A glossary of Tudor and Stuart words, especially from the dramatists

by Walter W. Skeat

leer, tape. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 79). In Kentish glossaries, see EDD. (s.v. Leer, sb.²). See NED. (s.v. Lear, sb.²).

leer, empty. A leer horse, a horse without a rider (see Nares); a leer drunkard, a drunkard void of self-control, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, Induction; New Inn, iv. 3 (Lovel). ME. lere, empty (Rob. Glouc., p. 81); see Stratmann (s.v. lǣre). OE. lǣre; cp. G. leer. Very common in prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Lear, adj.¹).

leer; Leer side, in B. Jonson, Tale of Tub, i. 2 (Turfe), and ii. 2, ‘Hat turn’d up o’ the leer side.’ Supposed by Nares to be used for the left side. Probably due to the form leereboard (for lar-board), see Hakluyt’s Voyages, i. 4.

leere, lore. See [lere].

leese, to lose. Bible, 1 Kings xviii. 5 (ed. 1611); Shak., Sonnet 5; Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, iv. 1. 4. ME. lesen (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1290); OE. lēosan.

lefull, permissible. Tyndale, Matt. xii. 12; Ascham, Toxophilus, 45. ME. leveful (Chaucer, C. T. D. 37); leve, permission (id., C. T. B. 1637). See NED. (s.v. Leeful).

leg: in phr. to make a leg, to make an obeisance by drawing one leg backward. Tempest, ii. 2. 62; Merry Wives, v. 5. 58; ‘Give him a plum, he makes his leg’, Selden, Table Talk (Thanksgiving). See Nares.

legacy, an embassy, message delivered by a legate. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, vii. 349; ix. 220.

Lege de moy, supposed to be the name of a dance; ‘Parys of Troy Daunced a Lege de moy’, Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 953; El. Rummyng, 587.

legem pone, a cant term for ready money; ‘There are so manie Danaes now a dayes . . . If legem pone comes he is receav’d, When Vix haud habeo is of hope bereav’d’, The Affectionate Shepheard (Halliwell); ‘They were all at our service for the legem pone’, Ozell’s Rabelais, iv. 12; ‘Use legem pone to pay at thy day, But use not Oremus for often delay’, Tusser, Husbandry, 29. The origin of the use of this Latin phrase for money is doubtless this: The first great pay-day of the year was March 25, on which day of the month the Legem pone is the first portion of the 119th Psalm read at Mattins, so that these words were easily associated with the idea of payment and ready money. See Nares.