The Etymological Dictionary of the German Language by Friedrich Kluge derives the word from the Proto-Germanic term marka, "weight and value unit" (originally "division, shared").
[2] According to an 1848 trade lexicon, the term Gewichtsmark comes from the fact that "the piece of metal used for weighing was stamped with a sign or symbol".
[3] Meyer's 1905 Konversationslexikon similarly derives the origin of the word to the emergence of the mark from the Roman pound of to 11 ounces.
Charlemagne, as King of the Franks, carried out a monetary and measures reform towards the end of the 8th century.
In particular, he had introduced the Karlspfund ("Charles pound") as the basic unit of coinage and trade which, however, weighed only 8 ounces.