FromMiddle Englishfother,fothir, fromOld Norsefóðr (cognate toOld Englishfōdor), fromProto-Germanic*fōdrą (compareDutchvoer(“pasture, fodder”),GermanFutter(“feed”),Swedishfoder).Doublet offodder andfoeder. More atfood.
fother (countable anduncountable,pluralfothers)
- (historical) Aload, awagonload, especially anyvariousEnglishunits ofweight orvolumebased uponstandardizedcartloads ofcertaincommodities.
- 1774-75,Act 14Geo. III in Brand,Newcastle (1789) I, page 652:
- Fourfother of clod lime, and fifteenfothers of good manure, on each acre.
1813, “Misc.”, inAnn. Reg.,507/2:20fothers of additional thickness in clay were thrown in.
1840, Tyne songster,The Tyne songster, a choice selection of songs in the Newcastle dialect, page211:Where the brass hez a' cum fra nebody can tell, / Some says yen thing and some says another - / But whe ever lent Grainger't aw knaw very well, / That they mun have at least had afother.
1866, James Edwin Thorold Rogers,A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 1, page168:Now measured by the old hundred, that is, 108 lbs. the charrus contains nearly 19½ hundreds, that is it corresponds to the fodder, orfother, of modern times.
- (dialect)Alternative form offodder,food foranimals.
fother (third-person singular simple presentfothers,present participlefothering,simple past and past participlefothered)
- (dialect) To feed animals (with fother).
- (dated, nautical) To stop a leak withoakum or old rope (often by drawing a sail under the hull).
- James A. H. Murrayet al., editors (1884–1928), “Fother”, inA New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), London:Clarendon Press,→OCLC.
- Joseph Wright, editor (1900), “FOTHER”, inThe English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume II (D–G), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to theEnglish Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.:G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons,→OCLC.
- foður,fothir,fothyr,futher,fodyr,fooder,foþer,foþere,foðer,voðer,ffoder
FromOld Norsefóðr, fromProto-Germanic*fōdrą.Doublet offodder.
fother (pluralfothres)
- wagonload(that which fits in a wagon)
- a wildly inconsistent measure of weight primarily used for lead.
- a great quantity, especially a load or of people.
