• furlong •
Pronunciation: fêr-lawng • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: A unit of length measuring 660 feet, 220 yards, 1/8 of a mile or 201 meters.
Notes: Here is a word that is bit dated but still available. If you are a horse-racing fan, you hear it often. It is unrelated to furlough, so don't confuse the two.
In Play: This word is used all the time in horse racing: "Harry Racer's horse 'Ocean Breeze' can complete a six furlong workout in 66 seconds." It shouldn't be limited to horses, though: "Harry married his wife Hazel because she could beat him by a furlong in a one mile foot race."
Word History: Today's Good Word came from an ancient compound noun which ended up in Old English as furlang, the general length of a furrow in a 10-acre field, made up of furh "furrow" + lang "long". Furh came from Proto-Germanic furkh-, source also of Dutch voor "furrow", Danish fure "furrow", and German Furche "furrow". Furkh came from PIE perk- "to dig out, furrow", evidence for which we find in Sanskrit parsana- "cleft, gap" and Latin porca "ridge between furrows". Lang is the same today in Danish, Dutch, German, and Norwegian, but in Swedish it became lång. They all derive from PIE dle(n)gh-/dlo(n)gh- "long", which we find under Sanskrit dirgha- "long", Old Persian darga- "long", Latin longus "long, extended", Russian dolgii "long (time)" and dlinnyi "long (length)", Polish długi "long (time)" and daleki "long (lenrth)", and, perhaps, Welsh dal "to continue, hold". (Now a word of gratitude to grandmaster of GW suggestions Albert Skiles for reminding us of this all but lost Good Word.)
