Editing Troy weight (section)

==Etymology==
Troy weight is generally supposed to take its name from the French market town of [[Troyes]] where English merchants traded at least as early as the early [[9th century]].<ref name="OED3troy2">{{cite book|title=Oxford English Dictionary|chapter-url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/206831|date=June 2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford, England|chapter=troy, n.<sup>2</sup>|quote=The received opinion is that it took its name from a weight used at the fair of Troyes in France|title-link=Oxford English Dictionary}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Partridge|first=Eric|author-link=Eric Partridge|title=Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/originsshortetym0000part_z7h8|chapter-url-access=registration|year=1958|publisher=Routledge and Kegan Paul|location=London|page=3566|chapter=Trojan|oclc=250202885|quote=...the great fairs established for all Europe the weight-standard ''Troyes'', whence...''Troy''...}}</ref> The name ''troy'' is first attested in 1390, describing the weight of a platter, in an account of the travels in Europe of the [[Henry IV of England#Relationship with Richard II|Earl of Derby]].<ref name="OED3troy2" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Smith|first=L. Toulmin|author-link=Lucy Toulmin Smith|title=Expeditions to Prussia and the Holy Land Made by Henry Earl of Derby (afterwards King Henry IV.) in the Years 1390-1 and 1392-3|url=https://archive.org/details/expeditionstopr00smitgoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/expeditionstopr00smitgoog/page/n220 100]|year=1894|publisher=Camden Society|location=London}}</ref>

[[Charles Moore Watson]] (1844–1916) proposes an alternative etymology:  ''The Assize of Weights and Measures'' (also known as {{lang|la|[[Weights and Measures Acts (UK)#Acts of Parliament|Tractatus de Ponderibus et Mensuris]]}}), one of the [[statutes of uncertain date]] from the reign of either [[Henry III of England|Henry III]] or [[Edward I of England|Edward I]], thus before 1307, specifies "{{lang|la|troni ponderacionem}}"—which the Public Record Commissioners translate as "troy weight".  The word {{lang|la|tron}} refers to markets.{{citation-needed|date=March 2024}} Wright's ''The English Dialect Dictionary'' lists the word ''troi'' as meaning a [[Weighing scale#Mechanical balances|balance]], related to the alternate form 'tron' which also means market or the place of weighing. From this, Watson suggests that 'troy' derives from the manner of weighing by balance precious goods such as bullion or drugs; in contrast to the word 'avoirdupois' used to describe bulk goods such as corn or coal, sometimes weighed in ancient times by a kind of [[Steelyard balance|steelyard]] called the [[auncel]].<ref name="CMW1910"/>

Troy weight referred to the [[English units#Troy and Tower|Tower system]]; the earliest reference to the modern troy weights is in 1414.<ref name="CMW1910">{{cite book |last=Watson |first=Charles Moore |url=https://archive.org/stream/britishweightsme00watsuoft/ |title=British weights and measures as described in the laws of England from Anglo-Saxon times |publisher=John Murray |year=1910 |location=London |page= |pages=32-33 |oclc=4566577}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Wright|first=Joseph|author-link=Joseph Wright (linguist)|title=The English Dialect Dictionary|volume=6|year=1898|publisher=English Dialect Society|location=Oxford|page=250|oclc=63381077}}</ref>