iugerum

Latin

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *jougos (“yoked team of animals”), from Proto-Indo-European *yéwgos. The plural preserves the original consonant-stem forms (from an unattested singular *iūgus), while the singular was back-formed from the nominative-accusative plural as a 2nd declension noun.

Pronunciation

(Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈi̯uː.ɡe.rum/, [ˈi̯uːɡɛrʊ̃ˑ]
(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈju.d͡ʒe.rum/, [ˈjuːd͡ʒerum]

Noun

iūgerum n (genitive iūgerī); irregular, variously declined, second declension, third declension

(historical units of measure) A juger, a Roman unit of area, equivalent to 2 acti or 28,800 square feet (approximately ⅔ acre or ¼ hectare).
- 1st century BCE, Marcus Terentius Varro, Rerum rusticarum libri III (Agricultural Topics in Three Books). Liber I, X:
  Ille, Modos, quibus metirentur rura, alius alios constituit. Nam in Hispania ulteriore metiuntur iugis, in Campania versibus, apud nos in agro Romano ac Latino iugeris. Iugum vocant, quod iuncti boves uno die exarare possint.
  Each country has its own method of measuring land. Thus in farther Spain the unit of measure is the iugum, in Campania the versus, with us here in the district of Rome and in Latium the iugerum. The iugum is the amount of land which a yoke of oxen can plough in a day; the versus is an area 100 feet square; the iugerum an area containing two square actus.

Declension

Second–third-declension hybrid noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	iūgerum	iūgera
genitive	iūgerī	iūgerum
dative	iūgerō	iūgeribus
accusative	iūgerum	iūgera
ablative	iūgerō	iūgeribus iūgerīs¹
vocative	iūgerum	iūgera

¹Once only, in:
M. Terentius Varro, Res Rusticae, bk I, ch. x

Meronyms

decempeda (¹⁄₂₈₈ iugerum); clima (¹⁄₈ iugerum); actus (¹⁄₂ iugerum); heredium (2 iugera); centuria (200 iugera); saltus (800 iugera)

Descendants

English: jugerum
French: jugère
Italian: iugero
Romanian: iugăr

References

“iugerum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“iugerum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
jugerum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
“iugerum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers