Arshin is a measure of length that was used in Russia in the old days. Arshin was also called an object for measuring length. With this word, there are many stable expressions and sayings that have developed among the people.
To understand them, as well as to imagine what dimensions are discussed in historical sources and literature, it is better to understand this issue in detail, to consider from the perspective of a system of measures adopted in the modern world.
Which is longer - arshin or meter?
Arshin is shorter than a meter. To be precise, then at 28 centimeters and 8.8 millimeters. Although often the value of this unit is rounded to one hundredths of a meter. Accordingly, the arshin in cm is 71.12 or 71 centimeters.
To calculate the length of the old unit in millimeters, you will have to remember that there are 10 centimeters in them. Therefore, one arshin will be equal to 711.2 millimeters.
Since 100 centimeters is one meter, it will not be difficult to calculate the ratio of the ancient measure to the main one in the modern metric system: in meters the arshin will be equal to 0.7112 of this unit of length (or 0.71).
Translated into kilometers, arshins will be 0, 0007112.
How to measure arshin in Russia
It is believed that arshin was not of constant size and was a relative measure, like most accounting units of that time. And, like many of them, it was based on the size of a certain part of the human body. Initially, it was equal to the total arm length of the average adult.
Even his origin he owes to this particular method of measurement, most often used in the sale of fabrics, which were measured based on the length of the merchant’s arm. The price was indicated for one such segment and the calculation took place accordingly.
When it came to measuring the earth or something located on it, the step of the average adult was taken for arshin. And the length of the step, not the widest, but not small, is approximately equal to the length of the arm of the same person. As a result, the length of the arshin remained approximately the same, equal to 0.7112 of the modern meter.
Who borrowed the name from whom
Arshin is a word known not only to Russian-speaking people. Very consonant terms of a similar meaning are in the languages of ancient cultures belonging to Turkey and Iran.
In Turkish it is "arshim", and in Persia (modern Iran) - "arshim". The length of these units was 70.9 modern centimeters. The not absolutely exact repetition of the term known in Russia can be explained by the general difference in pronunciation in different language groups, and the purpose and almost equal size indicate an undoubted commonality of these concepts.
Units of measure similar in essence and name have been used for so long that it is now very difficult to make out who borrowed the name of the term from whom.
It is believed that the word "arshin" is based on the Slavic root "ar" - meaning the earth, its surface.
Nevertheless, the most plausible and basic version is considered to be the version of the borrowing of the word. Most likely, arshin is the language of the Turkic group, which came to us from across the sea, descended from the Persian "arsh" or "arash", which means "elbow". Perhaps it was the Eastern cloth dealers who enriched the Russian language with this term in the process of communicating at the auction.
Arshin and the English system of measurement
Arshin can also be compared with units of a measurement system called imperial or English.
Arshin is 28 inches. For a modern person living in a country with a metric system, inches are easiest to imagine in the diagonal of a TV or computer screen. For example, the common 40 "television models will be equal to a little more than one and a half arshins.
Arshin will also be 2.33 feet, 0.78 yards and 0.00044 miles.
Arshin and other ancient Russian measures of length
Arshin - not the smallest and not the largest of the ancient measures of length in Russia. And, of course, it can be expressed through the ratio with other units.
One arshin is the same as four spans (otherwise four quarters) or 16 apex.
One span was equal to 17.78 modern centimeters.
One tip was 4.45 centimeters.
Three arshins made up one ordinary measured, differently - treasury, fathom (such a measure equals 2 modern meters and 13 centimeters).
There are many types of sazhenes in Russia. In modern speech, only the expression "oblique fathom" remains relatively relevant - the largest of the identical measures meant the distance from the toe of the right foot, with the foot extended sideways, to the tips of the fingers of the left hand, raised diagonally upwards, and is considered equal to 2.48 meters known to us.
Now the phrase "oblique fathom in the shoulders" is used only in a figurative sense, meaning, as before, a large, tall person.
If we consider arshins with respect to large ancient Russian measures of length, then it will be 0,00067 ordinary versts.
What else was called arshin
Arshin was also called the object that was equal to this unit of length and was used in the measurement process.
For some time, improvised means were used for this purpose - a ribbon, braid, rod.
However, most often, when talking about an object, it means that arshin is a straight stick, a bar, a kind of ancient ruler, on which divisions multiple to the vertices could also be applied. She could be wooden, folding, later - iron.
In order to combat the arbitrariness of merchants caused by the lack of common standards for units of measurement, the so-called “state arshins” were issued by royal decree - an instrument, a model that became one for all and ensured fair transactions. It could be bought. Trading without state arshin became illegal.
Sayings with the word "arshin"
Some persistent folk expressions are so popular so far, everyone must have heard them:
Straight as a ramrod.
So they say about a man who keeps unnaturally straight.
Measure with a common arshin.
To judge everyone the same way, to consider someone or something as a normal phenomenon, is one of the mass of such things.
He sees three arshins in the ground.
Used in relation to a very insightful person, from whom it is difficult to hide something.
On arshin a beard, but mind on a span.
They say that someone is an adult, but not too smart, to whom experience has not benefited.
Write about sins of others with arshin, and about their own - in lower case.
The proverb is similar in meaning:
He sees a straw in a stranger’s eye, but doesn’t notice a log in his own.
It means too picky about others and ignoring their own, even larger (often similar) flaws.
Arshin on the caftan, but two on the patch.
This refers to either something stupidly done, or not worth the cost, although initially seeming profitable.
Seven beef yards and three pounds of ribbons.
It is talking about nonsense, nonsense.
Measure on your arshin.
Judging something biased, based on personal interests, on their own.
Write in arshin letters.
So - very large.
Arshin will not lie, the measure is faith.
Related expression:
Trust but verify.
On the need for accurate calculations and verification in business relationships.
The word "arshin" in the literature
Without even delving into the literary sources and not taking into account serious large-scale works, one can meet the word "arshin".
The most famous and familiar of them, probably, can be considered the lines of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin from "Tales of Tsar Saltan", telling about the heir to the ruler, newborn son, Prince Gvidon:
God gave them a son in arshin.
The next work, even known to children, is "The Little Humpbacked Horse" by Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov. One of the main characters, by whose name the work is named, is described by the author as follows:
... only three points tall,
On the back with two humps,
Yes with arshin ears.
Familiar to schoolchildren lines of a poem by Fedor Ivanovich Tyutchev:
Mind Russia does not understand
Arshin is not a common measure.
Arshin is also mentioned in the work of Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov "Grandfather Mazai and the Hares":
Every minute the water was collected
To the poor animals; it’s left under them
Less arshin of land wide
Less fathom in length.
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol uses the obsolete single-root word "arshinnik" in the play "The Examiner", which denotes the dealer in fabrics and related trifles:
What, samovars, arshinniki, complain?
This measure of length is used both in the poem "Eugene Onegin" by A. S. Pushkin, and in the novel "War and Peace" by L.N. Tolstoy. Wherever there is a description of events and objects with the mention of this word, those who are familiar with this unit of measurement will no longer have a question about what is arshin and what is longer - arshin or meter? And the imagination easily draws a vivid and reliable picture of what is happening.