inch

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɪntʃ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English unche, inch, inherited from Old English ynċe,^[2][3] an early borrowing from Latin uncia (“a twelfth part”),^[2][3] from ūnus “one”,^[2][3][4] from Proto-Indo-European *oi-no- (“one, unique”).^[2] Etymonline notes that it is not found in other Germanic languages,^[2] though Hoad compares Old High German unza and Gothic unkja, also from uncia.^[5] It is a doublet of ounce, the twelfth part of a pound.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A measure of length, the twelfth part of a foot: about 1000 in the OED and Barnhart.^[7][3] The present spelling dates from about 1300, in Havelok the Dane.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

A very small amount or distance is from the mid-14th century.^[2][7] Every inch, in every respect, is from the early 15th century.^[2] Give someone an inch and they will take a mile is from the mid-16th century, when they usually took an ell.^[6][2] As a unit of rainfall it is from 1845,^[7][2] and of atmospheric pressure from 1727–41.^[7] The verb, to move by small degrees, is from 1599,^[7][3] and to drive something by small degrees from the 1660s.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – a twelfth of a foot.^[7]
• a. 1350 – a very small amount.^[7]
• 1599 – verb, to move little by little.^[7][3]
• 1667 – verb, to drive by inches.^[7]
• 1845 – a measure of rainfall.^[7][2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A unit of length equal to one twelfth of a foot (2.54 centimetres).
2. A very small amount or distance.
3. A unit for measuring rain or snow, or the pressure of the air.

Verb

1. To move, or make something move, slowly and carefully.

Word family

• incher
• microinch
• inchmeal
• acre-inch
• half-inch
• twelve-inch
• inchworm
• square inch

Related words

• ounce
• one
• ell

Usage notes

A different inch, a small island, is from Scottish Gaelic innis “island”, related to Welsh ynys;^[2][8][5] it is found from about 1425 in the names of Scottish islands such as Inchcolm,^[7][6] and locally of a meadow by a river, as the Inches of Perth.^[7]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster