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Etymology and origin of the English word ounce

Pronunciation

ounce1 unit of weight

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
before 1338, Robert Mannyng's Chronicle
Borrowed from
Anglo-Norman unce via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin ūnus

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English unce, borrowed from Anglo-Norman unce and unce (modern French once), and partly directly Latin uncia (“a twelfth part”),[2][3][4] the twelfth part of a pound or of a foot.[5][6] The Latin noun is derived from ūnus (“one”),[5][7][8] probably to express a unit,[4] and Etymonline traces that word to Proto-Indo-European *óynos (“one, unique”).[5] Old English had already borrowed the Latin word, as ynce and yndse, from a post-classical variant with ts in place of c, according to the OED;[2][3] the Middle English borrowing from French replaced those forms.[3] In its other sense, a twelfth of a foot, the Old English word became inch, so that ounce and inch are doublets.[9][6][3] The abbreviation oz. comes from onza, an older Italian form.[5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A twelfth of a pound in troy weight: before 1338, as unce, in Robert Mannyng's Chronicle; the spelling ounce follows before 1382 in the Wycliffe Bible.[3] Etymonline dates the word to the early 14th century.[5] The Old English form is found before 899, in King Alfred's translation of Orosius.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In the troy and apothecaries' systems the ounce stayed a twelfth of a pound, but in avoirdupois weight it became a sixteenth.[9][5][2] From the late 14th century it also stood loosely for a small quantity,[5] first in Chaucer's General Prologue,[2] and proverbs that weigh an ounce of one thing against a pound of another appear by 1526.[2][10] Middle English also used it as a measure of time (7½ seconds) and of length (three inches), both found only in John Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, before 1398.[2][5] From about 1520 it named a large Spanish gold coin, the onza.[2][11] In Shetland and Orkney an ounce or ounceland was a measure of land, one of the eight parts of a markland.[12] Merriam-Webster also records it as a unit of thickness for leather, 1/64 inch.[8]

Timeline

  • before 899 – Old English ynce, in Alfred's Orosius.[3]
  • before 1338 – unce, a unit of weight.[3]
  • before 1382 – the spelling ounce, in the Wycliffe Bible.[3]
  • c. 1387 – a small quantity, in Chaucer.[2]
  • before 1398 – a measure of time and of length (obsolete).[2]
  • c. 1520 – a Spanish gold coin.[2]
  • 1526 – in proverbs contrasting an ounce with a pound.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A unit of weight equal to one sixteenth of an avoirdupois pound, about 28.35 grams.
  2. A unit equal to one twelfth of a troy or apothecaries' pound, about 31.1 grams.
  3. Short for fluid ounce, a unit of liquid volume.
  4. A very small amount: He hasn't an ounce of patience left.

ounce2 snow leopard

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1400, Kyng Alisaunder
Borrowed from
Old French once via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek λύγξ

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English unce (also once), borrowed from Old French once (“lynx”),[5][8][4] a form of lonce in which the initial l- was mistaken for the definite article.[5][8][2][13] Barnhart, Merriam-Webster and Klein derive that word from Vulgar Latin *luncea, from Latin lyncea (“lynx-like”), a derivative of lynx;[3][8][6][5] the OED instead takes it from Italian lonza (“panther”) (13th century), ultimately from Ancient Greek λύγξ (lúnx, “lynx”).[2] The AHD also traces the Latin word to Greek.[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The lynx: about 1400, in the romance Kyng Alisaunder (composed probably before 1300).[2] Barnhart dates the word probably before 1300 and Etymonline to about 1300.[3][5]

Semantic evolution

At first the name belonged to the common lynx; it was later given to other spotted wild cats of moderate size, such as the cheetah,[5][11][2] and Milton names ounces among the beasts playing before Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost.[8] Since 1774, when Oliver Goldsmith used it in his History of the Earth, it has meant the snow leopard of the mountains of Central Asia,[2] now its main sense;[5] the lynx and cheetah senses are archaic.[8][2] In heraldry an ounce is a leopard.[8] A Scots form once is recorded about 1470.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 1300 – the lynx, in Etymonline's dating.[5]
  • c. 1400 – Kyng Alisaunder.[2]
  • c. 1470 – Scots once.[3]
  • 1774 – the snow leopard.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The snow leopard.
  2. (archaic) A lynx, cheetah or other wild cat of moderate size.

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  10. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  11. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  13. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  14. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Ounce.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/ounce. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

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