Inch - Wikipedia

Home » How Long Is 4 Inches » Inch - Wikipedia

Maybe your like

The English word "inch" (Old English: ynce) was an early borrowing from Latin uncia ("one-twelfth; Roman inch; Roman ounce").[2] The vowel change from Latin /u/ to Old English /y/ (which became Modern English /ɪ/) is known as umlaut.[citation needed] The consonant change from the Latin /k/ (spelled c) to English /tʃ/ is palatalisation. Both were features of Old English phonology; see Phonological history of Old English § Palatalization and Germanic umlaut § I-mutation in Old English for more information.

"Inch" is cognate with "ounce" (Old English: ynse), whose separate pronunciation and spelling reflect its reborrowing in Middle English from Anglo-Norman unce and ounce.[3]

In many other European languages, the word for "inch" is the same as or derived from the word for "thumb", as a man's thumb is about an inch wide (and this was even sometimes used to define the inch[4]). In the Dutch language a term for inch is engelse duim (english thumb).[5][6] Examples include Catalan: polzada ("inch") and polze ("thumb"); Czech: palec ("thumb"); Danish and Norwegian: tomme ("inch") tommel ("thumb"); Dutch: duim (whence Afrikaans: duim and Russian: дюйм); French: pouce; Georgian: დუიმი, Hungarian: hüvelyk; Italian: pollice; Portuguese: polegada ("inch") and polegar ("thumb"); ("duim"); Slovak: palec ("thumb"); Spanish: pulgada ("inch") and pulgar ("thumb"); and Swedish: tum ("inch") and tumme ("thumb").

Tag » How Long Is 4 Inches