Sc. Forms: 5 ferlot, 6 feirt-, fert-, ferthelett, fertleitt, furlet, fyrlot, 7–8 furlot, 8 farlet, 6– firlot. [First in L. ferthelota, app. repr. ON. fiórpe hlotr fourth part: see LOT.
The OE. hlot does not appear to have been used in the sense of ‘(fractional) part.’]
1. A measure of capacity for corn, etc., the fourth part of a boll.
[1264. Comput. Vicecom. de Forfar (Jam.). In servicio regis iij celd. ij boll, et j ferthelota.]
1426. Sc. Acts Jas. I. (1597), § 70. They ordaned … foure firlottes to conteine a boll.
1484. Act Audit., 36/2. iii ferlotis of mele.
c. 1540. in W. H. Maxwell, Sports & Adv. Scotl., xxviii. (1855), 229, note. Oats, 47 chalders 1 boll 2 firlots.
1708. J. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit., II. III. ii. 510. The Firlot of Linlithgow … contains Thirty-one Pints Sterling Jugg, for the Measuring of Wheat, Rye, Meal, etc.
1824. Mech. Mag., No. 46, 279. You can determine the weight of a firlot of grain in the short space of half a minute.
1876. J. Grant, History of the Burgh Schools of Scotland, II. 458, note. Another [gives] a firlot … another, two firlots of meal.
b. A certain measure used for other commodities; also, a great quantity.
1549. Inv. of Brine (Somerset Ho.). xij ferthelettes of grece butter.
1585. Inv. of Postilthwaite (Somerset Ho.), Itm v. feirtletts couerlete ȝarne.
a. 1832. Fire of Frendraught, iii., in Child, Ballads, VII. cxcvi. (1890), 46/1.
| Ye ’s hae a firlot o the gude red gowd, | |
| Well straiket wi a wan; | |
| And if that winna please you well, | |
| I ’ll heap it wi my han. |
1883. James Purves, Poachers and Poaching, in Contemporary Review, XLIV. Sept., 353. There are poachers spread over the country who, though well known to the police, are seldom caught. They are men who make a trade of poaching, who in a night secure a ‘firlot’ of partridges, and with a gig cover twenty miles before sunrise.
2. A vessel used to measure a firlot of corn, etc.
1573. Tyrie, Refut. Answ. Knox, 40 b. Na man doth licht ane lanterne, putting it vnder ane firlot.
1577–95. Descr. Isles Scotl., in Skene, Celtic Scotl., III. App. 437. To take sa mony firlotts as micht stand side by side.
1670. Ray, Prov., 287. Mony words fills not the furlot.
1815. Scott, Guy M., ii. He sold part of the lands, evacuated the old castle, where the family lived, in their decadence, as a mouse (said an old farmer) lives under a firlot.
