The ell is a historical unit of length primarily used in England and other parts of Europe for measuring cloth and other linear dimensions, typically standardized at 45 inches (approximately 1.143 meters) in England by the late medieval period.[1][2] Originating from the Old English word eln, meaning "forearm" or "elbow," the ell was originally based on the approximate length of a person's arm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, reflecting its roots in ancient body-based measurements traceable to Proto-Indo-European el-.[3] By the 14th century, it had become a regulated standard in English commerce, particularly for textiles, where it facilitated trade by providing a consistent yardstick equivalent to 1.25 yards.[4] Variations existed across regions: the Scottish ell measured about 37 inches (0.94 meters), the Flemish ell around 27 inches (0.686 meters or three-quarters of a yard), and the Dutch ell approximately 27.35 inches, adapting to local customs and industries while maintaining the core concept of an arm's span.[5] Though largely obsolete by the 19th century with the adoption of the imperial and metric systems, the ell persists in historical, legal, and cultural references, symbolizing medieval mercantile practices and influencing modern units like the yard.[6] In architecture, "ell" also denotes an L-shaped extension to a building, derived from the same etymological root due to its angular form, but this usage is secondary to the measurement connotation.[1]
Definition and Etymology
Definition
The ell is a traditional northwestern European unit of length, originally based on the span of a person's arm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, akin to a cubit but often standardized differently for practical purposes.[7][8] It served primarily as a measure for cloth, especially woollen textiles in medieval trade, where consistent sizing was essential for commerce across markets.[9][10]Unlike the shorter cubit, which typically measured the forearm length to about 18 inches (46 cm), or the yard—a related but more rigidly standardized unit at 36 inches (91 cm)—the ell accommodated varying local customs without a universal definition.[8] Its typical lengths ranged from 27 to 45 inches (69 to 114 cm) depending on the region, reflecting adaptations for trade efficiency rather than strict anatomical fidelity.[7][8] This inherent variability, stemming from its body-based origins, contributed to the proliferation of regional standards, as explored in later sections.The term itself originates from the Old English "el(n)" meaning "arm," underscoring its anthropometric roots.[10]
Etymology
The word "ell" derives from Old English eln or elno, denoting the "forearm" or "arm," originally serving as a unit of measurement based on the length from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger.[3] This term traces back to Proto-Germanic *alinō, which itself stems from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root *h₂el- or *el-, signifying "elbow" or "forearm."[3] The PIE root connects to Latin ulna, the name for the forearm bone and also an ancient unit of linear measure, reflecting a shared conceptual basis in body parts for measurement across Indo-European languages.[11] Similarly, it relates to Ancient Greek ōlenē (ὠλήνη), meaning "elbow," derived from PIE *h₁eh₃l(e)n-, an extended form emphasizing the bent arm structure.In Middle English, the term evolved into forms such as elle or el, with variant spellings like elne, as documented in texts from the 12th to 15th centuries, reflecting phonetic shifts from the Anglo-Saxon nasal ending to a simpler vowel structure.[3] These changes aligned with broader English sound modifications, including the loss of the nasal consonant in certain dialects, leading to the modern spelling "ell" by the 16th century.[12] The word's legacy persists in contemporary English as part of "elbow," etymologically parsed as "ell-bow" or "arm-bend," preserving the original anatomical reference.[13]
Historical Usage
In England
The ell, referred to as "eln" or "elne" in Old English, emerged during the Anglo-Saxon period as a fundamental unit of length, approximately equivalent to the forearm from elbow to fingertip, and was employed for measuring both land boundaries in charters and the dimensions of cloth.[14] Early references appear in legal texts, such as those from the reign of King Athelstan (c. 925–940), where it defined depths in judicial ordeals, underscoring its role in practical applications beyond mere trade.[14] By the later Anglo-Saxon era, the eln had become integral to local economies, facilitating consistent assessments in agrarian and textile contexts.[15]In the early 14th century, King Edward I sought to address inconsistencies in trade by mandating standardized linear measures across England, requiring every town to possess an official ell-wand—a brass or iron rod of fixed length—for verifying cloth.[16] This effort culminated in the definition of the English ell as precisely 45 inches (114.3 cm), or 1.25 yards, tying it directly to the newly formalized yard of 36 inches based on three barley grains.[14] Unlike the shorter Scottish ell of about 37 inches, this English standard emphasized uniformity to bolster commerce, particularly in exported goods.