errant: phr. an errant knight, a knight-errant. Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 38; i. 10. 10. Anglo-F. errer, to travel, to march (Ch. Rol. 3340), O. Prov. edrar (errar), Med. L. iterare, ‘iter facere’ (Ducange).
errant, ‘arrant’. Chapman, Byron’s Tragedy, v. 1 (Byron); ‘Sir Kenelm Digby was an errant mountebank’, Evelyn, Diary (Nov. 7, 1651). See NED. (s.v. Errant, 7).
errour, wandering, roving. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 7.
erst, once upon a time, formerly. Hen. V, v. ii. 48; Ferrex and Porrex, i. 2. 5; previously, Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 18. ME. erst (Chaucer, C. T. A. 776), OE. ǣrest, superl. of ǣr, soon.
esbatement, amusement. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 160. 15; Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 3, § 10. Anglo-F. esbatement, diversion (Gower). F. esbatement, ‘divertissement’ (Rabelais), OF. esbatre, ‘se divertir’ (Bartsch).
escape, a wilful error; a great fault. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, p. 150); Othello, i. 3. 197.
escot, to pay a reckoning for, to maintain; ‘How are they escoted’, Hamlet, ii. 2. 362. OF. escoter, ‘payer l’écot’ (Didot), Anglo-F. escot, payment, reckoning at a tavern (Gower); escot (payment) occurs in the Statutes of the Realm, i. 221 (13th cent.), see Rough List. See Ducange (s.v. Scot, Scottum). Escot (payment) is the same word as ‘scot’ or ‘shot’, in prov. use for payment of a tavern reckoning (EDD.).
escuage, lit. shield-service; personal service in the field for 40 days in the year; later, a money payment in lieu of it, also called ‘scutage’. Bacon, Hen. VII, ed. Lumby, p. 148. Anglo-F. escuage, Med. L. scutagium, deriv. of L. scutum, a shield (Ducange).
escudero, a squire. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, iv. 1 (Wit.). Span. escudéro, an esquire, a servant that waits on a lady (Stevens), deriv. of escúdo, a shield, L. scutum.
esguard, a tribunal existing among the Knights of St. John, to settle differences between members of the order. Beaumont and Fl., Knight of Malta, v. 2 (Valetta). OF. esgard, ‘tribunal des chevaliers de Malte’. Med. L. esgardium: ‘De vassallo delinquente in Dominum, Dominus potest de ce quod tenet ab ipso, ipsum per Exguardium dissaisire (Id est, judicio parium suerum interveniente)’, quotation from Statutes (Ducange). O. Prov. esgart, ‘regard, décision, jugement; condamnation pécuniaire; égard, considération’; esgardar, ‘regarder, considérer; décider, juger’ (Levy).