fother

See also: foþer

English

Etymology

From Middle English fother, fothir, from Old Norse fóðr (cognate to Old English fōdor), from Proto-Germanic *fōdrą (compare Dutch voer (“pasture, fodder”), German Futter (“feed”), Swedish foder). Doublet of fodder and foeder. More at food.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɒðə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfɑðɚ/

Noun

fother (countable and uncountable, plural fothers)

1. (historical) A load, a wagonload, especially any various English units of weight or volume based upon standardized cartloads of certain commodities.
   • 1774-75, Act 14 Geo. III in Brand, Newcastle (1789) I, page 652:

     Four fother of clod lime, and fifteen fothers of good manure, on each acre.

   • 1813, “Misc.”, in Ann. Reg., 507/2:

     20 fothers of additional thickness in clay were thrown in.

   • 1840, Tyne songster, The Tyne songster, a choice selection of songs in the Newcastle dialect, page 211:

     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 a fother.

   • 1866, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 1, page 168:

     Now measured by the old hundred, that is, 108 lbs. the charrus contains nearly 19½ hundreds, that is it corresponds to the fodder, or fother, of modern times.

2. (dialect) Alternative form of fodder, food for animals.
   • 1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, part 1, canto 2:

     He ripp'd the womb up of his mother, / Dame Tellus, 'cause he wanted fother, / And provender, wherewith to feed / Himself and his less cruel steed.

Synonyms

• see cartload, load

Hyponyms

• see load

Verb

fother (third-person singular simple present fothers, present participle fothering, simple past and past participle fothered)

1. (dialect) To feed animals (with fother).
2. (dated, nautical) To stop a leak with oakum or old rope (often by drawing a sail under the hull).

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
• Joseph Wright, editor (1900), “FOTHER”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume II (D–G), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• forthe, therof

Middle English

Alternative forms

• foður, fothir, fothyr, futher, fodyr, fooder, foþer, foþere, foðer, voðer, ffoder

Etymology

From Old Norse fóðr, from Proto-Germanic *fōdrą. Doublet of fodder.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfoːðər/

Noun

fother (plural fothres)

1. wagonload (that which fits in a wagon)
2. a wildly inconsistent measure of weight primarily used for lead.
3. a great quantity, especially a load or of people.

Descendants

• English: fother
• Scots: fother

References

• “fọ̄ther, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-18.