An old English word for a quarter of anything, "quartern" has been used to represent 1/4 of various units. In the U.S., the term seems to have been used mostly as an alternate name for the gill, which is equal to 1/4pint or about 118.3 milliliters
Russ Rowlett (Director), How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement, Center for Mathematics and Science Education University of North Carolina, USA 2005. http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictA.html, (Unit of Meas and Covr Factors - Amer) {608}