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Acre-dale Lands, common fields in which different proprietors hold portions of greater or less quantities; from acre, a word common to almost every language, and Sax. daelan, to divide. In ancient times an acre did not signify any determinate quantity of land; and the Normans had an acre confessedly differing from that of the Saxons. When at length it came to mean a specific part, the measure still varied, until it was fixed by statute, in the reign of king Edward I.

Source: Brockett John Trotter. A Glossary of North Country Words in use with Etymology and affinity to other languages and occasional Notices of Local Customs and Popular Superstitions. Printed Newcastle upon Tyne 1829.