Saturday, November 1, 2025

14.01.26: Comenius CV; Geometry; vocabulary [8] Weights and measures (2)

Unless you want to delve deeper into the topic, the Roman terms for units of measurement are extensive and many are infrequent. The link below lists them:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:la:Units_of_measure

iūgerum, -ī [2/n]: Roman unit of area = approximately 2/3 of an acre

lībra, -ae [1/f]: Roman pound = approx. 327g; the pound sterling sign £ is a modification of the Latin L with a line through it

passus, -ūs [4/m]: Roman unit of length = 5 Roman feet; mille passūs = Roman mile (5,000 pēdēs: 5,000 feet)

ū̆ncia, -ae [1/f]: [i] ounce; [ii] inch

cubitus, -ī [2/m] or cubitum, -ī [2/n]: [i] elbow; [ii] a cubit; “the distance from the elbow to the end of the middle finger” (Lewis & Short)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubit

ibi tū videās litterātās fictilēs epistulās … nōmina īnsunt cubitum longīs litterīs (Plautus) │ There may you see epistles written in letters inscribed on pottery … the names are upon them in letters a cubit long;

The measurement frequently appears in the Vulgate:

[i] Et sīc faciēs eam: trecentōrum cubitōrum erit longitūdō arcae, quīnquāgintā cubitōrum lātitūdō, et trīgintā cubitōrum altitūdō illīus. Fenestram in arcā faciēs, et in cubitō cōnsummābis summitātem eius:

And you shall make it in this way: the length of the ark will be three hundred cubits, the width fifty, and its height thirty cubits. You shalt make a window in the ark, and in a cubit you shall finish the top of it:

From Britten’s Noye’s Fludde:

Three hundred cubits it shall be long

And fifty broad to make it strong

Of height fifty, thus measure it about

One window work through my wit

A cubit of length and breadth make it

[ii] Fēcit autem Beseleel et arcam dē lignīs setim, habentem duōs sēmis cubitōs in longitūdine, et cubitum ac sēmissem in lātitūdine, altitūdō quoque ūnīus cubitī fuit et dīmidiī: vestīvitque eam aurō pūrissimō intus ac foris. │ And Beseleel made also the ark of setim wood: it was two cubits and a half in length, and a cubit and a half in breadth, and the height was of one cubit and a half: and he overlaid it with the purest gold within and without. 

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