83 The Long and Short of It

Every day we lace out talk with measurement words. We ask, “How much?” “How many?” and “How far?” At the athletic event meet by the pound, clothing by the size, and cloth by the yard. All the words we use are played on measured fields or surfaces. Rules are also filled with units of measurement. For example, in football we know that a first down means a gain of at least 10 yards. Words of distance, weight, and size help us understand and visualize what is seen or said.

In ancient times, people used parts of the body as units of measurement. The Romans used uncia to name the distance equal to the width of a thumb. The English picked up this word and renamed it an inch. They did not, however, accept the thumb as a unit of measure. They decided instead that an inch should be “three barley corns, round and dry, placed end-to-end lengthwise.”

After this inch was accepted and used, the English then joined 12 inches and called it a foot. As it happened, 12 inches was roughly the length of a man’s foot, so the foot-unit was widely used. To measure a room, all you had to do was put one foot in front of the other and count.

The inch and the foot worked so well that the English introduced a larger unit. They put together three lengths of a man’s foot and called it a yard. Again, man had another useful unit—in this case, one he could use to pace off a large field quickly. Then the English made a unit for the women, one especially for measuring cloth. They called this unit a yard too. The distance was from a man’s nose to the tip of his middle finger.

Of course, there is a flaw in all this. Not all men are the same size. But no one seems to care.

83 关于度量的长短

我们每天的交谈中都会用到度量单位的词汇。我们会问“多少？”“多少个？”以及“多远？”在体育赛事中，我们按磅计量体重，按尺寸计量服装，按码计量布料。我们使用的所有词汇都在计量的领域或层面上发挥作用。规则中也充满了度量单位。例如，在橄榄球中，我们知道一次首攻意味着至少推进10码。距离、重量和尺寸的词汇帮助我们理解和想象所见或所闻的事物。

在古代，人们用身体的部位作为度量单位。罗马人用“uncia”来命名相当于拇指宽度的距离。英国人采用了这个词，并将其重命名为“英寸”。然而，他们并不接受以拇指作为度量单位，而是决定一英寸应该是“三粒圆而干的大麦粒，首尾相连纵向排列的长度”。

在这个英寸被接受并使用之后，英国人将12英寸合起来称为一英尺。巧合的是，12英寸大致相当于一个人的脚长，所以英尺单位被广泛使用。要测量一个房间，你所要做的就是把一只脚放在另一只脚前面然后计数。

英寸和英尺用起来如此方便，以至于英国人引入了一个更大的单位。他们把三个人的脚长合起来，称之为一码。同样，人类又有了另一个有用的单位——在这种情况下，是一个可以用来快速丈量大片田地的单位。后来，英国人为女性制定了一个单位，专门用于测量布料，他们也把这个单位称为码，这个距离是从一个人的鼻子到其中指指尖的长度。

当然，这一切都有一个缺陷：不是所有男人的体型都一样。但似乎没人在意。