Please provide the context for your quotation. Also, have you considered the audience for your work? Many non-American readers may not understand that *five-one" means "five feet & one inch"; British readers might, but even in Britain a person's height is now given in metres.
In the United States, most style guides that I have encountered recommend including the second hyphen in situations such as "8-foot-long bridge." Here is how some guides frame their advice. From The Associated Press Stylebook (2002): dimensions Use figures and spell out inches, feet, yards, etc., to indicate depth, height, length, and width. Hyphenate adjectival forms before nouns. [Relevant ...
Height and Weight — How to write them when abbreviations are not used. He was a 6-foot 5-inch man. (Not: 6-foot-5-inch man, with three hyphens.) She gave birth to a 7-pound 11-ounce baby. (Not...
Height and weight written out Ask Question Asked 13 years ago Modified 6 years, 7 months ago
Height and weight written out - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
If someone is 169cm tall, what is the most common way of saying their height in metres and centimetres in American/Australian/British English? I'm not interested in converting metres (meters) and
american english - How to express someone's height in metric - English ...
So height is spelled as a compromise, maintaining the pronunciation of "hight" while being spelled with ei to reflect the Old English ties. The ei form is older--as the OED notes, hight was created in later assimilation with the word high. High, on the other hand, maintains its Middle English roots.
orthography - Spelling of "high" vs "height" - English Language & Usage ...