farthing

英文词源

farthing

farthing: [OE] Farthing has a long history as an English coin-name, going back to the 10th century, when it was used in translations of the Bible to render Latin quadrans, a quarter of a denarius. It was introduced into English currency (as a silver coin equal to a quarter of a penny) in the reign of Edward I; in Charles Il’s time copper was used for it, and from 1860 until its abolition in 1971 it was a bronze coin.

Appropriately, the term means literally ‘quarter’; it was originally a derivative of Old English fēortha ‘fourth’, formed with the suffix -ing denoting ‘fractional part’ (found also in riding [11], former name of the administrative areas of Yorkshire, which etymologically means ‘third part’).
=> four

farthing (n.)

Old English feorðing (Old Northumbrian feorðung) "quarter of a penny; a fourth part," a diminutive derivative of feorða "fourth" (from feower "four;" see four) + -ing "fractional part." Cognate with Old Frisian fiardeng, Middle Low German verdink, Old Norse fjorðungr, Old Danish fjerdung "a fourth part of anything."

In late Old English also a division of land, probably originally a quarter of a hide. The modern English coin first was minted under Edward I and abolished 1961. The word was used in biblical translations for Latin quadrans "quarter of a denarius."

I shall geat a fart of a dead man as soone As a farthyng of him. [Heywood, "Proverbs," 1562]