quarterns

Noun

quartern (plural quarterns)

1. (archaic) A quarter part; one fourth.
   • In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit entered—flushed, but smiling proudly—with the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top.c. 1884, Charles Dickens, Their Christmas Dinner, New York: Geo. R. Lockwood & Son, page 12
2. (archaic) A loaf of bread weighing about four pounds.
   • ...I find that you, in recording the longevity of incumbents ([[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044005279021] 1ˢᵗ S. xi. 407.]) notice that the quartern loaf was on the 5th March, 1801, at the enormous price of twenty-two pence halfpenny, happily at this moment only two-fifths of that amount...1861 March 2, Σ. Σ., Notes and Queries (2), volume 11, number 270, London: Bell & Daldy, →ISSN, Minor Notes, page 168