Spanna

Spanna is a term that appears in different contexts, but it is most often encountered as a historical unit of length in Italian usage. In this sense, a spanna denotes a hand span and was used to measure everyday distances in various trades and daily life during the premodern period.

The exact value of a spanna varied by time, region, and local measurement conventions. Modern references typically describe it as roughly 20 to 25 centimeters (about 8 to 10 inches), though there was no single fixed standard. As a result, the spanna functioned as a rough, practical measure rather than a precise legal unit.

Etymologically, spanna is linked to the broader family of words for span found in Romance languages, reflecting the common idea of measuring by the span of the hand. The term appears in historical documents, carpentry, textile, and agrarian contexts where quick, informal measurements were useful.

Beyond its use as a unit of measurement, spanna may occur as a surname or appear in place names and cultural references in various regions with Italian linguistic influence. These uses are relatively uncommon and typically separate from the historical measure sense.

Today, spanna is largely obsolete as an official unit, superseded by standardized metric measurements. It remains of interest mainly to scholars studying historical texts, ethnolinguistic variation, and the history of measurement. See also span, palm, and other historical units derived from body-based measurements.