Etymograph

English

libbra

Libbra comes from Italian libbra ‘pound (weight)’, and goes back to Latin lībra.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElībra1‘libra, Roman pound, a Roman unit of mass, equivalent to about 327 g’
  2. Italianc. 1300–presentlibbra2‘pound (weight)’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1934libbra2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Italian libbra
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English libbra
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1934, Ralph W. Smith, What Is a Fifty-Pound Weight?: “We find that in modern times the funt of…”.

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElībraWiktionary, Italian libbra‘libra, Roman pound, a Roman unit of mass, equivalent to about 327 g’
  2. Italianc. 1300–presentlibbraWiktionary, English libbra‘pound (weight)’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1934libbraWiktionary, English libbra. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1934, Ralph W. Smith, What Is a Fifty-Pound Weight?: “We find that in modern times the funt of…”

Linked words

through Proto-Italic *līðrā ‘ingot’

litre, rattle, 17 more

through Latin lībra ‘libra, Roman pound, a Roman unit of mass,…’

level, deliberate, equilibrium, deliberation, lira, deliberative, libra, 7 more

Today it means

noun A traditional Italian unit of mass now equated to the pound.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “libbra”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Italian libbra. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Latin lībra / libbra

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