Fwd: [ADS-L] batter (or shooes, or the sun) "half a quarter high"

[Joel S. Berson]

As of now I am left only with the supposition that my "batter [that]
was half a quarter high as light as a feather and as white as snow"
is merely a literal reference to an eighth of some unspecified (but
presumably well known to cake- and pastry-makers) unit of length.  I
think it's not an eighth of an inch (too small) but some longer unit
-- perhaps a hand?  A unit of measure generally ... er, easily at
hand while making pastry.  :-)

P.S.  Separately, I am sending a question about "eighth" and the OED.

Joel

From: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>I have a letter written around 1842 that contains the following:
>
>"One day in every week was devoted to the making of cake and pastry
>and I have been assured that the batter was half a quarter high as
>light as a feather and as white as snow."
>
>Googling tells me that Sarah Orne Jewett wrote "and preferred an
>Indian pudding to pie crust that was, without exaggeration, half a
>quarter high."
>
>A book on Texas court cases has "The sun was about half a quarter
>high when the defendant left the witness."
>
>"On either side of the seams at the bottom of the cap one sees the
>black and white stripes attached to and at the sides of the black
>neck-pieces; and the border round the bottom of the cap, which is
>just under half a quarter high,"  From a Swedish (?) journal, 1953.
>
>I also find "The Womens shooes are half a quarter high at the heel,
>set on with little nails, in so much that they can hardly go in
>them."  This is in "The voyages and travells of the ambassadors sent
>by Frederick Duke of Holstein ...", by Adam Olearius (1669).
>
>So this can't be a literal reference to the size of a U.S. quarter.
>
>What does "half a quarter high" mean?  A reference to an eighth of
>some unspecified unit?  (But for both the sun and pies/shoes?)  Or
>something metaphorical?
>
>Joel
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org