fardel

plural fardels · alternative farthel · alternative farl

1. A fourth part: a quarter of anything.

   I... bought a Farthel of Bread and a Mutckin of Ale.

   c. 1666, W. Sutherland in R. Wodrow's The history of the sufferings of the Church of Scotland, from the Restauration to the Revolution, volume I, Appendix: page 101

   Synonyms: quarter

2. historicalAn English unit of land area variously understood as the fourth part of an oxgang or of a yardland.

   Fardel of Land, the fourth part of a Yard-land.

   1706, Phillips's New World of Words

   1 more example

   You must note, that two Fardells of Land make a Nooke of Land, and two Nookes make halfe a Yard of Land.

   a. 1634, W. Noye, The Complete Lawyer, section 57

plural fardels · alternative fardle · alternative farthel

1. obsoleteA bundle or burden.

   This to the shunless fardel of the world / Nerves my uncurbèd back; […]

   1897, Francis Thompson, “[Miscellaneous Odes.] An Anthem of Earth.”, in New Poems, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Co., →OCLC, anthem, page 139

   4 more examples

   Hees forc't to trot with fardle at his backe, / From houſe to houſe, demaunding if they lacke / A poore yong man that's willing to take paine, / And mickle labour, though for little gaine.

   1597–1598, T[homas] M[iddleton], “Satyre 2. Prodigall Zodon.”, in Micro-cynicon: Sixe Snarling Satyres. […], imprinted at London: By Thomas Creede, for Thomas Bushell, […], published 1599, →OCLC; republished as [Edward Vernon Utterson], editor, Micro-cynicon: Sixe Snarling Satyres, [Ryde, Isle of Wight?]: Reprinted at the Beldornie Press, by G. E. Palmer, for Edwd. V. Utterson, 1842, →OCLC

   [W]ho would fardels beare / To grunt and ſweat vnder a wearie life, / But that the dread of ſomething after death, / The vndiſcouer'd country, from whoſe borne / No trauiler returnes, puzzels the will, / And makes vs rather beare thoſe ills we haue, / Then flie to others that we know not of.

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]

   It doth also appear by the abbreviate of the accounts sent home out of the Indies, that there remained in the hands of the agent, master Starkey, 482 fardels of calicos, viz.: 8 canisters of pintados, and 117 fardels of checkered stuffs, 51 fardels of long malow girdles, […].

   1855 [1606], Henry Middleton, Bolton Corney (editor), The Voyage of Sir Henry Middleton to Bantam and the Maluco Islands, page 13 (of Appendix)

   “God in his mercy be thanked” said Katherine. “My dear Lord is then truly and honestly rid of his fardel.”

   1954, Anya Seyton, Katherine

present singular third person fardels · US participle present fardeling · UK participle present fardelling · US participle past fardeled · US past fardeled · UK participle past fardelled · UK past fardelled · alternative fardle · alternative farthel

1. obsoletetransitiveTo make up in fardels; to bunch.

   Here are foure vntruths fardelled vp together

   1607, Andrew Willet, Loidoromastix