{{short description|Historical unit of mass (hundredweight variant)}} {{other uses}} {{use dmy dates|date=October 2024}} {{more citations needed|date=July 2017}} The '''quintal''' or '''centner''' is a historical unit of mass in many countries that is usually defined as 100 base units, such as pounds or kilograms.<ref name="Rowlett">{{cite web |last1=Rowlett |first1=Russ |url=http://www.ibiblio.org/units/dictQ.html#quintal |title=How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement |website=ibiblio |publisher=University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |access-date=25 March 2020 |date=2018 }}</ref> It is a traditional unit of weight in France, Portugal, and Spain and their former colonies. It is commonly used for grain prices in wholesale markets in Ethiopia, Eritrea and India, where 1 quintal = {{convert|100|kg|lb|0|abbr=on}}.<ref>{{cite book|title=Quintal - Merriam Webster Dictionary|publisher=Merriam Webster Dictionary|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quintal|access-date=20 June 2017}}</ref>
In British English, it referred to the hundredweight; in American English, it formerly referred to an uncommon measurement of {{convert|100|kg|lb|0|abbr=on}}. {{anchor|Etymology}}
Languages drawing its cognate name for the weight from Romance languages include French, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish {{lang|fr|quintal}}, Italian {{lang|it|quintale}}, Esperanto {{lang|eo|kvintalo}}, Polish {{lang|pl|kwintal}}. Languages taking their cognates from Germanicized ''centner'' include the German {{lang|de|Zentner}}, Lithuanian {{lang|lt|centneris}}, Swedish {{lang|sv|centner}}, Polish {{lang|pl|cetnar}}, Russian and Ukrainian {{lang|ru|центнер}} ({{lang|uk-Latn|tsentner}}) and Estonian {{lang|et|tsentner}}.
Many European languages have come to translate both the British hundredweight (8 stone or {{convert|112|lb|kg|2|disp=sqbr}}) and the American hundredweight ({{convert|100|lb|kg|2|disp=sqbr}}), as their cognate form of ''quintal'' or ''centner''.
== Name == {{Wiktionary}} The concept has resulted in two different series of masses: Those based on the local pound (which after metrication was considered equivalent to {{convert|0.5|kg|abbr=on}}, and those uprated to being based on the kilogram.
In Albania ({{lang|sq|kuintal}}), Ethiopia ({{lang|am-Latn|kuntal}}), and India, the {{convert|100|kg|lb|0|abbr=on}} definition may have been introduced via Islamic{{Citation needed|reason=and why not occidental influence|date=June 2019}} trade. It is a standard measurement of mass for agricultural products in those countries.
In France it used to be defined as 100 {{lang|fr|livres}} (pounds), about {{convert|48.95|kg|lb|0|abbr=on}}, and has been redefined as 100 kg ({{lang|fr|mesures usuelles}}), thus called ''metric quintal'' with symbol ''qq''. In Spain, the {{lang|es|quintal}} is still defined as 100 {{lang|es|libras}}, or about {{convert|46|kg|lb|0|abbr=on}}, but the ''metric quintal'' is also defined as 100 kg;<ref>Real Academia Española's [http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=quintal definition of ''quintal'']</ref> In Portugal a quintal is 128 {{lang|pt|arráteis}} or about {{convert|58.75|kg|lb|0|abbr=on}}.<!-- source? -->
The German {{lang|de|Zentner}} and the Danish {{lang|da|centner}} are pound-based, and thus since metrication are defined as {{convert|50|kg|lb|0|abbr=on}}, whereas the Austrian and Swiss {{lang|de|Zentner}} since metrication has been re-defined as 100 kg. In Germany a measure of 100 kg is named a {{lang|de|Doppelzentner}}.
In Italy, the {{lang|it|quintale}} 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.<ref>{{Cite web | title=quintale su Enciclopedia {{!}} Sapere.it | url=https://www.sapere.it/enciclopedia/quintale.html | access-date=2025-08-24 | website=www.sapere.it}}</ref>
Common agricultural units used in the Soviet Union were the 100 kg {{lang|ru-Latn|tsentner}} ({{lang|ru|центнер}}) and the term "{{lang|ru-Latn|tsentner}} per hectare". These are still used by countries that were part of the Soviet Union.
== English use ==
In English units of measurement both terms ''quintal'' and ''centner'' were once alternative names for the hundredweight and thus defined either as {{cvt|100|lb|2}} or as {{cvt|112|lb|2}}. Also, in the Dominican Republic it is about {{cvt|125|lb|2}}. The German {{lang|de|Zentner}} was introduced to the English language via Hanseatic trade as a measure of the weight of certain crops including hops for beer production. Commonly used in the Dominion (and later province) of Newfoundland up until the 1960s as a measure for 112 lb of salt cod.
The '''quintal''' was defined in the United States in 1866<ref>[https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/205- Act of July 28, 1866, codified in 15 U.S.C. §205]</ref> as {{convert|100|kg|lb|0|abbr=on}}. However, it is no longer used in the United States or by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), though it still appears in the statute.<ref>"Metric System of Measurement: Interpretation of the International System of Units for the United States", Federal Register notice of July 28, 1998, 63 F.R. 40333 {{cite web |url=http://ts.nist.gov/ts/htdocs/200/202/SIFedReg.pdf |title=Metric System of Measurement: Interpretation of the International System of Units for the United States; Notice |publisher=NIST |access-date=September 28, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060930114423/http://ts.nist.gov/ts/htdocs/200/202/SIFedReg.pdf |archive-date=September 30, 2006 }}</ref>
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 and other South American countries and in some African countries including Angola.<ref>{{cite web|title=The use of Quintal for weight measurements |url=https://www.sizes.com/units/quintal.htm |website=Sizes: the online quantinary |access-date=25 July 2017 }}</ref>
== See also == * ''Kasson Act'' (1866) * Hundredweight * {{lang|de|Zentner}}
== References == {{reflist}}
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Category:Units of mass Category:Non-SI metric units Category:Customary units of measurement Category:Metricated units