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hundredweight

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Etymology and origin of the English word hundredweight

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
1577 Harrison, Description of England More words from the 16th century
Ultimate origin
Old English hundred,gewiht
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
English hundred
English hundredweight

Pronunciation

  • /ˈhʌndrədweɪt/, /ˈhʌndrɪdweɪt/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English hundred + weight.[2][3][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

An avoirdupois weight: 1577, in Harrison's Description of England.[2][6] Etymonline gives the 1540s and the Shorter Oxford the early 16th century.[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The OED thinks that the unit was probably first equal to a hundred pounds, as the name says, before it came to be 112 pounds in Britain.[2] Etymonline likewise says that it was commonly 100 pounds but could vary with the place and the use up to 120,[4] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged still defines the word as any of various units in that range.[6] American usage has the 100-pound unit, the short hundredweight, while British usage has the long hundredweight, and a metric hundredweight of 50 kilograms exists beside them.[7][3][6]

Timeline

  • 1577 – an avoirdupois weight of 112 pounds, probably at first 100 pounds.[2][6] Etymonline dates the word to the 1540s.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Any of various units of weight from 100 to about 120 pounds.[6][4]
  2. In Britain, a unit of 112 pounds, about 50.80 kilograms; also called the long hundredweight.[7][6][8][3]
  3. In the United States and Canada, a unit of 100 pounds, about 45.36 kilograms; also called the short hundredweight.[7][6][8][3]
  4. A metric unit of 50 kilograms; also called the metric hundredweight.[7][3][6]

Usage notes

The plural is usually unchanged after a numeral or a word of quantity: three hundredweight of coal.[2][3] The abbreviation is cwt, formerly C.[2][7]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Cite this entry

“Hundredweight.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/hundredweight. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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