Often in the native forms ca·ntaro, ca·ntara. [f. It., Sp. cantaro, cantara:—L. canthar-us, Gr. κάνθαρος tankard, drinking-pot.]
A measure of capacity and weight used in some of the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, varying greatly according to the locality, from 743/4 lbs. in Rome to 5023/4 lbs. in Syria.
1730–6. Bailey, Cantar [in Spain] wine measure, is about two gallons. Cantar [in Turky in Asia] 100 rotelloes, about 418 pounds averdupoise. Cantar [at Tunis] 114 pounds.
1773. Brydone, Sicily, xvii. (1809), 186. Mortars … to throw a hundred cantars of cannon-ball or stones.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Cantara, cantaro, a liquid measure of Spain ranging from 21/2 to 4 gallons.
1882. Even. Standard, 16 Sept., 5/2. The cotton crop is estimated at 2,000,000 cantars.
1887. Pall Mall Gaz., 24 June, 12/1. Formerly twenty loaves [of sugar] went to the Moorish cantar, or hundredweight.
