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 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (November 2022) |
| Ell | |
|---|---|
 The ell was originally a cubit, later replaced by the cloth-ell or "double ell". | |
| General information | |
| Unit of | Length |
| Conversions (imperial) | |
| 1 imp unit in ... | ... is equal to ... |
| Inch | 45 |
| Metre | 1.143 |
An ell (from Proto-Germanic *alinō, cognate with Latin ulna)[1] is a northwestern European unit of measurement, originally understood as a cubit (the combined length of the forearm and extended hand). The word literally means "arm", and survives in the modern English word "elbow" (arm-bend). Later usage through the 19th century refers to several longer units,[2][3] some of which are thought to derive from a "double ell".[4][5]
An ell-wand or ellwand was a rod of length one ell used for official measurement. Edward I of England required that every town have one. In Scotland, the Belt of Orion was called "the King's Ellwand".[6][7] An iron ellwand is preserved in the entrance to Stånga Church on the Swedish island of Gotland, indicating the role that rural churches had in disseminating uniform measures.[8]
Several national forms existed, with different lengths, including the Scottish ell (≈37 inches or 94 centimetres), the Flemish ell [el] (≈27 in or 68.6 cm), the French ell [aune] (≈54 in or 137.2 cm),[9] the Polish ell (≈31 in or 78.7 cm), the Danish alen (24 Danish inches or 2 Danish fod: 62.7708 cm), the Swedish aln (2 Swedish fot 59.38 cm), and the German ell [Elle], which was different lengths in Frankfurt (54.7 cm), Cologne, Leipzig (Saxony), and Hamburg.
Select customs were observed by English importers of Dutch textiles; although all cloths were bought by the Flemish ell, linen was sold by the English ell, but tapestry was sold by the Flemish ell.[9]
The Viking ell was the measure from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, about 18 inches (460 mm). The Viking or primitive ell was used in Iceland up to the 13th century. By the 13th century, a law set the "stika" as equal to two ells, which referred to the English ell.[10]
Historic use
[edit]England
[edit]In England, the ell was usually exactly 45 in (1.143 m), or a yard and a quarter. It was mainly used in the tailoring business but is now obsolete. Although the exact length was never defined in English law, standards were kept; the brass ell examined at the Exchequer by Graham in the 1740s had been in use "since the time of Queen Elizabeth."[11]
Other English measures called an ell include the "yard and handful," or the 40 inch ell, abolished in 1439; the yard and inch, or the 37 inch ell (a cloth measure), abolished after 1553, later known as the Scotch ell 37.06 inches (0.941 m); and the cloth ell of 45 inches, used until 1600.[12] See yard for details.
Scots
[edit]The Scottish ell (Scottish Gaelic: slat Albannach) is approximately 37 inches (0.94 m). The Scottish ell was standardised in 1661, with the exemplar to be kept in the custody of Edinburgh.[13] It comes from Middle English elle.[14]
It was used in the popular expression Gie 'im an inch, an he'll tak an ell (equivalent to "Give him an inch and he'll take a mile" or "... he'll take a yard").
The Ell Shop (1757) in Dunkeld, Perth and Kinross (National Trust for Scotland), is so called from the 18th-century iron ell-stick attached to one corner, once used to measure cloth and other commodities in the adjacent market-place. The shaft of the 17th-century Kincardine mercat cross stands in the square of Fettercairn, and is notched to show the measurements of an ell.
Scottish measures were made obsolete, and English measurements made standard in Scotland, by an Act of Parliament, the Weights and Measures Act 1824.
Other
[edit]Similar measures include:[12]
- Netherlands: el, 1 metre (Old ell=27.08 inches)
- Jersey: ell, 4 feet
- N. Borneo: ella, 1 yard
- Switzerland: elle, 0.6561 yard
- Ottoman Turkey: Arşın, ~69 cm
In literature
[edit]In the epic poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Green Knight's axe-head was an ell (45 inches) wide.[15]
Ells were also used in the medieval French play The Farce of Master Pathelin to measure the size of the clothing Pierre Pathelin bought.[16]
Ells are used for measuring the length of rope in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.[17] Since Sam declares that 30 elles are "about" 18 fathoms (108 feet), he seems to be using the 45-inch English ell, which would work out to 112 feet.
Halldór Laxness described Örvar-Oddr as twelve Danish ells tall in Independent People, Part II, "Of the World".[18]
References
[edit]- ^ "ell, n.1". OED Online. December 2011. Oxford University Press. (accessed February 20, 2012).
