This seems like a pretty strange way to abbreviate the word “pounds”. So where the heck did it come from?
I think it comes from the latin word for “scales” (the type of scales you weigh things in). I don’t remember my latin well though: “libra,” maybe? “Libre?”
Comes from the Latin word “libra”, for pound.
Latin, I should have known. Thanks.
Latin libra, which is why British pound sterling currency uses £.
This is one of my pet peeves. Call me a hard-ass if you will, but there is no valid abbreviation lbs.. The abbreviation lb. works for both singular pound (libra) and plural pounds (librae).
From cals
American Heritage dictionary defines pound ad deriving as follows:
A monetary unit of Scotland before the Act of Union (1707). In this sense, also called pound scots. [Middle English, from Old English pund, from West Germanic *punda-, from Latin (libra) pondo, (a pound) by weight.
I have always wondered the answer to that