femble

English

Noun

femble (countable and uncountable, plural fembles)

1. Alternative form of fimble (“(male, early-ripening) hemp”) (sometimes said, variously, to be specifically either coarse-fibred hemp or hemp prepared for use).
   • 1804, Repertory of arts, manufactures and agriculture, The Repertory of arts and manufactures [afterw.] arts, manufactures and agriculture, page 77:

     ... with nettles and other rubbish, sowed hemp on six acres three roods; he got two last and one half of seed , without taking the advantage of picking the femble hemp; after threshing he stacked it, and in the spring watered and dressed it.

   • 1859, Surtees Society, York Minster, James Raine, Publications of the Surtees Society, page 162:

     two linen table clothes, one femble tablecloth, two linen towels, […]

   • 1934, The Treatment of Poverty in Cambridgeshire 1597-1834, CUP Archive, page 35:

     The next year 65 stone of "femble" hemp1 were bought" […]

     ¹ There were three buyers of cloth and one of tow in 1622.

     ² "Femble" hemp was the term applied to the fibre as prepared for use. (Vide Oxf. Dict.)

   • 1954, The Lincolnshire Historian:

     Sometimes also 'femble' sheets were listed. Often in the chests in which the bed linen was kept were towels, napkins, table-cloths and carpets (here a table and not a floor covering). Robert More (d. 1559) added variety by having a salting trough in his parlour, presumably kept under the bed, […]

   • 2003, Joan Thirsk, Rural Economy of England, Bloomsbury Publishing (→ISBN), page 155:

     John Parish of Beltoft, who died in 1590, left linen cloth, femble, and harden cloth worth £3 5s. 4d., femble yarn and harden yarn worth ten shillings, heckled line and femble worth two shillings and sixpence, braked hemp worth six shillings and ...

Alternative forms

• fimble

Further reading

• Joseph Wright, editor (1900), “FEMBLE”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume II (D–G), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC.
• Eleanor M. Reader (1972) Broomfleet and Faxfleet: two townships through two thousand years: “[…] and 'a woule wheel'; there are lengths in store of 'femble' (a coarse-fibred hemp), 'harden' and 'linen striking'.”