Editing Hand (unit) (section)

===United Kingdom===
{{main|English units}}
The hand is a traditional unit in the UK.<ref name=omafra/> It was standardised at four inches by a statute of King [[Henry VIII]], the [[Horses Act 1540]] ([[32 Hen. 8]]. c. 13),<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000017915533;view=2up;seq=822;size=300 32 Hen. 8. c. 13]: An Acte for Bryde of Horses.</ref><ref name=mort/> but some confusion between the various types of hand measurement, and particularly between the hand and the handsbreadth, appears to have persisted. Phillips's dictionary of 1706 gives four inches for the length of the handful or hand, and three inches for the handsbreadth;<ref name=phil/> [[Thomas Mortimer (writer)|Mortimer]] gives the same, three inches for the Hand's-breadth, and four for the "Handful, or simply, Hand",<ref name=mort/> but adds "The hand among horse-dealers, &c. is four-fingers' breadth, being the fist clenched, whereby the height of a horse is measured", thus equating "hand" with both the palm and the fist. Similarly, Wright's 1831 translation of [[Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon|Buffon]] mentions "A hand breadth (palmus), the breadth of the four fingers of the hand, or three inches",<ref name=buffon/> but the ''[[Encyclopædia Perthensis]]'' of 1816 gives under Palm (4): "A hand, or measure of lengths comprising three inches".<ref name=perth/>