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