palm (unit)

{{main|Ancient Egyptian units of measurement}}

{{hiero|Palm{{nbsp}}(D48)|D48|align=right}}

File:Coudée-turin detail.jpg of Turin, showing digit, palm, hand and fist lengths]]

The Ancient Egyptian palm ({{langx|egy|shesep}}) has been reconstructed as about {{convert|75|mm|in|sp=us|abbr=on|disp=or|0}}.{{efn|More specifically, the 14 cubit-rods described by Lepsius in 1865 show a range from {{convert|74.7|-|75.6|mm|in|sp=us|abbr=on|2}}.{{citation |last=Lepsius |first=Karl Richard |authorlink=Karl Richard Lepsius |title=Die Altaegyptische Elle und Ihre Eintheilung |year=1865 |publisher=Dümmler |location=Berlin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PRQGAAAAQAAJ }}. {{in lang|de}}}} The unit is attested as early as the reign of Djer, third pharaoh of the First Dynasty,{{citation|last=Clagett|first=Marshall|title=Ancient Egyptian Science, Vol. III: Ancient Egyptian Mathematics |date=1999 |publisher=American Philosophical Society |location=Philadelphia |isbn=978-0-87169-232-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8c10QYoGa4UC }}. and appears on many surviving cubit-rods.

The palm was subdivided into four digits ({{lang|egy|djeba|italic=yes}}) of about {{convert|19|mm|in|sp=us|abbr=on|2}}.

Three palms made up the span ({{lang|egy|pedj|italic=yes}}) or lesser span ({{lang|egy|pedj-sheser|italic=yes}}) of about {{convert|22.5|cm|in|sp=us|abbr=on|0}}. Four palms made up the foot ({{lang|egy|djeser|italic=yes}}) of about {{convert|30|cm|ft|sp=us|abbr=on|0}}. Five made up the {{lang|egy|remen|italic=yes}} of about {{convert|37.5|cm|ftin|sp=us|abbr=on|0}}. Six made up the "Greek cubit" ({{lang|egy|meh nedjes|italic=yes}}) of about {{convert|45|cm|ftin|sp=us|abbr=on|0}}. Seven made up the "royal cubit" ({{lang|egy|meh niswt|italic=yes}}) of about {{convert|52.5|cm|ftin|sp=us|abbr=on|0}}. Eight made up the pole ({{lang|egy|nbiw|italic=yes}}) of about {{convert|60|cm|ft|sp=us|abbr=on|0}}.

{{main|Ancient Hebrew units of measurement}}

The palm was not a major unit in ancient Mesopotamia but appeared in ancient Israel as the {{lang|he|tefah|italic=yes}}, {{lang|he|tepah|italic=yes}}, or {{lang|he|topah|italic=yes}} ({{langx|he|טפח}}, {{abbr|lit|literally}}.{{nbsp}}"a spread").{{citation |contribution=2947 tephach & 948 tophach |title=Strong's Numbers |url=http://biblehub.com/strongs.htm |publisher=Bible Hub |date=2016 }}. Scholars were long uncertain as to whether this was reckoned using the Egyptian or Babylonian cubit,{{citation |last=Hirsch |first=Emil G. |author2=Immanuel Benzinger |author3=Joseph Jacobs |author4=Jacob Zallel Lauterbach |date=1906 |display-authors=1 |ref={{harvid|Hirsch & al.|1906}} |contribution=Weights and Measures |contribution-url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14821-weights-and-measures |url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/ |title=The Jewish Encyclopedia |volume=XII |pages=483 ff |location= |editor=Cyrus Adler |editor2=Gotthard Deutsch |editor3=Louis Ginzberg |editor4=Richard Gottheil |editor5=Joseph Jacobs |editor6=Marcus Jastrow |editor7=Morris Jastrow, Jr. |editor8=Kaufmann Kohler |editor9=Frederick de Sola Mendes |editor10=Crawford H. Toy |editor11=Isidore Singer |display-editors=0 }}. but now believe it to have approximated the Egyptian "Greek cubit", giving a value for the palm of about {{convert|74|mm|in|sp=us|abbr=on|disp=or|1}}.{{citation |contribution-url=http://www.oxfordbiblicalstudies.com/resource/WeightsAndMeasures.xhtml |contribution=Weights and Measures |title=Oxford Biblical Studies Online |accessdate=15 January 2017 |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press }}.

