ˈfurnage Obs. exc. Hist.
Forms: 4–8 fornage, (6 firnage), 5– furnage.
[a. OF. fornage (F. fournage), f. OF. forn (F. four):—L. furn-us oven.]
a. The process of baking; the price paid for baking. b. Feudal Law. (See quot. 1753; the interpretation is justified by the med.Lat. quots. in Du Cange s.v. Furnagium.)
| 1468 in Stow's Surv. Lond. (ed. Strype 1754) II. 443/1 The Baker shall be allowed..two Lofis for Fornage. a 1470 Tiptoft Cæsar v. (1530) 7 They shulde have no corne to furnage. 1572 in Nichols Progr. Q. Eliz. II. 48 Wood for firnage of breed by the yere. 1601 F. Tate Househ. Ord. Edw. II, §43 (1876) 26 This serjant shal take for fornage of pain de main for the kinges mouth. 1676–1732 in Coles. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., Fornage, the fee taken by a lord from his tenants, bound to bake in the lord's oven, or for a permission to use their own. 1875 Sussex Gloss., Furnage, a sum formerly paid by the tenants of the Lord of the manor for right to bake in his oven. 1882 A. W. Alexander Preston Guilds 6 A burgess may make an oven upon his grounds, and bake for his furnage for one horse load of flour or meal, one halfpenny. |
| attrib. 1851 Turner Dom. Archit. II. iii. 112 A seignorial oven in which all the tenants were obliged to bake their bread and pay furnage dues. |