sb. Forms: 5 ferdekyn, ferken, 6 fi-, fyrken, fyrkin, Sc. ferrekyn, (7 firking, 8 ferkin), 9 Sc. firikin, 6– firkin. [In 15th c. ferdekyn, app. a. MDu. *vierdekijn, dim. of vierde fourth, fourth part: see -KIN.]
1. 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 vessell barell kilderkyn and firken of ale and bere kepe ther full mesur.
15[?]. Aberdeen Reg. (Jam.). Ane ferrekyn of saip.
1653. Walton, Angler, 223. Gather a thousand or two of these, and put them, with a peck or two of their own earth, into some tub or firkin, and cover and keep them so warm that the frost, or cold air, or winds, kill them not.
1745. De Foe’s Eng. Tradesman (1841), I. xxvi. 258. Butter, in firkins, in Suffolk and Yorkshire.
1817. W. Selwyn, Law Nisi Prius, II. 1177. He carried the firkins as far as Bowes.
1879. J. Burroughs, Locusts & W. Honey, 10. Another bee, one of the indoor hands, comes along and rams it down with his head and packs it into the cell, as the dairy-miid packs butter into a firkin with a ladle.
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.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Firkin of foul Stuff, a … Coarse Corpulent Woman.
1830. Galt, Lawrie T., II. vi. viii. 315. Rather than see our school defiled with yon firikin of foul stuff, I dinna know what I would not do.
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. There were stondynge sixe water pottes of stone after the maner of the purifyinge of the iewes, contaynynge two or thre fyrkyns a pece.
1542. Recorde, Gr. Artes (1575), 204. Of Ale the Fyrken conteineth 8 gallons.
1600. T. Hyll, Arith., I. xiii. 66 b. 8 gallons in measure make 1 firkin of ale, sope, herring; 9 gallons … 1 firkin of beere; 101/2 gallons, 1 firkin of salmon or Eeles.
1668. Denham, A Second Western Wonder, in Poems, 107.
| You heard of that wonder, of the lightning and thunder, | |
| Which made the lie so much the louder: | |
| Now list to another, that miracle’s brother, | |
| Which was done with a firkin of powder. |
1713. Warder, True Amazons (ed. 2), 32. Now we are sure of a good lump of Honey, that will make us a Ferkin of good Mead, fit to be tap’d at Christmas..
1737. 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. I do not extend my Reflection on the honest Brewer or Firkin-man. Ibid. This Monster in Iniquity sold his Firkin-Trade to a Person for valuable Considerations.
Hence (nonce-wds.) Firkin v., trans. to store up in firkins. Firkineer [see -EER], one who sells by the firkin.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1684), III. 732. I cannot firken up my Butter, and keep my Cheese in the Chamber, waiting for a great Price, and let the Poor want, and so displease God.
1842. Blackw. Mag., LII. Oct., 468. We do not deny that a Dutch burgomaster may now and then have ‘cheapened’ a picture; but the original commissions—the orders—the princely prices, came from kingdoms that were magnificent—not from costermongering republics; and from aristocracies moulded in regal courts—not from illiberal guilds of salt-butter firkineers.
