Etymologically
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furlong

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈfɜːlɒŋ/ (UK); /ˈfɝˌlɔŋ/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English furlong, inherited from Old English furlang (“length of a furrow”),[2][3][4][5][6] a compound of furh (“furrow”) (see furrow) and lang (“long”) (see long).[2][3][4][5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Originally the length of the furrow in the common field, theoretically a square of ten acres;[8][4][7] from about 900 it was used to render Latin stadium and Greek stadion.[8][4][9]

Semantic evolution

As the “acre” of the common field was measured in various ways, the furlong varied, but it was eventually fixed by custom at 40 rods.[4] Because it translated the Roman stadium, one eighth of a Roman mile, it came to mean one eighth of an English mile,[4][9] 220 yards.[5][10] In Middle English a furlong way was the time taken to walk a furlong, about two and a half minutes, and so a brief space.[11][8] In dialect it also meant a division of an unenclosed field.[12] Today the unit is used chiefly in horse racing.[13]

Timeline

  • c. 900 – rendering Latin stadium.[8]
  • c. 1330 – a measure in current use.[8][11]
  • c. 1384 – furlong way, a short time (obsolete).[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A unit of distance equal to one eighth of a mile, 220 yards or about 201 metres.
  2. (dialect) A division of an unenclosed field.
  • furrow
  • long
  • stadium
  • rod
  • acre

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  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. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  13. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House