Etymologically
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inch

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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
  • 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