pound

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A unit of weight equal to about 454 grams (16 ounces).

   The recipe calls for two pounds of flour.

2. 2
   verb

   To hit something hard and repeatedly.

   He pounded on the door until someone answered.

3. 3
   verb

   To crush something into small pieces by beating it.

   She pounded the spices into a fine powder.

4. 4
   noun

   A place where stray animals are kept until they are claimed.

   They adopted a dog from the local pound.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Pound as a unit of weight goes back through Old English to Latin libra pondo, “a pound by weight,” in which libra meant “scales” or “balance.” Its monetary sense arose because an early pound represented a pound of silver. Pound meaning “strike heavily” and pound meaning “enclosure” are separate Old English words.

From Middle English pound, from Old English pund (“a pound, weight”), from Proto-West Germanic *pund, from Proto-Germanic *pundą (“pound, weight”), an early borrowing from Latin pondō (“by weight”), ablative form of pondus (“weight”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- (“to pull, stretch”). Cognate with Dutch pond, German Pfund, Danish pund and Swedish pund. Doublet of funt, pfund, pood, and punt.

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary