Forms: 1 span(n, spon(n; 4 sponne, 4–7 spanne, 4–5 spane (5 speyn); 4– span, 6 spann, 8 spand. [OE. span(n, spon(n, WFris. span, EFris. sponne, MDu. (and Du.) spanne, MLG. spen(ne, OHG. spanna (MHG. and G. spanne, spann), ON. spann-, spǫnn (Icel. spönn, Norw. dial. spann, sponn; Sw. spann, Da. spand), app. related to spannan SPAN v.2
The Germanic word is the source of med.L. spannus and spanna (spanga, spana), It. spanna, OF. espanne, espane, and espan (mod.F. empan). In OE. the word is very scantily recorded, and its currency after 1300 may be partly due to OF. influence. The form spayn, which also occurs in the vb., is abnormal, unless it represents an OF. espain which occurs as a variant of espan.]
1. The distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger, or sometimes to the tip of the forefinger, when the hand is fully extended; the space equivalent to this taken as a measure of length, averaging nine inches.
Freq. followed by a positive or comparative adj.
c. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., IV. xi. (1890), 296. Þa wæs se lichoma sponne [v.r. spanne] lengra þære þryh.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 158. Palmus, span uel handbred.
a. 1310. in Wright, Lyric P., ix. 35. Swannes swyre swythe wel y-sette, A sponne lengore then y-mette.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 1607. Þe swerd … clef him þanne, Til it hadde in-to is bodi i-soȝt by-nythe is brest a spanne.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 155. Sche hadde a fair forheed. It was almost a spanne brood, I trowe.
14[?]. Sir Beues (S.), 2509. A span long þey [i.e., bristles] were, wel rowe.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 467/1. Spanne, mesure of the hand, palmus,… palmata.
1483. Cath. Angl., 351. A Spayn (A. Spane), palmus.
1535. Coverdale, Judges iii. 16. Ehud made him a two edged dagger of a spanne longe.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., I. 92/1. The space of his forehead betwixt his two eies was a span broad.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys.-Mech., ix. (1682), 39. There happen’d in the great Receiver a crack of about a Span long.
1671. J. Webster, Metallogr., xi. 158. They go no deeper than a span or two.
1718. Free-thinker, No. 47. 343. Pharao … was a Dwarf, but seven Spans high.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), II. 276. The diameter … is twelve common spans, or near eight feet.
1811. A. T. Thomson, Lond. Disp. (1818), 36. The stems trailing, about a span in length.
1862. Draper, Intell. Devel. Europe, xiii. (1865), 303. In which there are walking about men, a span long.
fig. a. 1350. Geburt Jesu, 40, in Horstm., Altengl. Leg. (1875), 66. Þe tyme hem þoȝte longe Inouȝ, ech vnche hem þouȝte a sponne.
a. 1586. Sidney, Ps. XXXIX. iii. Lo, thou a spanns length mad’st my living line.
1672. Sir T. Browne, Let. Friend, § 28. If we reckon up only those days which God hath accepted of our lives, a life of good years will hardly be a span long.
† b. In collective sing. with numerals. Obs.
a. 1300–1400. Cursor M., 17288 + 138. So heghe be thre spane no nother graf þer is.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xi. 43. Þai had cherubyn of gold xii. span lang.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 194. Þis handle muste be iiij. spanne in lengthe.
c. Const. of (the hand) or with possessive.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 186. The ears of it are large and broad,… being at the least as broad as a mans span.
1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., III. Disc. 15. 34. So must we take the measures of eternity by the span of a mans hand.
1855. Bain, Senses & Int., II. ii. § 12. I can appreciate a distance of six or eight inches by stretching the thumb away from the fingers, as in the span of the hand.
d. fig. Capability of spanning or grasping.
c. 1800. H. K. White, Lett. (1837), 284. Below the span of my auditory nerve.
2. The hand with the thumb and fingers extended, esp. as a means of measuring. Obs. exc. arch.
1535. Coverdale, Isaiah xl. 12. Who hath measured heauen with his spanne, and hath comprehended all the earth of ye worlde in thre fyngers?
1867. Longf., Dante, Inf., vi. 25. My Conductor, with his spans extended, Took of the earth.
3. A thing, piece, etc., of the length of a span; a very small extent or space.
13[?]. Sir Beues, 815. A spanne of þe groin be-forn Wiþ is swerd he haþ of schoren.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Pulley, i. Let the worlds riches, which dispersed lie, Contract into a span.
1635. Quarles, Embl., II. xiv. (1718), 118. Lord, what a nothing is this little span We call a Man!
1738. Pope, Universal Prayer, vi. Yet not to Earth’s contracted Span Thy Goodness let me bound.
1746. Hervey, Medit. (1818), 212. The landscape, large and spacious,… shrinks into a span.
1798. Ferriar, Certain Var. Man, 198. It was not enough … to shorten a whole nation to three spans.
1841. Elphinstone, Hist. Ind., II. 242. There was not a span free from cultivation.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., cxvii. Every grain of sand that runs, And every span of shade that steals.
4. A short space of time, esp. as the duration of human life; the (short) time during which a person lives.
Cf. Coverdale Ps. xxxviii. 6. Thou hast made my dayes a spanne longe.
1599. Davies, Immort. Soul, Introd. xlv. (1742), 12. I know my Life’s a Pain, and but a Span.
1607. Shaks., Timon, V. iii. 3. Tymon is dead, who hath out-stretcht his span. Ibid. (1613), Hen. VIII., III. ii. 140. You haue scarse time To steale from Spirituall leysure a briefe span.
1728. Young, Ode to King, xvii. Jove mark’d for man A scanty span. Ibid. (1742), Nt. Th., II. 115–6. We censure nature for a span too short; That span too short, we tax as tedious too.
1788. Burns, Written in Friars-Carse Hermitage, 37. Did many talents gild thy span?
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., II. lxiii. Through their mortal span, In bloodier acts conclude those who with blood began.
1850. Robertson, Serm., Ser. III. xiv. (1853), 176. The span granted to the butterfly the child of a single Summer, may be long.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par. (1890), 307/1. So strangely shift men’s lives in little span.
b. Const. of life, etc.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Ch. Porch, lxxvii. Lifes poore span Make not an ell, by trifling in thy wo.
1683. Kennett, trans. Erasm. on Folly, 81. In so short a space, as the small Span of Life.
1771. Beattie, Minstr., I. xxv. Nor lessen of his life the little span!
1840. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sci. (ed. 5), xii. 101. In the short span of human life.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1877), I. iv. 255. Whose lives were really prolonged beyond the common span of human existence.
5. The distance or space between the abutments of an arch, the supports of a beam, the piers of a bridge, the walls carrying a roof, etc.; the stretch or extent of this.
α. 1725. W. Halfpenny, Sound Building, Pref. For want of knowing, when the Arch of either Spand being given, what must be the Arch of the other. Ibid., 20. Set off the Spand of the Intersecting Arch from v to t. Ibid. (1751), New Designs Chinese Bridges, I. 7. A double truss’d Timber Bridge, whose Spand between the top of the Butment is 45 Feet.
β. 1736. N. Hawksmoor, London Bridge, 35. The five Arches are in their Span as followeth. Ibid., 42. The two Bridges are very large in their Span.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., s.v. Bridge, The span of the next arch is 56 feet.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, I. 248. The Trustees … having used it for beams in a new warehouse at Liverpool, of more than thirty feet clear span.
1832. G. Downes, Lett. Cont. Countries, I. 484. Owing to its height, the great span of the arch is not so perceptible.
1869. Rankine, Machine & Hand-tools, Pl. F 12, The span between the standards, A, A, being 16 feet.
1874. Micklethwaite, Mod. Par. Churches, 128. York Minster, with its choir of fifty feet span.
transf. 1853. Sir H. Douglas, Milit. Bridges (ed. 3), 288. The Russians resorted to … difficult applications of carpentry to repair this breach, which, being of considerable span [etc.].
1887. Ruskin, Præterita, II. 59. About the span of an English lane that would allow two carts to pass.
fig. 1858. O. W. Holmes, Aut. Breakf.-t., 15. The great minds are those with a wide span, which couple truths related to, but far removed from, each other.
1889. Spectator, 5 Oct., 432/2. Congresses might be dismissed on the ground that it is impossible they can do anything to widen the span of knowledge.
b. (See first quot.) rare.
1856. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Rural Sports, I. I. x. § 1. 82. The three first [antlers] are termed the rights;… the horn itself, the beam; the width, the span.
1873. Black, Pr. Thule, xxv. 414. You will discourse … of the span and the pearls, of the antlers and the crockets.
6. An arch of a bridge; a section between two piers. Also transf., the vault of the sky.
a. 1806. H. K. White, Sonn., ix. In the drear silence of the polar span Dost thou repose?
1862. Rep. Direct. E. Midl. Railway Cy., 18. Six spans of the Keeul Bridge are erected since I last reported on the subject.
1891. Lovett, U.S. Pictures, 39. The total weight of the whole central span is 6,740 tons.
b. Naut. (See quot.)
1846. A. Young, Naut. Dict., 289. A span of rigging, implies the length of shrouds from the dead-eyes on one side, over the mast-head, to the dead-eyes on the other side of the ship.
c. A stretch, line or extent of something.
1894. Outing, XXIII. 374/1. The cocoa-nuts hanging from the long, almost unbroken span of cocoa palms that line the beach.
7. attrib. and Comb., as span-breadth, -extent, -girth, -length, -line; span-broad, -lived adjs.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, IV. viii. 228. In the largest place they have six foote, and in the narrowest a *spanne bredth.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, Wks. (Grosart), V. 226. In the correlatiue analagie of the *spanbroad rowse running betwixt.
1655. H. Vaughan, Silex Scint., I. Resurr. & Immort. (1858), 26. At last … She wing’d away, And, proud with life and sence Esteem’d … of two whole Elements As meane, and *span-extents.
1807. Crabbe, Par. Reg., III. 937. No more his *span-girth shanks and quiv’ring thighs Upheld a body of the smaller size.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 170. Þe secunde *spanne lengthe of þe handyll.
1756. Nugent, Gr. Tour, Germany, II. 335. They make steel chains so prodigious fine of a span length, that [etc.].
1838. Penny Cycl., XI. 325/2. The shorter radii describing the two quadrants at the spring of the arch, are upon the *span-line itself.
1846. Prowett, Prometh. Bound, 26. Can that *span-lived race avail To succour thee in this distress?
