公斤

Étymologie et composants

The Chinese word 公斤 (gōngjīn) for "kilogram" is a compound of two characters: 公 (gōng) and 斤 (jīn). The character 公 means "public" or "common", while the character 斤 originally meant "catty", a unit of weight in traditional Chinese systems of measurement. The term 公斤 was coined in the late 19th century as a translation of the metric unit "kilogram". The character 公 was added to indicate that the kilogram is a standard unit of weight used internationally, rather than a local or traditional unit. Therefore, 公斤 literally means "public catty" or "international catty", emphasizing its universal acceptance and usage.