Forms: α. 1 berðen, 2 byrðen, -þan, 3–4 byr-, birþin(e, -then(e, -thun, (borþon), 4 burþen, -on, 4–5 berthen, 5 birthan, byrthyn, borhtyn, 5– burthen. β. 2 byrden, 3 birden, -in, 4 byrdoun, 5 byrdune, -dyn(g, bir-, burdyne, 6 bordone, bir-, burding, burdayne, -eyne, -un, bourdon, Sc. buirdin, 2– burden. [OE. byrþen str. fem. = OS. burthinnia:—WGer. type *burþinnja, an extension (with suffix -innja as in OE. rǽden) of *burþi- (see BIRTH), f. stem bur- of *ber-an to BEAR. The synonymous OHG. burdin, Goth. baurþei, differ only in the suffix. The Eng. forms with d, which began to appear early in 12th c., may be compared with murder for murther, and dial. farden, furder, for farthing, further. The prevalent form is now burden, but burthen is still often retained for ‘capacity of a ship,’ and also as a poet. or rhetorical archaism in other senses. Of the senses in Branch IV, some are derived from the Romanic BOURDON2, influenced by the Eng. burden; others belong to the native word with more or less influence from bourdon. The fusion of the two words is so complete that it is not possible to treat Branch IV as an independent sb.]
I. That which is borne.
1. A load.
α. a. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 106. Sarcina, seam uel berðen.
1154. O. E. Chron. (Laud MS.), an. 1135. Wua sua bare his byrþen gold & syluer.
c. 1205. Lay., 25970. He bar uppen his rugge burðene [1275 borþone] grete.
a. 1300. Havelok, 807. Gladlike I wile the paniers bere … They ther be inne a birthene gret.
1382. Wyclif, Numb. iv. 47. Berthens to be bore [1388 To bere chargis].
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VIII. xxv. Bereris of heuy burþones.
1566. T. Stapleton, Ret. Untr. Jewel, I. 4. I trust the burthen will sone be disburdened.
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 45. All Ships, that take in their Burthen here.
1827. Keble, Chr. Y., 4. Oh! by Thine own sad burthen, borne So meekly.
β. c. 1160. Hatton Gosp., Matt. xxiii. 4. Hyo bindeð hefiʓe byrdene þe man abere ne mæʓ.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 5. Ne ber hit nes nefre nane burdene.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 6830. If þu find of þin ill-willand vnder birdin his best ligand.
c. 1440. York Myst., xxxii. 114. Bring on his bak a burdeyne of golde.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, XI. 29. A Churll yai had, yat felloune byrdyngs bar.
1595. Shaks., John, II. i. 92. With burden of our armor heere we sweat.
1733. Pope, Ess. Man, III. 203. Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend.
1850. Prescott, Peru, II. 98. A light burden … was laid on his back.
2. fig. A load of labor, duty, responsibility, blame, sin, sorrow, etc.
α. c. 971. Blickl. Hom., 75. Swa sæt þonne seo unaræfnedlice byrþen synna on eallum þysum menniscan cynne.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt. xi. 30. Soðlice min ʓeoc is wynsum, and min byrðyn [v.r. byrðen, Hatton berðene] is leoht.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 17338. Late us and urs þe birthen ber.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., IV. iv. 167. A greeuous burthen was thy Birth to me.
1744. Berkeley, Siris, § 119, Wks. 1871, II. 408. A nervous colic, which rendered my life a burthen.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand. (1812), I. 34. The folly of laying the burthen at my door.
1812. J. Wilson, Isle of Palms, IV. 221. Hath she no friend whose heart may share With her the burthen of despair?
β. 1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 11959. For heuy byrdoun þat y of hem [sins] bere Y am confoundede.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., 101. Þe burden of my sorwe.
1661. Sir H. Vanes Politicks, 13. The burden of an injury.
1885. Gladstone, (in Christian World, 15 Jan., 37/2). Sovereignty has been relieved by our modern institutions of some of its burdens.
b. Burden of proof, etc.: (onus probandi in Roman Law) the obligation to prove a controversial assertion, falling upon the person who makes it.
1593. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., IV. iv. § 2, Wks. 1841, I. 360. The burden of proving doth rest on them.
1780. Burke, Sp. Econ. Ref., Wks. III. 313. The burthen of proof rests upon me, that so many pensions … are necessary for the publick service.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 152. The Roman Catholic divines took on themselves the burden of the proof.
c. An obligatory expense, whether due on private account or as a contribution to national funds; often with the additional notion of pressing heavily upon industry and restraining freedom of action.
1661. Marvell, Corr., xxi. Wks. 1872–5, II. 55. In the matter of your two companyes, if they be of any charge or burthen to you, he is willing to indulge you.
1741. Middleton, Cicero, I. ii. 62. Without any burthen on the Province.
1769. Robertson, Chas. V., V. IV. 392. The addition of such a load to their former burdens, drove them to despair.
1813. Wellington, Lett., in Gurw., Disp., X. 110. The burdens imposed shall be imposed with equality.
1863. Fawcett, Pol. Econ., III. vi. 369. The burden of any fixed money payment.
1876. Freeman, Norm. Conq., V. xxiv. 373. The King lays certain feudal burthens on his tenants in chief.
3. A ‘load’ (whether of man, animal, vehicle, etc.) considered as a measure of quantity. Now only applied to the carrying capacity of a ship, stated as a certain number of tons. Cf. 7.
α. 1388. Wyclif, 2 Kings v. 17. Graunte thou to me … that Y take of the lond the birthun of twei burdones.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., II. iv. 155. A man which stale sumtyme a birthan of thornis was sett in to the moone.
1560. in Etoniana (1865), ii. 32. Fyve burthens of rushes to straw Mr. Durston’s chamber against the Quene’s coming.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, II. iii. 215. A vessell of too great a burthen.
1813. Wellington, Lett., in Gurw., Disp., XI. 505. Vessels of from fifteen to thirty tons burthen.
β. 1515. MS. Acc. St. John’s Hosp., Canterb., Payd for ij bordones off thornis for a hows.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 379. A shyppe of the burden of seuen score toonne.
1630. Wadsworth, Sp. Pilgr., iv. 33. This ship was of an 100 Tunne burden.
1871. J. Q. Adams, in C. Davies, Metric Syst., III. 168. The burden of a ship, as a weight, is ascertained by the depth of the water she draws.
† 4. That which is borne in the womb; a child.
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon (1885), 131. I see my ryche burden go to exyle.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 397. The veines whereby the burthen is nourished, may well be likened to small rootes, whereby plants are cherished.
1595. Shaks., John, III. i. 90. Let wiues with childe Pray that their burthens may not fall this day.
1628. Gaule, Pract. The. (1629), 112. Mary’s burden and vnweildinesse, might well haue excused her absence.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 767. That my womb conceiv’d A growing burden.
† b. At one burden: at one birth. Obs.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 1467. At on burdene ȝhe under-stod two ðe weren hire sibbe blod.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls Ser.), III. 43. Sche bare tweie children at oon burþen.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Matt. i. 3. Further Judas had two children at a burden.
1572. Bossewell, Armorie, II. 83 b. Where many children are borne at one burdeyne.
a. 1639. W. Whateley, Prototypes, I. iv. (1640), 17. Some are of opinion that Evah at every burden bare twinnes.
† 5. What is borne by the soil; produce, crop.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 12. Good grounde wylle haue the burthen of corne or of wede.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 11. It furnisheth the Owners thereof with a greater burthen of Corn, Pulse, or whatever is sown thereon.
6. In Mining and Metallurgy. (See quot.)
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Burden (Cornw.) 1. The tops or heads of stream-work, which lie over the stream of tin. 2. The proportion of ore and flux to fuel in the charge of a blast-furnace.
II. 7. The bearing of loads, as in beast of burden, ship of burden (= merchant-ship).
α. a. 1300. Cursor M., 5520. Halds þam … In birtþin, bath to bere and drau.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 557. Which before Tall Ships of Burthen on its Bosom bore.
1740. Johnson, Sir F. Drake, Wks. IV. 440. Peruvian sheep, which are the beasts of burthen in that country.
1803. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., II. 199. Every animal … of the description of a beast of burthen.
β. 1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. l. With nine thousand and thirty eight great ships of burden.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, II. 385. Dogs drawing in carts as beasts of burden.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, II. xxx. (1880), I. 370. To do the work that was most like that of a beast of burden.