As in Egypt, the palm was divided into four digits ({{lang|he|etzba|italic=yes}} or {{lang|he|etsba|italic=yes}}) of about {{convert|18.5|mm|in|sp=us|abbr=on|2}} and three palms made up a span ({{lang|he|zeret|italic=yes}}) of about {{convert|22.1|cm|in|sp=us|abbr=on|0}}. Six made up the Hebrew cubit ({{lang|he|amah|italic=yes}} or {{lang|he|ammah|italic=yes}}) of about {{convert|44.3|cm|ftin|sp=us|abbr=on|0}}, although the cubits mentioned in Ezekiel{{bibleref|Ezekiel|40:5|HE}}, {{bibleref||Ezekiel|43:13|HE}}. follow the royal cubit in consisting of seven palms comprising about {{convert|51.8|cm|ftin|sp=us|0}}.

{{main|Ancient Greek units of measurement}}

The Ancient Greek palm ({{langx|grc|παλαιστή}}, palaistḗ, {{lang|grc|δῶρον}}, dō̂ron, or {{lang|grc|δακτυλοδόχμη}}, daktylodókhmē) made up ¼ of the Greek foot (poûs), which varied by region between {{convert|27|-|35|cm|ftin|sp=us|abbr=on|0}}.{{citation |series=Reading the Past, No. 2 |title=Mathematics and Measurement |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |date=1987 |last=Dilke |first=Oswald Ashton Wentworth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AKJZvXOS7n4C |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=AKJZvXOS7n4C&pg=PA26 26] |isbn=9780520060722 }}. This gives values for the palm between {{convert|6.7|-|8.8|cm|in|sp=us|abbr=on}}, with the Attic palm around {{convert|7.4|cm|in|sp=us|abbr=on}}.{{citation |series=History of Mechanism and Machine Science, No. 33 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3CbqDAAAQBAJ |last=Rossi |first=Cesare |author2=Flavio Russo |ref={{harvid|Rossi & al.|2009}} |title=Ancient Engineers' Inventions: Precursors of the Present |publisher=Springer |date=2009 |location=Cham |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=3CbqDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA14 14] |isbn = 9783319444765}}.

These various palms were divided into four digits (dáktylos) or two "middle phalanges" (kóndylos). Two palms made a half-foot (hēmipódion or dikhás); three, a span (spithamḗ); four, a foot (poûs); five, a short cubit (pygōn);{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bVWcAQAAQBAJ |title=The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th ed. |editor=Simon Hornblower |editor2=Anthony Spawforth |editor3=Esther Eidinow |display-editors=0 |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2012 |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bVWcAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA917 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=bVWcAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA917 917] |contribution=measures |author-first=Frederick Norman |author-last=Pryce |author2=Mabel L. Lang |author3=Michael Vickers |display-authors=1 |ref={{harvid|Pryce & al.|2012}} |isbn=9780199545568 }}. and six, a cubit (pē̂khys).

The Greeks also had a less common "greater palm" of five digits.

{{main|Ancient Roman units of measurement}}

The Roman palm ({{langx|la|palmus}}) or lesser palm ({{lang|la|palmus minor}}) made up ¼ of the Roman foot ({{lang|la|pes}}), which varied in practice between {{convert|29.2|-|29.7|cm|in|sp=us|abbr=on|1}}{{citation |last=Aylward |first=William |contribution=Linear Measure and Geometry in Roman Architectural Planning with Specific Reference to the Colonnaded Oecus at the Villa at Poggio Gramignano |editor=David Soren |editor2=Noelle Soren |display-editors=0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U8Muzx1VrbwC |title=A Roman Villa and a Late Roman Infant Cemetery: Excavation at Poggio Gramignano Lugnano in Teverina |date=1999 |location=Rome |publisher=L'Erma di Bretschneider |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=U8Muzx1VrbwC&pg=PA190 190] |isbn=9788870629897 }}. but is thought to have been officially {{convert|29.6|cm|in|sp=us|abbr=on|1}}. This would have given the palm a notional value of {{convert|7.4|cm|in|sp=us|abbr=on}} within a range of a few millimeters.

The palm was divided into four digits ({{lang|la|digitus}}) of about {{convert|1.85|cm|in|sp=us|abbr=on|1}} or three inches ({{lang|la|uncia}}) of about {{convert|2.47|cm|in|sp=us|abbr=on|1}}. Three made a span ({{lang|la|palmus maior}} or "greater palm") of about {{convert|22.2|cm|in|sp=us|abbr=on|0}};{{efn|Despite the equality of this unit with other systems' spans, the Encyclopédie glossed the "greater palm" as the length rather than the breadth of the hand.}} four, a Roman foot; five, a hand-and-a-foot ({{lang|la|palmipes}}) of about {{convert|37|cm|ftin|sp=us|abbr=on|0}}; six, a cubit ({{lang|la|cubitus}}) of about {{convert|44.4|cm|ftin|sp=us|abbr=on}}.

