MILE

A mile is a far ranging four letter word.

It is interesting to see how our concept of a mile, seemingly so simple, has changed over the years.  As a unit of measure, most uses of the term date to the Roman mille passuum or "thousand paces", which was composed of 5000 Roman "feet".  Over time, different countries adopted slightly different variations of this same measure, sometimes changing the standard definition from time to time.  In the US, the definition of the mile was last changed in 1959, when it was coordinated with international standards and changed by an eighth of an inch.

And then there is the nautical mile... but I'm going to cut this short.