picul

plural piculs · alternative pical · alternative pikal · alternative pikol · alternative pikul · alternative pico · alternative picol · alternative pecul · alternative peecul · alternative peecull

1. units of measureA traditional South and East Asian unit of weight, based upon the load of a shoulder pole and varying by place and over time but usually standardized at about 60 kg.

   The coal is sold for 130 cash... per picul of 133 pounds.

   1888, Archibald John Little, Through the Yang-tse Gorges, page 279

   1 more example

   Powder sugar of China, the hundred cattees or peecull worth fortie to fiftie.

   c. 1605, John Saris, quoted in Anthony Farrington's The English Factory in Japan (1991), p. 56

   Synonyms: pingo, dan, tam, tan