kilderkin

English

Alternative forms

• kinderkin

Etymology

Late Middle English, from Middle Dutch kinderkin, a variant of kinerkijn, itself a diminutive of kintal. See quintal.

Noun

kilderkin (plural kilderkins)

1. A small barrel.
2. An old English liquid measure, usually being half a barrel; containing 18 English beer gallons, or 83.178 L.
   • 1882: 23 Hen. VIII, cap. 4... The barrel of beer is to hold 36 gallons, the kilderkin 18 gallons the firkin 9. But the barrel, kilderkin, and firkin of ale are to contain 32, 16, and 8 gallons. — James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Volume 4, p. 205.
   • 1987, Keith Dunstan, The Amber Nectar, Ringwood: Vicking O'Neil, page 81:

     Barrels came in firkins, nine gallons; kilderkins, eighteen gallons; halves, twenty-seven gallons; barrels, thirty-six gallons and hogsheads, fifty-four.

Further reading

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.