Legal Definitions - forty

Definition: Forty acres of land in the form of a square. To determine a forty, a section of land (640 acres) was quartered, and one of those quarters was again quartered.

Example: The south forty.

Explanation: In the past, land was often divided into sections of 640 acres. To determine a forty, one of those sections was quartered, resulting in a square plot of land that was forty acres in size. The example "the south forty" refers to a specific forty-acre plot of land located in the southern part of a larger section.