quartern
noun
Forms quarterns
- noun (archaic) A quarter part; one fourth.
- noun (archaic) A loaf of bread weighing about four pounds.
Synonyms
one-fourth fourth one-quarter quarter fourth part twenty-five percent
Etymology
From Middle English quartern, quarteroun, quartroun, from Anglo-Norman quatroun (“quarter of a hundred”), from Old French quarter (“fourth”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A quarter. Specifically: (a) The fourth part of a pint; a gill.
- noun A loaf of bread weighing about four pounds; --called also quartern loaf. Simmonds.
Etymology [OE. quarteroun, quartron, F. quarteron, the fourth part of a pound, or of a hundred; cf. L. quartarius a fourth part, quarter of any measure, quartern, gill. See Quarter, and cf. Quarteron, Quadroon.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “quartern”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details