Why is lbs mean pounds

Libra for a pound is first found in English in the late fourteenth century, almost at the same time as lb started to be used. Strictly speaking again, this was the Roman pound of 12 ounces, not the more modern one of Incidentally, another abbreviation for libra became the standard symbol for the British pound in the monetary sense. The link between the two senses of pound , weight and money, is that in England a thousand years ago a pound in money was equivalent to the value of a pound of silver.

Donate via PayPal. Select your currency from the list and click Donate. That's because the sign is associated with balance, and is related to weights and measurements. As for the word ounce, according to the Encyclopedia Brittanica , it originates from the Latin word uncia , which was the name for both a Roman unit of weight and length.

According to The Week , uncia was borrowed by the Anglo-Norman French as "ounce" and then lent to their neighbors in England. The abbreviation, though, came from Medieval Italian, who had taken the Latin word uncia and turned it into onza , introducing the "z" into the word. It's unclear exactly why the "z" shows up in English abbreviations, but it's clear that it came from Medieval Italian and then stuck around. And there you have it!

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