It's a twelfth of a troy pound, or Roman libra (lb).
These two episodes from The History of English podcast trace these seemingly arbitrary units through history and give them some context. My favorite is the derivation of 5280 feet per mile. Also, that "mark twain" is a depth sounding of two fathoms.
It's a twelfth of a troy pound, or Roman libra (lb).
These two episodes from The History of English podcast trace these seemingly arbitrary units through history and give them some context. My favorite is the derivation of 5280 feet per mile. Also, that "mark twain" is a depth sounding of two fathoms.
http://historyofenglishpodcast.com/2018/07/26/episode-114-th... http://historyofenglishpodcast.com/2018/08/21/episode-115-th...