legget
(ˈlɛgət)
Also leg(g)at(t), leg(g)et(t).
[Etym. unknown.]
In Thatching, a tool made from a flat board attached to a handle and studded with nails, used for dressing and driving the reeds into place. Cf. ledger n. 2 b.
| c 1555 in Norfolk Antiquarian Misc. (1883) II. 9 A Cardynall legat & a trowell w{supt} suche other tooles. 1787 W. Marshall Rural Econ. Norfolk II. xxxii. 61 The eaves being thus completely set, they are adjusted and formed;..nor are they formed by cutting; but by ‘driving’ them with a ‘legget’. 1927 Observer 24 July 5/3 The tools and appliances used in Devon are more or less similar to those used in Norfolk. The ‘leggett’, however, is called a ‘driff’. 1941 [see biddle]. 1949 K. S. Woods Rural Crafts Eng. iv. xiii. 204 The beating tool is called a ‘legatt’; it is a square of thick wood studded with horseshoe nails set alternately, nail and space, in the rows. 1961 Guardian 21 Sept. 5/2 Ramming home one corner with a Chaucerian tool known as a leggett. 1969 E. H. Pinto Treen xxv. 406 The leggat, legget or reed bat..is used for patting or beating reeds into position. 1971 Country Life 18 Nov. 1403/3 The Norfolk thatching reed is then beaten up tight under the hazel rods using an instrument called a leggett. 1972 Daily Tel. 28 Oct. 15/2 Each ‘yelm’ is pegged into place and beaten with a flat piece of wood or ‘spud’ (reed thatchers use a corrugated surface, called a ‘leggat’). |