Toise
WiktionaryText
Noun
- a former French unit of length, corresponding to about 1.949 metres
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- 1997: the greater its speed, the less visible it grows, until at around a Thousand Toises per Minute, it vanishes entirely — Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon
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Etymology
Old French teise (cognate with Italian tesa), from Latin tesa (brachia) ‘outstretched (arms)’, from tendere ‘stretch’.