acre

English

/ˈeɪ.kə/, /ˈeɪ.kɚ/

noun
Definitions
  • An English unit of land area (symbol: a. or ac.) originally denoting a day's plowing for a yoke of oxen, now standardized as 4,840 square yards or 4,046.86 square meters.
  • Any of various similar units of area in other systems.
  • (informal) A wide expanse.
  • (informal) A large quantity.
  • (obsolete) A field.
  • (obsolete) The acre's breadth by the acre's length, English units of length equal to the statute dimensions of the acre: 22 yds (≈20 m) by 220 yds (≈200 m).
  • (obsolete) A duel fought between individual Scots and Englishmen in the borderlands.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English acre inherited from Old English æcer (field, land which a yoke of oxen could plough in a day, a field, strip of plough-land, land, an acre, crop, that which is sown, a certain quantity of land, sown land, cultivated land, a definite quantity of land, acre) inherited from *ak(k)r inherited from Proto-Germanic *akraz (field) inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵros (field, pasturage).

Origin

Proto-Indo-European

*h₂éǵros

Gloss

field, pasturage

Concept
Semantic Field

Agriculture and vegetation

Ontological Category

Person/Thing

Kanji

野, 畑, 原

Emoji
🏑 🚜

Timeline

Distribution of cognates by language

Geogrpahic distribution of cognates

Cognates and derived terms