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Adam Walker wrote:
So is "hide" an old Englis/Germanic measure? If sowhat is the eqivilant measure in some Romance lang. I've never come across this unit before.
Here's Ekwall, Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names:OE hi:d, hi:gid `hide, land adequate for the support of one free family, as much land as could be tilled with one plough in one year'. The original meaning was `household', as indicated by the rendering _familia_ in Bede and early charters. Hence the place-name HYDE, which may mean `homestead consisting of one hide'. The word is often used as a second element with a numeral prefixed, as in FIFEHEAD (FYFIELD, FIVEHEAD), NYNEHEAD. Cf TEIGNHEAD [`ten hides', assimilated to nearby river Teign], PIDDLETRENTHIDE [`30 hides by river Piddle/Puddle']. A personal name is the first element of TILSHEAD.
I was hoping for a Norman gloss. No luck yet. -- Anton Sherwood, http://www.ogre.nu/