I'll bet you thought this would be one of those inspirational types of posts, but I actually got to thinking about measurements done in the form of old phrases, antiquated terms, idioms....like these:
1."As the crow flies"--how far you are from a certain place that may determine the shortest distance, not necessarily what your GPS will tell you
2."A stone's throw"--could be a short distance or long one depending upon if you're a 70 year old woman or a professional quarterback
3."One brick short of a full load"--don't ask for accurate measurements from this person
4."Two-fisted drinker"-definitely needs a designated driver
5."In the blink of an eye"-if you're Sammy Davis Jr, that's all you've got!
6."Over the river and through the woods" --whether you're going to Grandma's house or not, this is going to be a hike
7."We're burnin' daylight"--(one of my personal favorites) stop wasting time and let's get a move on
8."Built like a brick s--thouse" often in reference to women, some think this is a compliment Do not confuse this with #3
9."If it'd been a snake it'd bit ya!"--in reference to any husband who asks his wife where the such-and-such is--when it is right in front of them
10."I'll be with you in two shakes of a lamb's tail"--if you live in New York City, you probably don't use this one
Here are a couple I'll bet you've never used:
Some Finnish units of measurement include: peninkulma: The distance a barking dog can be heard in still air.päivämatka: The distance of one day's travel. poronkusema: The distance a reindeer can travel before needing to stop to urinate. – Hugo Nov 21 '11 at 12:52
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In doing a bit of research, this came up as an interesting sidelight:
\You should note that in traditional systems of measurement the units were often based on dimensions of human body. According to wikipedia these were often specifically based on proportions given by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio:
There is an article that list anthropic units such as the yard, the span, the cubit, the Flemish ell, the English ell, the French ell, the fathom, the hand, and the foot. If you read up on the history of these terms and how they become used, you will find that they all described some sort of human activity and that was the reason these were accepted as units of measurement. NOTE: I found stone-throw as "steinkast – stone's throw, perhaps 25 favner, used to this day as a very approximate measure of a short distance." under Norwegian units of measure. |
And lastly:
“She said she loved me, and I didn’t believe it for a minute. Maybe 59 seconds, but not a whole minute. I may be gullible, but I’m not without an accurate way to measure time.”
― Jarod Kintz, This Book is Not FOR SALE