Ell
{{Short description|Unit of length}}
{{About|the unit of length|the letter|L|other uses|Ell (disambiguation)}}
{{Redirect|Aune|the surname|Aune (surname)}}
{{more footnotes|date=November 2022}}
{{Infobox unit
| bgcolor =
| name = Ell
| image = Ell.jpg
| caption = The ell was originally a cubit, later replaced by the cloth-ell or "double ell".
| standard =
| quantity = Length
| symbol2 =
| namedafter =
| extralabel =
| extradata =
| units_imp1 = Inch
| inunits_imp1 = 45
| units_imp2 = Metre
| inunits_imp2 = 1.143
}}
File:Regensburg - Altes Rathaus - Masse - 2016.jpg: from left to right, a fathom (Klafter), foot (Schuch) and ell (Öln)]]
File:Bad Langensalza, Preußische Elle und Preußisches Fuß am Rathaus.jpg
An ell (from Proto-Germanic *alinō, cognate with Latin ulna)[http://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/60511 "ell, n.1"]. OED Online. December 2011. Oxford University Press. (accessed February 20, 2012). 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,{{cite book|title=The Diagonal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BudNAAAAYAAJ&q=%22the+ell+was+originally+the+same+measure+as+the+cubit%22&pg=PA98|access-date=6 February 2012|year=1920|publisher=Yale University Press|page=98}}{{cite book|author1=Charlton Thomas Lewis|author2=Hugh Macmaster Kingery|title=An elementary Latin dictionary|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_2ncKAAAAIAAJ|quote=forearm, ell, cubit.|access-date=6 February 2012|year=1918|publisher=American book company|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_2ncKAAAAIAAJ/page/n204 198]}} some of which are thought to derive from a "double ell".{{cite book|author=James Robinson (of Boston.)|title=The American elementary arithmetic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=klYMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA94|access-date=6 February 2012|year=1857|publisher=J.P. Jewett & co.|page=94}}{{cite book|author=Daniel O'Gorman|title=Intuitive calculations; the readiest and most concise methods|url=https://archive.org/details/intuitivecalcul00ogogoog|access-date=6 February 2012|year=1853|page=[https://archive.org/details/intuitivecalcul00ogogoog/page/n54 48]}}
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".[http://www.infoplease.com/dictionary/brewers/ell-wand.html infoplease.com], OED s. Ell-wand.{{cite web |url=http://content-www.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/89685.html |title=The measurements of cricket |author=AR Littlewood |publisher=ESPN cricinfo }} 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.{{cite book |last= Andrén|first= Anders|language=sv|title= Det Medeltida Gotland. En arkeologisk guidebok|trans-title=Medieval Gotland. An archaeological guidebook|year= 2017|edition=2nd |location=Lund |publisher=Historiska Media |page=206|isbn= 978-91-7545-476-4}}
Several national forms existed, with different lengths, including the Scottish ell {{nowrap|(≈{{convert|37|in|cm|0|disp=or}})}}, the Flemish ell [el] {{nowrap|1=(≈{{convert|27|in|cm|1|disp=or|abbr=on}})}}, the French ell [aune] {{nowrap|1=(≈{{convert|54|in|cm|1|disp=or|abbr=on}})}},Brayshaw, Tom S., ed. Brayshaw's Mathematical Desk Companion. Chesterfield, England: Thomas Brayshaw Ltd., Edition 16, 1955 the Polish ell {{nowrap|(≈{{convert|31|in|cm|1|disp=or|abbr=on}})}}, the Danish alen {{nowrap|(24 Danish inches or 2 Danish fod: 62.7708 cm)}}, the Swedish aln {{nowrap|(2 Swedish fot 59.38 cm)}} and the German ell [{{lang|de|Elle}}] of different lengths in Frankfurt (54.7 cm), Cologne, Leipzig (Saxony) or 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.
The Viking ell was the measure from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, about {{convert|18|in}}. 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 was the English ell of the time.{{Cite book |author=Nancy Marie Brown |year=2007 |title=The Far Traveller: Voyages of a Viking Woman |publisher=Harcourt |pages=236, 276 |oclc=85822467}}
Historic use
= England =
In England, the ell was usually exactly {{convert|45|in|m|3|abbr=on}}, 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".{{cite book|last=Knight|first=Charles|title=The Penny magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Volume 9|year=1840|publisher=Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge|location=London|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-BHnAAAAMAAJ}}
Other English measures called an ell include the "yard and handful", or 40 in. ell, abolished in 1439; the yard and inch, or 37 in. ell (a cloth measure), abolished after 1553 and known later as the Scotch ell=37.06; and the cloth ell of 45 in., used until 1600.Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Weights and Measures" (free fulltext), from the Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 01 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. See yard for details.
=Scots=
The Scottish ell ({{Langx|gd|slat Albannach}}) is approximately {{convert|37|in|m}}. The Scottish ell was standardised in 1661, with the exemplar to be kept in the custody of Edinburgh.Concise Scots Dictionary, chief editor Mairi Robinson, Aberdeen University Press, 1987, p 817 It comes from Middle English {{lang|enm|elle}}.{{Cite web |url=http://www.dsl.ac.uk/getent4.php?plen=2873&startset=14827060&query=Ell&fhit=ell&dregion=form&dtext=dost#fhit |title=Dictionary of the Scots Language |access-date=2011-08-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321185041/http://www.dsl.ac.uk/getent4.php?plen=2873&startset=14827060&query=Ell&fhit=ell&dregion=form&dtext=dost#fhit |archive-date=2012-03-21 |url-status=dead }}
It was used in the popular expression {{lang|sco|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.
File:About the Dunkeld ell - geograph.org.uk - 1505823.jpg ell explained on an information board outside The Ell Shop]]
File:The "Ell" on the side of the National Trust for Scotland shop. - geograph.org.uk - 1138039.jpg iron ell attached to the wall]]
= Other =
In literature
In the epic poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Green Knight's axe-head was an ell (45 inches) wide.{{Cite book |editor-last=Burrow |editor-first=J. A. |date=1972 |title=Sir Gawain and the Green Knight |location=Harmondsworth, England |publisher=Penguin |pages=22 |isbn=0140806679 |oclc=1136028 |quote=The lenkthe of an elnyerde the large hed had}}
Ells were also used in the medieval French play The Farce of Master Pathelin to measure the size of the clothing Pierre Pathelin bought.{{cite web|url=https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/pdf/ebh410b2451866.pdf |title=The farce of Master Pierre Patelin|website=sas.ac.uk|access-date=11 April 2024}}
Ells are used for measuring the length of rope in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.{{cite book |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |author-link=Tolkien |title=The Lord of the Rings |title-link=The Lord of the Rings |publisher=HarperCollins |year=1997 |isbn=0-261-10368-7 |pages=595–6 |quote=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{{'-}}}} 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".{{Cite book |last=Laxness |first=Halldór |author-link=Halldór Laxness |title=Sjálfstætt fólk |publisher=Vintage |others=Introduction by Brad Leithauser |year=1997 |isbn=0-679-76792-4 |location=New York |page=201 |translator-last=Thompson |translator-first=J. A. (James Anderson) |trans-title=Independent People |orig-date=1946 |translator-link=J. A. Thompson}}
References
{{Reflist}}
; Attribution
- {{Dwelly}} See [https://archive.org/details/Dwelly/page/850/mode/2up p. 861].
Further reading
- 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
- {{Commons category inline}}
{{Systems of measurement}}
Category:Human-based units of measurement
Category:Obsolete units of measurement