Historical unit of mass (hundredweight variant)
The
quintal
or
centner
is a historical unit of
mass
in many countries which is usually defined as 100 base units, such as
pounds
or
kilograms
.
[1]
It is a traditional unit of weight in France, Portugal, and Spain and their former colonies. It is commonly used for
grain
prices in wholesale markets in Ethiopia, Eritrea and India, where 1 quintal = 100 kg (220 lb).
[2]
In
British English
, it referred to the
hundredweight
; in
American English
, it formerly referred to an uncommon measurement of 100 kg (220 lb).
Languages drawing its cognate name for the weight from
Romance languages
include French, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish
quintal
, Italian
quintale
, Esperanto
kvintalo
, Polish
kwintal
. Languages taking their cognates from Germanicized
centner
include the German
Zentner
, Lithuanian
centneris
, Swedish
centner
, Polish
cetnar
, Russian and Ukrainian
центнер
(
tsentner
) and Estonian
tsentner
.
Many European languages have come to translate both the
British
hundredweight
(8 stone or 112 pounds [50.80 kg]) and the
American
hundredweight
(100 pounds [45.36 kg]), as their cognate form of
quintal
or
centner
.
Name
[
edit
]
The concept has resulted in two different series of masses: Those based on the local pound (which after
metrication
was considered equivalent to 0.5 kg (1.1 lb), and those uprated to being based on the kilogram.
In Albania (
kuintal
), Ethiopia (
kuntal
), and
India
, the 100 kg (220 lb) definition may have been introduced via Islamic
[
citation needed
]
trade. It is a standard measurement of mass for agricultural products in those countries.
In France it used to be defined as 100
livres
(pounds), about 48.95 kg (108 lb), and has been redefined as 100 kg (220 lb) (
mesures usuelles
), thus called
metric quintal
with symbol
qq
. In
Spain
, the
quintal
is still defined as 100
libras
, or about 46 kg (101 lb), but the
metric quintal
is also defined as 100 kg (220 lb);
[3]
In Portugal a quintal is 128
arrateis
or about 58.75 kg (130 lb).
The German
Zentner
and the Danish
Centner
are pound-based, and thus since metrication are defined as 50 kg (110 lb), whereas the Austrian and Swiss
Zentner
since metrication has been re-defined as 100 kg (220 lb). In Germany a measure of 100 kg (220 lb) is named a
Doppelzentner
.
Common agricultural units used in the
Soviet Union
were the 100 kg (220 lb)
centner
(
центнер
) and the term "centner per
hectare
". These are still used by countries that were part of the Soviet Union.
English use
[
edit
]
In
English
both terms
quintal
and
centner
were once alternative names for the
hundredweight
and thus defined either as 100
lb
(exactly 45.359237 kg) or as 112 lb (50.80 kg). Also, in the
Dominican Republic
it is about 125 lb (56.70 kg). The German
Zentner
was introduced to the English language via
Hanseatic trade
as a measure of the weight of certain
crops
including
hops
for
beer
production. Commonly used in the Dominion (and later province) of Newfoundland up until the 1960s as a measure for 112 lb (51 kg) of salt cod.
The
quintal
was defined in the United States in 1866
[4]
as 100 kg (220 lb). However, it is no longer used in the United States or by the
National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST), though it still appears in the statute.
[5]
In France, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Indonesia, and India, it is still in daily use by farmers. It is also used in
Brazil
and other South American countries and in some African countries including
Angola
.
[6]
See also
[
edit
]
References
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edit
]