Bushels

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A unit of measurement for dry volume commonly employed in farming that signifies a considerable amount of crops
2. A measurement used mainly in agriculture to quantify large quantities of dry produce or grains
3. A standard container measurement for counting crops like grains, usually in bulk amounts

Etymology: "Bushels" is the plural of "bushel," a unit of dry measure for grain. The surprising thing is that the unit began as a handful. Its ancestor came from a Gaulish word meaning "handful," which in turn traces back to a Proto-Celtic root for "palm" or "fist," the same root that gave Breton "boz," meaning the hollow of the hand, and Old Irish "bas." The journey into English ran through Old French. The Gaulish-derived word became "boisse," a grain measure, and Old French turned that into "boissel." Middle English took it as "busshel," and the spelling gradually settled into the modern form. The grain measure was once tied to the hand. A unit that began as a grasp of grain ended up as a fixed volume, and "bushels" now simply counts those containers of harvest.

Synonyms: baskets, containers, units, quantities, measures