acre

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈeɪ.kə/, US /ˈeɪ.kɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English aker, inherited from Old English æcer (“tilled field, open land”),^[2][3][4][5] from Proto-Germanic *akraz (“field, pasture”),^[2][3][4] cognate with Old Saxon akkar, Old Frisian ekker, Dutch akker, Old High German achar (modern German Acker) and Old Norse akr,^[2][3][4][5] and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *agro- (“field”), the source of Latin ager and Ancient Greek ἀγρός (agrós).^[3][2][4] The spelling acre came under the influence of Old French acre and Medieval Latin acra, both borrowed from the Old English word.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A piece of tilled land, a field: about 975.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The OED explains the word as first open, untenanted country, then pasture and tilled land, and then a defined piece of land.^[3] In English it at first had no fixed size; in late Old English it was the land a yoke of oxen could plough in a day.^[3][6][7] Statutes of the 13th century and later defined it as a strip 40 poles by 4.^[3] The old sense survives in God's acre, a churchyard.^[3][6] An acre's length, a furlong, is from about 1380,^[6] and acres for large quantities from 1830.^[6] In Scotland to acre was to pay labourers at a fixed rate per acre.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 975 – a field.^[2][6]
• c. 1000 – a measure of land.^[6]
• 13th century – fixed by statute.^[3]
• c. 1380 – an acre's length, a furlong.^[6]
• 1830 – acres, large quantities.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A unit of land area equal to 4,840 square yards, about 4,047 square metres.
2. In the plural, land; an estate.
3. (informal) In the plural, a large amount: acres of space.

Word family

• acre-inch
• acreage
• acred
• acre-foot
• God's acre

Related words

• acorn
• agriculture
• agrarian
• peregrine

Usage notes

In New Zealand, to farm the long acre is to graze cows on the verges of a road.^[9]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins