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Like the mile, the acre owes its existence to the concept of the furlong. Remember that a furlong was considered to be the length of a furrow a team of oxen could plow in one day without resting. An acre—which gets its name from an Old English word meaning "open field"—was originally the amount of land that a single farmer with a single ox could plow in one day. Over time, the old Saxon inhabitants of England established that this area was equivalent to a long, thin strip of land one furlong in length and one chain—an old unit of length equivalent to 66 feet—wide. That's how we ended up with an acre that's equivalent to 43,560 square feet.

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The term "acre" originated from Middle English and Old English words meaning "open field." It has been used for centuries as a unit of measure for land area. The acre was historically defined as the amount of land a yoke of oxen could plow in one day.

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Q: Why do we use the word Acre to explain land size?
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