Body-Based Units of Measurement

English possesses several measurement words that derive from body parts.

cubit – from Latin cubitum, “the elbow.” A cubit was a measurement based on the forearm from
elbow to fingertip. The exact length varied according to whose arm was being used and could be
from 18 to 22 inches.

digit – In Latin, digitus could mean either “finger” or “toe.” The same is true of digit in modern
English. People use the digits of their hands to count to ten. And just think, we imagine we’re so
modern and up-to-date because we live in a Digital Age.

fathom – Old English faethm was “the length of the outstretched arm,” about six feet. Water
depth is measured in fathoms. Miners use the term to describe an area equal to six square feet.

hairbreadth – According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, hairbreadth is said to have once
been a formal unit of measure equal to one-forty-eighth of an inch.

hand – Originally, a “hand” was a measurement of three inches, but now it is four inches. This
measurement is stil used to reckon the height of horses.

handful – This is an indeterminate quantity of some dry measure, such as grain, that can be held
in the cupped hand. A Greek word for “handful” is the origin of the Greek coin called a
drachma.

span – In Old English a span was “the distance between the thumb and little finger of an
extended hand,” roughly nine inches. Again, it all depended on whose hand.

thumb was probably the basis of the measurement now called an inch. We don’t measure things
in “thumbs,” anymore, but we do talk about thumbnail sketches and thumbnails in the sense of
“small images.”

The expression rule of thumb probably originated with carpenters who used their thumbs to take
rough measurements. The notion that the expression originated with a law permitting a husband
to beat his wife with a stick “no larger in circumference than his thumb,” has no historical basis.

cubit was just one of numerous units of measurement based on the typical size of body parts.
Here are a few more:

 foot: It probably goes without saying that the unit foot was based on the length of a
man’s foot.
 span: Stretch out your hand so that the tip of your thumb is as far away as possible from
the tip of your pinky. That distance is called a “span,” which for most people is almost
exactly half a cubit.
  handbreadth: The width of your four fingers where they meet the palm—usually about
4 inches—is a handbreadth or sometimes just a “hand.” The height of horses is usually
expressed in hands.
 digit: The width of a finger, which tends to be about 2cm (about 13/16 of an inch). If
someone asks you to pour them a “finger” or two of liquor, it’s that height in a short
tumbler.
 thumb: The width of a thumb, which was later used as the basis for the inch.
 fathom: If you stretch out your arms to either side of your body as far as they’ll go, the
distance between the tips of your middle fingers will be very close to your height, or
about six feet—your own feet, that is—a length also known as a fathom.
 handful: Although we normally use the word handful in the informal sense of “just a
little bit,” your hand can serve as a fairly repeatable measure of volume for dry goods
such as grains, beans, and seeds.

The reason units of measurement like these fell out of favor is that they vary from one person to
the next, so if you need accuracy or repeatability, they’re not the best choice. (It turns out, for
example, that my personal “cubit” is 18.375 inches (46.67cm). I always was an overachiever.)
But for quick-and-dirty estimates when you don’t have a standard measuring device handy, they
can’t be beat.

As long as we’re estimating, American readers might want to keep in mind that the length of a
U.S. dollar bill is just a bit over 6⅛ inches (or a third of a cubit for all practical purposes). I can’t
fathom why such an odd, arbitrary size was chosen.

Eight Body-Based Units of Measurement

Before we had precise, standardized units of measure such as meters and feet, lengths (and even,
ocasionally volumes) were reckoned based on the average dimensions of human body parts. In
Body-Based Units of Measurement at Interesting Thing of the Day, I listed a few such historical
units of measure, which can still come in handy for rough approximations if you don’t have a
ruler or tape measure handy.

 cubit: This is the distance from a man’s elbow to the tip of his middle finger, which
would be about 18 inches for the average man today. (Men, of course, did the building at
the time the cubit was in regular use; a woman’s “cubit” would typically be shorter.)
 foot: It probably goes without saying that the unit foot was based on the length of a
man’s foot.
 span: Stretch out the fingers of your hand so that the tip of your thumb is as far away as
possible from the tip of your pinky. That distance is called a “span,” which for most
people is almost exactly half a cubit.
 handbreadth: The width of your four fingers where they meet the palm—usually about
4 inches—is a handbreadth or sometimes just a “hand.” The height of horses is usually
expressed in hands.
 digit: The width of a finger, which tends to be about 13/16 of an inch.
 thumb: The width of a thumb, which was later used as the basis for the inch.
 fathom: If you stretch out your arms to either side of your body as far as they’ll go, the
distance between the tips of your middle fingers will be very close to your height, or
about six feet—your own feet, that is—a length also known as a fathom.
 handful: Although we normally use the word handful in the informal sense of “just a
little bit,” your hand can serve as a fairly repeatable measure of volume for dry goods
such as grains, beans, and seeds