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An ell (from Proto-Germanic * alinō, cognate with Latin ulna) "ell, n.1". OED Online. December 2011. Oxford University Press. (accessed February 20, 2012). is a northwestern European unit of measurement, originally understood as a cubit (the combined length of the forearm and extended hand). The word literally means "arm", and survives in the modern English word "elbow" (arm-bend). Later usage through the 19th century refers to several longer units, some of which are thought to derive from a "double ell".
An ell-wand or ellwand was a rod of length one ell used for official measurement. Edward I of England required that every town have one. In Scotland, the Belt of Orion was called "the King's Ellwand". infoplease.com, OED s. Ell-wand. An iron ellwand is preserved in the entrance to Stånga Church on the Swedish island of Gotland, indicating the role that rural churches had in disseminating uniform measures.
Several national forms existed, with different lengths, including the Scottish ell , the Flemish ell el , the French ell aune ,Brayshaw, Tom S., ed. Brayshaw's Mathematical Desk Companion. Chesterfield, England: Thomas Brayshaw Ltd., Edition 16, 1955 the Polish ell , the Danish alen , the Swedish aln , and the German ell Elle, which was different lengths in Frankfurt (54.7 cm), Cologne, Leipzig (Saxony), and Hamburg.
Select customs were observed by English of Dutch textiles; although all cloths were bought by the Flemish ell, linen was sold by the English ell, but tapestry was sold by the Flemish ell.
The Viking ell was the measure from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, about . The Viking or primitive ell was used in Iceland up to the 13th century. By the 13th century, a law set the "stika" as equal to two ells, which referred to the English ell.
Other English measures called an ell include the "yard and handfu,l" or the 40 inch ell, abolished in 1439; the yard and inch, or the 37 inch ell (a cloth measure), abolished after 1553, later known as the Scotch ell ; and the cloth ell of 45 inches, used until 1600.Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "" (free fulltext), from the Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 01 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. See yard for details.
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" or "... he'll take a yard").
The Ell Shop (1757) in Dunkeld, Perth and Kinross (National Trust for Scotland), is so called from the 18th-century iron ell-stick attached to one corner, once used to measure cloth and other commodities in the adjacent market-place. The shaft of the 17th-century Kincardine mercat cross stands in the square of Fettercairn, and is notched to show the measurements of an ell.
Scottish measures were made obsolete, and English measurements made standard in Scotland, by an Act of Parliament, the Weights and Measures Act 1824.
Ells were also used in the medieval French play The Farce of Master Pathelin to measure the size of the clothing Pierre Pathelin bought.
Ells are used for measuring the length of rope in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Since Sam declares that 30 elles are "about" 18 fathoms (108 feet), he seems to be using the 45-inch English ell, which would work out to 112 feet.
Halldór Laxness described Örvar-Oddr as twelve Danish ells tall in Independent People, Part II, "Of the World".
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