acreage

Etymology

It is formed from English acre + -age.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Acre goes back to Old English æcer (“tilled field, open land”), from Proto-Germanic *akraz (“field, pasture”), from Proto-Indo-European *agro- (“field”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Extent or amount in acres: before 1784, in R. Bigland's historical collections on the county of Gloucester, published in 1792.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also dates it to about 1784.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word was long taken to be a 19th-century one: the 1989 edition of the OED and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate dated it to 1859,^[7][8] Dictionary.com to 1855–60^[5] and Etymonline to 1795,^[3] before the OED's 2011 revision found it before 1784.^[2] Besides the area in the abstract it came to mean a tract or plot of land itself, and it has been used figuratively since 1846 for territory, extent or size.^[2] In Australia an acreage is a large rural block of several acres, and the word is also used as an adjective for such land.^[6][9]

Timeline

• before 1784 – extent or amount of acres; acres collectively.^[2][4]
• 1846 – figurative, territory, area; amount or extent.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An area of land measured in acres; acres collectively.^{[4][10][9][2]}
2. A tract or plot of land; in Australia, a large allotment of rural land comprising several acres.^[2][6]
3. Extent, amount or size, used figuratively.^[2]

Adjective

1. (Australia) Of or relating to a large rural allotment: acreage blocks on the edge of town.^[6][9]

Related words

• acre
• agrarian

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d The Macquarie Dictionary (2013), 6th ed., Sydney: Macquarie Dictionary Publishers
7. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin