furlong: [OE] Furlong ‘eighth of a mile’, which has now virtually died out except in horse-racing terminology, is part of a vocabulary of lengthmeasuring bequeathed to us by the agricultural practices of our ancestors. It originated as an Old English compound formed from furh ‘furrow’ and lang ‘long’ – that is, the length of a furrow ploughed across a standard-sized square field of ten acres.
Since the term acre varied somewhat in its application at different times and places, the length of a furlong could not be computed with great precision from it, but in practice from about the 9th century the furlong was pegged to the stadium, a measure equal to one eighth of a Roman mile. => furrow, long
furlong (n.)
measure of distance of roughly 660 feet, from Old English furlang, originally the length of a furrow in a common field of 10 acres, from furh "furrow" (see furrow (n.)) + lang "long" (see long (adj.)). The "acre" of the common field being variously measured, the furlong varied but eventually was fixed by custom at 40 rods. Used from 9c. to translate Latin stadium (625 feet), one-eighth of a Roman mile, and so the English word came to be used for "one-eighth of an English mile," though this led to a different measure for the English mile than the Roman one. Furlong being so important in land deed records (where mile hardly figures) it was thought best to redefine the mile rather than the furlong, which was done under Elizabeth I.
实用例句
1. The young horses broke in a pack, and over the first furlong, they remained in a pack.
几匹小马一起冲出，跑完头一弗隆后还没拉开距离。
来自柯林斯例句
2. We tramp another furlong or so, and he says that mars A is a charming woman.
我们又走了200米左右, 他说甲太太是一位妩媚的女人.
来自互联网
3. We tramp another furlong or so and he says that Mrs. A is a charming woman.
我们又往前走了200多米,他说A夫人是位迷人的女人.
来自互联网
4. Mr Furlong laments : These are people with whom it is hard to have a constructive conversation.
