Acre

Forms: 1 (acer), æcer, æcyr; 2 æker; 2–7 aker; 5 akere, akyre, hakere; 5–6 akir; 6 acer; 4– acre. Pl. acres: in 1 æceras, acras, 2–5 akres. [OE. æcer, acer, cogn. w. Goth. akr-s, ON. akr, OSax. accar, OFris. ekker, OHG. achar; L. ager, Gr. ἀγρός; Skr. ajras plain; originally ‘open country, untenanted land, forest’; cf. Gr. ἄγριος, L. agrestis wild, ἀγρεύς a hunter, peragrāre to rove; then, with advance in the agricultural state, pasture land, tilled land, an enclosed or defined piece of land, a piece of land of definite size, a land measure. Very early adopted in med.L. and OFr. as acra, acre, whence the mod. spelling for the regular aker.]

  1.  A piece of tilled or arable land, a field. Obs. exc. in God’s Acre [from mod. Germ.] a churchyard, and prop. names as Long Acre.

c. 975.  Rushw. Gosp., Matt. xii. 1. Eode se hælend þurh acras.

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., ibid. Se Hælend fór ofyr æceras [MS. C. æcyras].

c. 1160.  Hatton Gosp., ibid.. Se Hælend for ofer ækeres.

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Matt. xxvii. 8. Forþam is se æcer ʓehaten Acheldemagh, þæt is … blodes æcyr.

c. 1160.  Hatton Gosp., ibid. Forþam ys se aker ʊehaten Acheldemach, þæt ys … blodes aker [Lindisf. & Ruskw. lond blodes, blodes lond].

1330.  R. Brunne, Chron., 115. Pople with alle þe recchesse, & akres, als þei wonnen, Þorgh þer douhtinesse, þe lond þorgh þei ronnen.

c. 1425.  Wyntown, Cron., VII. xxvi. 70. Ðe Mylnaris akyre it callyd wes, And men sayis, bath Hors and Man In þat-Akyre was lwgyd þan.

1483.  Caxton, G. de la Tour, f vj. A good man … named Nabot which had an Aker of a Vine yerd.

1635.  N. Carpenter, Geog. Delin., II. x. 179. Some parcels of ground should as pastures bee diuided from Woody acres.

a. 1700.  Dryden, Ep., To Sir G. Etheredge, 33. Spite of all these fable-makers, He never sow’d on Almain acres.

1844.  Longfellow, Misc. Poems, God’s Acre. I like that ancient Saxon phrase, which calls The burial ground God’s Acre!… This is the field and Acre of our God, This is the place where human harvests grow.

  b.  By modern writers the pl. acres is used rhetorically for lands, fields, landed estates. Broad acres, extensive lands.

  2.  A definite measure of land, originally as much as a yoke of oxen could plough in a day; afterwards limited by statutes 5 Edw. I, 31 Edw. III. 24 Hen. VIII, to a piece 40 poles long by 4 broad (= 4840 sq. yds.), or its equivalent of any shape.

  ‘Normally, it was understood to consist of thirty-two furrows of the plough, a furlong in length.’ A. S. Ellis, in N. & Q., 16 Sept. 1882, 230.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Dial. in OE. & Lat. (Thorpe, Anal. 8). Ælce dæʓ ic sceal erian fulne æcer oððe máre.

1038–44.  Charter of Eadweard, Cod. Dipl., IV. 77. An mylen be doferware troce. & seofon æceras þarto.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. VI. 4. I have an half acre to erie.

c. 1420.  Palladius on Husb., V. 15. Thre hors a yere an acre wel sufficeth.

1466.  Manners & Househ. Exp., 326. I have ȝeven to John Hamondes wyffe iiij. hakeres of wete.

1494.  Fabyan, VII. ccxxii. 246. An acre conteyneth xl. perches in length, and iiii. in brede: & iiii. acres make a yerde, and v. yerdes make an hyde, and viij. hydes make a knyghtes fee, by the whiche reason, a knyghtes fee shuld welde clx. acres, & that is demed for a ploughe tyll in a yere.

1502.  Arnold, Chron. (1811), 173. Of what lengith soo euer they be, clx. perches make an akir.

1542.  Recorde, Grounde of Artes, 208 (1575). A Rod of lande, whiche some call a roode, some a yarde lande, and some a Farthendele, 4 Farthendels make an Acre.

1581.  Stafford, Exam. of Compl., II. 43 (1876). One Acer bearinge as much Corne as two most commonly were wont to do.

1602.  Carew, Cornwall, 36 a. Commonly thirtie Acres make a farthing land, nine farthings a Cornish Acre, & foure Cornish Acres, a Knight’s fee.

1610.  Shaks., Temp., I. i. 70. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren land.

1624.  Capt. Smith, Virginia, IV. 126. English Wheat will yeeld but sixteene bushels an aker.

1669.  J. W[orlidge], Syst. Agric. (1681), 321. An Acre is one hundred and sixty square Lug, or Pearch of Land, at sixteen foot and a half to the Perch: but of Coppice-wood eighteen foot to the Perch is the usual allowance. But an Acre sometimes is estimated by the proportion of Seed used on it; and so varies according to the Richness or sterility of the Land.

1691.  Petty, Pol. Anat., 52. 121 Irish Acres do make 196 English Statute Acres.

1790.  Burke, Fr. Rev., Wks. V. 212. Their estates were bound to the last acre.

1799.  J. Robertson, Agric. in Perth. A Scotch acre commonly = 6084 square yards. If the differences of inches were narrowly attended to in making the Scotch chain, a Scotch acre would be equal to 6150.7 square yards.

1807.  Crabbe, Par. Reg., II. 248. He, for his acres few so duly paid, That yet more acres to his lot were laid.

  b.  loosely in pl. Large quantities, a wide expanse.

1830.  Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), I. 317. If the King wants a yacht, or Her Majesty’s Grace would like a few acres of real lace.

1865.  Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., II. V. vi. 111. He … writes cunningly acres of despatches to Prince Eugene.

  † 3.  As a lineal measure: an acre length, 40 poles or a furlong (i.e., furrow-length); an acre breadth, 4 poles or 22 yards. Obs. or dial.

c. 1380.  Sir Ferumb., 971. Þe frensche men þai made reculle; wel an akers lengþe. Ibid., 2770. Þay dryuen hem aȝen an aker lengþe.

c. 1425.  Wyntown, Cron., VII. iv. 162. And fra it a spere wes drawyn … Large thre akyre leynth of Land.

c. 1440.  Morte Arthure, 3850. With þe lussche of þe launce he lyghte one hys schuldyrs, Ane akere lenghe one a launde, fulle lothely wondide.

1523.  Fitzherbert, Husb. (1534), C 2. xvi. fote and a halfe, to the perche or pole, foure perches to an acre in bredth, and fortye perches to an acre in lengthe.

1535.  Coverdale, 1 Sam. xiv. 14. The first slaughter that Ionathas and his wapen bearer dyd, was … with in the length of halue an aker of londe. [1611 An halfe acre of land. Marg. halfe a furrow of an acre of land.]

a. 1540.  [K. James of Scotl.], Christis Kirk of the Grene, viii. Be ane aikerbraid it cam not neir him.

1601.  Holland, Pliny (1634), I. 117. The length of the very demy Island … is not aboue 87 miles and a halfe, and the breadth in no place lesse than two acres of land.

c. 1805.  Wordsworth, The Brothers (Chandos ed.), 31/2. What a feast. To see an acre’s breadth of that wide cliff One roaring cataract!

1809.  Bawdwen, Domesday Bk., 326. Four Villanes have there one plough, and an acre of wood in length and one acre in breadth.

  4.  Comb. acre-land, obs., plowed or arable land; acre-shot, obs., a payment or charge rated at so much per acre. Also ACRE-DALE, ACRE-MAN, ACRE-STAFF, q.v.

a. 1400.  Chron. Engl., in Ritson’s Met. Rom., II. 270. In thilke time, in al this londe, On aker-lond ther nes yfounde Ne toun ne houses never on Er then Bruyt from Troye com.

1479.  R. Rokewoode, in Bury Wills, 53 (1850). Also an acre londe inclosed, late purchased of Water Dey.

1585.  Act 27 Eliz., xxiv. § 1. 3. Such of the said Sea-banks as are not maintained … at the charge of any Township or by Acre-shot or any other common charge.

  ¶  Acre (or Acre-fight), explained by Cowel as ‘an old sort of duel fought by single combatants, English and Scotch, between the frontiers of their kingdoms, with sword and lance,’ seems to be merely transliterated by him from a med.L. phrase acram committere in the Annals of Burton, 1237, where acram (for pugnam) is a bad translation of OE. camp combat, confused with L. campus, Fr. champ, and so with Eng. acre. From Cowel it has found its way into mod. Dicts., outside of which ‘to fight an acre’ or ‘acre-fight’ has no existence.