- ^ The Diagonal. Yale University Press. 1920. p. 98. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
- ^ Charlton Thomas Lewis; Hugh Macmaster Kingery (1918). An elementary Latin dictionary. American book company. p. 198. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
forearm, ell, cubit.
- ^ James Robinson (of Boston.) (1857). The American elementary arithmetic. J.P. Jewett & co. p. 94. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
- ^ Daniel O'Gorman (1853). Intuitive calculations; the readiest and most concise methods. p. 48. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
- ^ infoplease.com, OED s. Ell-wand.
- ^ AR Littlewood. "The measurements of cricket". ESPN cricinfo. Archived from the original on 2007-11-12. Retrieved 2007-11-10.
- ^ Andrén, Anders (2017). Det Medeltida Gotland. En arkeologisk guidebok [Medieval Gotland. An archaeological guidebook] (in Swedish) (2nd ed.). Lund: Historiska Media. p. 206. ISBN 978-91-7545-476-4.
- ^ a b Brayshaw, Tom S., ed. Brayshaw's Mathematical Desk Companion. Chesterfield, England: Thomas Brayshaw Ltd., Edition 16, 1955
- ^ Nancy Marie Brown (2007). The Far Traveller: Voyages of a Viking Woman. Harcourt. pp. 236, 276. OCLC 85822467.
- ^ Knight, Charles (1840). The Penny magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Volume 9. London: Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
- ^ a b Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Weights and Measures" (free fulltext), from the Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 01 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Concise Scots Dictionary, chief editor Mairi Robinson, Aberdeen University Press, 1987, p 817
- ^ "Dictionary of the Scots Language". Archived from the original on 2012-03-21. Retrieved 2011-08-09.
- ^ Burrow, J. A., ed. (1972). Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin. p. 22. ISBN 0140806679. OCLC 1136028.
The lenkthe of an elnyerde the large hed had
- ^ "The farce of Master Pierre Patelin" (PDF). sas.ac.uk. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
- ^ Tolkien, J. R. R. (1997). The Lord of the Rings. HarperCollins. pp. 595–6. ISBN 0-261-10368-7.
Sam paid it out slowly, measuring it with his arms: 'Five, ten, twenty, thirty ells, more or less, ... Thirty ells, or say, about eighteen fathom'
- ^ Laxness, Halldór (1997) [1946]. Sjálfstætt fólk [Independent People]. Translated by Thompson, J. A. (James Anderson). Introduction by Brad Leithauser. New York: Vintage. p. 201. ISBN 0-679-76792-4.
- Attribution
Further reading
[edit]- Collins Encyclopedia of Scotland
- Scottish National Dictionary and Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue
- Weights and Measures, by D. Richard Torrance, SAFHS, Edinburgh, 1996, ISBN 1-874722-09-9 (N.B.: The book focusses exclusively on Scottish weights and measures.)
External links
[edit]
Media related to Ell at Wikimedia Commons
from Grokipedia
The ell is a historical unit of length primarily used in England and other parts of Europe for measuring cloth and other linear dimensions, typically standardized at 45 inches (approximately 1.143 meters) in England by the late medieval period.[1][2] Originating from the Old English word eln, meaning "forearm" or "elbow," the ell was originally based on the approximate length of a person's arm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, reflecting its roots in ancient body-based measurements traceable to Proto-Indo-European el-.[3] By the 14th century, it had become a regulated standard in English commerce, particularly for textiles, where it facilitated trade by providing a consistent yardstick equivalent to 1.25 yards.[4] Variations existed across regions: the Scottish ell measured about 37 inches (0.94 meters), the Flemish ell around 27 inches (0.686 meters or three-quarters of a yard), and the Dutch ell approximately 27.35 inches, adapting to local customs and industries while maintaining the core concept of an arm's span.[5] Though largely obsolete by the 19th century with the adoption of the imperial and metric systems, the ell persists in historical, legal, and cultural references, symbolizing medieval mercantile practices and influencing modern units like the yard.[6] In architecture, "ell" also denotes an L-shaped extension to a building, derived from the same etymological root due to its angular form, but this usage is secondary to the measurement connotation.[1]
Definition and Etymology
Definition
The ell is a traditional northwestern European unit of length, originally based on the span of a person's arm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, akin to a cubit but often standardized differently for practical purposes.[7][8] It served primarily as a measure for cloth, especially woollen textiles in medieval trade, where consistent sizing was essential for commerce across markets.[9][10] Unlike the shorter cubit, which typically measured the forearm length to about 18 inches (46 cm), or the yard—a related but more rigidly standardized unit at 36 inches (91 cm)—the ell accommodated varying local customs without a universal definition.[8] Its typical lengths ranged from 27 to 45 inches (69 to 114 cm) depending on the region, reflecting adaptations for trade efficiency rather than strict anatomical fidelity.[7][8] This inherent variability, stemming from its body-based origins, contributed to the proliferation of regional standards, as explored in later sections. The term itself originates from the Old English "el(n)" meaning "arm," underscoring its anthropometric roots.[10]Etymology