[15]The ell's prominence grew in the medieval wool trade, which dominated England's economy from the 13th to 15th centuries, as woolen cloth exports to Flanders and Italy generated vast revenues.[17] Merchants relied on the ell to gauge cloth lengths, ensuring bolts met international specifications and preventing disputes over quality or quantity. Statutes reinforced this, notably the Assize of Cloth enacted in 1353 under Edward III, which prescribed exact widths (typically 1.5 to 2 yards) and lengths in ells for broadcloths, imposing penalties for non-compliance to safeguard the realm's primary export industry. Aulnagers, appointed officials, inspected and sealed cloths using ell-wands, collecting subsidies that funded royal initiatives while curbing fraud in markets from London to Boston.[18]The ell's utility waned with industrialization and calls for national uniformity, culminating in the Weights and Measures Act of 1824, which abolished disparate local standards and enshrined the imperial yard as the sole legal measure for length, rendering the ell obsolete in official and commercial use by the mid-19th century.[14] Although retained informally in some tailoring traditions, its enforcement ceased, marking the transition to a centralized metric-influenced system.[15]
In Scotland
The ell in Scotland was adopted from the English tradition but shortened to precisely 37 inches (941 mm) through an act of the Scottish Parliament in 1617, which designated the ell of Edinburgh as the official standard for linear measurement and placed its custody with the city authorities.[19][20] This measure, equivalent to three Rhine feet, contrasted with the longer English ell of 45 inches and supported Scotland's distinct textile economy.[21]Primarily employed for linen and cloth measurement, the Scottish ell—often termed the Scots ell or linen ell—became a key standard in trade, particularly for Highland linen production where flax cultivation was widespread on farms to bolster the national industry.[19][22] Linen was typically produced in pieces or half-pieces of 24 ells, facilitating consistent commerce in burgh markets and exports.[23]A 1661 parliamentary act further regulated linen measurements by standardizing the ell at 37 inches and specifying cloth breadths, reflecting efforts to align with local textile practices amid growing export demands.[9][20] This legislation, which prohibited yarn exports and enforced uniform standards, diverged from English wool-focused statutes due to Scotland's emphasis on linen.[24]Following the 1707 Union, the Scottish ell continued in local use despite increasing imperial influences, persisting into the 19th century until its formal abolition in 1835 in favor of the English yard.[21][9] An 1824 act imposing English measures accelerated this transition, though brass ell-wands remained in some burgh custody as historical artifacts.[20]
In Other Regions
The Flemish ell, measuring 27 inches (68.6 cm), was a key unit in the Low Countries for cloth measurement, particularly facilitating exports from Flanders and northern France beginning in the 13th century, when the region's textile industry boomed through trade with Mediterranean and Baltic markets. This measure supported standardized production and commerce, with weavers producing cloths in multiples of the ell to meet international demands, often equating to widths and lengths optimized for overseas shipment.[25]In Sweden, the equivalent unit known as the aln was standardized at 59.4 cm through national legislation in 1665, establishing a uniform system across the realm for the first time.[26] This aln, equivalent to two feet (fot), was applied to both textiles and timber, reflecting Sweden's growing export economy in forest products and woolens during the 17th and 18th centuries, where it ensured consistent sizing for tradegoods like lumber planks and fabric bolts.[27]The Dutchel, at approximately 68 cm, similarly influenced measurements in the Netherlands and extended to colonial contexts, including New Netherland (later New York), where it shaped early American cloth trading practices inherited from Dutchsettlers.[28][29] Imported linens and woolens were often sold by the el in colonial markets, maintaining this standard for textilecommercein the United States until the 1830s, when federalstandardization efforts began favoring the yard.[15]These regional ells, adapted for localtrade while relating to Britishvariants as export benchmarks, gradually faded with the Napoleonic imposition of the metric system in the early 19th century, as countries like the Netherlands (1820) and France (fully enforced post-1830) transitioned to decimal-based units, rendering traditional arm-length measures obsolete across much of Europe.[30]
Variations and Equivalents
Regional Variations
