quartern

noun

1. A quarter part; one fourth.

   archaic

   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.

2. A loaf of bread weighing about four pounds.

   archaic

   ...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...

Where it comes from

From Middle English quartern, quarteroun, quartroun, from Anglo-Norman quatroun (“quarter of a hundred”), from Old French quarter (“fourth”).

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry quartern (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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