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Due to a misreading, a group including myself have searched for the definition of the word "farth" and come up with nothing. We now know that the original text did not actually use this word, but the word still strikes us as feeling eerily familiar and somehow fitting of the context in which is was found - a geographic feature found in uncivilized wilderness.

The original quote (we thought we read) was:

North past forest, farth, and furrow

You must go to reach the feathered mound

We later found out that the word that was meant to be there was farm. Nonetheless, we have found a fascination with this potentially made-up word.

Is "farth" actually a word in any version of English, Latin, or other Roman-character-using languages?

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Have you checked any dictionaries? – simchona Jan 17 at 3:15
Indeed. I've done a decent amount of Google searching through online dictionaries, and have found no matches at all. – Southpaw Hare Jan 17 at 3:18
Would you mind giving us the sentence where this word appears? Depending on the context, it might well end up being an obvious misprint for farthing, as starwed suggests. – Branimir Ćaćić Jan 17 at 3:31
Urban Dictionary has a suggestion. It is just a silly joke, though. – Jon Hanna Jan 17 at 4:02
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I look and look at this word, and all I see is 'fart' – JAM Jan 17 at 4:26

3 Answers

up vote 10 down vote accepted

The Oxford English Dictionary says it was once used in English:

farth: alleged synonym of farrow n. 2.

1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 134/1: "The young ones...of a sow...are called a Farth, a Farrow of Pigs."

So a farrow is the/an act of giving birth to a nest of piglets.

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This is, ironically, very related to the actual word, "farm", that we misread. Amusing! – Southpaw Hare Jan 17 at 4:42

Very few languages have th sounds, much less following another consonant at the end of a word. However, there is apparently such a word in Icelandic. A post on this page uses the form, though my Icelandic is really a bit too rusty to say for sure ;-)

farð að vinna.
Jájá fer að vinna á laugardaginn!

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"Visit", "journey", "go". It might be cognate with the first part of "Ferdinand", but it's not the only possible etymology of that name. (And yeah, I just checked up further on your suggestion). – Jon Hanna Jan 17 at 3:59
I don't speak Icelandic either, but from a bit of Googling, it looks like farð in your sample is a contraction of farðu, the imperative form of fara, "to go". There does, however, exist the (presumably related) noun ferð ("trip", "journey"). (Ps. The top search results for either farð or farðu on Google seem to be rather, um, colorful.) – Ilmari Karonen Jan 17 at 11:22

Perhaps you were thinking of the farthing?

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That's exactly what came to mind when I first read the question. As in the poem: A penny loaf to feed the Pope. / A farthing o' cheese to choke him. / A pint of beer to rinse it down. / A faggot of sticks to burn him. – Magnus Jan 17 at 7:23

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