Day's work

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under daily work .

Conversion of old Bavarian dimensions: 1 day's work = 400 square rods = 34.07272 Are

A day's work or daily work (abbreviated TGW. ), In southern Germany and in German-speaking Switzerland also Tagwan , ropes or Doowa, in German-speaking Switzerland juchart , was a German and Swiss square measure .

Word origin

Exposed Romanesque Kalkecco painting. The daily work of two painters has been preserved. The applied pigments could sinter into the whitewash on the first day. The second, non-involved day's work was lost when it was exposed.

Old High German tagawërc, Middle High German tagewërc means “work for a day's wage; Compulsory labor of one day ”. The basic word of the Tagwan variant is likely to be a derived form of (to) win . A square measure developed from both terms, which is called Tw. Or Tagw. was abbreviated.

This term also has a special meaning in fresco painting , as the painters applied the plaster daily in separate areas that they could paint on that day. The edge zones of these areas are referred to as the daily work limit. On the basis of these boundary lines it can be determined today how long the painters worked on a fresco painting.

Daily work as measure

The term originally comes from agriculture and describes the area of ​​land that could be cultivated in one day, i.e. from sunrise to sunset. In general, a team of oxen was used as the basis, because horses were only available to a few farmers or half-farmers in the era of manorial rule (e.g. from the Franconian Empire to 1848) .

The work performance understood in this way means an approximate area measure for even ground and flat terrain :

• The daily work in Baden , Bavaria and Nassau comprised between 25 and 36  a , i.e. 2500 to 3600 m², especially in Bavaria 3407.27 (according to other information 3408) m². The subdivision in Bavaria was 1 day work = 100  decimal = 400 square rods = 40,000  square feet
• In Switzerland, the Tagwan comprised an average of around 30 a in the case of mowable meadowland and around 10 a in the case of vineyards.

In the peat industry, too, one calculated according to the day's work. So was the peat digging

• 1 day work = 8 fields = 32 hives = 6292 pieces of peat sod

Correspondences are:

• In flat parts of Austria and Württemberg , the yoke was used , which in Switzerland is called Juchart . It is generally somewhat larger (on average 40 a, in Switzerland 36 a).
• In large parts of what is now Switzerland, calculations were also made in Mannwerk, in the Free State of the Three Leagues and in parts of Württemberg the Mannsmade was used . In Switzerland, these units were equated with the Juchart in terms of area in the 18th and 19th centuries.
• In East Friesland , the diemat was a common area measure, which has been preserved in the field names to this day.
• In Prussia , on the other hand, calculations were mainly made in mornings - the area to be created in one morning . The regional average is around 60–70 percent of the yoke or day's work, because you tire less in the cooler mornings. The care of humans and animals and also the time for milking is more likely to be taken into account if there is no division of labor .

Even in ancient times, a man's daily work was based on area measurements. In Greece the plethron was used , in Rome the iugerum (derived from iugum 'yoke'). A plethron covered about 876 m², the iugerum 2500 m² (from which the southern yoke is derived).

Typologically related is the acre of the Anglo-American measurement system , which corresponds to about 4047 m².

literature

• German Dictionary , Volume XI, 1, 1, 87 f., Article Tagwan and 89 f., Article Tag-, Tagewerk .
• Schweizerisches Idiotikon , Volume XVI Column 7 ff., Article Tag-Wan (meaning 4: land measure).
• Anne-Marie Dubler : Tagwan (ropes). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Web links

Wiktionary: Tagewerk  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

1. ^ Journal of the Association for German Statistics from 1847, Volume 1, page 422.
2. ^ Etymological dictionary of German, developed under the direction of Wolfgang Pfeifer, Berlin 1989 (and further editions), s. v.
3. ↑ German Dictionary Vol. XI, 1, 1, 87.
4. ↑ Jurende's Patriotic Pilgrim. Business and entertainment book for all provinces of the Austrian imperial state: consecrated to all friends of culture from the teaching, military and nutritional class, especially all nature and fatherland friends. Volume 21, Winiker, Brünn 1834, p. 360.
5. ↑ Stefan Link: Dictionary of Antiquity. Alfred Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-520-09611-0 .