Wa ( th, วา , also ''waa'' or ''wah'', abbreviated ) is a unit of

length Length is a measure of distance. In the International System of Quantities, length is a quantity with dimension distance. In most systems of measurement a base unit for length is chosen, from which all other units are derived. In the Interna ...

, equal to two

metre The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its pref ...

s (2 m) or four sok (.) ''Wa'' as a

verb A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...

means to outstretch (one's) arms to both sides, which relates to the

fathom A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems equal to , used especially for measuring the depth of water. The fathom is neither an International Standard (SI) unit, nor an internationally-accepted non-SI unit. Hi ...

's distance between the fingertips of a

man A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromo ...

's outstretched arms. The 1833 Siamese-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce, reads, " heSiamese fathom...being computed to contain 78 English or American inches, corresponding to 96 Siamese inches." The length then would have been equivalent to a modern 1.981 metres. Since conversion to the metric system in 1923, the length as derived from the

is precisely two metres, but the unit is neither part of nor recognized by the modern International metric system (SI). Wa also occurs as a

colloquialism Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the style (sociolinguistics), linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom norm ...

for "square wa" (

tarang wa A tarang wa ( th, ตารางวา, , ) or square wa, sometimes transliterated as 'waa' or 'wah' is a unit of area used in Thailand for measuring land or property. It is defined as the area of a square whose sides measure exactly one wa (two ...

) a unit of

area Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape A shape or figure is a graphics, graphical representation of an obje ...

abbreviated or .) As with many terms normally written in the

Thai alphabet The Thai script ( th, อักษรไทย, ) is the abugida used to write Thai, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand. The Thai alphabet itself (as used to write Thai) has 44 consonant symbols ( th, พยัญชน� ...

romanization of Thai There are many systems for the romanization of the Thai language, i.e. representing the language in Latin script. These include systems of transliteration, and transcription. The most seen system in public space is Royal Thai General System of Tra ...

causes spelling variants such as ''waa'' and ''wah''.

References

External links

Area metric conversion
British and U.S., Japanese, Chinese, Thai, old French, others. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wa (Unit) Units of length Human-based units of measurement Thai units of measurement

See also

References

External links