Forms: 4 auoirdepeise, auer de peis, 4–7 avoir de pois, 5 haberdepase, 6 auerdepaise, auer de poiz, haberdepoys, -poise, 6–7 hauer de pois, haber-de-pois, 7 averdepois, aver-, haberdupois(e, haverdupois(e, 8 hauer-du-pois, 7– avoirdupois. [A recent corrupt spelling of avoir-de-pois, in early OF. and AF. aveir de peis ‘goods of weight,’ f. OF. avoir, aveir, property, goods, AVER, de of, pois, peis (= Pr. pes, pens, It. peso):—L. *pēsum, pensum, weight. The first word had the variant forms of the simple AVER, and the pronunciation remains a·ver; the Norman peis was from 1300 varied with, and c. 1500 superseded by, the Parisian pois. The best modern spelling is the 17th c. averdepois; in any case de ought to be restored for du, introduced by some ignorant ‘improver’ c. 1640–50.]
† 1. Merchandise sold by weight. Obs. (c. 1600.)
c. 1300. E. E. Poems (1862), 154. Ȝur gret packes of draperie, auoir-depeise, and ȝur wol sackes.
1388. Wyclif, Ezek. xxvii. 16. Thei settiden forth in thi marcat gemme, and purpur … and cochod, ether auer de peis [1382 chodchod, that is, precious marchaundise].
[1392. Act 16 Rich. II., i. § 2. Toutz marchants … qe achater ou vendre voillont bledz, vinz, avoir de pois, char, pesson, & toutz autres vivres & vitails.]
1502. transl. in Arnold, Chron. (1811), 34. Cornes, wynes, auerdepaise, flesh, fishe, or odur vitayles.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 137. To exercise other marchandises, as of Hauer de pois, and other fine wares, as sarcenets, lawnes, cindalles, and silke.
1618. Pulton, trans. Act 27 Edw. III., Staple x, That Wools, and all manner auoir de pois, be weighed by the ballance.
1691. Blount, Law Dict., Avoir du Pois … signifies such Merchandises as are weighed by this weight, and not by Troy-weight.
2. (More fully avoirdupois weight) The standard system of weights used, in Great Britain, for all goods except the precious metals, precious stones, and medicines.
The A. pound contains 7000 grains. The A. weight of the United States agrees with that of Great Britain in the pound, ounce and dram; but the hundredweight contains in U.S. 100, in G. B. 112. lbs., and the ton of 20 cwt. differs accordingly.
1485. Inv., in Ripon Ch. Acts, 367. j par balance cum ponderibus de haberdepase.
1532–3. Act 24 Hen. VIII., iii. Lawfull weyght, called haberdepois.
1543. Recorde, Gr. Artes (1575), 202. An other waight called Haberdepoise, in whiche 16 ounces make a pounde.
1594. Plat, Jewell-ho., III. 7. Vveightes that may agree vvith the auer de poiz.
1619. Dalton, Countr. Just., lxv. (1630), 143. In this Averdepois weight … 112 pounds make a hundred weight.
1631. Brathwait, Whimzies, 16. A trite discourse of weights and measures: most ponderously dividing them into troy and averdepois.
1647. Ward, Simp. Cobler (1843), 39. Weigh Rules by Troyweight, and not by the old Haber-du-pois.
1650. B., Discolliminium, 16. Weighed … at the … publick beam … not at … every Shop-keeper’s Aver-du-pois.
1656. Du Gard, Gate Lat. Unl., § 536. Avoir-du-pois, wherewith wares are bought and sold.
1667. E. King, in Phil. Trans., II. 450. 49 ounces (Haver de pois weight) of blood.
1669. Boyle, Contn. New Exp., I. xxxiii. (1682), 112. Haberdupoise weight.
1701. J. Jones, in A. J. Ellis, E. E. Pron., I. iii. 220. h ‘may be sounded in halleluiah, harbergeon, habiliment, hauer-du-pois,’ &c.
1755. Phil. Trans., XLIX. 184. So great a weight as twenty-six pounds avoirdupoize.
1806. Vince, Hydrost., ii. 21. A cubic foot of rain water weighs 1000 ounces avoirdupoise.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., II. viii. The weakest can stand under thirty stone avoirdupois.
3. Weight; degree of heaviness. (Common in U.S.)
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. iv. 276. The weight of an hayre will turne the Scales betweene their Haber-de-pois.
1680. Hon. Cavalier, 26. To make it more than Aver-du-pois.
1883. A. M. F. Davis, in Atl. Monthly, May, 681/2 (Football). Avoirdupois and strength are at a premium for rushing, blocking, and tackling.
