quart

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English quart, also quarte,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French quarte (“a fourth part”),^{[4][5][6][2][7]} the noun use of the feminine of quart (“fourth”),^[8][9] from Latin quārta (“fourth part”), short for pars (“part”) with the feminine of quārtus (“fourth”),^{[4][8][10][11]} which is related to quattuor (“four”),^[2][9] from Proto-Indo-European *kwetwer- (“four”).^[4][5] Barnhart explains the Latin ordinal as a development from Latin *quatvortos through *quavortos,^[2] and Klein as a dissimilation.^[10] The OED's revision of 2007 sees several sources together: Anglo-Norman and French quarte, Anglo-Norman and Middle French quart, since the gender varies in Anglo-Norman, and the classical noun itself, with the senses "quarter of the horizon" and "region" probably shortened from quarter.^[8] The Anglo-Norman noun already meant the vessel and a quarter of a standard measure of grain or liquid in the 13th century.^[12][8] Etymonline compares quartārius (“fourth part”), a small Latin liquid measure.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A vessel holding a quart: about 1335, in the Kildare poems, by the OED's revised dating.^[8] Barnhart has quarte, a quart container, probably from before 1325,^[2] and Etymonline dates the word to the early 14th century.^[4] As a measure of capacity the OED first finds it in the Wycliffite Bible, before 1382,^[8] while Barnhart dates that sense to about 1350.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word has always meant a fourth part of the gallon, and it was first used for the vessel and the measure alike.^[8][2] Chaucer uses it for the liquid measure.^[3][13] From the 15th to the 16th century the general sense "a quarter of something" was also in use, along with "a quarter of a pound".^[8][6] Johnson (1755) listed "the fourth part" as no longer in use, quoting Spenser, who has it for a region in the Faerie Queene (1590).^[14][8] The size was fixed differently in Britain and the United States: the British unit is a quarter of the imperial gallon, while the American system has separate liquid and dry quarts.^[9][15][5] From 1631 to 1786 a quart was also a Spanish copper coin worth four maravedis.^[8] From 1875 it was also an interval of a fourth in music.^[8][6] The saying about putting a quart into a pint pot is recorded from 1838.^[8] In Lancashire a quart o' brown was a quart of ale and in Devon a quart was a mug;^[16] in Australian English a quart was a pot for boiling tea in the open, from 1900, and in the West Indies, as a double pint, a one-year prison sentence, from 1952.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1335 – a vessel holding a quart.^[8]
• before 1382 – a measure of capacity, a quarter of a gallon.^[8] Barnhart dates the measure to about 1350.^[2]
• before 1425 – a quarter of a pound (obsolete by 1496).^[8]
• c. 1454 – a quarter of anything (obsolete by 1583).^[8]
• 1631 – a Spanish copper coin (obsolete by 1786).^[8]
• 1838 – the proverbial quart put into a pint pot.^[8]
• 1875 – in music, an interval of a fourth.^[8]
• 1900 – in Australia, a quart pot for boiling tea.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A unit of liquid capacity equal to a quarter of a gallon or two pints, about 1.136 litres in Britain and 0.946 litre in the United States: a quart of milk.^[15][5][9]
2. A unit of dry capacity equal to two pints or an eighth of a peck, about 1.101 litres.^[5][15][9]
3. A vessel that holds a quart: He filled the old quart at the pump.^[8][9][6]
4. Any of various units for bottled wine, especially one of 26 fluid ounces for champagne.^[9]
5. (music, rare) An interval of a fourth.^[8][6]
6. you can't get a quart into a pint pot: a large amount won't fit into a small space.^[11][8]
7. (obsolete, 1454–1583) A quarter or fourth part of something.^[8][6][14]

Related words

• quarter
• quartet
• four
• fourth
• quadrille
• quartan
• carte

Usage notes

In fencing and in piquet quart, pronounced like cart, has a separate history, though it goes back to the same Latin ordinal: it is from French quarte, recorded in English from the mid-17th century.^{[6][7][9][10]} The fencing word, also spelled quarte and carte, is the fourth parrying position, and the card word, recorded from 1662, is a sequence of four cards of one suit.^[6][8][15] A Middle English quart, healthy or well-being (about 1330 to 1567), has a separate source as well, probably an early Scandinavian adjective; compare Old Norse kvirr (“quiet, still”).^[8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
13. ^ Skeat, W. W., ed. (1894), The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. VI: Glossarial Index, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
17. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com