æcer

Forms

æcer m (genitive singular æcres, nominative plural æcras)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *akr, from Proto-Germanic *akraz (“field”).^[1][2] The Proto-Germanic noun is found in all the old Germanic languages: Gothic 𐌰𐌺𐍂𐍃 (akrs), Old Norse akr, Old Frisian ekker, Old Saxon akkar and Old High German ackar.^[2][3][4]

Outside Germanic it matches Latin ager (“field”), Ancient Greek ἀγρός (agrós, “field”) and Sanskrit अज्र (ájra, “plain, field”), which point to Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵros (“field”).^[1][3] Kroonen analyses it as *h₂eǵ-ro-, and Orel and Köbler take it as a derivative of the verbal root Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- (“to drive”), the field being first the land over which cattle were driven.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest dated record is in the English bounds of a charter of 869 in which King Burgred of Mercia and Queen Æthelswith grant land to Wulflaf: æt peadan beorge seondon sex æcras innlondes ægþer ge medlondes ge eyrð londes “at ⟨peadan beorge⟩ there are six acres of inland, both of meadow and of ploughland”.^[5][6] The single sheet is dated to the ninth century, although the British Museum facsimiles thought it possibly of the tenth.^[5] In the Pastoral Care of 890×897 the word is “field”, in Isaiah's woe on those who spannað ðone æcer to ðæm oðrum oð ðæs landes mearce “join one field to the next as far as the land's boundary”.^[7][6]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller set out two senses: a field, land that is sown, glossing Latin “ager” and “seges”, and a fixed measure of land, the area a team of oxen could plough in a day, rendering “jugerum”.^[8] Toller's Supplement adds the crop raised on the land, as in Gregory's Dialogues, and estimates the acre as four rods broad and forty long.^[9] In the laws it is opposed to the house, then a strip of sown land, and elsewhere a unit of area.^[10] The charters count land in acres, as in twelf æceras mǣde “twelve acres of meadow”.^[9]

The word lived on as Middle English aker, first recorded in the early fourteenth century, now acre.^[11][12]

Timeline

• 869 – sex æcras innlondes in the bounds of Burgred's charter, in a ninth-century single sheet.^[5][6]
• 890×897 – spannað ðone æcer to ðæm oðrum in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[7][6]
• 898 – vi æceres mæde, six acres of meadow, in the bounds of Alfred's charter for Farleigh, Kent, in a single sheet of s. ix/x.^[13][6]
• s. x med. – the word in the Old English Boethius (Cotton Otho A. vi).^[14][6]
• s. x ex. – the word in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I (Royal 7 C. xii).^[15][6]
• ?1316 – Middle English aker lond in a Middle English chronicle.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. a field, land that is tilled or sown.^[8][4][16]
2. the crop standing on such land.^[9][4]
3. an acre, a fixed measure of land.^[8][10]

Word family

• ælmesæcer
• fleaxæcer
• gāræcer
• hēafodæcer
• mǣdæcer
• sulhæcer
• līnæcer
• bydelæcer

Descendants

• Middle English aker (→ English acre; Scots acre; Scots acker)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 18
3. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 12
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. æcer
5. ^ a b c The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, revised ed. by S. E. Kelly and R. Rushforth, King's College London / University of Cambridge, esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk, p. S 214
6. ^ a b c d e f g Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
7. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 499
8. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 8
9. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 10
10. ^ a b Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 5
11. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
12. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, revised ed. by S. E. Kelly and R. Rushforth, King's College London / University of Cambridge, esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk, p. S 350
14. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 296
15. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 407
16. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 25