Etymology

shaftment

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Today it means: An obsolete unit of length defined as 6 inches, which equals 2 palms or ²⁄₃ span; today 6 inches equals exactly 15.24 cm. (Before the 12th century, a shaftment was defined as 6+¹⁄₂ inches.) Full definition →

Middle English schaftmonde ← Old English sċeaftmund
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The story

  1. Old English · inherited fromsċeaftmund“a palm, a palm's length”
  2. Middle English · inherited fromschaftmonde
  3. English todayshaftment

From Middle English schaftmonde, from Old English sċeaftmund (“a palm, a palm's length”), equivalent to shaft + mound (“hand”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.