Inch (in or ") [1]
Inch (in or ") [1] :
A traditional unit of distance equal to 1/12 foot or exactly 2.54 centimeters. The Old English word ynce is derived from the Latin uncia, meaning a 1/12 part; thus "inch" and "ounce" actually have the same root. The inch was originally defined in England in two ways: as the length of three barleycorns laid end to end, or as the width of a man's thumb at the base of the nail. The barleycorn definition is peculiarly English, but the thumb-width definition is generic. In fact, in many European languages the word for inch also means thumb: examples include the Dutch duim, Swedish tum, French pouce, and Spanish pulgada. In the history of English units the inch seems to come before the foot: after the Norman conquest of 1066 the foot was defined to equal 12 inches, rather than the inch being defined as 1/12 foot
