Inch (Scots)

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This article is about a unit of measurement. The word "inch" is also used in Scotland as an anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic Innis, meaning an island, or piece of dry land in a swamp, e.g. Insch, Inchkeith, Inchkenneth.

A Scottish inch (Scottish Gaelic: òirleach) was a Scottish measurement of length.

Equivalent to -

• Scottish measures
  • 1/12 ft
• Metric system
  • 2.554 cm
• Imperial system
  • 1.0016 inches [1]

It was used in the popular expression -

"Gie 'im an inch, an he'll tak an ell"

(equivalent to "Give him an inch, and he'll take a mile")

A Scottish square inch was equivalent to 1.0256 imperial square inches and 6.4516 square centimetres.

[edit] See also

• ell (Scots)
• Mile (Scots)
• Fall (Scots)

[edit] References

• Collins Encyclopedia of Scotland
• Weights and Measures, by D. Richard Torrance, SAFHS, Edinburgh, 1996, ISBN 1-874722-09-9 (NB book focusses on Scottish weights and measures exclusively)
• This article incorporates text from "Dwelly's [Scottish] Gaelic Dictionary" (1911)
• Scottish National Dictionary and Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue