fardel
/ˈfɑː(ɹ)dəl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 0.00 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A fourth part: a quarter of anything.
noun
An English unit of land area variously understood as the fourth part of an oxgang or of a yardland.
Example Sentences
- "I... bought a Farthel of Bread and a Mutckin of Ale."
- "You must note, that two Fardells of Land make a Nooke of Land, and two Nookes make halfe a Yard of Land."
- "Fardel of Land, the fourth part of a Yard-land."
- "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."
- "[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."
- "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, […]."
Etymology
A clipped form of Middle English ferthendel (literally “fourth part”), equivalent to fourth + deal. Cognate with Dutch vierendeel (“a fourth part, quarter”), German Viertel (“a quarter, fourth”), Danish fjerdedel (“a quarter”), Swedish fjärdedel (“a fourth, quarter”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: ferthendel, fardel, فَرْد, ف ر د
Usage
Inflected Forms
fardels (plural)
farthel (alternative)
farl (alternative)
fardle (alternative)
fardels (present, singular)
fardeling (US, participle)
fardelling (UK, participle)
fardeled (US, participle)
fardeled (US, past)
fardelled (UK, participle)
fardelled (UK, past)
Phrases
fardel-bound
a much smaller division of land making up 1⁄4 acre
Frequently Paired Words
farthingdeal
a much smaller division of land making up 1⁄4 acre