Праалтайский: *alda
Англ. значение: fathom
Значение: сажень
Комментарии: Ozawa 38-40, АПиПЯЯ 16, 71, Rozycki 18-19. Despite Doerfer MT 111, TM forms are hardly < Mong. (because of a semantic difference). A possible parallel in Turkic could be *adɨ[ĺ] > OT adɨt 'handful', Kirgh. adɨš, Yak. ɨtɨs 'palm' (VEWT 7, ЭСТЯ 1, 100-101, 410, Лексика 252, Stachowski 263), but there are some phonetic and semantic problems. Note, however, that OJ ata also denotes a small measure of length (8 sun, or about 12 centimetres) - rather a span than a fathom. Such a semantic development may presuppose an earlier usage of *alda in constructions like 'big fathom' - 'small fathom' ( = 'span') both in Turkic and Japanese.
