fanega

American  

[fuh-ney-guh, fah-ne-gah] / fəˈneɪ gə, fɑˈnɛ gɑ /

noun

plural

fanegas

1. a unit of dry measure in Spanish-speaking countries, equal in Spain to 1.58 U.S. bushels (55.7 liters).

2. a Mexican unit of land measure, equal to 8.81 acres (3.57 hectares).

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Etymology

Origin of fanega

1495–1505; < Spanish < Arabic fanīqah big bag

Example Sentences

Queens are 50% more expensive�at $20 to $30 per fanega.

From Time Magazine Archive

On the Spanish part of the American continent, land is measured by fanegas, each fanega containing twelve quarrees, and each quarree five and one-fifth English acres.

From The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c. by Simmonds, P. L.

The fanega varies in weight according to the article measured; thus a fanega of wheat is 165 lbs., of barley 155 lbs., and of beans 200 lbs.

From Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara, Volume III (Commodore B. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair,) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government in the Years 1857, 1858, & 1859, Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Commander-In-Chief of the Austrian Navy. by Scherzer, Karl Ritter von

The fanega was as much land as could be planted with a hundred weight of Indian corn.

From History of the Conquest of Peru; with a preliminary view of the civilization of the Incas by Prescott, William Hickling

The corn was three current dollars per fanega, which is full five shillings per bushel; and biscuit at twenty-five shillings for the hundred pounds.

From A Voyage to the South Sea For The Purpose Of Conveying The Bread-Fruit Tree To The West Indies, Including An Account Of The Mutiny On Board The Ship by Bligh, William