Obs. Forms: 1 feorm (Northumb. færm), 2 ferm, 3 south. veorme, 4 form, 5 farme. [OE. feorm str. fem.:—prehistoric *fermâ.
Not found outside Eng., and no satisfactory Teut. etymology has been proposed. On the assumption that the primary sense was ‘fixed portion of provisions, ration,’ it would be admissible to regard the word as a. late L. firma, and so ultimately identical with FARM sb.2 In Domesday Book firma unius noctis is equivalent to anes nihtes feorme of quot. c. 1122 below; and mediæval Lat. writers in England used firma in the sense of ‘banquet.’ If the hypothesis of its Latin origin be correct, the word must have been adopted at a very early date: it occurs frequently in the oldest poetry. The derivative feormian to feed, is found in the Corpus Glossary, a. 800 (‘fovet, feormat, broedeþ’; the corresponding OHG. gloss. ‘formot, fofet’ in St. Gall. MS., 913 may be derived from an OE. source, the vb. being otherwise unknown in OHG.]
Food, provision; hence, a banquet, feast.
Beowulf, 451. No ðu ymb mines ne þearft lices feorme leng sorȝian.
a. 900. Charter, xli. in O. E. Texts (1885), 449. Hio forgifeð fiftene pund for ðy ðe mon ðas feorme ðy soel ȝelæste.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt. xxii. 4. Nu ic ȝegearwode mine feorme, mine fearras and mine fuȝelas synt ofsleȝne.
c. 1122. O. E. Chron. (Peterborough), an. 777. Cuðbriht geaf þone abbote .l. punde … & ilca ȝear anes nihtes feorme.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 11. At ferme and at feste.
c. 1205. Lay., 14426. Þæt þe king makede ueorme swiðe store.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VII. 217. Ȝif he wolde come to his form he schulde have salt mete i-now.
a. 1300. Chaucer’s Dreme, 1752. This hasty farme had bene a feast.
