burthen
nounUS /ˈbɝðn̩/ · UK /ˈbɜːðn̩/
Etymology Old form of burden. Compare similar development in murder.
1
Archaic Archaic form of burden.
- 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:1798, William Wordsworth, Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey, lines 36–43:
- 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.1817 (date written), [Jane Austen], Persuasion; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume (please specify |volume=III or IV), London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC:
2 more examples
- In some cases the conquering state contented itself with imposing a tribute on the vanquished: who, being, in consideration of that burthen, freed from the expense and trouble of their own military and naval protection, might enjoy under it a considerable share of economical prosperity, […]1848, John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy: With Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy. […], volume I, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], →OCLC, book I (Production), page 19:
- Bidding them grope their way out and bestir, […] though the worst Burthen of heat was theirs and the dry thirstc. 1860, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Husbandsmen, lines 4, 6-7:
2
Nautical, Transport Historical, Obsolete The tonnage of a ship based on the number of tuns of wine that it could carry in its holds.
- It was a vessel of about seventy tons burthen, and shaped something like a Chinese junk.1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 160:
- [...] and thence to Calstock, a town on the Tamar, which is washed by the sea flowing through Plymouth Sound and Hamoaze, and which place vessels of 200 tons burthen can reach at spring tides—[...].1940 December, Charles E. Lee, “The Wenford Mineral Line”, in Railway Magazine, pages 647, from the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, October 3, 1834:
3
Rarely used musical tempo, meaning slow and ponderous (e.g., moving under a burden); similar to largo.
4
A section of music with the tempo mark burthen.