Fower

Part of speech: determiner

Definitions

1. The Scots form of the number four, the cardinal number equal to three plus one
2. An older Scottish spelling and pronunciation of the numeral four, written in dialect texts
3. A Scots dialect word meaning four, the number that comes after three in counting

Etymology: "Fower" is an archaic or dialectal spelling of "four," the number that comes after three. It is the form the word took in Middle English, when the older Old English "fēower" was being respelled and gradually reshaped. Old English "fēower" is the ancestor of modern "four," so the spelling "fower" is simply an earlier and regional variant of the same numeral, not a separate word. The Middle English form "fower" appeared alongside "four," "fowre" and similar spellings, which reflected the variety of scribal habits across England before spelling was standardized. The modern "four" has kept the same core sound and meaning across roughly a thousand years of English.