different between fother vs frother

English

Etymology

From Middle English fother, fothir, from Old Norse fóðr (cognate to Old English f?dor), from Proto-Germanic *f?dr? (compare Dutch voer (“pasture, fodder”), German Futter (“feed”), Swedish foder). Doublet of fodder. More at food.

Noun

fother (countable and uncountable, plural fothers)

1. (obsolete) A wagonload.
2. (obsolete) A load of any sort.
3. (historical) A load: various English units of weight or volume based upon standardized cartloads of certain commodities.
   • 1866, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Volume 1, p. 168.

     Now measured by the old hundred, that is, 108 lbs. the charrus contains nearly 19½ hundreds, that is it corresponds to the fodder, or fother, of modern times.

4. (dialect) Alternative form of fodder, food for animals.
   • 1663, Hudibras, by Samuel Butler, part 1, canto 2

     He ripp'd the womb up of his mother, / Dame Tellus, 'cause he wanted fother, / And provender, wherewith to feed / Himself and his less cruel steed.

Synonyms

• (unspecific amount): See cartload
• (specific amount): See load

Hyponyms

• (cartload): See load

Verb

fother (third-person singular simple present fothers, present participle fothering, simple past and past participle fothered)

1. (dialect) To feed animals (with fother).
2. (dated, nautical) To stop a leak with oakum or old rope (often by drawing a sail under the hull).

Anagrams

• forthe, therof

Middle English

Alternative forms

• foður, fothir, fothyr, futher, fodyr, fooder, foþer, foþere, foðer, voðer, ffoder

Etymology

From Old Norse fóðr, from Proto-Germanic *f?dr?. Doublet of fodder.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fo?ð?r/

Noun

fother (plural fothres)

1. wagonload (that which fits in a wagon)
2. A wildly inconsistent measure of weight primarily used for lead.
3. A great quantity, especially a load or of people.

Descendants

• English: fother
• Scots: fother

References

• “f??ther, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-18.

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English, alteration of Middle English frovre, frofre (“comfort”), from Old English fr?for (“consolation, joy, refuge, compensation, help, benefit”), from Proto-West Germanic *fr?bru (“solace”), from Proto-Indo-European *trep-, *terp- (“to have good food, prosper, satiate, enjoy”). Cognate with Old Saxon fr?vra, fr?fra (“consolation, comfort, help”), Old High German fluobara (“consolation, comfort, help, assistance”).

Verb

frother (third-person singular simple present frothers, present participle frothering, simple past and past participle frothered)

1. (dialectal) To comfort.
2. (dialectal) To feed.

Related terms

• frover

Etymology 2

froth +? -er

Noun

frother (plural frothers)

1. A machine that generates froth

Translations