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An '''acre''' is a measure of land [[area]] in both the US Customary and the Imperial systems of measurement. It is the area of a rectangle one [[chain]] by one [[furlong]] or 4840 square [[yard]]s or 43,560 square feet.
An '''acre''' is a measure of land [[area]] in both the US Customary and the Imperial systems of measurement. It is the area of a rectangle one [[chain]] by one [[furlong]] or 4840 square [[yard]]s or 43,560 square feet.
==Derivation and traditional usage==
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word acre in its original sense as a piece of arable land deriving from the [[Old English]] ''æcer'' and various northern European varieties of it – ''ekker'', ''acker'', ''ackar'' etc., The word ''ajra'' in [[Sanskrit]] means field as does ''agros'' in Greek and ''ager'' in [[Latin]].
It came into [[Middle English]] as a piece or plot of arable land, before being delineated as an area that could be ploughed (plowed) by a yoke (pair) of oxen in a day. Later statutes decided it should be 220 yards long by 22 yards broad.
The surname Ackerman (and its variations) means man who owns a plot of land.
It is surely no coincidence that a cricket pitch is 22 yards (now 20 metres) long.
''
The measure of length, furlong, now used only in some English speaking countries as a distance in thoroughbred horse racing, is the length of a furrow in the traditional acre (OE ''fura'' + ''lang''.)
In those countries that now use the metric system of weights and measures, the term is still used colloquially, usually in the plural, to signify expanse, often in the real estate industry. Acreage is a commonly used term.
[[Category:Units of Measurement]]
[[Category:Units of Measurement]]