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strike

For eels, see stike.

In England and its colonies, 13ᵗʰ – 19ᵗʰ centuries, a measure of capacity used for grain, usually 2 bushels, about 70.5 liters, and equal to ¼ seam. It varied, however, from shire to shire, with values as low as ½ bushel and as high as 4. The word comes from the strike, a stick used to level the grain in a measure.

With the introduction of imperial measure in 1824, the strike became 2 imperial bushels (½ coomb, or ¼ quarter), about 72.74 liters.

Lederer reports the use of the strike in Connecticut in 1631.¹

Courtney reported that in west Cornwall, in the 19ᵗʰ century, a strike was “a Winchester bushel; the third of a Cornish one, which contained 24 gallons.”²

1. Richard M. Lederer, Jr.
Colonial American English. A Glossary.
Essex, Connecticut: A Verbatim Book, 1985.
Page 223.

2. M. A. Courtney.
West Cornwall.
in Glossary of Words in Use in Cornwall.
Published for the English Dialect Society.
London: Trübner and Company, 1880.

sources

ldem reddunt compotum de x.xvijs. vd. de viij quarteriis dimidio, j estrica frumenti venditis. Et de vl. iiijs. ixd. de xlvj quarteriis dimidio, j estrica mancorni venditis. Et de ljs. iiijd. de xxvj quarteriis dimidio brasei venditis. Et de viijs. ixd. de iiij quarteriis j estrica, dimidia gruelli venditis.

Likewise for the account 27 shillings 5 pence for 4½ quarters, 1 strike of wheat sold. And 5 pounds 4 shillings 9 pence for 46½ quarters, 1 strike of flour of mixed wheat and rye sold. And 51 shillings 4 pence for 26 quarters of malt sold. And 8 shillings 9 pence for 4 quarters 1½ strike of meal sold.

Hubert Hall.
The Pipe Roll of the Bishop of Winchester for the Fourth Year of the Pontificate of Peter des Roches, 1208-1209.
London: Published by P. S. King and Son for the London School of Economics and Political Science, 1903.
Page 20.