The gallon is a unit of volume in the imperial unit system with the symbol gal.
1 British imperial gallon is defined as 4.54609 litres or 277.4194 in³.
The term gallon derives directly from the Old Northern French term 'galun' which means 'liquid measure'. The origin of the word prior to this is still unknown. It originated as the base of the system for measuring wine and beer in the UK and has now been adopted across the world and there are similar versions in the US and associated states (although they measure slightly differently).
The acre-foot is a unit of volume in the US customary unit system with the symbol ac⋅ft.
It represents the volume contained in a box measuring 660 feet long, 66 feet wide and 1 foot deep. This can be thought of a box the size of an acre but 1 foot deep.
It is approximately the same volume as an 8 lane swimming pool; 25 metres in length, 3 metres deep and 16 metres wide (assuming lanes are 2 metres wide).
It is still used in the US despite its links to the much-outdated imperial system of units. For example a "rule of thumb" is that an average suburban family's annual water usage should be around 1 acre-foot. This is equal to just under 3.4 m³ daily.