- Yard (land)
A yard is an enclosed area of land, usually tied to a building. The word comes from the same linguistic root as the word "
garden " and has many of the same meanings.Indeed both terms can loosely be used interchangeably, and may thus be maintained by a yardman (either groundsman or gardener).
A number of derived words exist, usually tied to a particular usage or building type. Some are now archaic. Examples of such words are
courtyard ,farmyard , and stableyard.Word origin
The word "yard" came from the Anglo-Saxon "geard", compare "garden" (German "Garten"),
Old Norse "garðr", Russian "gorod" = "town" (originally as an "enclosed" fortified area"), Latin "hortus" = "garden", Greek χορτος = "hay " (originally as grown in an enclosed field).Residential
In
North America andAustralia today, a yard is any part of a property surrounding or associated with a residential structure, usually (although not necessarily) separate from agarden (where plant maintenance is more formalized). A yard will typically consist mostly oflawn or play area. The yard in front of a house is referred to as a front yard, the area at the rear is known as a backyard. Backyards are generally more private and are thus a more common location for recreation. Yard size varies with population density. In urban centres, many houses have very small or even no yards at all. In the suburbs, yards are generally much larger and have room for such amenities as apatio , aplayplace for children, or aswimming pool .In
British English , the above description would describe a "garden ", similarly subdivided into a "front-garden" and a "back-garden". In modern Britain, the term yard is often used for depots and land adjacent to or among workplace buildings, as well as uncultivated land adjoining a building. [ [http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/yard_2?view=uk AskOxford: yard2 ] ]Animal yards
A yard in Australia is also a piece of enclosed land for animals or some other purpose, often referred to cattle, sheep or stock yards etc. Portable or mobile yards are the transportable steel panels that go to make up complete stockyards for cattle, sheep or goats. [Livestock Handling Made Easy, Arrow Farmquip, 2008.]
See also
*
Pen (enclosure) , an enclosure for domestic animalsReferences
Delbridge, Arthur, The Macquarie Dictionary, 2nd ed., Macquarie Library, North Ryde, 1991
External links
cite web
url=http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/livestock/beef/equip/yard-design/under-100-head
title=Beef cattle yards for less than 100 head
last=Hurst |first=Roy
last2=Macka |first2=Bruce
publisher= NSW Department of Primary Industries, State of New South Wales|
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