Lan ( Polish: ''łan'' ; German: ''Lahn'';

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

: ''laneus'') is an old unit of field measurement used in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. Since the 13th century, its value has varied from one location to another. A ''greater łan'' (also Franconian, King's, Old Polish) consisted of 43.2 morgs = 23 to 28

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

s. A ''lesser łan'' ( Chełmno łan) was 30 morg ≈ 17,955 hectare. The term eventually derives from German ''Lehen'', " fee" (

feudal land tenure Under the English feudal system several different forms of land tenure existed, each effectively a contract with differing rights and duties attached thereto. Such tenures could be either free-hold if they were hereditable or perpetual or non-fr ...

).Aleksander Brückner: Słownik Etymologiczny Języka Polskiego. Kraków: Krakowska Spółka Wydawnicza, 1927, p. 306. The term ''łan'' was also used to indicate an average size of a peasant's tenured farm. Łan was further subdivided into ''zagony'' ("belts") and further into ''skiby'' ("slices"). In

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

times the size of a ''łan'' was anywhere between 3 and 50 hectares, but from the 13th century to 1857 in ''Great Lesser Poland (with Podkarpacie)'', the Franconian ''Łan'' was consistently used.

References

Units of area History of agriculture in Poland Science and technology in Poland {{Measurement-stub