iugerum

Forms

iūgerum n (genitive iūgerī); irregular, variously declined, second declension, third declension^[1] The genitive singular is usually iūgerī, with iūgeris in Mela; the plural has iūgerum, iūgeribus and also iūgerīs in Cato and Varro.^[2][3] An inscription has iugra for iūgera.^[2]

Etymology

De Vaan derives it from the PIE neuter s-stem Proto-Indo-European *(H)ieug-os- (“yoked animals, team”), from the root of iungō (“to yoke”): in Latin it came to mean the land a team of oxen could plough in a day.^[4] Wiktionary gives Proto-Italic *jougos (“yoked team”) and explains the plural as keeping the old consonant stem.^[1] The OLD compares iugum (“yoke”), Ancient Greek ζεῦγος (zeûgos, “team, yoke of beasts”) and Old High German jūhhart (“measure of land”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates the plural iūgera from Cato and the singular from Varro;^[4] Köbler gives Varro.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is a measure of land, 240 by 120 Roman feet, about two-thirds of an acre.^[2][1] In the plural it is loosely a broad stretch of ground or of farmland, “acres”, as Statius' acres of the Circus, and Mela seems to use it as a measure of length, 240 feet.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “acre”.^[6] In medieval Latin it was confused with iugum.^[7]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses the plural.^[4][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses the singular.^[4][5]
• 43/44 AD – Mela of a length of 240 feet.^[2][5]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius of the acres of the Circus.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A juger, a Roman measure of land of 240 by 120 feet.^[2][3][1][6]
2. In the plural, a stretch of land, fields, acres.^[2]
3. A length of 240 feet.^[2]

Related words

• iugum
• iungō
• iūmentum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill