Re: where did the terms inch, yard, foot come from? How were they derived?

where did the terms inch, yard, foot come from? How were they derived?

First, we don't do your homework for you; you might try consulting a printed reference, like a dictionary. But this is a question of general interest.

I consulted a dictionary and came up with the following (though some of it I already knew).

A "foot" is pretty obvious; someone measured a standard human foot (the most common explanation is that it was the king's foot). My feet, for example, are slightly more than a foot long (I wear a size 13, but don't ask me where the shoe sizes come from!)

The word "inch" is ultimately (?) derived from the Latin uncio, meaing one-twelfth. After all, an inch is one-twelfth of a foot.

The word "yard" is derived from Anglo-Saxon and Middle English words meaning "a rod, a staff, a yard measure." The yard, like the foot and the inch, is a fairly ancient unit. I gather that it was originally derived from the distance from the base of a man's neck to the tips of his fingers, but I don't know that for certain. One could just as easily say that a rod used for driving cattle might be about three feet long.

Incidentally, the "rod" mentioned is not the same as the "rod" as a unit of length: the linear rod is 5½ yards, and the word is derived from the Middle English for "pole." Thus do words change meanings over the years...