1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Area

AREA, a Latin word, originally meaning a threshing-floor, namely a raised space in a field exposed on all sides to the wind; now applied in English (1) to a plot of ground on which a structure is to be erected, (2) to the court or sunk space in the front or rear of a building, (3) to the superficial space covered by a district, country, &c., or by a building or court.