A unit of measurement used to describe the purity of gold, with 24 karats being pure gold and 14 karats being a common alloy.
From Arabic 'qīrāṭ' meaning a small bean or seed. Originally referred to carob seeds used as a standard weight for measuring precious metals.
Gold purity is measured using the same word as a carob bean—medieval traders used carob seeds as a standard weight because they're surprisingly uniform in size!
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