E
e-, prefix, for the more usual y- (AS. ge-), prefixed to past participles. Exx. emixt, mixed, Mirror for Mag., Bladud, st. 9; etride, tried, id., Sabrine, st. 26.
eager, keen, sharp, severe. Hamlet, i. 4. 2; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xi. 231.
eagre, a ‘bore’ in a river; an incoming tidal wave of unusual height. Dryden, Threnodia Augustalis, 132; spelt agar, Lyly, Galathea, i. 1 (Tyterus). In prov. use in many forms: aiger, ager, eager, eygre, hygre, &c., in Yorks., Nottingham, Lincoln, and E. Anglia (EDD.). See [higre].
eame; see [eme].
ean. Of ewes: to lamb, bring forth young, to ‘yean’, 3 Hen. VI, ii. 5. 36. Hence, Eaning-time, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (Robin). ‘To ean’ is in prov. use in various spellings in many parts of England from the north country to Devon (EDD.). ME. enyn, ‘feto’ (Prompt. EETS. 150); OE. ēanian, to yean. See Brugmann, § 671.
ear, to plough. Bible, Deut. xxi. 4; 1 Sam. viii. 12; Is. xxx. 24. In prov. use (EDD.). ME. ere (Chaucer, C. T. A. 886), OE. erian. See Wright’s Bible Word-Book.
earn, erne, to grieve, to be afflicted with poignant sorrow and compassion. Hen. V, ii. 3. 3 (mod. edd. yearn); Julius C., ii. 2. 129; it earns me, Hen. V, iv. 3. 26; B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, iv. 6 (Overdo); earne, to yearn, Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 3; i. 6. 25; i. 9. 18; erne, ii. 3. 46. ME. ȝernen, to yearn (P. Plowman), OE. geornan; see Dict. M. and S., p. 267.
earth, a ploughing. Tusser, Husbandry, § 35. 50. In prov. use in Suffolk, Hants., Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Earth, sb.2). OE. erð for WS. ierđ, a ploughing (Sweet), deriv. of erian, to plough, ‘to ear’; not the same word as OE. eorðe, earth.
easing, the eaves of the thatch of a house; ‘Under the easing of the house’, North, tr. of Plutarch, J. Caesar, § 16 (end); ‘Severonde, the eave, eaving or easing of a house’, Cotgrave. In gen. prov. use in various spellings, in Scotland and Ireland, and in England, in the north and Midlands to Shropsh. (EDD.). ME. esynge, ‘tectum’ (Cath. Angl.). See [evesing].