Mile

a measure of distance. Mile is from the Latin mille, a thousand, and means literally a thousand steps or paces. It became a legal English measure of distance during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. A legal mile is 5,280 feet in length. A square mile contains 640 acres. The ancient Scottish mile equaled 1,976 yards or 1.123 English miles. The Irish mile equaled 2,240 yards or 1.273 English miles. The Welsh mile was nearly four English miles in length. The term has been used variously in the countries of continental Europe. The greatest mile is that of Saxony which equals 9,062 metres; the least being that of Greece, a mountainous country, which equals 1,292 metres. The geographical or nautical mile or knot defined by the United States Coast Survey is the one-sixtieth part of the length of the degree on a great circle, or 6,080.27 feet.