Pint comes from the Old French word pinte and perhaps ultimately from Vulgar Latin pincta meaning "painted", for marks painted on the side of a container to show capacity. In the United States, the liquid pint is legally defined as one eighth of a liquid gallon of precisely 231 cubic inches. As one US fluid pint of water weighs about a pound (16 ounces), this gives rise to a popular saying: "A pint's a pound, the world around".