fother

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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 .

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

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 191⁄2 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.

• see cartload , load

• see load

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).

• James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), "Fother", in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary ), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC.
• 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.

• forthe , therof

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

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

• IPA ^(key): /ˈfoːðər/

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.

• English: fother
• Scots: fother

• "fọ̄ther, n.", in MED Online , Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 18 May 2018.

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