![]() In the Dutch language a term for inch is engelse duim (english thumb). ![]() 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 ). "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. 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. The consonant change from the Latin /k/ (spelled c) to English /tʃ/ is palatalisation. The vowel change from Latin /u/ to Old English /y/ (which became Modern English /ɪ/) is known as umlaut. The English word "inch" ( Old English: ynce) was an early borrowing from Latin uncia ("one-twelfth Roman inch Roman ounce"). ![]() ![]() Standards for the exact length of an inch have varied in the past, but since the adoption of the international yard during the 1950s and 1960s the inch has been based on the metric system and defined as exactly 25.4 mm. Derived from the Roman uncia ("twelfth"), the word inch is also sometimes used to translate similar units in other measurement systems, usually understood as deriving from the width of the human thumb. It is equal to 1 / 36 yard or 1 / 12 of a foot. The inch (symbol: in or ″) is a unit of length in the British Imperial and the United States customary systems of measurement. ![]()
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