Category: Useless knowledge

Lb is an abbreviation of the Latin word libra. The primary meaning of libra was balance or scales (as in the astrological sign), but it also stood for the ancient Roman unit of measure libra pondo, meaning “a pound by weight.” We got the word “pound” in English from the pondo part of the libra pondo but our abbreviation comes from the libra. The libra is also why the symbol for the British pound is £—an L with a line through it. The Italian lira also used that symbol (with two lines through it), the word “lira” itself being a shortened version of libra.

Quote from https://www.mentalfloss.com/

While driving through Jakarta, I passed a sign saying ATM. I used ATMs around the globe countless times, but I never asked myself what ATM actually stands for.

My first thought was “Automated Transaction Machine”. My second thought was, transactions are triggered my humans, thus, they’re not automated. Then, I thought that ATM might stand for “Atomic Transaction Machine”.

I decided to stop guessing around and look it up. And, to my surprise, the acronym ATM stands for “Automated Teller Machine”.