Finger (unit)

The unit finger or fingers wide, together with the foot and the Elle one of the few measures of length, which go back to the prehistoric age.

The oldest evidence of the finger as a measure of length originate from the period about 5000 years ago in Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, where it was called Ubanu or Djeba. The unit foot was usually divided in antiquity into sixteen fingers wide. Since the foot is about 30 centimeters usually measure the finger's width - depending on the valid foot declaration - in about 18 millimeters.

Even the ancient Greeks and Romans used daktylos or digitus as the smallest main unit. Among them there were, for example, a half finger-widths or third finger's width. 18 finger-widths give a Pygme.

The finger as a measure is also mentioned in the Bible, its length should be 0.63 Swiss customs. As a Roman measure, it was called Digitus transversus and had 0.61 Swiss customs