Pound

Pound - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

(1.) A weight. Heb. maneh, equal to 100 shekels (1 Kings 10:17; Ezra 2:69; Neh. 7:71, 72). Gr. litra, equal to about 12 oz. avoirdupois (John 12:3; 19:39).

(2.) A sum of money; the Gr. mna or mina (Luke 19:13, 16, 18, 20, 24, 25). It was equal to 100 drachmas, and was of the value of about $3, 6s. 8d. of our money. (See [505]MONEY.)

Pound - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

POUND, n. [L. pondo, pondus, weight, a pound; pendo, to weigh, to bend.]

1. A standard weight consisting of twelve ounces troy or sixteen ounces avoirdupois.

2. A money of account consisting of twenty shillings, the value of which is different in different countries. The pound sterling is equivalent to $4.44.44 cts. money of the United States. In New England and Virginia, the pound is equal to $3 1/3; in New York to $2 1/2.

POUND, n. An inclosure erected by authority, in which cattle or other beasts are confined when taken in trespassing, or going at large in violation of law; a pin-fold.

POUND, v.t. To confine in a public pound.

POUND, v.t.

1. To beat; to strike with some heavy instrument, and with repeated blows, so as to make an impression.

With cruel blows she pounds her blubber'd cheeks.

2. To comminute and pulverize by beating; to bruise or break into fine parts by a heavy instrument; as, to pound spice or salt.

Loud strokes with pounding spice the fabric rend.

pound (maneh; mna, litra; Latin, libra): Pound does not correctly represent the Hebrew maneh, which was more than a pound (see MANEH). The litra of Joh 12:3 and 19:39 is the Roman pound (libra) of 4,950 grains, which is less than a pound troy, being about 10 1/3 oz. In a monetary sense (its use in Lu 19:13-25) it is the mna, or maneh, which was either of silver or gold, the former, which is probably the one referred to by Luke, being equal to 6,17 British pounds, or about $33 (in 1915); the latter 102,10 British pounds or $510 (in 1915).

See WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

Figurative: "Pound," like "talent," is used in the New Testament for intellectual gifts and spiritual endowments, as in the passage given above.

H. Porter

1. A weight. [See WEIGHTS AND MEASURES AND MEASURES]
2. A sum of money put in the Old Testament, (1 Kings 10:17; Ezra 2:69; Nehemiah 7:71) for the Hebrew maneh , worth in silver about . In the parable of the ten pounds, (Luke 19:12-27) the reference appears to be to a Greek pound, a weight used as a money of account, of which sixty went to the talent. It was worth to .