>>>>> If you say "the room is ten feet square", you're saying the room is a 
>>>>> square ten feet on a side. Hence, 100 square feet.
>>>>   Of course such an expression is quite incorrect, technically 
>>>> speaking.
>>>> Squares cannot be measured in feet or meters. The *sides* of the 
>>>> squares can.
>>
>>> It is only incorrect if you're in nitpicking mode and the speaker didn't 
>>> explicitly define the expression.
>>
>>   It's not nitpicking if the expression cannot be easily understood.
>
> Maybe it can pretty well be understood in areas where the language is 
> spoken natively?

In the UK at least, I think "10 feet square" would be universally understood 
by everyone to mean a square shaped area with sides of length 10 feet. 
Doing a quick google.co.uk of "feet square" reveals this to be the case.  It 
might not be scientifically correct, but everyone where I come from 
understands it like that.

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