Plural of cubit, an ancient unit of measurement roughly equal to the length from a person's elbow to their fingertip, about 18 inches.
From Latin 'cubitus' meaning elbow. This is why a cubit literally measures from the elbow—the word uses the very body part it measures from!
Before we had rulers and meters, people measured with their bodies—a cubit used everyone's arm length, which is why Noah's Ark and Egyptian pyramids are measured in cubits!
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