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>>>>> 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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