III. 8. Used in the Eng. Bible (like onus in the Vulgate) to render Heb. massā, which Gesenius would translate ‘lifting up (of the voice), utterance, oracle’; the Septuagint has ῥῆμα, aλῆμμα, ὄραμα. But it is generally taken in English to mean a ‘burdensome or heavy lot or fate.’
α. 1388. Wyclif, Zech. xii. 1. The birthun [1382 charge] of the word of the Lord on Israel.
1535. Coverdale, Zech. xii. The heuy burthen which the Lorde hath deuysed for Israel.
β. 1611. Bible, Isa. xiii. 1. The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the sonne of Amoz did see.
1865. Swinburne, Ballad of Burd., 1. The burden of fair women.
IV. Senses showing confusion with BOURDON2.
[The earliest quotation for BOURDON2 shows that word already confused with this. Apparently the notion was that the bass or undersong was ‘heavier’ than the air. The bourdon usually continued when the singer of the air paused at the end of a stanza, and (when vocal) was usually sung to words forming a refrain, being often taken up in chorus; hence sense 10. As the refrain often expresses the pervading sentiment or thought of a poem, this use became colored by the notion of ‘that which is carried’ by the poem: its ‘gist’ or essential contents.]
† 9. The bass, ‘undersong,’ or accompaniment: = BOURDON2 1. Obs.
α. 1593. Shaks., Lucr., 1133. Burthen-wise I’ll hum on Tarquin still, While thou on Tereus descant’st. Ibid. (1600), A. Y. L., III. ii. 261. I would sing my song without a burthen, thou bring’st me out of tune.
1833. I. Taylor, Fanat., ii. 46. The burthen of the dull echoes that shake the damps from the roof of his cavern.
β. 1591. Shaks., Two Gent., I. ii. 85. Heauy? belike it hath some burden then? Lu. I: and melodious were it, would you sing it.
c. 1840. Longf., Terrest. Paradise, vi. Foliage that made monotonous burden to their [birds’] rhymes.
10. The refrain or chorus of a song; a set of words recurring at the end of each verse.
α. 1598. Bacon, Sacred. Medit., x. 123. As it were a burthen or verse of returne to all his other discourses.
1610. Shaks., Temp., I. ii. 380. Foote it featly heere and there, and sweete Sprights beare the burthen. Burthen dispersedly, Harke, harke, bowgh wawgh.
1659. Hammond, On Ps. cvii. heading 543. Having a double burthen, or intercalary verse oft recurring.
1774. T. Warton, Eng. Poetry, I. 26. It has a burthen or chorus.
1838. E. Guest, Eng. Rhythms, II. 290. Burthen … the return of the same words at the close of each stave.
β. 1777. Sir W. Jones, Poems, Pref. 13. A lively burden at the end of each stanza.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., IV. iii. 304. At intervals, in place of a burden, they imitated the braying of an ass.
1868. Helps, Realmah, vii. (1876), 167. Realmah had joined in the burden of the Ainah’s song.
11. fig. The chief theme; leading idea; prevailing sentiment.
1649. Blithe, Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653), 121. What is the Burden of my Song, and is the onely sure Cure.
1793. Burke, Observ. Cond. Minority, Wks. VII. 247. This was the burthen of all his song—‘Every thing which we could reasonably hope from war, would be obtained from treaty.’
1847. L. Hunt, Men, Women, & Bks., I. xi. 199. The burden or leading idea of every couplet was the same.
1862. Stanley, Jew. Ch. (1877), I. xx. 386. Mercy and justice … is the burden of the whole Prophetic Teaching.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, xi. 126. The burden of what he said was to defend enthusiastically the conservative aristocracy.
V. 12. attrib. and Comb., as in burden-band, -bearer, -bearing, -board, -carrying, -ship.
1855. Whitby Gloss., *Burdenband, a hempen hayband.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong., Crocheteur … a *burthen bearer.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Charm. Sea, iv. 45. The burden-bearers must find their account in … a medium of exchange.
1793. Holcroft, trans. Lavater’s Physiog., xl. 209. Nothing but *burden-bearing patience in the eyes [of the camel and dromedary].
1768. Tucker, Lt. Nat., I. 475. Ale-drinking, *burthen-carrying, fish-selling rhetoricians.
1658. Ussher, Ann., VI. 424. 50 *burden-ships of their friends shut in by the beaked ships of Eumenes.
