Word Origin & History
hide"measure of land" (obsolete), O.E. hid, earlier higid, from hiw- "family" (cf. hiwan "household," hiwo "a husband, master of a household"), from PIE *keiwo- (cf. L. civis "citizen"). The notion was of "amount of land needed to feed one free family and dependents," usually 100 or 120 acres, but the amount
EXPANDcould be as little as 60, depending on the quality of the land.
COLLAPSE