Pood
Pood (Russian: пуд, tr. pud; IPA: [put]), is a unit of mass equal to 40 funt (фунт, Russian pound). It is approximately 16.38 kilograms (36.11 pounds).[1] It was used in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Pood was first mentioned in a number of documents of the 12th century. Unlike funt, which came at least in the 14th century from Middle High German: phunt, Old Russian: пудъ pud (the earlier unattested form *пѫдъ pǫdŭ) is a much older borrowing from Old Norse: pund which in turn came through the mediation of Old English: pund from Latin: pondus "weight".
Together with other units of weight of the Imperial Russian weight measurement system, pood was officially abolished by the USSR in 1924. However, the term remained in widespread use at least until the 1940s.[2] In his 1953 short story 'Matryonas Home' Alexander Solzhenitsyn presents the pood as still in use amongst the Khrushchev era Soviet peasants. This is to illustrate the widening gap between the urban and rural populations in the post-war Soviet era.
Its usage is preserved in modern Russian in certain specific cases, e.g., in reference to sports weights, such as traditional Russian kettlebells, cast in multiples and fractions of 16 kg (which is pood rounded to metric units). For example, a 24 kg kettlebell is commonly referred to as "one-and-half pood kettlebell" (polutorapudovaya girya). It is also sometimes used when reporting the amounts of bulk agricultural production, such as grains or potatoes.
An old Russian proverb reads, "You never know a man until you have eaten a pood of salt with him." (Russian: Человека узнаешь, когда с ним пуд соли съешь.)
References [edit]
- ^ Yakovlev, V. B. (August 1957). "Development of Wrought Iron Production". Metallurgist. Volume (New York: Springer) 1 (Number 8): 546. doi:10.1007/BF00732452. 0026-0894. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
- ^ A Writer at War: A Soviet Journalist with the Red Army, 1941-1945, Vasily Grossman, 978-0307275332
