troy pound
- noun
- /trɔɪ paʊnd/
- Archaic
:
libra troy
- When purchasing jewelry, you should ask how many troy pounds the gold weighs to ensure you're getting a fair deal.
Examples
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A troy pound of gold is equivalent to 12 troy ounces and weighs about 373.24 grams.
-
There were about five pence to the shilling and 48 shillings to the pound, which referred to a troy pound of silver, a precious metal that was worth far more then than it is a thousand years later.
Fiction book (1998) -
The recipe calls for a troy pound of silver for the decorative element.
Synonyms
An old unit of weight used for medicines equal to 12 ounces, about 373 grams
Surface Forms
Morphology
The term is compositional: 'troy' names the troy weight system (used for precious metals) and 'pound' names a unit of weight, so together they denote the pound as defined within the troy system. While the exact ounce conversion (12 troy ounces) is a technical detail not automatically computed by learners, the basic meaning 'a pound in the troy system / a weight unit for metals' is directly derivable from the constituents and is cross-linguistically transparent.
Etymology
The name troy pound may come from the old French town of Troyes, where long ago merchants at big markets used a special set of weights for gold and silver. That's why troy pound became the 'unit of weight' we still use for 'precious metals'.
