Hair's breadth

{{wiktionary|by a hair's breadth}}

This measurement is not precise because human hair varies in diameter, ranging anywhere from 17 μm to 181 μm [millionths of a metre]{{cite web|url=https://hypertextbook.com/facts/1999/BrianLey.shtml|title=Diameter of a human hair|first=Brian|last=Ley|year=1999|website=The Physics Factbook|editor-last=Elert|editor-first=Glenn|accessdate=2018-12-08}} One nominal value often chosen is {{convert|75|μm}},{{sfn|Smith|2002|page=253}} but this – like other measures based upon such highly variable natural objects, including the barleycorn{{sfn|Boaz|1823|page=267}} – is subject to a fair degree of imprecision.{{sfn|Smith|2002|page=253}}{{sfn|Johnson|1842|pages=1257}}

Such measures can be found in many cultures. The English "hair's breadth"{{sfn|Crook|Osmaston|1994|page=133}} has a direct analogue in the formal Burmese system of Long Measure. A "tshan khyee", the smallest unit in the system, is literally a "hair's breadth". 10 "tshan khyee" form a "hnan" (a Sesamum seed), 60 (6 hnan) form a mooyau (a species of grain), and 240 (4 mooyau) form an "atheet" (literally, a "finger's breadth").{{sfn|Latter|1991|pages=167}}{{sfn|Carey|1814| page = 209 }}

Some formal definitions even existed in English. In several systems of English Long Measure, a "hair's breadth" has a formal definition. Samuel Maunder's Treasury of Knowledge and Library of Reference, published in 1855, states that a "hair's breadth" is one 48th of an inch (and thus one 16th of a barleycorn).{{sfn|Maunder|1855|page=12}} John Lindley's An introduction to botany, published in 1839, and William Withering' An Arrangement of British Plants, published in 1818, states that a "hair's breadth" is one 12th of a line, which is one 144th of an inch or ~176 μm (a line itself being one 12th of an inch).{{sfn|Lindley|1839|page=474}}{{sfn|Withering|1818|page=69}}

Carl Linnaeus had earlier recommended, in place of Joseph Pitton de Tournefort's geometric scale for botanical measurements, a scale starting with a "hair's breadth" ({{lang|la|capillus}}) which was one 12th of a line ({{lang|la|linea}}), one 6th of a (finger) nail ({{lang|la|unguis}}), and likewise 144th of a thumb ({{lang|la|pollex}}); which itself was equal to a (Parisian) inch.{{sfn|Milne|1805|pp=417–418}}

Winning a competition, such as a horse race, "by a whisker" (a short beard hair) is a narrower margin of victory than winning "by a nose."{{cite web |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/win+by+a+nose |title=Win by a nose |accessdate=January 27, 2015 |work=The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary |year=2002|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company/Dictionary.com}}{{cite web |url=http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/win+by+a+whisker |title=By a nose |publisher=Free Dictionary |accessdate=December 30, 2016}} An even narrower anatomically-based margin might be described in the idiom "by the skin of my teeth," which is typically applied to a narrow escape from impending disaster. This is roughly analogous to the phrase "as small as the hairs on a gnat's bollock."{{cite web |url=http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/83000.html |work=The phrase finder |title=The meaning and origin of the expression: By the skin of your teeth |accessdate=January 28, 2015}} Some German speakers similarly use “Muggeseggele,” literally “housefly’s scrotum,” as a small unit of measurement.{{cite news|url=http://content.stuttgarter-nachrichten.de/stn/page/1968288_0_9223_schoenstes-schwaebisches-wort-grosser-vorsprung-fuer-schwabens-kleinste-einheit.html |title=Schönstes schwäbisches Wort: Großer Vorsprung für Schwabens kleinste Einheit |last=Sellner |first=Jan |date=9 March 2009 |work=Stuttgarter Nachrichten |language=de |access-date=13 August 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927133628/http://content.stuttgarter-nachrichten.de/stn/page/1968288_0_9223_schoenstes-schwaebisches-wort-grosser-vorsprung-fuer-schwabens-kleinste-einheit.html |archive-date=27 September 2013 }}

