Origin
The word perch is from the French perche, derived from the Latin pertica, meaning a pole or staff. Originating in Roman antiquity, it spread with the Roman Empire and was likely re-introduced to England with the Norman Conquest of 1066. In the Roman Empire, France and England, it also could mean area (square perches), and among operative masons of the Middle Ages, volume.
Read more about this topic: Perch (unit)
Famous quotes containing the word origin:
“For, though the origin of most of our words is forgotten, each word was at first a stroke of genius, and obtained currency, because for the moment it symbolized the world to the first speaker and to the hearer. The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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our lightning strikes when the earth rises,
spillways free authentic power:
dead John Brown’s body walking from a tunnel
to break the armored and concluded mind.”
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