# tael

Pronunciation: say "TAYL" /teɪl/

## Noun

1. A traditional unit of weight used in China and elsewhere in East Asia, roughly 40 grams, and standardized in mainland China as exactly 50 grams.
   - Simple: A weight unit used in China and nearby parts of Asia, about 40 grams.
   - _A single tael of saffron sold for an astonishing price at the spice market._
   - _Gold buyers in the region still quote prices by the tael rather than by the gram._
2. A unit of money whose value equaled the corresponding weight in silver, used in parts of Asia.
   - Simple: An old unit of money in parts of Asia, worth the same as that weight in silver.
   - _The debt was finally settled at three hundred taels, paid out in weighed silver._
   - _A merchant in good standing could borrow a tael against next season's harvest._
3. Known as the leung, a traditional unit of weight legally defined as one sixteenth of a catty (kan, 斤), equal to about 0.0378 kilograms. *(Hong Kong)*
   - Simple: A traditional weight equal to one sixteenth of a catty, about 38 grams.
   - _The dried mushrooms were priced by the tael at the dispensary counter._
   - _Each catty of the herb divides neatly into sixteen taels for retail sale._

## Origin

From Portuguese "tael", from Malay "tahil". It is a doublet of "tahil".

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/tael (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).