• Beard-second
• List of humorous units of measurement
• List of unusual units of measurement
• Indefinite and fictitious numbers

{{Reflist|group=upper-alpha}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

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• {{cite book | author1-last = Boaz | author1-first = James | date = 1823-03-21 | chapter = On a fixed Unit of Measure |editor1-last= Tilloch|editor1-first= Alexander|editor2-last=Taylor |editor2-first=Richard|title=Philosophical Magazine | volume = 61 | pages = 266–269 | publisher = Richard Taylor | location = London }}
• {{cite book | last = Carey | first = Felix |year=1814 |url=https://archive.org/details/agrammarburmanl00caregoog |title=A grammar of the Burman language |chapter=Of Weights &c. |page=[https://archive.org/details/agrammarburmanl00caregoog/page/n221 209] | publisher=Mission Press/Internet Archive }}
• {{cite book | first1 = John | last1 = Crook | first2 = Henry | last2 = Osmaston | year = 1994 | title = Himalayan Buddhist Villages | chapter = Weights and Measures |page=133 | publisher = Shri Jainendra Press | location = Delhi |isbn=978-0-86292-386-0}}
• {{cite encyclopaedia | last = Johnson | first = Cuthbert William | author-link = Cuthbert William Johnson | year = 1842 | encyclopedia = The farmer's encyclopædia, and dictionary of rural affairs | article = Weights and Measures | pages = 1257 | location = London | publisher=Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longmans/Internet Archive |url=https://archive.org/stream/farmersencyclop00johnrich/farmersencyclop00johnrich_djvu.txt }}
• {{cite book | last = Latter | first = Thomas | year = 1991 | title = A Grammar of the Language of Burmah | chapter = Measures | pages = 167 | publisher = Asian Educational Services |isbn=978-81-206-0693-7 | edition = republished}}
• {{cite book |author1-last=Lindley|author1-first=John|author1-link=John Lindley| year = 1839 | title = An introduction to botany | url = https://archive.org/details/anintroductiont04lindgoog | chapter = Glossology |page=[https://archive.org/details/anintroductiont04lindgoog/page/n491 474] |edition=3rd |publisher=Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longmans |location = London}}
• {{cite book |author1-last=Maunder|author1-first=Samuel|author1-link=Samuel Maunder| year = 1855 | title = Treasury of Knowledge and Library of Reference | url = https://archive.org/details/treasuryknowled04maungoog | publisher=J. W. Bell | location = New York

| page=[https://archive.org/details/treasuryknowled04maungoog/page/n20 12] | chapter = Measures of Length }}

• {{cite encyclopaedia|encyclopaedia=A Botanical Dictionary: Or, Elements of Systematic and Philosophical Botany|edition=3rd|author1-first=Colin|author1-last=Milne|author1-link=Colin Milne|year=1805|location=London|publisher=H.D. Symonds|article=Mensura}}
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• {{cite book|author1-last=Withering|author1-first=William|author1-link=William Withering|year=1818 |title=An Arrangement of British Plants |chapter=Botanical Terms |page=69 |volume=1 |edition=6th |publisher=Longman & Co., Robert Scholey, et al. |location=London}}

{{refend}}

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• {{cite journal |last=Raudaskoski |first=Heikki |title='The Feathery Rilke Mustaches and Porky Pig Tattoo on Stomach': High and Low Pressures in Gravity's Rainbow |journal=Postmodern Culture |volume=7 |number=2 |date=January 1997 |doi=10.1353/pmc.1997.0007 |url=http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/gr/finnished.html |accessdate=January 20, 2015 }}
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Category:English grammar

Category:English-language idioms

Category:Idioms

Category:Units of length

Category:Human hair