fardo.

Three etymologies have been proposed. * The most likely view is that it derives from Arabic فَرْد (fard, “unit, one of a pair”), as applied to a pair of saddlebags. From this, fardel was derived to denote the pair. * Another view purports that it comes from Arabic فَرْض (farḍ, “crease, parting; contribution”), verbal noun of فَرَضَ (faraḍa, “to crease, to notch; to make obligatory”). However, Spanish alfarda (“tax for having creased the ground to make a water canal”) and farda (“tribute, corvée; mortise, notch”) belong to this, and the sense of “load, baggage” (ca. 1150) is attested earlier than the sense of “crease, notch” (ca. 1400). * The third proposes a derivation from Latin fartus (“stuffed, filled”), from farciō (“to fill”), via Vulgar Latin first and then French (see French fardeau and French farce for more), having thence extended to Catalan farcell, fardell, Italian fardello, Spanish fardel, Asturian fardel and Portuguese fardel.