Mark (unit)
The Mark (from
Like the German systems, the French poids de marc weight system considered one "Marc" equal to 8 troy ounces.[citation needed]
Just as the
Origin of the term
The Etymological Dictionary of the German Language by Friedrich Kluge derives the word from the Proto-Germanic term marka, "weight and value unit" (originally "division, shared").[1]
The etymological dictionary by Wolfgang Pfeifer sees the Old High German marc, "delimitation, sign", as the stem and assumes that marc originally meant "minting" (marking of a certain weight), later denoting the ingot itself and its weight, and finally a coin of a certain weight and value.[2]
According to an 1848 trade lexicon, the term Gewichtsmark comes from the fact that "the piece of metal used for weighing was stamped with a sign or symbol".
References
- ^ Kluge, Friedrich (2012). Etymological Dictionary of the German Language. 25th edition, edited by Elmar Seebold, Berlin/Boston, ISBN 978-3-11-022364-4, p. 602 (Google Books).
- ^ Etymological Dictionary of the Germans, prepared under the direction of Wolfgang Pfeifer. Berlin 1989, reprinted several times since (c.f. "Mark", provided by the Digital Dictionary of the German Language, retrieved 9 January 2020).
- ^ Wilhelm Binder: Allgemeine Realencyclopädie oder Conversationslexicon für das katholische Deutschland. Volume 6. Regensburg 1848, p. 1133 (digitalised).
- ^ Meyers Konversationslexikon, 1905. Volume 13,-1905/K/meyers-1905-013-0317 p. 317 (digital copy).