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sauk [Thai ศอก]

In Thailand, a unit of length, in concept the distance from the tip of the extended middle finger to the elbow, that is, it belongs to the cubit family of units. Since the standardization of 1923, = 50 centimeters (about 19.685 inches)¹. In the period immediately prior, the sauk = 20 inches (about 0.50799 meter)². Also romanized as sok and sawk. Abbreviation, sk.

1. And by the Weights and Measures Act B.E. 2542 (1999).

2. W. A. Browne, 1879.

sources

Ils measurent ordinairement leurs Etoffes par palmes, qu'ils appellent Chup, & par coudèes qu'ils nomment Soc: Leur coudée a un pied & demy & deux pouces.

They ordinarily measure their cloth in palmes, which they call Chup [keup], and by cubits which are called sok: their cubit is a pied and a half and 2 pouces.

Nicholas Gervaise.
Histoire Naturelle et Politique du Royaume de Siam.
Paris: Claude Barbin, 1688.
Page 154.

One and a half pied du roi, plus two pouces, would be about 541.4 millimeters, which is larger than the 20ᵗʰ century value. One pied du roi plus 2½ pouces would be 392.5 mm, which is considerably smaller than other sources report for the early value.

Deux Keub valent un sok, c'est à dire depuis le coude jusqu'aux bouts des doits.

Two keub make a sok, that is, from the elbow to the tips of the fingers.

[Simon] de La Loubere.
Du Royaume de Siam. Tome Second.
Amsterdam: Abraham Wolfgang, 1691.
Page 47.