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frundel

In England, chiefly the north, at least as early as the 16ᵗʰ century – 19ᵗʰ century, a unit of dry capacity. Also spelled frundele, frundle, furendel.

The word appears to be derived from elements meaning “a fourth part” (compare fardel), which suggests it was a fourth of a bushel, that is, = 1 peck. That is the definition given by Cowell (1701), below. But the Leverton churchwardens' accounts (1527) suggest it = 2 pecks. Most later compilations, such as Ray, Simmonds, the Century Dictionary and, cautiously, the Oxford English Dictionary, define it as 2 pecks.

examples of Use

From martyngmes to mydsomer i frondaille off malt

NW Lincolnshire Glossary circa 1550.

pd for a bushyll lyme toward the altares makying....iiij d.
for a frundle of lyme...ij d.

Edward Peacock.
Excerpts from the Churchwardens' Accounts of the Parish of Leverton, in the County of Lincoln.
Archaeologia, or miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity, vol 41, page 362 (1867).

The year of the entry is 1557. From the prices for a bushel and a frundel it is clear 1 frundel = ½ bushel, that is, 2 pecks.
Peacock cites a definition from Bailey's Dictionary: "Frundele. Two pecks." By the 1772 edition, this entry had been dropped.

Whence in the North a Furendel or Frundel of Corn is two Gawns or Gallons, i.e., the fourth part of a bushel.

John Cowell.
The Interpreter of words and terms, used either in the common or statute laws of this realm, and in tenures and jocular customs....
London, 1701.