burden

▪ I. burden, burthen, n.
    (ˈbɜːd(ə)n, ˈbɜːð(ə)n)
    Forms: α. 1 berðen, 2 byrðen, -þan, 3–4 byr-, birþin(e, -then(e, -thun, (borþon), 4 burþen, -on, 4–5 berthen, 5 birthan, byrthyn, borhtyn, 5– burthen. β. 2 byrden, 3 birden, -in, 4 byrdoun, 5 byrdune, -dyn(g, bir-, burdyne, 6 bordone, bir-, burding, burdayne, -eyne, -un, bourdon, Sc. buirdin, 2– burden.
    [OE. byrðen str. fem. = OS. burthinnia:—WGer. type *burþinnja, an extension (with suffix -innja as in OE. rǽden) of *burþi- (see birth), f. stem. bur- of *ber-an to bear. The synonymous OHG. burdîn, Goth. baurþei, differ only in the suffix. The Eng. forms with d, which began to appear early in 12th c., may be compared with murder for murther, and dial. farden, furder, for farthing, further. The prevalent form is now burden, but burthen is still often retained for ‘capacity of a ship’, and also as a poet. or rhetorical archaism in other senses. Of the senses in Branch IV, some are derived from the Romanic bourdon², influenced by the Eng. burden; others belong to the native word with more or less influence from bourdon. The fusion of the two words is so complete that it is not possible to treat Branch IV as an independent n.]
    I. That which is borne.
    1. A load.

α a 1000 ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 106 Sarcina, seam uel berðen. 1154 O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) an. 1135 Wua sua bare his byrþen gold & syluer. c 1205 Lay. 25970 He bar uppen his rugge burðene [1275 borþone] grete. a 1300 Havelok 807 Gladlike I wile the paniers bere..They ther be inne a birthene gret. 1382 Wyclif Numb. iv. 47 Berthens to be bore [1388 To bere chargis]. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. viii. xxv, Bereris of heuy burþones. 1566 T. Stapleton Ret. Untr. Jewell i. 4, I trust the burthen will sone be disburdened. 1703 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 45 All Ships, that take in their Burthen here. 1827 Keble Chr. Y. 4 Oh! by Thine own sad burthen, borne So meekly.

β c 1160 Hatton Gosp. Matt. xxiii. 4 Hyo bindeð hefiᵹe byrdene þe man abere ne mæᵹ. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 5 Ne ber hit nes nefre nane burdene. a 1300 Cursor M. 6830 If þu find of þin ill-willand vnder birdin his best ligand. c 1440 York Myst. xxxii. 114 Bring on his bak a burdeyne of golde. c 1470 Henry Wallace xi. 29 A Churll yai had, yat felloune byrdyngs bar. 1595 Shakes. John ii. i. 92 With burden of our armor heere we sweat. 1733 Pope Ess. Man iii. 203 Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend. 1850 Prescott Peru II. 98 A light burden..was laid on his back.

    2. fig. a. A load of labour, duty, responsibility, blame, sin, sorrow, etc. the white man's burden: a rhetorical expression for the responsibility of the white for the coloured races.

α c 971 Blickl. Hom. 75 Swa sæt þonne seo unaræfnedlice byrþen synna on eallum þysum menniscan cynne. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. xi. 30 Soðlice min ᵹeoc is wynsum, and min byrðyn [v.r. byrðen, Hatton berðene] is leoht. a 1300 Cursor M. 17338 Late us and urs þe birthen ber. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, iv. iv. 167 A greeuous burthen was thy Birth to me. 1744 Berkeley Siris §119 Wks. 1871 II. 408 A nervous colic, which rendered my life a burthen. 1748 Smollett Rod. Rand. (1812) I. 34 The folly of laying the burthen at my door. 1812 J. Wilson Isle of Palms iv. 221 Hath she no friend whose heart may share With her the burthen of despair?

β 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 11959 For heuy byrdoun þat y of hem [sins] bere Y am confoundede. c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. 101 Þe burden of my sorwe. 1661 Sir H. Vanes Politicks 13 The burden of an injury. 1885 Gladstone in Christian World 15 Jan. 37/2 Sovereignty has been relieved by our modern institutions of some of its burdens. 1899 Kipling White Man's Burden vi, Take up the White Man's burden—Ye dare not stoop to less. 1911 H. G. Wells New Machiavelli i. iv. 128 We were all..Imperialists also, and professed a vivid sense of the ‘White Man's Burden’. 1922 Joad Common-Sense Theology 135 Little nationalised Jingoes who are ready enough to adopt any parrot cry such as ‘The White Man's Burden’, or ‘The Kultur of the Fatherland’. 1966 Observer 17 Apr. 10/6 In the seventies we can and should lay down the White Man's Burden with a clear conscience.

    b. burden of proof, etc.: (onus probandi in Roman Law) the obligation to prove a controversial assertion, falling upon the person who makes it.

1593 Hooker Eccl. Pol. iv. iv. §2 Wks. 1841 I. 360 The burden of proving doth rest on them. 1780 Burke Sp. Econ. Ref. Wks. III. 313 The burthen of proof rests upon me, that so many pensions..are necessary for the publick service. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 152 The Roman Catholic divines took on themselves the burden of the proof.

    c. An obligatory expense, whether due on private account or as a contribution to national funds; often with the additional notion of pressing heavily upon industry and restraining freedom of action.

1661 Marvell Corr. xxi. Wks. 1872–5 II. 55 In the matter of your two companyes, if they be of any charge or burthen to you, he is willing to indulge you. 1741 Middleton Cicero I. ii. 62 Without any burthen on the Province. 1769 Robertson Chas. V, V. iv. 392 The addition of such a load to their former burdens, drove them to despair. 1813 Wellington Let. in Gurw. Disp. X. 110 The burdens imposed shall be imposed with equality. 1863 Fawcett Pol. Econ. iii. vi. 369 The burden of any fixed money payment. 1876 Freeman Norm. Conq. V. xxiv. 373 The King lays certain feudal burthens on his tenants in chief.

    3. A ‘load’ (whether of man, animal, vehicle, etc.) considered as a measure of quantity. Now only applied to the carrying capacity of a ship, stated as a certain number of tons. Cf. 7.

α 1388 Wyclif 2 Kings v. 17 Graunte thou to me..that Y take of the lond the birthun of twei burdones. c 1449 Pecock Repr. ii. iv. 155 A man which stale sumtyme a birthan of thornis was sett in to the moone. 1560 in Etoniana ii. 32 Fyve burthens of rushes to straw Mr. Durstons chamber. 1601 Shakes. All's Well ii. iii. 215 A vessell of too great a burthen. 1813 Wellington Let. in Gurw. Disp. XI. 505 Vessels of from fifteen to thirty tons burthen.

β 1515 MS. Acc. St. John's Hosp., Canterb., Payd for ij bordones off thornis for a hows. 1555 Eden Decades W. Ind. (Arb.) 379 A shyppe of the burden of seuen score toonne. 1630 Wadsworth Sp. Pilgr. iv. 33 This ship was of an 100 Tunne burden. 1871 J. Q. Adams in C. Davies Metr. Syst. iii. 168 The burden of a ship, as a weight, is ascertained by the depth of the water she draws.

    † 4. a. That which is borne in the womb; a child.

c 1489 Caxton Sonnes of Aymon (1885) 131, I see my ryche burden go to exyle. 1594 T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. ii. 397 The veines whereby the burthen is nourished, may well be likened to small rootes, whereby plants are cherished. 1595 Shakes. John iii. i. 90 Let wiues with childe Pray that their burthens may not fall this day. 1628 Gaule Pract. The. (1629) 112 Mary's burden and vnweildinesse, might well haue excused her absence. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 767 That my womb conceiv'd A growing burden.

    † b. at one burden: at one birth. Obs.

c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 1467 At on burdene ȝhe under-stod two ðe weren hire sibbe blod. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls Ser.) III. 43 Sche bare tweie children at oon burþen. 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Matt. i. 3 Further Judas had two children at a burden. 1572 J. Bossewell Armorie ii. 83 b, Where many children are borne at one burdeyne. a 1639 W. Whately Prototypes i. iv. (1640) 17 Some are of opinion that Evah at every burden bare twinnes.

    † 5. What is borne by the soil; produce, crop.

1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §12 Good grounde wylle haue the burthen of corne or of wede. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 11 It furnisheth the Owners thereof with a greater burthen of Corn, Pulse, or whatever is sown thereon.

    6. In Mining and Metallurgy. (See quot.)

1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 329 In proportion to the quantity of lime and ore that is added to the standard quantity of the coke, the furnace is said to carry a greater or less burthen. 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., Burden (Cornw.) i. The tops or heads of stream-work, which lie over the stream of tin. 2. The proportion of ore and flux to fuel in the charge of a blast-furnace. 1944 Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. CL. 419 We are operating at present on a burden of 60% brown Northampton ore and 30% carbonate ore. 1952 Gloss. Welding & Cutting Metals (B.S.I.) 43 Burden, the layer of melt and fused metal above the welding zone in submerged-arc welding.

    II. 7. The bearing of loads, as in beast of burden, ship of burden (= merchant-ship).

α a 1300 Cursor M. 5520 Halds þam..In birtþin, bath to bere and drau. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 557 Which before Tall Ships of Burthen on its Bosom bore. 1740 Johnson Sir F. Drake Wks. IV. 440 Peruvian sheep, which are the beasts of burthen in that country. 1803 Wellington in Gurw. Disp. II. 199 Every animal..of the description of a beast of burthen.

β 1653 Urquhart Rabelais i. l, With nine thousand and thirty eight great ships of burden. 1789 Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France II. 385 Dogs drawing in carts as beasts of burden. 1863 Geo. Eliot Romola ii. xxx. (1880) I. 370 To do the work that was most like that of a beast of burden.

    III. 8. Used in the Eng. Bible (like onus in the Vulgate) to render Heb. massā, which Gesenius would translate ‘lifting up (of the voice), utterance, oracle’; the Septuagint has ῥῆµα, λῆµµα, ὅραµα. But it is generally taken in English to mean a ‘burdensome or heavy lot or fate’.

α 1388 Wyclif Zech. xii. 1 The birthun [1382 charge] of the word of the Lord on Israel. 1535 Coverdale Zech. xii, The heuy burthen which the Lorde hath deuysed for Israel.

β 1611 Bible Isa. xiii. 1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the sonne of Amoz did see. 1865 Swinburne Ballad of Burd. 1 The burden of fair women.

    IV. Senses showing confusion with bourdon².
    [The earliest quotation for bourdon² shows that word already confused with this. Apparently the notion was that the bass or undersong was ‘heavier’ than the air. The bourdon usually continued when the singer of the air paused at the end of a stanza, and (when vocal) was usually sung to words forming a refrain, being often taken up in chorus; hence sense 10. As the refrain often expresses the pervading sentiment or thought of a poem, this use became coloured by the notion of ‘that which is carried’ by the poem; its ‘gist’ or essential contents.]
    † 9. The bass, ‘undersong’, or accompaniment: = bourdon² 1. Obs.

α 1593 Shakes. Lucr. 1133 Burthen-wise I'll hum on Tarquin still, While thou on Tereus descant'st. 1600 ― A.Y.L. iii. ii. 261, I would sing my song without a burthen, thou bring'st me out of tune. 1833 I. Taylor Fanat. ii. 46 The burthen of the dull echoes that shake the damps from the roof of his cavern.

β 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. i. ii. 85 Heauy? belike it hath some burden then? Lu. I: and melodious were it, would you sing it. c 1840 Longfellow Terrest. Paradise vi, Foliage that made monotonous burden to their [birds'] rhymes.

    10. The refrain or chorus of a song; a set of words recurring at the end of each verse.

α 1598 Bacon Sacred. Medit. x. 123 As it were a burthen or verse of returne to all his other discourses. 1610 Shakes. Temp. i. ii. 380 Foote it featly heere and there, and sweete Sprights beare the burthen. Burthen dispersedly, Harke, harke, bowgh wawgh. 1659 Hammond On Ps. cvii. heading 543 Having a double burthen, or intercalary verse oft recurring. 1774 T. Warton Eng. Poetry i. 26 It has a burthen or chorus. 1838 E. Guest Eng. Rhythms II. 290 Burthen..the return of the same words at the close of each stave.

β 1777 Sir W. Jones Poems Pref. 13 A lively burden at the end of each stanza. 1801 Strutt Sports & Past. iv. iii. 304 At intervals, in place of a burden, they imitated the braying of an ass. 1868 Helps Realmah vii. (1876) 167 Realmah had joined in the burden of the Ainah's song.

    11. fig. The chief theme; leading idea; prevailing sentiment.

1649 W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653) 121 What is the Burden of my Song, and is the onely sure Cure. 1793 Burke Observ. Cond. Minority Wks. VII. 247 This was the burthen of all his song—‘Every thing which we could reasonably hope from war, would be obtained from treaty.’ 1847 L. Hunt Men, Wom. & Bks. I. xi. 199 The burden or leading idea of every couplet was the same. 1862 Stanley Jew. Ch. (1877) I. xx. 386 Mercy and justice..is the burden of the whole Prophetic Teaching. 1879 Froude Cæsar xi. 126 The burden of what he said was to defend enthusiastically the conservative aristocracy.

    V. 12. attrib. and Comb., as in burden-band, burden-bearer, burden-bearing, burden-board, burden-carrying, burden ship.

1855 Whitby Gloss., *Burdenband, a hempen hayband.

1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong., Crocheteur..a *burthen bearer. 1833 H. Martineau Charm. Sea iv. 45 The burden-bearers must find their account in..a medium of exchange.

1793 Holcroft tr. Lavater's Physiog. xl. 209 Nothing but *burden-bearing patience in the eyes [of the camel and dromedary].

1768 Tucker Lt. Nat. I. 475 Ale-drinking, *burthen-carrying, fish-selling rhetoricians.

1658 Ussher Ann. vi. 424, 50 *burden-ships of their friends shut in by the beaked ships of Eumenes.

    VI. 13. pl. The floor boards of a rowing boat; side burdens, the side seats in a rowing boat.

1857 P. Colquhoun Comp. ‘Oarsman's Guide’ 29 The flooring is termed burthens. Ibid. 31 Side burthens are extra thwarts laid in provisionally to carry sitters: burthens are the bottom boards. 1898 Ansted Dict. Sea Terms 37 In boats the burdens are the footwalings.

▪ II. burden, burthen, v.
    (ˈbɜːd(ə)n, -ð(ə)n)
    Forms: α. 6– burthen. β. 6 burdon, bourdain, 6– burden.
    [f. prec. n.]
    1. trans. To lay a (material) burden on; to load.

1570 Levins Manip. 61 To burden, onerare. 1592 Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 419 The colt that's backed and burthened being young. 1621 Bargrave Serm. Selfe-Policy (1624) 2 Coffers burdned with the aboundance of silver and gold. 1830 Lyell Geol. I. 299 Glaciers..burdened with alluvial debris.

    b. fig. To load, encumber, oppress, lay a burden on, tax (memory, conscience, resources, etc.).

1541 Elyot Image Gov. 153 b, Bourdainyng theim with continuall labours. 1610 Shakes. Temp. v. i. 199 Let vs not burthen our remembrances, with A heauinesse that's gon. 1637 Sc. Prayer Bk., Ceremonies, Which..did burden mens consciences without any cause. 1727 Swift Gulliver iv. ix. 316 Without burthening their memories. 1832 H. Martineau Homes Abr. ii. 34 Without burthening the parish. 1868 E. Edwards Ralegh I. xxi. 459 Burdened with variety of pursuits and duties.

    † 2. To charge (a person) with (an accusation); to lay as a charge upon (a person). Obs. or arch.

1559 Declar. of Doctrine in Strype Ann. Ref. I. i. viii. 114 Elias the prophet was burthened with false doctrine, and to be a disturber of the commonwealth. 1577 Holinshed Chron. II. 14 Manie writers burthen King William for the procuring of Stigand his deprivation. 1580 North Plutarch 721 One of the Tribunes..burdened him [Clodius] that he had prophaned the holy Ceremonies. 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 276 b, You must..convince all these patcheries to be falsly burdened upon your Church. 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. v. i. 209 This is false he burthens me with⁓all. [1779 Johnson L.P. Wks. 1816 X. 21 Too studious of truth to have them burdened with a false charge.]

    † 3. to burden out: to outweigh. Obs. rare.

1668 Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. 375 Whether..they have in them any weight, wherewith to burthen out Opinion.

    Hence ˈburdening vbl. n. and ppl. a.

1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, ii. v. 10 Weake Shoulders, ouer⁓borne with burthening Griefe. 1641 R. Brooke Eng. Episc. ii. v. 82 A Synod hath a commanding and burdening Power.

Oxford English Dictionary