ounce

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

ounce

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aʊns/
• Rhymes: -aʊns

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English ounce, unce, from Middle French once, from Latin uncia (“Roman ounce, various similar units”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *óynos (“one”). Doublet of a, one, inch, uncia, onça, onza, oka, ouguiya, and awqiyyah.

Noun

ounce (plural ounces)

1. An avoirdupois ounce, weighing ¹⁄₁₆ of an avoirdupois pound, or 28.349523125 grams.
2. A troy ounce, weighing ¹⁄₁₂ of a troy pound, or 480 grains, or 31.1034768 grams.
3. A US fluid ounce, with a volume of ¹⁄₁₆ of a US pint, 1.804688 cubic inches or 29.5735295625 millilitres.
4. A British imperial fluid ounce, with a volume of ¹⁄₂₀ of an imperial pint, 1.733871 cubic inches or 28.4130625 millilitres.
5. (figurative) Any small amount, a little bit.

   He didn't feel even an ounce of regret for his actions.

Synonyms

• (avoirdupois ounce): oz.; ℥, uncia (pharmacy)
• (fluid ounce): oz., fl. oz.
• (small amount): see also Thesaurus:modicum

Derived terms

• 12-ounce curls
• an ounce of prevention is better than an ounce of cure
• an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure
• an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
• bounce to the ounce
• fine ounce
• metric ounce
• metric-ounce
• twelve-ounce curls
• with every ounce of one's being

Descendants

• → Tokelauan: aunehe

Translations

28.3495 g

Albanian: ons f Arabic: أُوقِيَّة f (ʔūqiyya), وِقِيَّة f (wiqiyya), أَوْنْس m (ʔawns), أونصة f (ʔunṣa), أونسة f (ʔunsa) Aramaic: Classical Syriac: ܐܘܢܩܝܐ f (ʾūnqīyā) Armenian: ունցիա (hy) (uncʻia), ունկի (hy) (unki) Bengali: আউন্স (bn) (aunśo) Bulgarian: унция f (uncija) Catalan: unça (ca) f Chinese: Cantonese: 安士 (on1 si6-2) Mandarin: 盎司 (zh) (àngsī) Czech: unce (cs) f Esperanto: unco (eo) Faroese: unsa f Finnish: unssi (fi) French: once (fr) f Friulian: once f Galician: onza f Ge'ez: ወቄት (wäḳet) German: Unze (de) f Greek: ουγγιά (el) f (oungiá) Hebrew: אוּנְקִיָה (he) f (unqiyá) Hindi: औंस (hi) (a͠us) Hungarian: uncia (hu) Icelandic: únsa (is) f Indonesian: ons (id) Irish: unsa m, uinge f (literary) Old Irish: ungae f Italian: oncia (it) f Japanese: オンス (ja) (onsu) Khmer: អោនស៍ (ʼaon) Korean: 온스 (onseu) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: weqî (ku) f, ons (ku) f Latin: uncia f Latvian: unce f Lithuanian: uncija f Malay: auns Maltese: uqija f Maori: aunihi Middle English: ounce Mongolian: унци (unci) Norman: onche f Occitan: onça (oc) f Polish: uncja (pl) f Portuguese: onça (pt) f Romanian: uncie (ro) f Romansch: onza f, untscha, unza, uonscha Russian: у́нция (ru) f (úncija) Scottish Gaelic: unnsa m Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: у̑нца f Roman: ȗnca (sh) f Sicilian: oncia f, uncia Slovak: unca (sk) f Spanish: onza (es) f Swahili: wakia Swedish: uns (sv) Tagalog: onsa Thai: ออนซ์ Turkish: ons (tr) Uzbek: untsiya Venetan: onsa f, onza, onzha, onça Welsh: owns (cy) f Zulu: iawunsi class 5

Etymology 2

From Middle French once, from Old French lonce (“lynx”), by false division (the l was thought to be the article), from Italian lonza, ultimately from Ancient Greek λύγξ (lúnx, “lynx”). Doublet of onza and lynx.

Noun

ounce (plural ounces)

1. (archaic) A large wild feline, such as a lynx or cougar. [from 14th c.]
   • 1634, William Wood, “Of the Beasts that Live on the Land”, in New Englands Prospect. A True, Lively, and Experimentall Description of that Part of America, Commonly Called New England; […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Bellamie, […], →OCLC, 1st part, page 23:

     The Ounce or the vvilde Cat, is as big as a mungrell dog, this creature is by nature feirce, and more dangerous to bee met vvithall than any other creature, not fearing eyther dogge or man; […]

   • 1801, Robert Southey, “(please specify the page)”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] [F]or T[homas] N[orton] Longman and O[wen] Rees, […], by Biggs and Cottle, […], →OCLC:

     Halloa! another prey,
     The nimble Antelope!
     The ounce is freed; one spring,
     And his talons are sheath’d in her shoulders,
     And his teeth are red in her gore.

2. Synonym of snow leopard, Panthera uncia. [from 18th c.]
3. (cryptozoology) Synonym of onza, a particularly aggressive cougar or jaguarundi in Mexican folklore.
   • 1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 8, page 235:

     The ounce, a leopard-like creature, is dreaded for its depredations by the Indians of Brazil.

Translations

large wild feline

French: once (fr) f Spanish: onza (es) f

References

• snow leopard on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Uncia uncia on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Uncia uncia on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Anagrams

• Cuneo, cuneo-, on cue

Middle English

Alternative forms

• unce, ownce, ounse, nounce, nowns

Etymology

From Middle French once, from Old French once, unce, from Latin uncia. Doublet of ynche.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈuːns(ə)/, /ˈuns(ə)/

Noun

ounce (plural ounces or ounce)

1. An ounce (unit with much variation, but generally equivalent to 1/12 or 1/16 of a pound)
2. (rare) A shekel (ancient measure of weight)
3. (rare) A minuscule or insignificant amount or quantity.
   • a. 1394, Geoffrey Chaucer, “General Prologue”, in The Canterbury Tales‎, archived from the original on 22 February 2019, lines 677–678:

     By ounces henge his lokkes that he hadde / And therwith he his shuldres overspradde

     By very little hung the locks that he had; / He draped them over his shoulders

4. (rare) An eight-minute unit for measuring time.
5. (rare) A three-inch unit for measuring length.

Descendants

• English: ounce, unce
• Scots: ounce

References

• “ǒunce, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 25 February 2019.

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From English ounce. Doublet of inch and unse.

Noun

ounce m (definite singular ouncen, indefinite plural ouncer, definite plural ouncene)

1. an avoirdupois ounce

   Synonym: unse

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From English ounce. Doublet of inch and unse.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /æʉ̯ns/

Noun

ounce m (definite singular ouncen, indefinite plural ouncar, definite plural ouncane)

1. an avoirdupois ounce

   Synonym: unse

References

• “ounce” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.