I do not see that lecturn can possibly signifie any thing but a reading-desk, in which sense it is used by Chaucer.
20. LITHIE. Ep. 10.
Inne lithie moncke apperes the barronnes pryde.
If there be any such word as this, we should naturally expect it to follow the signification of lithe; soft, limber: which will not suit with this passage.
* * * * *
I go on to the third general head of words inflected contrary to grammar and custom. In a language like ours, in which the inflections are so few and so simple, it is not to be supposed that a writer, even of the lowest class, would commit very frequent offences of this sort. I shall take notice of some, which I think impossible to have fallen from a genuine Rowley.
1. CLEVIS. H. 2. 46.
Fierce as a clevis from a rocke ytorne.
Clevis or cleves is the plural number of Cleve, a cliff. It is so used by Chaucer. I cannot believe that it was ever used as a singular noun.
EYNE. E. II. 79. T. 169. See also Æ 681.