what is livre

A livre is an old French monetary unit that was used as currency in France from 781 to 1794. The word "livre" comes from the Latin word "libra," which means "pound". The livre was established by Charlemagne as a unit of account equal to one pound of silver and was subdivided into 20 sous, each of 12 deniers. The word "livre" is a homonym of the French word for "book" (from the Latin word "liber"), but the two have different genders. The monetary and weight unit is feminine, "la/une livre," while "book" is masculine, "le/un livre". In addition to being used in France, the livre was also the pound of Lebanon and Sudan. Nowadays, the livre is no longer in use as a currency.