A Mile Was a Thousand Roman Paces
A mile is a unit of distance. Its name counts the thousand double steps of a Roman soldier.
A mile is a unit of distance, now standardised at 1,760 yards or about 1.61 kilometres. The name comes from Latin *mille passus*, a thousand paces, where a pace was a double step of roughly five feet, giving a Roman mile close to 1,480 metres. The English mile grew longer because it was later fixed as eight furlongs, the furlong being a field length that refused to change. The nautical mile is different again: one minute of latitude, 1,852 metres.
- 1,760 yards. *A mile away.*
- Nautical mile. *A nautical mile.*
- Roman mile. *Mille passus.*
- Furlong — an eighth of a mile. *A furlong.*
- Latin — *mille*, a thousand. *The root.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | mile | A mile. |
| Plural | miles | Miles. |
| Noun | mileage | Mileage. |
| Compound | milestone | A milestone. |
| Latin | mille | A thousand. |
- It is two miles from here.Distance.
- Mille passus means a thousand paces.Etymology.
- A nautical mile is longer.Sea.
Why the English mile is odd
- The furlong was the length of a ploughed furrow, about 220 yards
- Field boundaries made the furlong impossible to change
- A statute of 1593 fixed the mile at eight furlongs
- That gave 1,760 yards, longer than the Roman mile
- The nautical mile is set by the earth, not by farming
Old English *mil*, from Latin *mille passus*, a thousand paces.
Why is a mile 1,760 yards?
Because it was fixed as eight furlongs, and a furlong was a fixed field length that could not be changed without redrawing farms.
What is a nautical mile?
One minute of latitude, 1,852 metres. It is defined by the size of the earth rather than by paces or furrows.