Definition
nounThe full width of an open hand from the end of the thumb to the end of the little finger used as an informal unit of length.
nounAny of various traditional units of length approximating this distance, especially the English handspan of 9 inches forming ⅛ fathom and equivalent to 22.86 cm.
Sentence Examples
The bridge has a span of 100 meters.
Thanks to these discoveries, man's life span has become twice as long as before.
I worked with him over a span of six years.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend-der.
Proto-Germanic *spannō
Old English spann
Middle English spanne
English span
From Middle English spanne, from Old English spann, from Proto-Germanic *spannō (“span, handbreadth”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- (“to stretch”).
Cognate with Dutch span, spanne, German Spanne. The sense “pair of horses” is probably from Old English ġespan, ġespann (“a joining; a fastening together; clasp; yoke”), from Proto-West Germanic [Term?]. Cognate with Dutch gespan, German Gespann.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
""Why in ten thousand years scarce will the rain and storms lessen a mountain top by a span in thickness?""
— 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
"Yet not to Earth's contracted Span,
Thy Goodneſs let me bound; […]"
— 1738, [Alexander Pope], “Stanza VI”, in The Universal Prayer. […], London [actually Edinburgh]: […] [Thomas Ruddiman] for R[obert] Dodsley, […], →OCLC, page 5:
"Life's but a span; I'll every inch enjoy."
— 1699, George Farquhar, The Constant Couple:
"The unsilent present is a time of evaporating attention spans,"
— 2007, John Zerzan, Silence:
"For example, in OpenOffice.org or Microsoft Word, each span of text can have a style that defines key characteristics about the text: • What font it uses • Whether it's normal, bolded, italicized, […]"
— 2004, Robert Harris, Robert Warner, The Definitive Guide to SWT and JFace, page 759: