Etymology, Origin And Meaning Of Acreage By Etymonline

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Origin and history of acreage

acreage(n.)

"number of acres in a tract of land," 1795, from acre + -age.

also from 1795

Entries linking to acreage

acre(n.)

Old English æcer "tilled field, open land," from Proto-Germanic *akraz "field, pasture" (source also of Old Norse akr, Old Saxon akkar, Old Frisian ekker, Middle Dutch acker, Dutch akker, Old High German achar, German acker, Gothic akrs "field"), from PIE root *agro- "field."

"[O]riginally 'open country, untenanted land, forest'; ... then, with advance in the agricultural state, pasture land, tilled land, an enclosed or defined piece of land" [OED]. In English at first without reference to dimension; in late Old English the amount of land a yoke of oxen could plow in a day, afterward defined by statute 13c. and later as a piece 40 poles by 4, or an equivalent shape [OED cites 5 Edw. I, 31 Edw. III, 24 Hen. VIII]. The older sense is retained in God's acre "churchyard."

The Germanic word was adopted early in Old French and Medieval Latin, hence the Modern English spelling, which by normal development would be *aker (compare baker from Old English bæcere).

-age

word-forming element in nouns of act, process, function, condition, from Old French and French -age, from Late Latin -aticum "belonging to, related to," originally neuter adjectival suffix, from PIE *-at- (source of Latin -atus, past participle suffix of verbs of the first conjugation) + *-(i)ko-, secondary suffix forming adjectives (see -ic).

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‘cite’Page URL:https://www.etymonline.com/word/acreageCopyHTML Link:<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/acreage">Etymology of acreage by etymonline</a>CopyAPA Style:Harper, D. (n.d.). Etymology of acreage. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved February 19, 2026, from https://www.etymonline.com/word/acreageCopyChicago Style:Harper Douglas, "Etymology of acreage," Online Etymology Dictionary, accessed February 19, 2026, https://www.etymonline.com/word/acreage.CopyMLA Style:Harper, Douglas. "Etymology of acreage." Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/word/acreage. Accessed 19 February, 2026.CopyIEEE Style:D. Harper. "Etymology of acreage." Online Etymology Dictionary. https://www.etymonline.com/word/acreage (accessed February 19, 2026).CopyRemove AdsAdvertisement

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TrendingDictionary entries near acreage

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