Why is the word pound abbreviated lb.? A listener from Tijuana, Mexico, learns that the answer relates to his native Spanish as well as the Latin term for “weighing.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Lb. Abbreviation”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Thank you for taking my call. My name is David. I’m actually calling you from Tijuana, Mexico.
Hello, David. Welcome.
Hi, David.
Well, I have a little story and a question, okay?
And when I immigrated into the United States about 30 years ago or so, I moved into Woodland Park, Colorado, with my then wife.
And when we got there, we used to go to a supermarket, and I used to say, hey, let’s get free livers of this, or let’s get free livers of that, or things of that thing.
And one time she asked me, why do you call them livers?
And I said, well, it’s what it says there, LBS.
And she goes, no, those are pounds.
And at that point I was like, what do you mean pounds? It says LBS. What does it have to do with pounds?
And she really didn’t know why.
And I have asked, believe me, in 30 years, I don’t know how many thousands of people have asked, what is LBS, why does it have to do with pounds?
And to my surprise, nobody knows.
And maybe one or two people have said something to do with the Greeks or something to do with Latin, but nobody really knows.
And I’m sure there’s a lot of listeners right now going, I never thought of that.
Yeah, yeah.
The time that I asked somebody, they never thought about it.
Well, ears are perked up.
Why LPSs?
You are definitely not alone.
Lots of ears are perked up. People want to know.
And I know somebody who knows the answer to this, and I’m looking at her now.
Well, David, let me ask you, how do you say pound in Spanish?
Well, sería libras.
Libras.
So is that why you’re saying libras?
I don’t know why.
I remember when I was in the supermarket, and I remember looking at LBS, and it just stuck on me calling Libras.
Okay.
And I don’t think I had anything to do with Libras.
It’s just that I was reading LBS, and my common sense thing is Libras.
Right.
And I’m a pretty much common sense kind of guy.
Okay.
Well, David, I can give you a common sense answer, and here it is.
The Latin word Libra is the source of both the Spanish word for pound, Libra, and the source of that abbreviation.
You know how the astrological sign Libra looks like scales that you would weigh something on?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
It’s all from the same root.
And so Libra had to do with weighing in ancient Rome.
It came down to Spanish as Libra.
And there’s just a little hint of it left in that English abbreviation, LB.
So we use a Latin abbreviation for an English word.
Yes.
Yes.
And the English word pound comes from a longer Latin expression, Libra pondo, which means a pound by weight.
But maybe that’s why you’re thinking of it, because of the Spanish word.
But it’s a completely forgivable mistake.
Oh, absolutely.
English wasn’t your native language, right?
No, it isn’t.
Yeah, you were working with whatever you had on hand and making the best of it, and you made yourself understood, and now you fixed it, and you’re good to go.
Well, David, thank you so much for calling us today.
This is a great question, and I hope you’ll call us again when you’ve got something else on your mind, all right?
Great. Thank you for answering the final question.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
Language is interesting. Somebody should do a show about words and language, and their phone number should be 877-929-9673, and their email address should be words@waywordradio.org. Don’t you think?
Yes.
Give us a call. Write us a letter. Let us know what’s on your mind.
