burthen

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɜː(r)ðən

Noun

burthen (plural burthens)

1. (obsolete, nautical) The tonnage of a ship based on the number of tuns of wine that it could carry in its holds.
2. Archaic spelling of burden.
   • 1798, William Wordsworth, Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey, lines 36-43:

     Nor less, I trust,

     To them I may have owed another gift,

     Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood,

     In which the burthen of the mystery,

     In which the heavy and the weary weight

     Of all this unintelligible world,

     Is lightened:

   • 1817, Jane Austen, Persuasion:

     It was with a daughter of Mr Shepherd, who had returned, after an unprosperous marriage, to her father's house, with the additional burthen of two children.

   • c. 1860, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Husbandsmen, lines 4, 6-7:

     Bidding them grope their way out and bestir,

     (...) though the worst

     Burthen of heat was theirs and the dry thirst

Verb

burthen (third-person singular simple present burthens, present participle burthening, simple past and past participle burthened)

1. Archaic spelling of burden.
   • 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island:

     The other men were variously burthened; some carrying picks and shovels - for that had been the very first necessary they brought ashore from the Hispaniola - others laden with pork, bread, and brandy for the midday meal.

Anagrams

• burneth, unberth