Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/57

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the 'Oxford English Dictionary' the word clove (sb.3) is acknowledged to be a difficulty:

The term is defined as "a weight formerly used for wool and cheese, equal to 7 or 8 lbs. avoirdupois."

I owe so much gratitude to the 'O.E.D.' that I have tried to solve the problem, and perhaps my essay may be of use when "nail" comes to the front.

My study of the subject leads me to the conclusion that the L. clavus and the Fr. clou were blundering equivalents for "nail"; the scribes of the time had got hold of the wrong nail. I propose to show this by the development of the word, first as a measure, then as a weight. It is a rather long story, for it is an episode connected with the rise of our system of measures and weights from their origin; but if the story is half as interesting to readers of 'N. & Q.' as the working out of it has been to me, I believe I shall be pardoned for its length.

Of the earliest lineal measures, the chief was the natural cubit, the length of the forearm from elbow to finger-tip, the mean measurement of which in men is about 18½ inches. It was divided into 6 palms, or hands, each of 4 digits or finger-breadths. The division of the cubit into 24 digits probably influenced the use of this number in other measures, the scruple-division of the ounce, the grain-division of the penny-weight, and perhaps the astronomical day just as the division of the half cubit or span into 12 digits was the first step in the duo-decimal system.

In due course the length of the cubit became fixed by law. That of the Egyptian common cubit was fixed at a length (equal to 18-24 English inches) such that a fathom of four cubits was exactly one-hundredth of a stadium, or one-thousandth of a geographical mile. When the Egyptian royal cubit was introduced, its additional length (making it equal to 20•62 English inches) was given by adding a rather short palm (as in the cubit and a handbreadth of Ezekiel), and making this builder's cubit contain 7 palms, each of 4 digits, slightly shorter divisions than those of the common cubit. The hieroglyphic of the digit is a finger.

Before going further it may be well to note the usual divisions of the common cubit whether in Egypt or in other countries.

1. The foot, a convenient measure, two-thirds of the cubit, divided into 4 palms or 16 digits.

2. The span, half of the cubit and equal to about 9 of our inches. It has always and everywhere been a popular measure. In southern France the popular cloth-measure, despite of the metric system of the franchiman Government, is still the pan. The pawn of Geans (palmo of Genoa) is one of the measures mentioned in Recorde (1654). In England women measure cloth by the long finger or half-span, the length of the middle finger, from tip to knuckle, bent.

3. The palm or hand, the palmus minor. Originally 3 inches (4 digits) in England, it rose to 4 inches, becoming thus the "hand" horse-measure.

4. I mention pour mémoire the scœft-mund of Anglo-Saxon times, or hand-shaft, the Italian sommesso—the fist with thumb extended, equal to about half a foot.

The span of the Greeks, half the Egyptian Common cubit, was divided into 12 daktuloi; the Romans divided their somewhat shorter palmus major into 12 ''unciœ. The palmo of Por-