File:Pernes - Mesures anciennes.JPG

{{hatnote|Main articles: Italian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese units of measurement.}}

The palms of medieval ({{langx|la|palma}}){{citation |title=Medieval Latin: An Introduction and Bibliographical Guide |last=Mantello |first=Frank Anthony Carl |author2=A.G. Rigg |display-authors=1 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Bb32Th4WAK0C&pg=PA443 443] }}. and early modern Europe—the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese {{lang|it|palmo}} and French {{lang|fr|palme}}—were based upon the Roman "greater palm", reckoned as a hand's span or length.

In Italy, the palm ({{langx|it|palmo}}) varied regionally. The Genovese palm was about {{convert|24.76|-|24.85|cm|abbr=on|sp=us|1}};{{efn|Unlike Greaves, who used the Guildhall standard foot, Hutton based his measurements on the fractured yard at the Exchequer,{{citation |contribution=Weight |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nn9RAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA683 |title=A Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary, Vol. II |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nn9RAAAAYAAJ |last1 = Hutton|first1 = Charles|year = 1795}}. about 1% of an inch shorter than the present yard.{{citation |contribution-url=https://sizes.com/units/yard.htm |contribution=yard |url=https://sizes.com/ |title=Sizes |location=Sta. Monica |date=2004 }}. Hutton's line is reckoned as the {{frac|1|12}}th part of an inch.{{citation |contribution=Line |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nn9RAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA42 |title=A Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary, Vol. II |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nn9RAAAAYAAJ |last1 = Hutton|first1 = Charles|year = 1795}}.}} in the Papal States, the Roman palm about {{convert|21.05|cm|abbr=on|sp=us|1}} according to Hutton but divided into the Roman "architect's palm" ({{lang|it|palmo di architetti}}) of about {{convert|22.32|cm|in|abbr=on|sp=us|1}} and "merchant's palm" ({{lang|it|palmo del braccio di mercantia}}) of about {{convert|21.21|cm|in|abbr=on|sp=us|1}} according to Greaves;{{efn|A sign in Vaucluse, France, claims the Roman palm was identical to its own {{convert|24.61|cm|in|abbr=on|sp=us|1}} standard.}} and the Neapolitan palm reported as {{convert|20.31|cm|in|abbr=on|sp=us|1}} by Riccioli but {{convert|21.80|cm|in|abbr=on|sp=us|1}} by Hutton's other sources. On Sicily and Malta, it was {{convert|24.61|cm|in|sp=us|abbr=on|1}}.

In France, the palm ({{langx|fr|palme}} or {{lang|fr|pan}}) was about {{convert|24.61|cm|in|sp=us|abbr=on|1}} in Pernes-les-Fontaines, Vaucluse, and about {{convert|24.76|cm|in|sp=us|abbr=on|1}} in Languedoc.

Palaiseau gave metric equivalents for the palme or palmo in 1816, and Rose provided English equivalents in 1900:

From 19th C. Italian sources{{Cite web |date= |title=Antichi pesi e misure |trans-title=Ancient weights and measures (PDF), retrieved via Wayback Machine |url=http://www.calitritradizioni.it/Antichi%20pesi%20e%20misure.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120106032046/http://www.calitritradizioni.it/Antichi%20pesi%20e%20misure.pdf |archive-date=6 January 2012 |access-date=26 January 2010 |website=www.calitritradizioni.it |language=It}}Antonio Pasquale Favaro. [https://books.google.com/books?id=zAzsh-NGHh4C Metrologia o sia Trattato Generale delle Misure, de' Pesi e delle Monete] - (in Italian) - [Metrology or General Treatise on Measures, Weights and Coins] - Gabinetto Bibliografico e Tipografico (Napoli 1826)Carlo Afan de Rivera. [https://books.google.com/books?id=183ybr9X82YC&pg=PA1 Tavole di riduzione de' Pesi e delle misure della Sicilia Citeriore in quelli statuiti dalla legge de' 6 aprile del 1840] - (in Italian) - [Tables of Reductions of Weights and Measures of Sicilia Citeriore in those established by the Law of 6 April 1840] - Stamperia e Cartiere del Fibreno (Napoli 1840)Angelo Martini. [https://books.google.com/books?id=sI7SoAEACAAJ Manuale di metrologia ossia Misure, Pesi e Monete in uso attualmente e anticamente presso tutti i popoli antichi] - (in Italian) - [Handbook of Metrology i.e. Measures, Weights and Coins in Current and Ancient Use by All Ancient Peoples] - Editrice E.C.A. (Roma 1976), facsimile reprint of the original Turin edition of 1883 emerges that :

- the ancient Venetian palm, five of which made a passo (pace), was equivalent to 0.3774 metres.

