Arroba

Arroba is a Portuguese and Spanish custom unit of weight, mass or volume. Its symbol is @.

For the @ as a character, see At sign.

History

The word arroba has its origin in Arabic ar-rubʿ [1] (الربع) or "quarter," specifically the fourth part (of a quintal), which defined the average load which a donkey could carry .

Spain and Portugal

In weight it was equal to 32 pounds (14.7 kg) in Portugal and 25 pounds (11.5 kg) in Spain.

The unit is still used in Portugal by cork merchants.

Arroba and bushel as weight units are similar (15 kg).

Latin America

The unit is still used in Brazil by the agricultural sector. The modern metric arroba used in these countries in everyday life is defined as 15 kilograms (33 lb).

In Peru the arroba is equivalent to 11.5 kilograms (25 lb).[2]

In Bolivia nationally it is equivalent to 30.46 litres (6.70 imp gal; 8.05 US gal). However locally there are many different values, ranging from 11.5 litres (2.5 imp gal; 3.0 US gal) in Inquisivi to 16 litres (3.5 imp gal; 4.2 US gal) in Baures.[3]

Internet

In Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking countries, "arroba" has continued as the word for the "@" symbol used in Internet email addresses.

gollark: But I can't actually figure out where I put it and my phone can do the same thing, so it's a bit limited in use.
gollark: I have a cheap 64GB USB stick from Toshiba or something for use as a live USB and stuff.
gollark: It makes sense for data you can't replace easily, I guess. But mostly I just have important stuff replicated onto multiple things.
gollark: Flash storage does seem to be generally pretty reliable as long as it doesn't break particularly soon or have some sort of horrible flaw, so I do now go for whatever's fairly cheap and has decent reviews. Obviously backups are important regardless of how reliable you assume your thing is.
gollark: I have a Samsung 250GB SSD from back when they were £80 or so, and it still works fine.

See also

References
  1. "arroba". Diccionario de la lengua española. Real Academia Española. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  2. La República, En Feria de la Mujer Emprendedora presentan antibióticos naturales saludables (in Spanish)
  3. Arroba in Bolivia Archived February 6, 2010, at the Wayback Machine


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