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The carat is a unit of mass used for measuring gems and pearls, and is exactly 200 milligrams.[1] The word came to English from French, derived from the Greek kerátion (κεράτιον), “fruit of the carob”,[2] via Arabic qīrāṭ (قيراط) and Italian carato. Carob seeds were used as weights on precision scales because of their reputation for having a uniform weight. However, a 2006 study[3] found this to not be the case; carob seeds have as much variation in their weights as do other seeds.[4]