Does anyone know why lb is the abreviation for pounds?

Question

Thankyou!!

Answer 1

So far everyone has, correctly, pointed out the origin of lbs with a Latin word.

But there's another more basic question that has been missed, viz., WHY do we use this abbreviation of a LATIN word to stand for an ENGLISH word??

Actually, there are many examples of this: e.g., i.e., viz., ibid., sic, n.b., q.v., etc.

When you consider that at one time all serious academic writing all across Europe was done in Latin you can understand how the abbreviations themselves developed. Eventually English academics began to write serious works (math, science, history, philosophy, religion, etc) in English. BUT many of the Latin abbreviations "stuck" -- they were familiar, precise and useful for the writers, so they continued to use them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_abbreviations

(Usage note -- as with "lbs", in MOST cases, when you see these Latin abbreviations you should neither try to say the Latin word or phrase nor just pronounce the letters. Rather, speak the ENGLISH equivalent, much as you do when you see a numeral or symbol. So, say "and so forth" for "etc"; "that is" for "i.e.", "for example" for "e.g.", "namely" for "viz", "number" for "no".)

Answer 2

The origin is in the Latin word libra, which could mean both balance scales (hence the symbol for the astrological sign Libra, which was named after a constellation that was thought to resemble scales) and also a pound weight, for which the full expression was libra pondo, the second word being the origin of our pound.

Answer 3

Because in latin the word pound is something like the word LIBRA which is pound in spanish. Hence the abbreviation LB.

Answer 4

Libra is the latin for pound. LB is the abbrev.

Answer 5

pound (n.1)
"measure of weight," O.E. pund, from W.Gmc.
stem *punda-
"pound" as a measure of weight (cf. Goth. pund, O.H.G. pfunt, Ger. Pfund, M.Du. pont, O.Fris., O.N. pund),
early borrowing from L. pondo "pound," originally in libra pondo "a pound by weight,"
from pondo (adv.) "by weight,"
ablative of *pondus "weight" (see span (v.)). ....

***The abbreviations lb., £ are from libra, and reflect the medieval custom of keeping accounts in Latin.