Avoirdupois - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

av·oir·du·pois

Audio Help [av-er-duh-poiz] Pronunciation Key

–noun

1.	avoirdupois weight.

2.	Informal. bodily weight: He carries around a lot of excess avoirdupois.

[Origin: 1250–1300; ME avoir de pois lit., property of weight < OF, equiv. to avoir (earlier aveir < L habére to have) + de (< L dé) + pois (earlier peis < L pénsum)

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
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Avoirdupois

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

av·oir·du·pois Audio Help (āv'ər-də-poiz') Pronunciation Key
n.

Abbr. av. or avdp. Avoirdupois weight.
Informal Weight or heaviness, especially of a person.

[Middle English avoir de pois, commodities sold by weight, alteration of Old French aveir de peis, goods of weight : aveir, avoir, to have (from Latin habēre; see able) + de, of (from Latin dē, from; see de-) + peis, pois, weight (from Vulgar Latin *pēsum, from Latin pēnsum, past participle of pendere, to hang; see (s)pen- in Indo-European roots).]

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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
avoirdupois

1656, misspelling of M.E. avoir-de-peise (c.1300), from O.Fr. avoir de pois "goods of weight," from aveir "property, goods" (noun use of aveir "have") + peis "weight," from L. pensum, neut. of pendere "to weigh" (see pendant). After 1485, the standard system of weights used in England for all goods except precious metals, precious stones, and medicine.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

avoirdupois
noun
1.	a system of weights based on the 16-ounce pound (or 7,000 grains)
2.	excess bodily weight; "she disliked fatness in herself as well as in others" [syn: fatness] [ant: leanness]

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Avoirdupois

Av`oir*du*pois"\ ([a^]v`[~e]r*d[-u]*poiz"), n. & a. [OE. aver de peis, goods of weight, where peis is fr. OF. peis weight, F. poids, L. pensum. See Aver, n., and Poise, n.]

1. Goods sold by weight. [Obs.]

2. Avoirdupois weight.

3. Weight; heaviness; as, a woman of much avoirdupois. [Colloq.]

Avoirdupois weight, a system of weights by which coarser commodities are weighed, such as hay, grain, butter, sugar, tea.

Note: The standard Avoirdupois pound of the United States is equivalent to the weight of 27.7015 cubic inches of distilled water at 62[deg] Fahrenheit, the barometer being at 30 inches, and the water weighed in the air with brass weights. In this system of weights 16 drams make 1 ounce, 16 ounces 1 pound, 25 pounds 1 quarter, 4 quarters 1 hundred weight, and 20 hundred weight 1 ton. The above pound contains 7,000 grains, or 453.54 grams, so that 1 pound avoirdupois is equivalent to 1 31-144 pounds troy. (See Troy weight.) Formerly, a hundred weight was reckoned at 112 pounds, the ton being 2,240 pounds (sometimes called a long ton).

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avoirdupois

avoirdupois was Word of the Day on August 29, 2000.

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