1: Shaftment
2: Hand or handbreadth, commonly used to represent the width of the palm, sometimes including the thumb when closed against the palm
3: Palm, sometimes also represented by four fingers held together, which is slightly less than the true width of the palm at the knuckle
4: Span
5: Finger or fingerbreadth
6: Digit slightly smaller than a finger)
A span is the distance measured by a human hand, from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger. In ancient times, a span was considered to be half a cubit. See also: English unit
In Slavic languages, the analogue of the span is the piad (in Polish, piędź; in Russian, пядь). It is the width from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the forefinger. See also: Obsolete Russian weights and measures
In Swahili, the equivalent of the span is the futuri.
In Hindi-Urdu and other languages of Northern India and Pakistan, the span is commonly used as an informal measure and called bālisht (Urdu: بالشت, Hindi: बालिश्त).[1]
Notes
- ^ Norman Lockyer, "Nature," Nature Publishing Group, Macmillan Journals Ltd., 1922.
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