Pounds and Ounces

These words must seem weird to those who follow the metric system, so a bit of history might help explain. The Latin word Libra is abbreviated to 'lb'. Libra is widely known as the astrological sign for balance, but it was also part of the Roman unit of weight, libra pond, which translates to “pound weight." Britain derived pound from that expression as its unit of measurement and also as a term for its currency because centuries ago, a pound in money was considered equal to the value of a pound of silver.

Ounces - The Spanish ounce (Onza) was 1⁄16 of a pound. It is a unit of mass used in most British systems of measurement. It is most pervasive in the retail sale of groceries in the United States, but is also used in many other matters of domestic and international trade between imperial or customary measurement driven countries.