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Do You Know What “Farm” Means????
July 19, 2021farm (n.)
c. 1300, “fixed payment (usually in exchange for taxes collected, etc.), fixed rent,” from Old French ferme “a rent, lease” (13c.), from Medieval Latin firma “fixed payment,” from Latin firmare “to fix, settle, confirm, strengthen,” from firmus “strong; stable,” figuratively “constant, trusty” (from suffixed form of PIE root *dher- “to hold firmly, support”).
Sense of “tract of leased land” is first recorded early 14c.; that of “cultivated land” (leased or not) is 1520s. A word of confused history, but there is agreement that “the purely agricultural sense is comparatively modern” [Century Dictionary]. There is a set of Old English words that appear to be related in sound and sense; if these, too, are from Latin it would be a very early borrowing. Some books strenuously defend a theory that the Anglo-Saxon words are original (perhaps related to feorh “life”).
