swordlength meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

swordlength

noun

Etymology From sword + length. Compare Middle English swerde-length, swerd lengthe.

A distance equal to the length of a sword.

All danger of that, however—which (though of course I should have done it unhesitatingly,) would have been not a little disagreeable in a country where respectability is measured by swordlengths just as silk is by yardlengths—is entirely over.1852 June 24, John Ruskin, edited by John Lewis Bradley, Ruskin’s Letters from Venice, 1851-1852, New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press; London: Geoffrey Cumberlege, Oxford University Press, published 1955, →LCCN, page 308:
I believe they did introduce a rule there some time ago that members were not to bring swords or other arms into the Chamber. In fact, is the distance between the two front benches not so calculated that it is more than two swordlengths apart?1966, W. A. Ballinger, chapter 18, in Call It Rhodesia, Mayflower-Dell, page 100:

4 more examples

Below him is the long desk occupied by the Parliamentary clerks and, beyond, the Hansard desks spaced along the Parliamentary centre aisle — which is, as tradition demands, just over two swordlengths across, to keep hot-tempered Members from having it out.1971, Walter Stewart, Shrug: Trudeau in Power, Toronto, Ont.: New Press, →ISBN, page 146:
A swordlength away, he halted.1980, Robert Adams, The Patrimony (A Horseclans Novel), Signet Books, →ISBN, page 2:
Did you know that the House of Commons carpet has 2 contrasting strips of colour, one in front of each of the front benches? These are two swordlengths with arms at full stretch apart and the MPs must stand behind thes^([sic]) lines at all times to prevent discussions collapsing into a duel!1985, The 1001 Carpet Book, The Sales Machine Ltd, page 20:
The Speaker’s responsibility was to ensure the orderly conduct of parliamentary business. To help him, a line along the floor (running under the feet of one of Gladstone’s colleagues) marks the boundary each MP had to stay behind on each side of the House. This was to avoid angry arguments becoming fights. The two lines are two swordlengths’ distance apart.1989, David McDowall, An Illustrated History of Britain, Longman, published 2006, →ISBN, page 141: