Warp wrote:
>   Is that *really* an expression people use regularly? Because I have never
> heard or read that even in English.

It's not unusual, really. Yes, it is confusing.

Perhaps you haven't heard it because you're usually speaking about meters 
and the people you most talk with usually speak about meters, or at least 
know that people don't use the same expression with meters?

Or maybe it's just something I picked up from where I grew up, or from older 
people, and perhaps it's not as common as I think.

>   Of course such an expression is quite incorrect, technically speaking.
> Squares cannot be measured in feet or meters. The *sides* of the squares can.

Yes. That's what the expression means.  "Ten feet square" or "ten feet on a 
side" mean the same thing.

>   The expression which *is* usually used is "there room is a ten-by-ten
> feet/meters square".

That's the same thing, only you leave out the second "by ten" :-)

I usually hear it as "miles square" or "feet square". Rarely other units 
like inches or anything, and it usually implies only a very rough 
measurement.  "Would you believe his farm is four miles square?"

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   I ordered stamps from Zazzle that read "Place Stamp Here".

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