The word "ell" derives from Old English eln or elno, denoting the "forearm" or "arm," originally serving as a unit of measurement based on the length from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger.[3] This term traces back to Proto-Germanic *alinō, which itself stems from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root *h₂el- or *el-, signifying "elbow" or "forearm."[3] The PIE root connects to Latin ulna, the name for the forearm bone and also an ancient unit of linear measure, reflecting a shared conceptual basis in body parts for measurement across Indo-European languages.[11] Similarly, it relates to Ancient Greek ōlenē (ὠλήνη), meaning "elbow," derived from PIE *h₁eh₃l(e)n-, an extended form emphasizing the bent arm structure. In Middle English, the term evolved into forms such as elle or el, with variant spellings like elne, as documented in texts from the 12th to 15th centuries, reflecting phonetic shifts from the Anglo-Saxon nasal ending to a simpler vowel structure.[3] These changes aligned with broader English sound modifications, including the loss of the nasal consonant in certain dialects, leading to the modern spelling "ell" by the 16th century.[12] The word's legacy persists in contemporary English as part of "elbow," etymologically parsed as "ell-bow" or "arm-bend," preserving the original anatomical reference.[13]Historical Usage
In England
The ell, referred to as "eln" or "elne" in Old English, emerged during the Anglo-Saxon period as a fundamental unit of length, approximately equivalent to the forearm from elbow to fingertip, and was employed for measuring both land boundaries in charters and the dimensions of cloth.[14] Early references appear in legal texts, such as those from the reign of King Athelstan (c. 925–940), where it defined depths in judicial ordeals, underscoring its role in practical applications beyond mere trade.[14] By the later Anglo-Saxon era, the eln had become integral to local economies, facilitating consistent assessments in agrarian and textile contexts.[15] In the early 14th century, King Edward I sought to address inconsistencies in trade by mandating standardized linear measures across England, requiring every town to possess an official ell-wand—a brass or iron rod of fixed length—for verifying cloth.[16] This effort culminated in the definition of the English ell as precisely 45 inches (114.3 cm), or 1.25 yards, tying it directly to the newly formalized yard of 36 inches based on three barley grains.[14] Unlike the shorter Scottish ell of about 37 inches, this English standard emphasized uniformity to bolster commerce, particularly in exported goods.[15] The ell's prominence grew in the medieval wool trade, which dominated England's economy from the 13th to 15th centuries, as woolen cloth exports to Flanders and Italy generated vast revenues.[17] Merchants relied on the ell to gauge cloth lengths, ensuring bolts met international specifications and preventing disputes over quality or quantity. Statutes reinforced this, notably the Assize of Cloth enacted in 1353 under Edward III, which prescribed exact widths (typically 1.5 to 2 yards) and lengths in ells for broadcloths, imposing penalties for non-compliance to safeguard the realm's primary export industry. Aulnagers, appointed officials, inspected and sealed cloths using ell-wands, collecting subsidies that funded royal initiatives while curbing fraud in markets from London to Boston.[18] The ell's utility waned with industrialization and calls for national uniformity, culminating in the Weights and Measures Act of 1824, which abolished disparate local standards and enshrined the imperial yard as the sole legal measure for length, rendering the ell obsolete in official and commercial use by the mid-19th century.[14] Although retained informally in some tailoring traditions, its enforcement ceased, marking the transition to a centralized metric-influenced system.[15]In Scotland
The ell in Scotland was adopted from the English tradition but shortened to precisely 37 inches (941 mm) through an act of the Scottish Parliament in 1617, which designated the ell of Edinburgh as the official standard for linear measurement and placed its custody with the city authorities.[19][20] This measure, equivalent to three Rhine feet, contrasted with the longer English ell of 45 inches and supported Scotland's distinct textile economy.[21] Primarily employed for linen and cloth measurement, the Scottish ell—often termed the Scots ell or linen ell—became a key standard in trade, particularly for Highland linen production where flax cultivation was widespread on farms to bolster the national industry.[19][22] Linen was typically produced in pieces or half-pieces of 24 ells, facilitating consistent commerce in burgh markets and exports.[23] A 1661 parliamentary act further regulated linen measurements by standardizing the ell at 37 inches and specifying cloth breadths, reflecting efforts to align with local textile practices amid growing export demands.[9][20] This legislation, which prohibited yarn exports and enforced uniform standards, diverged from English wool-focused statutes due to Scotland's emphasis on linen.[24] Following the 1707 Union, the Scottish ell continued in local use despite increasing imperial influences, persisting into the 19th century until its formal abolition in 1835 in favor of the English yard.[21][9] An 1824 act imposing English measures accelerated this transition, though brass ell-wands remained in some burgh custody as historical artifacts.[20]In Other Regions
