English

legspan

From leg + span.

A compound of leg + span

Proto-Germanic *lagjaz ‘leg’

Old Norse leggr ‘leg’

Middle English leg ‘leg’

English leg

Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- ‘to stretch’

Proto-Germanic *spannō ‘span, handbreadth’

Old English spann

Middle English spanne ‘a span’

English span

Today it means

noun The distance between the tips of the legs of a spider furthest from each other - generally diagonally

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.