the.com/span
The reach between two fixed points, measuring everything from bridges to the spread of a hand.
means The full extent or reach between two points, whether a physical distance, a stretch of time, or the breadth covered by something.
from From Old English 'spann,' meaning the distance between the tip of the thumb and the little finger when the hand is stretched wide — an old, body-based unit of measure that turned the human hand into a ruler. It's kin to Germanic relatives like Dutch 'span' and German 'Spanne,' and likely tied to the root for stretching or drawing tight (the same sense that lets us 'span' a river with a bridge). Hand first, then everything else.
- hand origin
- Old unit equaled spread thumb to pinky
- record holder
- Danyang–Kunshan span stretches 102 miles
- wingspan rules
- Albatross spans over 11 feet, ocean's widest
- life span
- Same word measures bridges and lifetimes alike
brooklyn bridge — spans 1,595 feet across the east river, completed 1883
golden gate bridge — spans 4,200 feet across san francisco bay, opened 1937
akashi kaikyo bridge — world's longest span at 6,532 feet between honshu and awaji, japan, 1998