He larned singing far and near,
Full twenty years and more;
But fatal death hath stopt his breth,
And he can larn no more.
A ‘painful’ Preacher
Like (Sc. n.Cy. Yks.), to please, be agreeable to, e.g. If it likes them to do it, let them do it. In O.E. this verb was always used impersonally in this sense, but during the M.E. period it came to be used personally as well. Lodge (Sc. Irel. Yks. Chs. War. Shr. Oxf. Brks. Ken. Sur. Sus. Wil.), of corn or grass: to lie flat, to be beaten down by wind and rain, generally used in the past participle, cp. ‘Like to the summer’s corn by tempest lodged,’ 2 Hen. VI, III. ii. 176; loft (n. counties and midl.), the upper floor of a house of two stories, an upper room, cp. ‘Eutychus ... fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead,’ A.V. Acts xx. 9; meat (in gen. dial. use in Sc. Irel. Eng.), food in general, victuals, also used as a verb, e.g. Well, ya see, ma’am, he meats hissen, an’ ah weshes him, i.e. he finds his own food, and I wash for him, O.E. mete, food. We are all familiar with the word in this sense in the proverb: One man’s meat is another man’s poison, and in the Bible, cp. ‘And if thou bring an oblation of a meat offering baken in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil,’ A.V. Lev. ii. 4. Nephew (Ken.), a grandson. This meaning occurs in Shakespeare, and several times in the Bible, cp. ‘And he had forty sons, and thirty nephews,’ with the marginal note: ‘Heb. sons’ sons,’ A.V. Judges xii. 14. Dr. Johnson gives it, but as an archaism: ‘The grandson. Out of use.’ Similarly niece (Ken.) is used to signify a granddaughter, cp. Rich. III, IV i. 1. Owe (Sh.I. Irel. n.Cy. Cum. Yks. e.An. w.Cy.), to own, possess, e.g. Let ta awe ta, an’ ta tither, let the one person possess the one, and the other person the remaining one, O.E. āgan, cp. ‘the noblest grace she owed,’ Temp. III. i. 45; painful (Yks. Chs.), painstaking, hardworking, active, cp. ‘ Such servants are oftenest painfull and good,’ Tusser, Husb., 1580. An inscription on a memorial brass dated 1639 begins thus:
The body of Henry Rogers
A painful preacher in this church
Two and thirty yeeres.
Archaic Meanings