libbra

English

Alternative forms

• libra

Etymology

From Italian libbra. Doublet of arratel, Libra, libra, lira, litra, litre, livre, and rottol.

Noun

libbra (plural libbre)

1. A traditional Italian unit of mass now equated to the pound.
   • 1934 February, Ralph W. Smith, “What Is a Fifty-Pound Weight?”, in J[ames] McKeen Cattell, editor, The Scientific Monthly, volume XXXVIII, New York, N.Y.: The Science Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 114, column 2:

     We find that in modern times the funt of Russia, the libbra of Italy, the libra of Spain, Portugal and various South and Central American countries, the livre of France and Greece, the pfund of Germany, the pond of Java and the Netherlands, and the pund of Denmark and Sweden, correspond to the avoirdupois pound, as we know it, although the exact equivalents in terms of our pound vary from about ¾ to over 2 pounds.

   • 1991, Sandra Cavallo, “Patterns of poverty and patterns of relief”, in Stuart Woolf, editor, Domestic Strategies: Work and Family in France and Italy, 1600–1800, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, published 2002, →ISBN, chapter 6 (Conceptions of poverty and poor-relief in Turin in the second half of the eighteenth century), page 174:

     In the first two samples analysed (1743 and 1753), bread remained a grant for young children only, who were recipients of three to four libbre of bread per week.

   • 2006, Andrea Palladio, translated by Vaughan Hart and Peter Hicks, “On the Treasury, That Is, the Chamber of the Commune, and the Money that People Used in Rome in Those Times”, in Palladio’s Rome: A Translation of Andrea Palladio’s Two Guidebooks to Rome, New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, →ISBN, section I (The Antiquities of Rome […]), page 65:

     From this treasury, Julius Caesar, having broken down the doors, took 4,135 libbre of gold and nine hundred thousand libbre of silver, and in their place he put the same quantity of gilt bronze.

Italian

Etymology

From Latin lībra.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlib.bra/
• Rhymes: -ibbra
• Hyphenation: lìb‧bra

Noun

libbra f (plural libbre)

1. pound (weight)

Further reading

• libbra in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
• libbra in garzantilinguistica.it – Garzanti Linguistica, De Agostini Scuola Spa

Anagrams

• labbri