Editing Verst

{{short description|Obsolete Russian unit of length}}
{{Infobox unit
| image         = Ružany. Ружаны (N. Orda, XIX).jpg
| caption       = Highway location verst marker in [[Ruzhany]], [[Russian Empire]]. [[Napoleon Orda]], 1863
| standard      = [[Obsolete Russian units of measurement]]
| quantity      = [[Length]]
| symbol        = 
| namedafter    = 
| convertfromx  = 
| units1        = [[Sazhen]]
| inunits1      = {{val|1|500|u=Sazhen}}
| units2        = [[SI base unit]]s
| inunits2      = {{val|1.0668|u=km}}
| units3         = [[Mile]]
| inunits3      = {{val|0.6630|u=mi}}
}}

A '''verst''' ({{langx|ru|верста|versta}}) is an [[Obsolete Russian units of measurement|obsolete Russian unit of length]] defined as 500 [[sazhen]]. This makes a verst equal to {{convert|1.0668|km|ft|abbr=off}}.

== Plurals and variants ==
In the [[English language]], ''verst'' is singular with the normal plural ''versts''. In Russian, the [[nominative]] [[grammatical number|singular]] is {{Lang|ru-latn|versta}}, but the form usually used with numbers is the [[genitive]] [[plural]] {{Lang|ru-latn|verst}}—10 verst, 25 verst, etc.—whence the English form.

A {{Lang|ru-latn|mezhevaya versta}} ({{langx|ru|межевая верста}}, literally "border verst") is twice as long as a verst.

<blockquote>The verst of the 17th century was 700 [[sazhen]]s or 1.49 km as against the 500 sazhens or 1.067 km it became at the time of [[Peter the Great]].<ref>Raymond H. Fisher, ''The Voyage of Semen Dezhnev'', Hakluyt Society, 1981, p. 176, citing Dal's ''Tolkovyy Slovar''.</ref></blockquote>

== Finnish ''virsta'' ==

In [[Finland]], a {{Lang|fi|virsta}} was 1,068.84&nbsp;m according to the Swedish standard, defined in 1827 as {{fract|1|10}} of a {{Lang|fi|peninkulma}}, the Finnish language name for the pre-metric Swedish ''[[Scandinavian mile|mil]]'', used in Finland since the early 17th century (see [[Obsolete Finnish units of measurement]]), or 600 {{Lang|fi|syli}} (Swedish fathoms, 1.781 m). Metrication replaced {{Lang|fi|virsta}} with the [[kilometre]] in the 1880s.<ref>Konu, Mia. ''Palvelukseen halutaan yksi raitis imettäjä - notiiseja ja reklaameja 1800-luvun sanomalehdistä''. Nemo, Helsinki 2009.</ref>

== References ==

{{refs}}

== External links ==
{{wiktionary}}

* [http://www.napoleon-series.org/research/abstract/miscellaneous/measurements/c_russian3.html Conversion table]

[[Category:Units of length]]
[[Category:Customary units of measurement]]