footbreadth

English

Etymology

From foot +‎ breadth. Compare Middle English fote-brede.

Noun

footbreadth (plural footbreadths)

1. The breadth of a foot; used as a measure.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 2:5:

     Meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a footbreadth; because I have given Mount Seir unto Esau for a possession.

   • 1863 November 23, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Sage of King Olaf”, in Tales of a Wayside Inn, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC:

     Wherewith at a stroke he hewed
     The millstone through and through,
     And Foot-breadth of Thoralf the Strong,
     Were neither so broad nor so long