2 thoughts on “ēar-finger”

  1. Dear Dr Videen,

    I am a little confused resulting, I have no doubt, from my own stupidity. Your earlier post concerning “leasere” gives a number of meanings for the word. After searching I can find no evidence for the last few you cite ( “guard” and so on). Could you help?

    Yours sincerely,
    Adrian Ballentyne.

    Like

  2. Hi Adrian, sorry it’s taken so long for me to get back to you. While you won’t find ‘guard’ in Bosworth-Toller, the Toronto Dictionary of Old English has it listed. The DOE defines the word as:
    1. a liar, deceitful person
    2. buffoon, jester
    3. a member of a bodyguard or retinue; guard or officer
    Citations for this last definition are from the OE Martyrology; for example, the entry for December 13 (St Lucy): þa gesealde he þa fæmnan his leaserum (then he gave the virgin to his guards). The DOE speculates that the OE translation may have been influenced by an alternative meaning of Latin scurro, which, in addition to ‘guard’, also commonly means ‘jester’. Hope that helps.

    Like

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.