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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Note to StarkSt Vík 7VIII (Gautr 15)

[2] spönnum (dat. pl.) ‘hand-breadths’: As in Modern English and other Germanic languages, a span or hand-breadth was originally the distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger, or sometimes to the tip of the forefinger, when the hand is fully extended, a measure of length of about nine inches (cf. OED: span, n.1).

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. OED = Murray, J. A. H. et al., eds. 1884-1928. The Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon. 2nd edn 1989. Simpson, J. A. and E. S. C. Weiner, eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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