One of the things that has always intrigued me is the use of the abbreviation lb to represent “pound”. It turns out that this abbreviation dates back to an ancient Roman unit of measurement known as libra pondo, which meant “a pound by weight” (their pound was equivalent to 12 ounces; it wasn’t until the 1300s that a pound became 16 ounces). The word pound itself is derived from the Latin word libra pondo, and it made its way into modern English through Proto-Germanic punda and Old English pund. The currency name “pound” also originated from the association with silver being measured in 12-ounce units. The pound symbol £ is actually a stylized version of the letter l from libra pondo, while the symbol # is sometimes referred to as a “pound sign” because it initially started as a cursive combination of the letters l and b to represent the word “pound” in shorthand. It’s fascinating how all these connections converge due to a single Latin phrase.
