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 habēre to have) + de (< L dē) + pois (earlier peis < L pēnsum)
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.
[av-er-duh-poiz] 
