Archaic term for an abundance or plenty, especially of food or provisions; or a large amount of something.
From Middle English, possibly related to 'foison' (an archaic word for harvest, plenty, or issue/offspring), which comes from Old French 'foison' meaning abundance or harvest season.
Shakespeare used variants of this word to describe overflowing abundance—'foysen' or 'foison'—but it's mostly vanished from English now, replaced by simpler words like 'plenty' and 'abundance.' It's exactly the kind of word that shows how language loses specialized vocabulary as it simplifies.
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