"long" and "bigness" in 1694

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:57 AM -0400 9/2/10, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>At 9/2/2010 11:21 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
>>Sounds like its just a way of saying "two inches high and not backed
>>or elaborated with snazzy embroidery that might distract the eye from the
>>fatal letter."
>>
>>Most pictures of Hester Prynne show a giant letter A. Tsk.
>
>Hawthorne incorrectly describes the letter as "each limb proved to be
>precisely three inches and a quarter in length".
>
>I am not up to estimating the angle of the legs of a capital letter
>A, nor using the trigonometric functions to determine the
>"length".  Except for an angle of 45 degrees:  In that shape,
>Hawthorne's letter would be 2.3 inches "long" (and "of a
>bigness").  This being the shortest "length" possible for the
>triangle, Hawthorne's could not possibly have been "of two inches long".
>
Hey, it *was* a novel!  And a fictional one to boot!

LH

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