Why are the weights 'stones' and 'pounds' so called?

[Waterwolf]

But why are they called pounds and stones?

[rekstout]

The origins of the stone lie with the Babylonians who are believed to be the first to standardise weights and measures using stones as a measure for larger weights (grains of wheat/barley for smaller weights and carob seeds for precious stones - hence carat). Pound comes fom the latin word pundus, meaning weight. Just to confuse matters, a stone of wool used to be 16 pounds and a stone as used by butchers and fishmongers used to be 8 pounds!