The Flemish ell, measuring 27 inches (68.6 cm), was a key unit in the Low Countries for cloth measurement, particularly facilitating exports from Flanders and northern France beginning in the 13th century, when the region's textile industry boomed through trade with Mediterranean and Baltic markets. This measure supported standardized production and commerce, with weavers producing cloths in multiples of the ell to meet international demands, often equating to widths and lengths optimized for overseas shipment.[25] In Sweden, the equivalent unit known as the aln was standardized at 59.4 cm through national legislation in 1665, establishing a uniform system across the realm for the first time.[26] This aln, equivalent to two feet (fot), was applied to both textiles and timber, reflecting Sweden's growing export economy in forest products and woolens during the 17th and 18th centuries, where it ensured consistent sizing for trade goods like lumber planks and fabric bolts.[27] The Dutch el, at approximately 68 cm, similarly influenced measurements in the Netherlands and extended to colonial contexts, including New Netherland (later New York), where it shaped early American cloth trading practices inherited from Dutch settlers.[28][29] Imported linens and woolens were often sold by the el in colonial markets, maintaining this standard for textile commerce in the United States until the 1830s, when federal standardization efforts began favoring the yard.[15] These regional ells, adapted for local trade while relating to British variants as export benchmarks, gradually faded with the Napoleonic imposition of the metric system in the early 19th century, as countries like the Netherlands (1820) and France (fully enforced post-1830) transitioned to decimal-based units, rendering traditional arm-length measures obsolete across much of Europe.[30]Variations and Equivalents
Regional Variations
The English ell, also known as the wool ell, measured 45 inches (1.143 m) and served as a standard for coarser woolen fabrics in trade.[15] In Scotland, the ell was shorter at 37 inches (0.94 m), reflecting local standardization for general cloth measurement, while the "doubling ell" extended to 74 inches to accommodate full widths of plaid or tartan cloth in garment production.[15][9][31] The Flemish and Dutch ell ranged from 27 to 28 inches (0.686–0.711 m), particularly suited to finer textiles such as linen or tapestry due to the precision required for narrower weaves.[15] Other regional variants included the Swedish aln, equivalent to the ell at 23.4 inches (0.594 m), used in Scandinavian cloth trade; and the Polish łokieć, approximately 0.787 m (31 inches), adapted for local linen and wool measurements.[26] These variations arose primarily from differences in average local arm spans, as the ell originated from the cubit-like distance from elbow to fingertip, leading to natural discrepancies across populations.[8] Trade requirements further influenced lengths, with shorter ells facilitating international commerce in compact goods like silk, which demanded narrower gauges to minimize waste in cutting fine materials.[15]Modern Equivalents and Conversions
The English ell, standardized at 45 inches, equates to 1.143 meters or precisely 1.25 yards, as derived from its relation to the yard (36 inches).[15] This conversion reflects its historical role in cloth measurement, where 1 ell = \frac{5}{4} yards. The Scottish ell, by contrast, measured 37 inches, approximately 0.94 meters, and was not directly tied to the English yard but used independently in regional trade.[15] The ell functioned as a precursor to the modern yard within the imperial system of measurement. The Weights and Measures Act of 1824 in Britain redefined the yard as the primary linear unit for general purposes and abolished the ell's official status, standardizing lengths to eliminate regional variations.[15] For the Scottish variant, abolition occurred later under acts of 1835–1836, aligning it with imperial uniformity.[15] In contemporary contexts, the ell has no legal recognition, particularly following the UK's metrication process initiated by the 1965 Weights and Measures Act, which promoted the meter as the standard unit and phased out most imperial measures by the 1990s.[32] Residual uses persist informally in tailoring for fabric assessment and in historical reenactments to replicate period practices, though these rely on the traditional lengths without official endorsement.[15] For clarity, the following table compares key ell variants to modern units:| Variant | Inches | Meters |
|---|---|---|
| English ell | 45 | 1.143 |
| Scottish ell | 37 | 0.94 |
| Flemish/Dutch | 27 | 0.686 |
| Swedish aln | 23.4 | 0.594 |
| Polish łokieć | 31 | 0.787 |