Shaftment

Shaftment

The shaftment is a unit of length, 6 - 6½ inches or 2 palms, i.e. 15.24 cm. A shaftment is the width of the fist and outstretched thumb. The lengths of poles, staves, etc. can be easily measured by grasping the bottom of the staff with thumb extended and repeating such hand over hand grips along the length of the staff.

History

It occurs in Anglo-Saxon written records as early as 910 and in English as late as 1474.After the modern foot came into use in the twelfth century, the shaftment was reinterpreted as exactly 1/2 foot or 6 inches (15.24 cm).

Spelling & Etymology

Other spellings include schaftmond and scaeftemunde, and shathmont.It is derived from Old English "sceaft", in turn from Germanic "skaftaz" (shaft) and OE "mund", from the Germanic "mund", in turn from Indo-European root "man" (hand.)

Two shaftments make a "pes" "manualis", literally Latin for "a foot fitted to the hand."

This unit has mostly fallen out of use, as have others based on the human arm: digit (1/8 shaftment), finger (7/48 shaftment), palm (1/2 shaftment) hand (2/3 shaftment), span (1.5 shaftments), cubit (3 shaftments) and ell (7.5 shaftments)-->.

[ [http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictS.html Units: S ] ] University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - How Many? - A Dictionary of Units of Measurement

References


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • shaftment —    an old English unit of distance equal to 2 palms.    A shaftment is the distance from the tip of the outstretched thumb to the opposite side of the palm of the hand. The ending ment is from the old English word mund, hand. The shaftment was an …   Dictionary of units of measurement

  • Shaftment — Shaftman Shaft man, Shaftment Shaft ment, n. [AS. sceaftmund.] A measure of about six inches. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • shaftment — noun A unit of length, 6 6½ inches or 2 palms, i.e. 15.24 cm, the width of the fist and outstretched thumb of a standard archer. The shaftment is the width of the palm and the outstretched thumb [ …   Wiktionary

  • shaftment — shaft·ment …   English syllables

  • shaftment —  the measure of the fist, with the thumb set up. N. From the Saxon, SCOSFT MUND, semipes …   A glossary of provincial and local words used in England

  • shaftment — I. ](t)mənt noun ( s) Etymology: alteration (probably influenced by ment) of Middle English shaftmond, from Old English sceaftmund, from sceaft shaft + mund hand more at shaft, manual …   Useful english dictionary

  • Anthropic units — The ability to characterize, quantify, and measure objects in the physical world is an essential milestone towards the development of complex human civilizations. A vast number of measurement standards have evolved over time, and these standards… …   Wikipedia

  • Shaftman — Shaft man, Shaftment Shaft ment, n. [AS. sceaftmund.] A measure of about six inches. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Shathmont — Shath mont, n. A shaftment. [Scot.] [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Digit (length) — A digit (lat. finger ), when used as a unit of length, is usually a sixteenth of a foot, i.e. 3/4 Prime; or 1.905 cm (for the international inch). The width of an adult human male finger tip is indeed about 2 centimetres. In English this unit has …   Wikipedia

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