A span is the distance measured by a

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...

hand A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered appendage located at the end of the forearm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs. A few other vertebrates such as the Koala#Characteristics, koala (which has two thumb#O ...

, from the tip of the

thumb The thumb is the first digit of the hand, next to the index finger. When a person is standing in the medical anatomical position (where the palm is facing to the front), the thumb is the outermost digit. The Medical Latin English noun for thumb ...

to the tip of the little finger. In ancient times, a span was considered to be half a

cubit The cubit is an ancient unit of length based on the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. It was primarily associated with the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Israelites. The term ''cubit'' is found in the Bible regarding Noah ...

. Sometimes the distinction is made between the great span or full span (thumb to little finger) and little span or short span (thumb to index finger, or index finger to little finger).

History

Ancient Greek texts show that the span was used as a fixed measure in

ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...

since at least archaic period. The word ''spithame'' (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: "σπιθαμή"), "span", is attested in the work of

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

in the 5th century BC; however, the span was used in Greece long before that, since the word ''trispithamos'' (Greek: "τρισπίθαμος"), "three spans long", occurs as early as the 8th century BC in

Hesiod Hesiod ( or ; ''Hēsíodos''; ) was an ancient Greece, Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer.M. L. West, ''Hesiod: Theogony'', Oxford University Press (1966), p. 40.Jasper Gr ...

. Hesiod, ''Works and Days'', 426, o
Perseus Digital Library
/ref>

Size of the span

English usage

; 1 span := 9

inch The inch (symbol: in or prime (symbol), ) is a Units of measurement, unit of length in the imperial units, British Imperial and the United States customary units, United States customary System of measurement, systems of measurement. It is eq ...

es := 22.86 cm

Chinese usage

In China and Chinese cultured countries, a span (一拃) refers to the distance between the tip of the thumb and the tip of the outstretched index finger (sometimes middle finger), and typically measures 15-20 centimetres.

Arabic usage

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

, the analogue of the great span is the ''šibr'' (شبر). It is used in

Modern Standard Arabic Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA) is the variety of Standard language, standardized, Literary language, literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and in some usages al ...

and

classical Arabic Classical Arabic or Quranic Arabic () is the standardized literary form of Arabic used from the 7th century and throughout the Middle Ages, most notably in Umayyad Caliphate, Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphate, Abbasid literary texts such as poetry, e ...

, as well as in modern-day dialects.

Slavic usage

Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavs, Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic language, Proto- ...

, the analogue of the span is various words derived from Proto-Slavic *''pędь'' ( Bulgarian ''педя'', Polish ''piędź'', Russian ''пядь'', Slovenian ''ped'', etc.). In various Slavic languages it is the distance from the tip of the

to the tip of the little finger or

index finger The index finger (also referred to as forefinger, first finger, second finger, pointer finger, trigger finger, digitus secundus, digitus II, and many other terms) is the second digit of a human hand. It is located between the thumb and the m ...

. For example, Slovenian ''velika ped'' = great span (23 cm), ''mala ped'' = little span (9.5 cm); Russian ''piad'' = 4 '' vershoks'' = 17.8 cm. See Obsolete Russian weights and measures.

African usage

In Swahili, the equivalent of the great span (thumb to little finger) is the ''shubiri'' or ''shibiri'' while the little span (thumb to forefinger) is the ''morita'' or ''futuri''.

Hungarian usage

In Hungarian, the span, or ''arasz'', is occasionally used as an informal measure and occurs in two varieties: measured between the tips of the extended

and

, it is ''kis arasz'' (the "small arasz"); between the tips of the thumb and little finger, it is ''nagy arasz'' (the "large arasz"). The term "''arasz''," used by itself without a modifier, is usually understood as referring to the "large ''arasz''," i.e., to the "span."

South Asian usage

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

and other languages of Northern

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, the span is commonly used as an informal measure and called ''bālisht'' (Urdu: بالشت, Hindi: बालिश्त).Norman Lockyer, "Nature," Nature Publishing Group, Macmillan Journals Ltd., 1922. In Bengali, it is called ''bighāt'' (বিঘত or বিঘৎ). In Marathi, it is called ''weet'' (वीत). In

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

, where this method of measurement is still used in informal context, a span is called ''bhitta''. In Tamil, it is called ''saaN''.

Southeast Asian usage

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

, the span is used as an informal measure. In Malay and Indonesian, it is called ''jengkal''. In Thai, it is called ''khuep''. In Filipino, it is called ''dangkal''.

Mongolian usage

The span is commonly used as a traditional and informal measure in Mongolia, where it is called ''tuu'' (төө). Depending on the use of index or middle finger and the placement of the thumb, the span is named differently as ''tuu'' (төө) and ''mukhar tuu'' (мухар төө) etc.

Portuguese usage

The old Portuguese customary unit analogue to the span was the ''palmo de craveira'' or simply ''palmo''. 1 ''palmo de craveira'' = 8 ''polegadas'' (Portuguese

es) = 1/5 ''varas'' (Portuguese

yard The yard (symbol: yd) is an English units, English unit of length in both the British imperial units, imperial and US United States customary units, customary systems of measurement equalling 3 foot (unit), feet or 36 inches. Sinc ...

s) = 0.22 m

Notes

References

*Lyle V. Jones. 1971. “The Nature of Measurement.” In: Robert L. Thorndike (ed.), ''Educational Measurement'', 2nd ed. Washington, DC: American Council on Education, pp. 335–355. {{Imperial units Span Imperial units Units of length