Is "farth" a word in any language?

Due to a misreading, a group including myself have searched for the definition of the word "farth" and come up with nothing. We now know that the original text did not actually use this word, but the word still strikes us as feeling eerily familiar and somehow fitting of the context in which is was found - a geographic feature found in uncivilized wilderness.

The original quote (we thought we read) was:

North past forest, farth, and furrow

You must go to reach the feathered mound

We later found out that the word that was meant to be there was farm. Nonetheless, we have found a fascination with this potentially made-up word.

Is "farth" actually a word in any version of English, Latin, or other Roman-character-using languages?


Solution 1:

The Oxford English Dictionary says it was once used in English:

farth: alleged synonym of farrow n. 2.

1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 134/1: "The young ones...of a sow...are called a Farth, a Farrow of Pigs."

So a farrow is the/an act of giving birth to a nest of piglets.

Solution 2:

Very few languages have th sounds, much less following another consonant at the end of a word. However, there is apparently such a word in Icelandic. A post on this page uses the form, though my Icelandic is really a bit too rusty to say for sure ;-)

farð að vinna.
Jájá fer að vinna á laugardaginn!

Solution 3:

Perhaps you were thinking of the farthing?