Feorting

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. An archaic term for a fourth part of a whole, especially the old English coin worth a quarter of a penny
2. A historical word for one quarter of a unit, most often the small coin once valued at a quarter of a penny
3. Denoting a fourth portion of something, a term used for the former English farthing coin in older writing

Etymology: "Feorthing" (the spelling "feorting" is an older variant) was a coin worth a quarter of a penny, and the name is simply a derivative of "feower", the Old English word for "four". The Old English "feorthling" meant "fourth part", built from "feorða", "fourth", plus the diminutive-type ending "-ling", a pattern also seen in words like "darling" and "sapling". Mint records show it circulating in Anglo-Saxon England, so the coin's name was already a plain description of its value: a fourth of a penny. The name outlived the coin by centuries. English kept "farthing" as a word for a fourth of a penny long after the coin was no longer used as its own unit, and the farthing itself was minted in copper in the 17th and 18th centuries. Reconciling the fourth-part sense with the Old English spelling is simple: the "th" sound in "fourth" shifted through the centuries into the modern "farthing", while the original "f" in "feorthling" was just the older spelling of the same root.