Definition:Avoirdupois/Stone

From ProofWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Definition

The stone is an avoirdupois unit of mass.

\(\ds \) \(\) \(\ds 1\) stone
\(\ds \) \(=\) \(\ds 14\) pounds avoirdupois
\(\ds \) \(=\) \(\ds 224\) ounces avoirdupois
\(\ds \) \(\approx\) \(\ds 6 \, 350 \cdotp 29318\) grams

The gram equivalent is exact.


Historical Note

The stone was originally used to weigh agricultural commodities.

Before standardisation, not only did the stone vary according to commodity, it also varied according to location.


While it is commonplace in Britain to report one's weight in stone, in America the weight is not used, and pounds (avoirdupois) are used instead.


Linguistic Note on Stone

The plural of stone, in the context of weight avoirdupois, is not stones but stone.


When reporting a weight in stone and pounds, it is also customary not actually to say pound.

Hence prime.mover would (if asked) report his weight as "$16$ stone $6$" instead of saying "$16$ stones and $6$ pounds" in full.


Linguistic Note on Avoirdupois

The word avoirdupois derives from the Norman French word whose literal translation is goods (that is property, or things owned) of weight.

The avoir part also means to have in modern French, and derives from the Latin habere.

It is pronounced something like av-wah-doo-pwah, although Francophones will be aware that there are further subtleties to this.


Sources