Forms: α. 6 quintale, 6–7 quintall, 7 -tell, 5– quintal. β. 5 pl. kyntawes, 5–6 kyntal(l, 6 -tayl, 6–7 kintall, 6 kintal; 6–7 kentall, 7 -tal, 9 kentle. [a. OF. quintal (13th c.), pl. quintaus, Sp. and Pg. quintal, It. quintale, med.L. quintale (-allus), quintile, ad. Arab. qinṭār: see KANTAR.]
a. A weight of one hundred pounds; a hundredweight (112 lbs.). b. In the metric system: A weight of 100 kilograms.
α. c. 1470. in Bl. Bk. Excheq. (Rolls), II. 193. Of eche quintal of balayn, iiij d.
1555. Eden, Decades, 213. Two or more quintales of powder.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Betweene the quintall … of Englande to that of Fraunce, there is foure poundes lost.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, VIII. i. 608. They draw yearely eight thousand quintals of Quick-silver.
1692. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), II. 627. Some French privateers have taken 3 or 4 English ships, with 15,000 quintals of fish.
1732. Lediard, Sethos, II. VII. 26. Elephants teeth so large that those of one elephant weigh two quintals.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 761. A quintal of the ore is put into a retort.
1873. Ruskin, Fors Clav., xxx. (1896), II. 135. The Easter ox … weighed well its twenty-five quintals.
β. 1477. Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 16 b. He wolde yeue him C Kyntawes of golde.
1502. Arnolde, Chron. (1811), 190. xv. kyntayls yron of the weyght of Este Spayne.
1539. T. Pery, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. II. II. 140. He sawe a brassyne bell, whiche bell myght waye ij kyntalles.
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T., 39 b. Nothing he talks on but Kentalls of Pearle.
1623. Whitbourne, Newfoundland, 79. It will then make at Marseiles aboue two and twenty hundred Kentalls of that waight.
1678. Wanley, Wond. Lit. World, I. xxiv. § 16. 38/2. An Ass with his load which commonly weighed three Kintals.
1842. Bischoff, Woollen Manuf., II. 17. Wool [from Smyrna] … 2,000 Kintals.
1861. L. L. Noble, Icebergs, 282. Kentles of white-fleshed cod.
