oxgang, sikkative

Not in my dictionary

An oxgang is the english version of a bovate. Which is a unit of measurement for area. Reports vary as to what it equals.

Sikkative is something used mainly in oil painting to speed up drying time.
Don't know what it actually consists of.

Nice Adrian.

Could you tell us the source of the definition of the Sikkative?

On my deed search on my own property I saw the term oxgang. My origenal deed was a land grant from the Pennfamily and goes back to the early 1700s so the term oxgang was used to describe a unit of acreage. It was about 11 acres(but this has varied according to my references on surveying in Colonial times). So if I say, "Ill deed you 10 oxgangs",Im saying that your gonna get 110 acres .An oxgang or a "bovate" was the amount of land a team of oxen could plow in a day. The dissimilarity in units had to do with standard ox teams and land characteristics. An oxgang in Early New England would be a lot less than one would be in the Tidewater

Wow, farmerman, the post has made your screenname truer.
Thanks for reply.

Oristar, you make my brain hurt.

Why don't you learn ordinary English before you start on the extraordinarily difficult stuff?

I don't know about sikkative (although there is a paint company, Norwegian I think, that makes a wood treatment, called Sikkens. May be related to your question, I don't know.

My oldest, biggest dictionary gives this for OXGANG: (obsolete, exclusively historical) The eighth part of the CARUCATE or ploughland, varying from 10 to 18 acres, or more; a bovate

I had never heard the words sikkative, oxgang or bovate before; and now that I have, I'll try to forget them again

It seems that sikkative is german for siccative which should be in your english dictionary oristarA.

A whole lot less. I worked at Old Sturbridge Village Museum in the early 70's and we thought we were doing great if we did an acre in a day.
Did you know that New England rocks will intentionally line themselves up in front of a plow and that if you move them to the other side of the field they will run back and do it again?

Acq - you worked at Sturbridge village!?! Farming?

Yes, the Freeman Farm. I had lunch today with an other former interpreter, she and I talked over old times.

I heard a line about New England Farming

"Where'd all these rocks come from?"

Glaciers brought em

"Whered the glaciers go?"

Back to get more rocks

When I was at school, we learned of an invention, important to early agriculture in N America: the stump-jumping plough.

Maybe a rock-hopping plow was not available in early New England. (not sure of the dates)

Well done, Adrian. I checked in my dictionary after your hint. Should have realised relationship with commoner words like desiccate.

Ah, the old stump jump plough. Invented by Richard and Clarence Smith. Brothers from South Australia. One of the more famous and useful Aussie inventions.

"Sikkative" is, as said correctly above German, misspelled however: it should be correctly: "sikkatif". Means "dried", from Latin 'siccare'/ 'siccus'.
Was used mainly in art for metal soaps, which were a kind additiv for colours to dry faster.

(That's, why the Norwegian paint is called so, I think :wink: ).

'oxgang' is of Germanic origin.
In Denmark, e.g. an 'oxgang' is/was an agricultural unit (used in Danelaw). The area consisted of the amount of land a farmer with one oxen could plough when joined to a team of eight. An oxgang was probably one eighth to one tenth the size of a ploughland.


... and a ploughland is the amount of land a farmer with a team of eight oxen can plough. The exact area is not known but must have been in the region of 80 to 120 acres.

It is wonderful that Adrian has digged out siccative to match the bizarre word sikkative, and thus presented McTag a nightmare because it will be impossible to forget the word again.

yes it is siccative and it is speeds up the drying of oil paint (it can be petrol based).

You are certainly correct, Vivian, but when writing it the German way with double "k", it really is sikkatif :wink: