Stone (unit)
The stone (abbreviation st) is an informal unit of measure equal to 14 pounds avoirdupois (about 6.35 kg) used in Great Britain and Ireland for measuring human body weight. The stone was formerly used for purposes of trade in many North-West European countries where its value ranged from about 5 to 40 local pounds (3 to 15 kg), but with the advent of metrication from the mid-19th century onwards it was superseded by the kilogram; its use for trade in the United Kingdom and in Ireland being rescinded in the 1980s. It may be unfamiliar to an international audience.
Read more about Stone (unit): Antiquity, Great Britain and Ireland, Continental Europe, Metric Stone
Famous quotes containing the word stone:
“It is not quite the same when we are seventy-two as when we are twenty-seven; still I am glad of what is left, and wish we might both hold out till the victory we have sought is won, but all the same the victory is coming. In the aftertime the world will be the better for it.”
—Lucy Stone (1818–1893)