different between length vs actus

English

Etymology

From Middle English lengthe, from Old English lengþu (“longness; length”), from Proto-West Germanic *langiþu, from Proto-Germanic *langiþ?, equivalent to long +? -th. Cognate with Scots lenth, lainth (“length”), Saterland Frisian Loangte (“length”), West Frisian lingte, langte (“length”), Dutch lengte (“length”), German Low German Längde, Längd, Längte, Längt (“length”), Danish længde (“length”), Swedish längd (“length”), Icelandic lengd (“length”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: l?ng(k)th, l?n(t)th, IPA^(key): /l??(k)?/, /l?n(t)?/
• Rhymes: -??k?, -???, -?nt?, -?n?

Noun

length (countable and uncountable, plural lengths)

1. The distance measured along the longest dimension of an object.
2. Duration.
   • 1941, Robert Frost, The Gift Outright

     Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.

3. (horse racing) The length of a horse, used to indicate the distance between horses at the end of a race.
4. (mathematics) Distance between the two ends of a line segment.
5. (cricket) The distance down the pitch that the ball bounces on its way to the batsman.
6. (figuratively) Total extent.

7. Part of something that is long; a physical piece of something.

8. (theater) A unit of script length, comprising 42 lines.
   • 1890, Henry Austin, Address of Henry Austin Before the Second Nationalist Club (page 38)

     […] open your book of the play, which you have previously carefully perused, and at the same time marked with the proper calls, as thus: a length (or 42 lines) before an entrance, with a pen make a figure on the margin, […]

   • 1960, J. L. Hodgkinson, ?Rex Pogson, The Early Manchester Theatre (page 45)

     The boy was engaged to write out parts at a penny a length (42 lines) for Chetwood, who then charged the manager, […]

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

length (third-person singular simple present lengths, present participle lengthing, simple past and past participle lengthed)

1. (obsolete) To lengthen.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, The Passionate Pilgrim, XIV. 30:

     Pack night, peep day; good day, of night now borrow: / Short night, to-night, and length thyself to-morrow.

   • 1552, Richard Huloet, "Ladies of Destinie" in Abecedarium Anglico-Latinum

     Was never man such favour could off atall ladies fynde, To cause them lengthe or shorte the day which they to hym assynde.

   • a. 1608, Thomas Sackville, Allegorical Personages described in Hell

     [He] knows full well life doth but length his pain.

English

Etymology

From Latin ?ctus (“a cattle drive; a cattle path; units of length and area”). Doublet of act.

Noun

actus (plural actus or acti)

1. (historical units of measure) A former Roman unit of length, equal to 120 Roman feet (about 35.5 m)
2. (historical units of measure) A former Roman unit of area, equivalent to a square with sides of 1 actus (about 0.125 ha)

Meronyms

• (units of area): juger, jugerum (2 acti)

References

• "actus, n.", in the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Anagrams

• scuta

French

Noun

actus f

1. plural of actu

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?a?k.tus/, [?ä?kt??s?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?ak.tus/, [??kt?us]

Etymology 1

Perfect passive participle of ag? (“make, do”).

Participle

?ctus (feminine ?cta, neuter ?ctum); first/second-declension participle

1. made, done, having been done.

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

Etymology 2

From ag? (“do, make, drive”) +? -tus (“suffix forming fourth declension action nouns from verbs”).

Noun

?ctus m (genitive ?ct?s); fourth declension

1. act, action, doing, deed
2. performance, behavior
3. a cattle drive, the act of driving cattle or a cart
4. a cattle path or narrow cart track
5. (historical units of measure) An actus: a former Roman unit of length equal to 120 Roman feet (about 35.5 m)
6. (historical units of measure) An actus: a former Roman unit of area equivalent to a square with sides of 1 actus (about 0.125 ha)

Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

Meronyms

• (unit of length): p?s (¹?₁₂₀ ?ct?s)
• (unit of area): decempeda (¹?₁₄₄ ?ct?s); clima (¹?₄ ?ct?s); iugerum (2 ?ct?s); h?r?dium (4 ?ct?s); centuria (400 ?ct?s); saltus (1600 ?ct?s)

Derived terms

• ?ctu?sus
• ?ct?tum

Related terms

• ?cta

Descendants

References

• actus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• actus in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• actus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• actus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book?^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
• actus in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• actus in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin