The quintal or centner is a historical unit of

mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

in many countries that is usually defined as 100 base units, such as pounds or

kilogram The kilogram (also spelled kilogramme) is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand grams. It has the unit symbol kg. The word "kilogram" is formed from the combination of the metric prefix kilo- (m ...

s. It is a traditional unit of weight in France, Portugal, and Spain and their former colonies. It is commonly used for

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached husk, hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and ...

prices in wholesale markets in Ethiopia, Eritrea and India, where 1 quintal = . In

British English British English is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom, especially Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to ...

, it referred to the

hundredweight The hundredweight (abbreviation: cwt), formerly also known as the centum weight or quintal, is a British imperial and United States customary unit of weight or mass. Its value differs between the United States customary and British imperial sy ...

; in

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...

, it formerly referred to an uncommon measurement of . Languages drawing its cognate name for the weight from

Romance languages The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...

include French, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish , Italian , Esperanto , Polish . Languages taking their cognates from Germanicized ''centner'' include the German , Lithuanian , Swedish , Polish , Russian and Ukrainian () and Estonian . Many European languages have come to translate both the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

(8 stone or ) and the American

(), as their cognate form of ''quintal'' or ''centner''.

Name

The concept has resulted in two different series of masses: Those based on the local pound (which after

metrication Metrication or metrification is the act or process of converting to the metric system of measurement. All over the world, countries have transitioned from local and traditional Unit of measurement, units of measurement to the metric system. This ...

was considered equivalent to , and those uprated to being based on the kilogram. In Albania (), Ethiopia (), and

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, the definition may have been introduced via Islamic trade. It is a standard measurement of mass for agricultural products in those countries. In France it used to be defined as 100 (pounds), about , and has been redefined as 100 kg (), thus called ''metric quintal'' with symbol ''qq''. In

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, the is still defined as 100 , or about , but the ''metric quintal'' is also defined as 100 kg; In Portugal a quintal is 128 or about . The German and the Danish are pound-based, and thus since metrication are defined as , whereas the Austrian and Swiss since metrication has been re-defined as 100 kg. In Germany a measure of 100 kg is named a . In Italy, the is commonly used to refer to 100 kg and is abbreviated to ''q'', but the usage is considered informal and is not considered legally valid since 1990. Common agricultural units used in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

were the 100 kg () and the term " per

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

". These are still used by countries that were part of the Soviet Union.

English use

In English both terms ''quintal'' and ''centner'' were once alternative names for the

and thus defined either as 100 lb (exactly ) or as . Also, in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

it is about . The German was introduced to the English language via Hanseatic trade as a measure of the weight of certain

crops A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. In other words, a crop is a plant or plant product that is grown for a specific purpose such as food, fibre, or fuel. When plants of the same species a ...

including

hops Hops are the flowers (also called seed cones or strobiles) of the hop plant ''Humulus lupulus'', a member of the Cannabaceae family of flowering plants. They are used primarily as a bittering, flavouring, and stability agent in beer, to whic ...

for

beer Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches from cereal grain—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. The grain is mashed to convert starch in the ...

production. Commonly used in the Dominion (and later province) of Newfoundland up until the 1960s as a measure for of salt cod. The quintal was defined in the United States in 1866 as . However, it is no longer used in the United States or by the

National Institute of Standards and Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into Outline of p ...

(NIST), though it still appears in the statute. In France, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Indonesia, and India, it is still in daily use by farmers. It is also used in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and other South American countries and in some African countries including

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

References

{{Authority control Units of mass Non-SI metric units Customary units of measurement Metricated units ur:قنطار

Name

English use

See also

References