pound

pound · noun, verb¹

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*(s)pend-“to pull, stretch”
2. Latin · derived frompondō“by weight”
3. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*pundą“pound, weight”
4. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*pund
5. Old English · inherited frompund“a pound, weight”
6. Middle English · inherited frompound
7. English todaypound

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, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish pund. Doublet of funt, pfund, pood, and punt.

pound · noun, verb²

1. Old English · inherited from*pund“an enclosure”
2. Middle English · inherited frompounde
3. English todaypound

From Middle English pounde, ponde, pund, from Old English *pund (“an enclosure”). Related to Old English pyndan (“to enclose, shut up, dam, impound”). Compare also Old English pynd (“a cistern, lake”).

pound · verb, noun³

1. Proto-West Germanic · derived from*pūn-“broken pieces, rubble”
2. Old English · inherited frompūnian“to pound, beat, bray, bruise, crush”
3. Middle English · inherited frompounen
4. English todaypound

From an alteration of earlier poun, pown, from Middle English pounen, from Old English pūnian (“to pound, beat, bray, bruise, crush”), from Proto-West Germanic *pūn- (“broken pieces, rubble”). Related to Saterland Frisian Pün (“debris, fragments”), West Frisian pún (“debris, rubble”), Dutch puin (“debris, fragments, rubbish”), Low German pun (“fragments”).

Pound · proper noun⁴

* As an English surname, from both senses of the noun pound meaning "measure of weight" and "enclosure." * As a German surname, variant of Pfund, or as a north/Low German surname, from the variants of it, Pund, Pundt, all meaning "pound," thus related to the above.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from 19th c. To wager a pound on.