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Origin documented
“Every inch a king”
What it means
Thoroughly and unmistakably what one claims to be.
Where it comes from
The image is of measuring a person along their whole length and finding the quality present at every point of the rule.
How sure are we?
From King Lear, around 1606, where Lear says it of himself while entirely mad, which rather complicates the compliment. The construction has been borrowed for every other noun since.