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This is a list of units of measurement based on human body parts or the attributes and abilities of humans (anthropometric units). It does not include derived units further unless they are also themselves human-based. These units are thus considered to be human scale and anthropocentric. A cross-cultural review of body-based measurement systems has found such units to be ubiquitous worldwide.
Area
- Morgen - the area that one man could plow from morning to noon
- Quinaria - the cross-sectional area of a pipe created from a flat sheet of lead 5 digits wide
- Stremma - the amount of land a person can plow in a day
Length
- Ald - the distance between a man's outstretched arms
- Assbā - Arabic finger
- Condylos - middle joint of finger
- Cun - width of the human thumb, at the knuckle
- Dactylos - Ancient Greek finger breadth
- Digit - length of a human finger
- Digitus - Ancient Roman digit
- Etzba - fingerbreadth
- Fathom - the distance between the fingertips of a human's outstretched arms
- Finger
- Fistmele - the measure of a clenched hand with the thumb extended
- Gradus - Ancient Roman step
- Hand - breadth of a human hand
- Klafter - German measure of outstretched hands
- League - the distance a person can walk in an hour (by one definition)
- Orgyia - Ancient Greek fathom
- Parasang - the distance an infantryman could march in a predefined period of time
- Pygmē - distance from elbow to base of fingers
- Sazhen - Russian fathom
- Shaftment - width of the fist and outstretched thumb
- Span - width of a human hand, from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger
- Spithamē - Ancient Greek span
- Zeret - Biblical span
Paces
- Haploun bēma - Ancient Greek single pace
- Orgye - Arabic pace
- Pace - a full stride, from heel to heel
- Passus - the pace step of a single legionary
Ells
- Ell
- Ell (Scots) - length of an average person's arm
- Elle - German ell
- Amah - Biblical ell
Cubits
- Arsh - Arabic cubit
- Cubit - length of the human forearm
- Macedonian cubit
- Cubitus - Ancient Roman cubit
- Pēchys - Ancient Greek cubit
Palms
- Cabda - Arabic palm
- Chetvert/Piad - Russian span/palm
- Palaistē/dōron - Ancient Greek palm
- Palm - breadth of four fingers
- Palmus - Ancient Roman palm
- Tefah/Tefach - Biblical palm
Inches
- Duym - Tatar thumb/inch
- Inch - width of the thumb (by some definitions)
- Uncia - Roman inch
- Zoll - German inch
Feet
- Foot - length of the human foot
- Arabic foot
- Fuß - German foot
- Russian fut - Russian foot
- Tatar fut - Tatar foot
- Pes - Roman foot
- Pous - Greek foot
Loudness
Mass
- Picul - the weight a person can carry
Time
Volume
- Choenix - a man's daily grain ration
- Finger tip unit
- Koku - the amount of rice needed to feed a person for a year
- Japanese masu - the amount of rice needed to feed a person for a day
Miscellaneous
- Garn - unit of measure for symptoms resulting from space adaptation syndrome; equal to complete incapacitation; named for Jake Garn
See also
- Ancient Mesopotamian units of length
- Anthropic units § In measurement, human scale units
- Bhojpuri units of measurement
- Anthropometry – Measurement of the human individual
- German obsolete units of measurement
- History of measurement
- Persian units of measurement
- Swedish units of measurement
- Units of measurement
- Units of measurement in France before the French Revolution
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References
- Kaaronen, Roope; Manninen, Mikael; Eronen, Jussi (2023). "Body-based units of measure in cultural evolution". Science. 380 (6648): 948–954. Bibcode:2023Sci...380..948K. doi:10.1126/science.adf1936. PMID 37262170. Retrieved 13 June 2023.