- the Neapolitan palm = 0.26333670 metres (from 1480 to 1840)

- the Neapolitan palm = 0.26455026455 metres (according to the law of 6 April 1840)

which differs from previously cited palm measure equivalents in metres above.

{{main|English units}}

File:Cun3.gif

The English palm, handbreadth, or handsbreadth is three inches (7.62{{nbsp}}cm){{efn|An exact figure since the adoption of the international yard and pound agreement during the 1950s and '60s by the nations using the English system.}} or, equivalently, four digits. The measurement was, however, not always well distinguished from the hand or handful, which became equal to four inches by a 1541 statute of Henry VIII.{{efn|Mortimer, e.g., notes that during his time "The hand among horse-dealers, &c. is four-fingers' breadth, being the fist clenched, whereby the height of a horse is measured", showing a confusion of the notional separation of "palms", "hands", and "fists".}} The palm was excluded from the British Weights and Measures Act 1824 that established the imperial system and is not a standard US customary unit.

The Moroccan palm is given by Hutton as about {{convert|18.20|cm|in|sp=us|abbr=on|1}}.

{{Noteslist}}

{{reflist|45em|refs=

William L. Hosch (editor) (2010). [https://books.google.com/books?id=cuN7rH6RzikC The Britannica Guide to Numbers and Measurement]. New York: Britannica Educational Publications, page 206. {{isbn|9781615301089}}.

George Louis Le Clerc, Comte de Buffon; John Wright (translator) (1831). [https://books.google.com/books?id=hWZHAAAAYAAJ A Natural History of the Globe: Of Man, of Beasts, Birds, Fishes, Reptiles, Insects, and Plants], volume 5. Boston; Philadelphia: Gray and Bowen; Thomas Desilver, Jr.

Marshall Clagett (1999). [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_8c10QYoGa4UC Ancient Egyptian Science, A Source Book. Volume 3: Ancient Egyptian Mathematics]. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. {{isbn|9780871692320}}.

Diderot, Denis; Jean Le Rond d'Alembert (eds.) (1765) [https://books.google.com/books?id=lFv18l6zIisC&pg=PA794 Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers] (in French) Neufchastel: chez Samuel Faulche Volume XI, N – PARI p.793

John Greaves (1647). [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_LW86AAAAcAAJ/page/n53 A Discourse of the Romane Foot and Denarius, from Whence, as from Two Principles, the Measures and Weights Used by the Ancients May Be Deduced]. London: William Lee, page 40.

Charles Hutton (1795). [https://books.google.com/books?id=Nn9RAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA187 Palm], in: A Philosophical and Mathematical Dictionary, volume II. London: J. Johnson, page 187.

Thomas Mortimer (1810). [https://books.google.com/books?id=FdovAAAAYAAJ A General Dictionary of Commerce, Trade, and Manufactures: Exhibiting Their Present State in Every Part of the World; and Carefully Comp. from the Latest and Best Authorities]. London: R. Phillips.

Palaiseau, Jean-François-Gaspard (1816) [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_k0tyBHmAD9sC Métrologie universelle, ancienne et moderne: ou rapport des poids et mesures des empires, royaumes, duchés et prinicipautés des quatre parties du monde, présenté en tableaux par ordre alphabétique de pays ou ville, et leur position géographique avec les anciens et nouveau poids et mesures du royaume de France, et l'inverse, avec la méthode pour opérer toutes les conversions par des nombres fixes, etc. ... ] (in French) Bordeaux: Lavigne jeune p.160

[n.a.] (1816). [https://books.google.com/books?id=SVAKAQAAMAAJ Encyclopædia Perthensis; or Universal Dictionary of the Arts, Sciences, Literature, etc., intended to supersede the use of other books of reference], volume 16. Edinburgh: J. Brown.

Edward Phillips, John Kersey (editor) (1706). [https://archive.org/details/b30452600 The New World of Words: or, Universal English Dictionary. Containing an Account of the Original or Proper Sense, and Various Significations of all Hard Words derived from other Languages ..., the sixth edition, revised ... with the addition of near twenty thousand words ...). London: J. Phillips.

Sir William Smith, Charles Anthon (1851). [https://books.google.com/books?id=uUPhhcdSACQC A new classical dictionary of Greek and Roman biography, mythology, and geography partly based upon the Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology]. New York: Harper & Bros. Table II, page 1025

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Palm, Unit}}

Category:Units of length

Category:Human-based units of measurement

Category:Obsolete units of measurement