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 ofland that could beploughed by anox in aday ; one eighth of acarucate . - 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.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word oxgang.
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
reesetee commented on the word oxgang
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
chained_bear commented on the word oxgang
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
reesetee commented on the word oxgang
To me, it also sounds like a band of young ruffian oxen waiting around the next dark corner. ;-)
November 7, 2007
vendingmachine commented on the word oxgang
See oxland, oxgate.
March 27, 2020