fourpence
(ˈfɔəpəns)
[f. four a. + pence.]
A sum of money or coin equal to four pennies. fourpence-halfpenny: see quots. 1722, 1860.
The Irish shilling of Elizabeth circulated in England under the name and at the value of ‘ninepence’; it is inferred that the ‘fourpence-halfpenny’ was the Irish sixpence of the same period.
| 1722 De Foe Col. Jack (1840) 46 Ninepences, and fourpence-halfpennies..Scotch and Irish coin. 1852 R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour (1893) 319 ‘Well, there's sixpence for you, my good woman’, said he..‘It's nabbut fourpence’, observed the woman. 1860 Bartlett Dict. Amer. s.v. Federal Currency, The [Spanish] half real..is called..in New England, fourpence ha'penny, or simply fourpence. 1872 O. W. Holmes Poet Breakf.-t iii. (1885) 75 Give me two fo'pencehappenies for a ninepence. |