Number & MeasureGreek → English
Hectare
/ˈhɛktɛər/noun
A metric unit of area equal to 10,000 square metres.
The Greek roots
ἑκατόν
hekatón
hundred
Literally: “a hundred ares”
Follow a root:ἑκατόν2 words
The story of the word
The French metric commission cut hect- out of ἑκατόν in 1795 and glued it to the are, from Latin area, producing a unit that is half Greek and half Latin. Purists objected then and were ignored, as they were later over television. A hectare is a square a hundred metres on a side, close to one and a half football pitches, and it replaced a mess of local units that measured land by how much a man could plough in a day.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → French → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
hecatombhectolitrehectogram
In a sentence
The vineyard runs to twelve hectares, most of it on the slope.