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Most measuring abbreviations are pretty straightforward — "tbsp." for tablespoon, "qt." for quart, "cm" for centimeter ... you get the gist. But there's one major exception: "lb." for pound – what? You've seen it on grocery signs across America, and people are always talking about losing some "lbs." when dieting, but it hardly makes any sense ... or does it? Actually, it does! As The Huffington Post has so cleverly pointed out, "lb." is an abbreviation for the Latin word libra, which is the seventh sign of the zodiac (Libra) and is symbolized by scales (cue lightbulb moment). The word libra referred to balance or scales in Roman times and was also part of a unit of measurement known as "libra pondo," which when translated is "pound weight" or "a pound by weight." The "pondo" part of the measurement is the origin behind the English word "pound," while the "libra" part is the origin behind "lb." being the abbreviation.To add even more confusion to the matter, Americans use the word "pound" as a measurement for weight, but the British associate it with their currency, which is known as the pound. This is because the original value of what was used for money in Britain was equivalent to a pound of silver. The symbol for the British pound (£) is an ornate capital letter "L" — which is another reference to the world "libra." How did we not put this together before?But the Americans and British aren't the only people to take words from the ancient Romans. The Italian word "lira," which was the country's currency from 1861 to 2002, also derives from libra, as does the pound sign (today more commonly known as a hashtag), which is a nod to the way medieval scribes wrote the abbreviation "lb." And there you have it!