bbl
Abbreviation of barrels and occasionally also of barrelAbbreviation of barrels and occasionally also of barrel (singular).: Volumes of crude oil pumped, stored, or sold (in bulk).
Meaning
3 sensesAbbreviation of barrels and occasionally also of barrel (singular).
(especially)Volumes of crude oil pumped, stored, or sold (in bulk).
measured in 1000-bbl units
(especially)Barrels (casks) transported or sold, or the volume that they represent.
5 bbls. flour
Venturis in carburetion.
1-bbl carburetor
4-bbl carburetor
- any of various units of capacity
Origin
Often thought to be modified from bl for barrel (b⸺l), reflecting a way of abbreviating thOften thought to be modified from bl for barrel (b⸺l), reflecting a way of abbreviating that was used especially in previous centuries (compare do for ditto), wherein a doubled letter indicated plural count, as also with p.=page but pp.=pages and l.=line but ll.=lines; this method was used not only in English but also in scholarly New Latin and other modern languages heavily affected thereby, such as with Spanish EE. UU. According to this idea, addition of the suffix -s, as sometimes seen (e.g., 5 bbls or 5 bbls.), would seem to have come from writers who left the unit abbreviation itself unanalyzed (unparsed), thus adding a venially redundant marker of plural, somewhat like with MPGs for miles per gallon.
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