4. The Tun and the Fother
These words belong to an onomatopœic class:
1. Bung—akin to ‘bomb,’ to Fr. bonbonne, a more or less globular vessel giving out a ‘bom’ sound when struck. In Somerset the bung-hole of a cask is the bum-hole; a ‘bun’ is a puffed somewhat semi-globular cake. Bung was probably a cask; the word is applied to a portly publican fancifully resembling one of his casks. Bumboat probably meant a boat carrying ‘bums’ or casks to ships.
2. Ton, tun—a large cask giving a thundering sound. L. tonitru, Fr. tonnerre, whence Fr. tonne, our ton for weight, tun for capacity.
3. Fr. Foudre, a ‘thundering big’ cask or vat. L. fulgur, Fr. fouldre, foudre, a thunder-bolt, in German fuder, whence our ‘fudder’ and ‘fother,’ about a ton of coal or of lead, a cartload of about a ton.
CHAPTER XXI
THE OLD MEASURES AND WEIGHTS OF FRANCE
Up to the time of the Revolution each province had its own measures and weights, more or less influenced by the uncertain standard measures of the king in Paris. This was the effect of the feudal system and of the very gradual annexation of the provinces under conditions which left considerable powers to the parliaments and other local authorities. Even in each province varieties of measures were to be found, and they exist to this day in each pays, often in each parish.
The basis of this very loose system was Roman, influenced in the North by Teutonic importations, but especially by the peculiar and intrinsically perfect system of the South, where the Roman basis had entirely disappeared under the influences of commerce with Egypt and with that portion of Africa which begins across the Pyrenees, and which in medieval times imparted much of its high civilisation to European countries.