Virgate

The name derives from the Old English '''' ("yard of land"), from “yard's” former meaning as a measuring stick employed in reckoning acres (cf. rod). The word is etymologically unrelated to the yard of land around a dwelling. "Virgate" is a much later retronym, anglicizing the yardland's latinized form virgāta after the advent of the yard rendered the original name ambiguous. ==History==

The virgate was reckoned as the amount of land that a team of two oxen could plough in a single annual season. It was equivalent to a quarter of a hide, so was nominally thirty acres. In some parts of England, it was divided into four nooks (; ). Nooks were occasionally further divided into a farundel (; , "fourth deal, fourth share"). The Danelaw equivalent of a virgate was two oxgangs or ‘bovates’. These were considered to represent the amount of land that could be worked in a single annual season by a single ox and therefore equated to half a virgate. As such, the oxgang represented a parallel division of the carucate. ==References==