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Wasn't the length of a cubit adjusted every time the Egyptians got a new Pharoah?
Right. The cubit varied from place to place and time to time, but it was always defined as the distance from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow. Typically about 18".
Lakh is related etymologically to the lox of bagel with lox. The IE word originally referred to the fish but became applied to other things as the word spread beyond the range of the salmon. Sometimes it was another fish but it also was applied to the color of the salmon and became part of the word lacquer and some large number, e.g., 10,000 from the fish's habit of coming in large groups during the spawning season.
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Huh?
you're pulling our leg, right? – Lacquer is related to Lac– as in shellac– which is a resinous compound made by dissolving some insect*– (fill in a Latin name here) in alcohol. The insects shell dissolves, and you strain out the meaty bits.. and the result is shellac. It is pale amber to red in color... (*thousand of insects..)
Lacquer is shellac that has been fortified with organic compounds– (tree stuff of some sort–fruit? Sap? Crushed leaves?) there is also a process for dissolving the oxide of mercury in lacquer– to make a cinnabar.– wait that's wrong– mercuric oxide is yellow– mercury and sulfur? Mercury and something... (Actually in previous life, I was an alchemist... I am and remain to all who know me 47– but it's a cover story– I didn't learn how to transmute lead into gold, but I did learn the secret of eternal life.. To bad I have outlive the usefulness of my brain!)
Now lakh might well mean thousands... but to salmon and pink? Or to lox... show me how!
Really-- if its true, i want to hear the story of the connection.
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Miz Helen Ledasdottir complains: Now lakh might well mean thousands... but to salmon and pink? Or to lox... show me how! Really-- if its true, i want to hear the story of the connection.AHD ( http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE262.html) doesn't help me past the lox This etymological ramble is rescued from the deep, dark and dank recesses of my memory. I'm thinking maybe Mario Pei's The Story of Language. Quick check of lacquer and shellac shows that the AHD traces the lac element ( http://www.bartleby.com/61/59/L0005900.html) to the Sanskrit. Maybe the IE WordWizards have changed their collective mind since the dark ages of my intro to linguisitics, but it sure sounds good, doesn't it? I got another one involving tapping a desk, pouring a beer and cutting threads in a hole that they seem to have abandoned me on, too.
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Faldage said: ... bagel with lox ...LOX is, of course (and how could you not have made this connection ...?) Liquid OXygen. Used in the space program, amongst lots of other usages. Didn't know you could get it kosher, though. 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Whoa! Faldage continues, quoting HOT, whose comments launched a thousand quips: Miz Helen Ledasdottir complains: Now lakh might well mean thousands... but to salmon and pink? Or to lox... show me how! Really-- if its true, i want to hear the story of the connection.If I were inclined to self-recrimination over small slips, I would probably, at this juncture, point out that I originally posted the word lac. I would also point out (if, as I said, I was into mental flagellation), that I didn't bother looking up the spelling first. My understanding of Hindi or any other Indian language is zip. I spelled it as it sounded. O me miseram. Mea maxima culpa. I have since done this, and lakh appears to be the correct spelling. 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa--
Okay so Lac--as in shellac and lacquer are related-- but is there any relation of lakh to lox? Maybe--
But a relation of lac as in shellac/lacquer to lakh and then to lox? that doesn't sound kosher-- what with insects and all...
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In reply to:
Which, by the way reminds me to ask how long a rod is, how big is a cubit, and what is a talent of silver weigh?
The weight of a talent varied from place to place. In Euboea and Athens, one talent was equal to 25.86 kg. Elsewhere on the Greek mainland it was 37.8 kg.
Bingley
Bingley
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>Okay, I'll be specific. (1) The homme manning the "information" desk at the railway station near Charles de Gaulle airport. (2) The ticket collector on the train from there to the Gare du Nord. (3) The gendarme who I asked for directions. (4) NOT the couple in the tavern, neither of whom spoke English (unlike the first three), but who tried to be helpful. But they weren't French, so that probably doesn't count ... and that was just the first hour in Paris in 1998. Now, going back to 1974, ...< CapK, are you talking about the French, or the Parisians? I'm going to get myself into trouble by denouncing people for using stereotypical generalisations and then doing it myself... ...but actually, when I went back and read them this time, the comments struck me far less strongly. And I thought use of emoticons helped! Hence I put one in above to show that this was not a serious comment about all Parisians! For the record, I didn't ever believe anyone meant to be derogatory, but we started off with a discussion of the shortcomings of language policing and ended up with 'the French are logical, but stupid'. I don't quite know what to make of this, but I noticed it and it's hard to see it as positive.
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Mais si, it adds up! Fifteen days hung around fourteen nights - makes perfect sense.
When you book into a hotel for Saturday night, you can spend two days there - Saturday and Sunday. This is the same thing over a longer time period.
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>The term used is quinze jours not quinze nuits/soirs and no matter how you calculate it, it doesn't add up<
Mais si, it adds up! Fifteen days hung around fourteen nights - makes perfect sense.
When you book into a hotel for Saturday night, you can spend two days there - Saturday and Sunday. This is the same thing over a longer time period.
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