Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as oxland.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (O. Eng. Law) See bovate.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The area of land that could be ploughed by an ox in a day; one eighth of a carucate.
  • noun A measure of land of uncertain quantity.
  • noun archaic, Scotland A measure of land equivalent to thirteen acres.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English oxegang, from Old English oxangang ("an eighth of a plough-land, a hide"), equivalent to ox +‎ gang.

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Examples

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Comments

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  • An old English unit of land area equal to 1/8 of a hide, or roughly 15 acres (6 hectares). The hide was the area a farmer could plow with a team of eight oxen, so an oxgang was the area he could plow with a single ox.

    November 7, 2007

  • I think it's odd, in a delightful way, that this word is a unit of measurement of area. You'd think it would be of something else--analogous to horsepower, perhaps.

    In that sense it's as nifty as lightyear, which seems like it might be a unit of time, but instead measures distance.

    November 7, 2007

  • To me, it also sounds like a band of young ruffian oxen waiting around the next dark corner. ;-)

    November 7, 2007

  • See oxland, oxgate.

    March 27, 2020