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[av'-ahr-dah-POIZ] 
1. (avoirdupois weight) a system for measuring weights based on the pound
2. (informal) weight or heaviness; 'he has a lot of avoirdupois': "She refuses to buy any new clothes until she sheds the avoirdupois that remains from her pregnancy."
Origin:
Approximately 1656; a misspelling of Middle English, 'avoir-de-peise': goods sold by weight; from Old French, 'avoir de pois': goods of weight ('aveir': property, goods + 'de': of + 'peis': weight, from Latin 'pendere': to weigh, to hang). In action:
"One morning last month, Elizabeth Perry walked past a house at 13th and G streets NE and said to herself, 'That has got to be the ugliest dog I've ever seen.'
But it wasn't a dog sprawled out underneath the house's front porch. It was a pig. A big pig.
There was a time when pigs were common in Washington, but those bucolic days are long gone, and Elizabeth decided that now wasn't the time to resurrect them. Besides, the pig didn't look healthy. Its belly was an avalanche of avoirdupois; its facial features were lost in folds of fat. It resembled a bloated, porcine Shar-Pei: a Shar-Pig."
John Kelly. "Housing Market Is Tough for Pigs, Too," Washington Post (June 12, 2007).
"Not to offend anyone, but a subway ride yesterday made it amply clear how clearly ample many New Yorkers are...Watching six people struggle to fit comfortably into a space ostensibly designed for eight is not a pretty sight.
If anything, the avoirdupois reality is gloomier for New York children, who have become almost as supersized as an order of fries at McDonald's.
A city-sponsored survey last year found that 43 percent of the children in public elementary schools were overweight. Nearly one in four was considered obese. Yikes and double yikes! When he announced those figures, the city's health commissioner, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, warned of a catastrophe, what with the risk of heart disease, diabetes and other ailments."
Clyde Haberman. "NYC; Will the Spirit Of the Twinkie Live On?" New York Times (September 28, 2004).
"For that matter, who doesn't love foulmouthed, semi-improvised, self-referential showbiz deconstruction as a comedy specialty of cable programming? Curb Your Enthusiasm defines it, Entourage tweaks it, Comedy Central aspires to it nightly on The Daily Show -- the format for people so hip, they enjoy the joke behind the joke more than the joke itself.
But while the premise is genius -- I hope it's fulfilled someday -- the huge problem with Fat Actress is that it isn't about a fat actress at all: It's about a crazy woman and her enablers. Honestly, avoirdupois has little to do with the miseries this ''Kirstie Alley'' imposes on herself -- and us -- in the comfort of her highend L.A. home, with her assistants, Eddie (Bryan Callen) and Kevyn (Rachael Harris), close at hand."
Lisa Schwarzbaum. "TV Review: Fat Actress C-," Entertainment Weekly (March 7, 2005).
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