn pounds--pounds sure to grow over time. — FSF - May2006
Not so you'd notice, but Leah felt extra pounds was a cross she had to bear, and reminded somebody every day. — Asimov'sSF,August2008
TWO British men were found guilty overnight of involvement in a bid to steal hundreds of millions of pounds from a Japanese bank in what would have been the biggest theft of its kind. — NEWS.com.au | Top Stories
What I wanted: a small but powerful portable with 13. 3-inch display and weighing less than 3.5 pounds (1. 6kg), but 4.5 pounds could be acceptable; 3GB-4GB RAM, 256MB dedicated graphics; 320GB hard drive (250GB OK); LED display; 1600-by-1200 or 1050 resolution; and attractive body. — Microsoft Watch
Britain's government has had to pump 20 billion pounds ($29.3 billion) into the bank which is set to report a 2008 loss of up to 28 billion pounds, a record for a U.K. company. — DealBook

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