Other forms: pints
A pint is a unit of liquid volume and the usual size of a glass of beer. A pint of bitter, half a pint, go for a pint.
The British imperial pint is 568 millilitres and the American pint is 473, which is a real difference of about a fifth. In Britain, beer and milk may still legally be sold in pints, and a pint is one of the few imperial measures in genuine daily use. Go for a pint means to go to the pub regardless of what is drunk. Note pint-sized, meaning small, usually of a person.
1nounpintA unit of liquid volume, and the usual size of a beer.
“A pint there costs about five pounds and rising.”
pint is a unit of volume.
Old French pinte probably comes from Latin picta, painted — a mark painted on a vessel to show a level. The measure is named after the line rather than the amount.
Latin
picta — painted
Vulgar Latin
*pincta — a mark used to indicate a level of quantity against a larger measure
Old French
pinte
Middle English
pinte
English, today
pint
From Middle English pinte, from Old French pinte, assumed from Vulgar Latin pincta (“a mark used to indicate a level of quantity against a larger measure”), from Latin picta (“painted”), from Latin pingō (“paint”). a doublet of pinto and Pinto.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA