Sometimes even today you can hear words from the Old Russian language. They have entered into everyday life so deeply that without them speech becomes dull and colorless. However, when we use such expressions, we are often unaware of their true meaning.
Let's figure out in this article what the word span means, what is its length, and where this term came from.
Meaning of the word, and types of spans
Among the Slavs, this term had several meanings. The first three (“foot”, “hand” and “small measure of area”) were distributed quite narrowly - in some dialects and dialects.
The last meaning - a measure of length - was used very widely and has survived to this day. In its classic sense, the span is the distance between the tips of the index finger and thumb, which are spread apart.
If we correlate it with other measures of length in Ancient Russia, we get the following picture. A span is a twelfth of a sazhen, a quarter of an arshin or four inches. If we talk about Western measurements, then it will be seven inches.
The approximate value of this measure of length is 18 centimeters. But there are different types of spans, we will talk about this later.
Etymology
Scientists believe that this word comes from the Proto-Slavic root "ped", which subsequently migrated to many languages.
The main meanings of the words of which this root is a part are as follows.
Lithuanian and Latvian terms related to setting snares and traps. West Slavic languages have similar words meaning "five", "one fourth of an arshin", and "stretch".
That is, you can see that a span is a measure of length, to measure which you need to stretch something. In fact, it turns out to be the fingers of the hand. A synonym is the word "quarter".
History of occurrence
In the written monuments of the history of Russia, such a term is used for the first time in the twelfth century. However, even its approximate meaning was difficult to determine until records of pilgrims to the Holy Land were discovered.
The measurements of the Holy Sepulcher were recorded in these documents. Pilgrims, being in Palestine at different times from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, called similar numbers. Thanks to this, it was deciphered what the span is equal to. This is how many monks went not only to bow to the shrine, but also to document it in order to leave the data to posterity!
As we will say further, there were three types of spans. "Big", "small" and "with somersault". The first was about twenty-three, the second was eighteen, and the third was twenty-seven or thirty-one.centimeter.
Many are wondering why it is "somersault". Very simple. This meant that we put the end of the thumb at the starting point, then we put the end of the index finger at the maximum distance (it will be about 18 cm). And then, as if continuing to move by inertia, we release the thumb and put the index finger on the side where the nail is. We measure, thus, another two or three phalanxes further. It turns out a kind of somersault.
By the way, Academician Rybakov determined the last measure of length while studying construction. In Russia, bricks were measured precisely by a span with a somersault.
Starting from the sixteenth century, it gradually disappears from urban use. It remains in the villages (mentioned in the records of the thickness of the snow layer on the fields) and in the religious sphere (they measured the size of images in churches).
During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the word "span" officially appears in documents. The measure of length is now equal to the twelfth of a sazhen. But her official life was short, and soon a similar length is called a "quarter".
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, Peter the Great "cut" a window to Europe and changed everything in a Western manner. Since that period, this length is seven inches, and a sazhen is seven feet. But in popular use, the span lived until the beginning of the twentieth century and was eliminated only in Soviet times.
Nevertheless, this word can still be heard today. But today you are likely to hear a bewildered question: “How much is a span?”
Measuring system
If you try to find a match, you can make a small table. In fact, in Russia there was no decimal number system, as we do now. Therefore, such an approach will be of interest to those who are trying to understand ancient written historical sources.
So, we remember that in the time of Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible, a span was the twelfth of a sazhen, which in turn consisted of three arshins. The fathom, by the way, was ordinary - 2 meters 13 centimeters - and oblique - 2 meters 48 centimeters.
Thus, it turns out that a vershok is a quarter of a span. A foot (foot) is about two spans, a cubit is three, an arshin is four, a measure (half a fathom) is six. A verst was about six thousand spans (although who wants to measure a kilometer in quarters?!)
In modern science, officially a span is 17.78 centimeters.
An interesting fact is that a similar way of measuring distance is not very common. In the English tradition, this is a "span" (about 23 centimeters), the length from the end of the little finger to the thumb.
In African tribes, they measure with the thumb and middle fingers, and the value is called "unguru".
Span in literature and music
This measure of length is mentioned by different authors. In the twentieth century, it "surfaced" in the work of Vladimir Vysotsky, in the song "We rotate the Earth."
There is also a span in the work "How the Steel Was Tempered" by Nikolai Ostrovsky and "The Captain's Daughter" by Alexander Pushkin.
In addition, it is mentioned by such authors as Voronel, Ladinsky,Ilichevsky, Grigoriev, Vyazemsky and many others.
Not always, though, in compositions a span is a measure of length. Sometimes synonymous with a hand, a foot, or a small piece of land, as mentioned above.
Mentioned in folklore
In folk art, this word is used in diametrically opposite cases.
On the one hand, a span is something small in terms of area. "Don't give away an inch of land."
On the other hand, it is a measure of growth. "7 spans in the forehead." This does not mean that someone's head is more than a meter high. Forehead used to be called a teenager. It is believed that 1 meter 30 centimeters is the approximate height of a thirteen-year-old boy in Ancient Russia.
Also, these words can mean in an allegorical sense and a very intelligent person. “If a big forehead means a lot of intelligence in the head,” they used to think. Therefore, such an expression appeared.
Thus, from the article you learned not only the meaning and size of the span, but also the history of its occurrence, the relationship with other units and examples from creativity.
Good luck, dear readers!
