According to the OED firkin is a word.
I wonder how one pronounces it. You would need to be careful.
LOL
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.
a1700 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. 66b, 8 gallons in measure make 1 firkin of ale,
sope, herring; 9 gallons..1 firkin of beere; 10 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.) firkin v., trans. to store up in firkins. firkineer [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 ordersthe princely prices,
came from kingdoms that were magnificentnot from costermongering
republics..not from illiberal guilds of salt-butter firkineers.
John Nichols BE, Ph.D. (Newcastle), MIE (Aust), Chartered Professional
Engineer
Assistant Professor
Texas A&M University
Department of Construction Science
Langford AC
Rm: A414 MD 3137
College Station, TX 77843-3137
Electronic mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Telephone: 979 845 6541
Facsimile: 979 862 1572
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Magna res est vocis et silentii temperamentum
The greatest thing is to know when to speak
and when to keep quiet
Seneca the Younger (attributed)
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