Wordcraft Community Home Page
apples and oranges

This topic can be found at:
https://wordcraft.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/932607094/m/9401004505

November 12, 2007, 12:46
zmježd
apples and oranges
Latin uncia 'ounce' is a great word. Besides yielding both English inch and ounce, there were twelve unciæ to the libra 'pound'. There were specific names for all multiples of the uncia (some are coin names, others simply weights): i.e., uncia (1 oz), sescuncia (1.5 oz), semis (2 oz), triens (3 oz), quadrans (4 oz), quincunx (5 oz), sextans (6 oz), septunx (7 oz), bes (8 oz, also literally, 'two-thirds'), dodrans (9 oz), dextans (10 oz), deunx (11 oz), and as (12 oz).


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
November 12, 2007, 14:10
bethree5
Hey, I recognize one of those from New Age days!
November 12, 2007, 20:08
Kalleh
Wow, I hadn't heard of most of those words. I have vaguely heard of quincunx, but that's about it. Some of them, like bes and as, don't even sound vaguely familiar!

We do have a product in healthcare, Dextran, but I doubt that it's related to dextans.