Arroba

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The arroba was a Spanish-Portuguese measure and weight of liquid. It was mainly used for oil, wine and honey. The word comes from the Arabic word rubʿ  /رُبْع('Quarter') or with the agglutinated article al-rubʿ  /الرُبْع, pronounced ar-rubʿ due to the distinction between sun and moon letters . The symbol for the Arroba was the "@". Since the Arroba is no longer in use, the "@" has become free for electronic communication . In Spanish and French the memory of the name of this abbreviation has been preserved, the "@" is still referred to as arroba .

description

An etalon in Toledo is said to have been for the large Arroba 1237, Spanish cubic inches , i.e. 16.17 liters . The Arroba in Madrid differed with 15.49 liters. It was also called Cantara . In Zaragoza , the liquid measure was 9.96 liters and the oil arroba weighed 12.4236 kilograms . In Portugal, an arroba weighed 14.688 kilograms.

There was the small one with 12 19/80 liters and the large Arroba with 16 7/190 liters. The small one was also known as Arroba menor (12.63 liters), the large one as Arroba major . The Potta wine had 30 arrobas (large). The ratio was: 25 large arrobas corresponded to 32 small arrobas.

Today's meaning

In some Latin American countries, the arroba is still a very common measure of weight today. Staple foods such as flour, sugar, corn, beans or rice as well as coca leaves , for example, are traded in small arroba sacks or large quintal sacks for 100 Castilian pounds ( libras castellanas ). For example, in Bolivia 4 arroba form a quintal of 46 kilograms. 1 Arroba thus weighs 11.5 kilograms, which are further divided into 4 cuartillas, 25 pounds or 400 ounces.

See also

literature

  • Georg Thomas Flügel: Course list continued as a manual for coin, measure, weight and Customs. Editor: LF Huber. Verlag der Jägerschen Buch-, Papier- und Landkartenhandlung, Frankfurt am Main 1859, p. 80.
  • Grande Enciclopédia Portuguesa e Brasileira. (Great Portuguese and Brazilian Encyclopedia), Lisboa / Rio de Janeiro, 1936–1960, Vol. 3, p. 369 (Portuguese).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Leopold Carl Bleibtreu : Handbook of coin, measure and weight and the bill of exchange, government paper, banking and shares in European and non-European countries and cities. Published by J. Engelhorn, Stuttgart 1863, p. 264.
  2. ↑ Leopold Carl Bleibtreu: Handbook of coin, measure and weight and the bill of exchange, government paper, banking and shares in European and non-European countries and cities. Published by J. Engelhorn, Stuttgart 1863, p. 277.
  3. ^ Eduard Döring: Handbook of coin, exchange, measure and weight ... Verlag J. Hölscher, Koblenz 1862, p. 434.