more searches
2 wordies list

eln

(n): a Marxist terrorist group formed in 1963 by Colombian intellectuals who were inspired by the Cuban Revolution; responsible for a campaign of mass kidnappings and resistance to the government's efforts to stop the drug trade
( more... )
Leave a comment, citation, or private note
8 months ago reesetee said:

You mean it's not a Marxist terrorist group? ;-)

From the OED:

"A measure of length varying in different countries. The English ell = 45 in.; the Scotch = 37·2; the Flemish = 27 in. Now only historical or with reference to foreign countries, the English measure being obsolete.

The diversity of meanings is common to all words denoting linear measures derived from the length of the arm; cf. CUBIT and L. ulna. The word ell seems to have been variously taken to represent the distance from the elbow or from the shoulder to the wrist or to the finger-tips, while in some cases a 'double ell' has superseded the original measure, and has taken its name."

8 months ago bilby said:

An Anglo Saxon term for the length of the forearm to the tip of the middle finger.

Register or login to leave a comment.
first listed by:
bilby (7223 words)
appears in these lists: