firkin, n.
(ˈfɜːkɪn)
Forms: 5 ferdekyn, ferken, 6 fi-, fyrken, fyrkin, Sc. ferrekyn, (7 firking, 8 ferkin), 9 Sc. firikin, 6– firkin.
[In 15th c. ferdekyn, app. a. MDu. *vierdekijn, dim. of vierde fourth, fourth part: see -kin.]
1. A small cask for liquids, fish, butter, etc., originally containing a quarter of a ‘barrel’ or half a ‘kilderkin’.
| 1423 Act 2 Hen. VI, c. 14 Ferdekyns de Harank. 1502 Arnolde Chron. (1811) 85 To enacte that euery..barell, kilderkyn and firken of ale and bere kepe ther full mesur. 15.. Aberdeen Reg. (Jam.), Ane ferrekyn of saip. 1653 Walton Angler 223 Put them..into some tub or firkin. 1745 De Foe's Eng. Tradesman (1841) I. xxvi. 258 Butter, in firkins. 1817 W. Selwyn Law Nisi Prius II. 1177 He carried the firkins as far as Bowes. 1879 J. Burroughs Locusts & W. Honey 10 As the dairy-maid packs butter into a firkin. 1886 Pall Mall G. 20 Aug. 4/1 The farm labourer carries his day's allowance to the field in a sort of miniature cask, known to him as a ‘firkin’, which may hold from a quart to a gallon. |
b. humorously applied to a person.
| 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Wks. iii. 78/2 Most of them are transformed to Barrels, Firkings, and Kinderkins, alwayes fraight with Hamburge beere. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Firkin of foul Stuff, a..Coarse Corpulent Woman. 1830 Galt Lawrie Todd II. vi. viii. 315 Rather than see our school defiled with yon firikin of foul stuff. |
2. Used as a measure of capacity: Half a kilderkin. (The ‘barrel’, ‘kilderkin’, and ‘firkin’ varied in capacity according to the commodity.)
| 1465 Mann. & Househ. Exp. 299 Paid for a fferken ale, x.d. 1525 Tindale John ii. 6 Pottes of stone..contaynynge two or thre fyrkyns a pece. 1542 Recorde Gr. Artes (1575) 204 Of Ale the Fyrken conteineth 8 gallons. 1600 T. Hill Arith. i. xiii. 66 b, 8 gallons in measure make 1 firkin of ale, sope, herring; 9 gallons..1 firkin of beere; 10½ gallons, 1 firkin of salmon or Eeles. 1668 Denham Second West. Wonder 4 in Poems 107 Another..was done with a Firkin of powder. 1713 J. Warder True Amazons 32 Honey, that will make us a Ferkin of good Mead. 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v., Two Firkins make a Kilderkin. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xvi, ‘They made me drink a firkin of Malvoisie.’ |
3. attrib. and Comb., as firkin-man, -trade (see quot. 1706); ale-firkin: see ale.
| 1670 J. Smith England's Improv. Reviv'd 164, 4 wooden Vessels of Firkin size. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Firkin⁓man, one that trades with a Brewer for small Beer, to furnish his own Customers. 1743 Lond. & Country Brew. ii. (ed. 2) 158 The honest Brewer or Firkin-man. Ibid., This Monster in Iniquity sold his Firkin-Trade. |
Hence (nonce-wds.) ˈfirkin v., trans. to store up in firkins. firkiˈneer [see -eer1], one who sells by the firkin.
| 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1684) III. 732, I cannot firken up my butter..and let the poor want. 1842 Blackw. Mag. LII. 468 The orders—the princely prices, came from kingdoms that were magnificent—not from costermongering republics..not from illiberal guilds of salt-butter firkineers. |