burthen

Old form of burden. Compare similar development in murder.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbɝðn̩/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbɜːðn̩/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)ðən

burthen (plural burthens)

1. (obsolete or historical, nautical) The tonnage of a ship based on the number of tuns of wine that it could carry in its holds.
   • 1940 December, Charles E. Lee, “The Wenford Mineral Line”, in Railway Magazine, page 647, from the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, October 3, 1834:

     [...] 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—[...].

2. Archaic form of burden.
   • 1798, William Wordsworth, Lines written 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 December​, [Jane Austen], Persuasion; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume (please specify |volume=III or IV), London: John Murray, […], 1818, OCLC 318384910:

     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.

   • 1848, John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy: With Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy. […], volume I, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], OCLC 948263597, book I (Production), page 19:

     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, […]

   • 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

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

1. Archaic form of burden.
   • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, OCLC 702939134:

     he 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.

• burneth, unberth