Area Once Meant a Threshing Floor
An area is a region or a measure of surface. The Latin word named the flat open ground where grain was threshed.
An area is a region, or the extent of a surface measured in square units. Latin *area* meant a level open space, especially the threshing floor where grain was beaten from the straw. It needed to be flat, hard and open, which made it the obvious word for any measured flat expanse. The word entered English in the 1500s, and mathematics took it for surface measurement, where a shape's area is the number of unit squares that fill it.
- A region. *A rural area.*
- Surface extent. *The area of a circle.*
- A field of activity. *An area of research.*
- Threshing floor — the original. *An area.*
- Latin — *area*. *The source.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | area | An area. |
| Plural | areas | Areas. |
| Compound | area code | An area code. |
| Related | arid | Arid. |
| Latin | area | Open ground. |
- The area floods every spring.Region.
- Calculate the area of the rectangle.Maths.
- It named a threshing floor.Etymology.
Words for space
- Area — an extent of surface or a region
- Volume — three-dimensional space occupied
- Perimeter — the distance around a shape's edge
- Region — a large loosely defined territory
- Zone — from Greek for a belt, a defined band
Latin *area*, a level piece of open ground, especially a threshing floor, possibly related to *arere*, to be dry.
What did area originally mean?
A level open space, especially the hard flat floor where grain was threshed. It had to be dry and clear, which suited the word to any measured expanse.
Is arid related?
Possibly. Some link area to arere, to be dry, since a threshing floor had to be kept dry and hard.