An old unit of liquid measure (roughly 8-10 gallons) used in Dutch and other Northern European countries for wine, beer, or spirits.
From Dutch 'anker', related to German 'Anker'. The term entered English through trade in the 1600s-1700s. Related to the word 'anchor' but with a different origin—this comes from a Scandinavian/Germanic root referring to a vessel or jug.
The 'anker' is a great example of 'measurement archaeology'—every old trading culture had different containers with poetic names, and those names became standardized as units. The Dutch anker appears in colonial records worldwide, showing how trade networks literally measured commerce by the jug!
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