The English ell, also known as the wool ell, measured 45 inches (1.143 m) and served as a standard for coarser woolen fabrics in trade.[15] In Scotland, the ell was shorter at 37 inches (0.94 m), reflecting local standardization for general cloth measurement, while the "doubling ell" extended to 74 inches to accommodate full widths of plaid or tartan cloth in garment production.[15][9][31]The Flemish and Dutch ell ranged from 27 to 28 inches (0.686–0.711 m), particularly suited to finer textiles such as linen or tapestry due to the precision required for narrower weaves.[15] Other regional variants included the Swedish aln, equivalent to the ell at 23.4 inches (0.594 m), used in Scandinavian cloth trade; and the Polish łokieć, approximately 0.787 m (31 inches), adapted for local linen and wool measurements.[26]These variations arose primarily from differences in average local arm spans, as the ell originated from the cubit-like distance from elbow to fingertip, leading to natural discrepancies across populations.[8] Trade requirements further influenced lengths, with shorter ells facilitating international commerce in compact goods like silk, which demanded narrower gauges to minimize waste in cutting fine materials.[15]
Modern Equivalents and Conversions
The English ell, standardized at 45 inches, equates to 1.143 meters or precisely 1.25 yards, as derived from its relation to the yard (36 inches).[15] This conversion reflects its historical role in cloth measurement, where 1 ell = \frac{5}{4} yards. The Scottish ell, by contrast, measured 37 inches, approximately 0.94 meters, and was not directly tied to the English yard but used independently in regional trade.[15]The ell functioned as a precursor to the modern yard within the imperial system of measurement. The Weights and Measures Act of 1824 in Britain redefined the yard as the primary linear unit for general purposes and abolished the ell's official status, standardizing lengths to eliminate regional variations.[15] For the Scottish variant, abolition occurred later under acts of 1835–1836, aligning it with imperial uniformity.[15]In contemporary contexts, the ell has no legal recognition, particularly following the UK's metricationprocess initiated by the 1965 Weights and Measures Act, which promoted the meter as the standardunit and phased out most imperial measures by the 1990s.[32]Residual uses persist informally in tailoring for fabric assessment and in historical reenactments to replicate period practices, though these rely on the traditional lengths without official endorsement.[15]For clarity, the following table compares key ell variants to modern units:
The ell appears in several works of English literature, often in the context of trade, measurement, or metaphor. In William Shakespeare's 1 Henry IV (c. 1597), the hostess Quickly refers to cloth pricing as "holland of eight shillings an ell," highlighting the unit's role in everyday commerce.[33] Similarly, in The Comedy of Errors (c. 1594), Dromio of Syracuse uses the ell humorously to describe a character's size as "an ell and three quarters," playing on its anthropomorphic origins.[34]In Romeo and Juliet (c. 1597), Mercutio employs the ell metaphorically: a wit that stretches "from an inch narrow to an ell broad," contrasting small concessions with expansive demands, akin to proverbial usage.[35] These references underscore the ell's integration into Elizabethan language, symbolizing precision in trade and human scale.Scottish literature reflects regional variations, with the ell appearing in 19th-century works depicting Highland economies, though specific market scenes in novels like Sir Walter Scott's Waverley (1814) focus more on cultural clashes than direct measurement. The Scottish ell's role in tartan trade is noted in historical contexts, illustrating local customs.The ell's etymological roots as an arm's length inspired symbolic uses in Renaissance poetry, representing mortal limits against infinite ambition, though direct evocations are sparse.
In Proverbs and Idioms
One of the most enduring proverbs featuring the ell is "Give him an inch and he'll take an ell," first documented in John Heywood's 1546 collection A Dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the Prouerbes in the Englishe tongue, where it cautions that a minor concession invites excessive demands.[36] Rooted in the ell's role as an English cloth measure of approximately 45 inches, the saying originated in contexts of trade and bargaining, illustrating how small allowances could be exploited for greater gain.[37] By the 17th century, it had permeated popular literature, including chapbooks that disseminated moral and practical wisdom to the masses, evolving into a broader metaphor for human avarice beyond literal measurement.[38]In Scotland, where the ell (known locally as the "Scottish ell" of 37 inches) was a standard unit until the 19th century, a dialectal variant persisted: "Gie him an inch, and he'll tak an ell," as recorded in 19th-century compilations drawing from earlier oral traditions.[39] This form emphasized regional measurement practices while retaining the proverb's core warning against overreach, appearing in folk collections to reflect everyday market interactions and cautionary tales.The ell also featured in idioms symbolizing trade dishonesty, particularly through the "ell-wand," a wooden rod exactly one ell long used by merchants to measure fabric.[40] In medieval and early modern England, using a shortened or falsified ell-wand was a common form of cheating, punishable by fines or public shaming under laws like those enforced by King Henry I around 1101, who standardized the ell to curb such fraud. These practices inspired proverbial warnings in 17th-century chapbooks, where the ell-wand represented not just literal tools of commerce but ethical lapses, transitioning from specific trade admonitions to figurative critiques of greed in broader cultural narratives.[38]