eddish
(ˈɛdɪʃ)
Forms: (? 1 edisc, -esc), 6–7 edysche, -ysshe, -ish, 6–8 etch(e, 7–8 eadish (7 esh), (9 dial. eddige, hedditch), 7– eddish. See also earsh, arrish.
[Of obscure etymology.
Usually identified with OE. edisc park or enclosed pasture (glossed vivarium), with which cf. OE. yddisc, rendering L. supellex, supellectile, ? household stuff. It is difficult to see how the meaning of the OE. word could have given rise to the mod. sense of eddish, which, though widely diffused in dialects, has not been traced further back than the 15th c.; and the assumption that ‘aftergrowth’ is the unrecorded primary sense of OE. edisc ‘park’ appears too hazardous. The current derivation from OE. ed- ‘again’ suits the modern sense, but (even if this sense were demonstrated for OE.) involves difficulties with regard to form.]
† 1. OE. edisc: A park or enclosed pasture for cattle.
| a 700 Epinal Gloss. 147 Broel, edisc [Corpus 324 Broel, edisc, deortuun]. 778 Ags. Charter in Sweet O.E. Texts 427 Agellum qui dicitur tatan edisc. 822 Ibid. 458 Greotan edesces lond. a 1000 Ags. Ps. xcix. [c.] 3 We his folc syndan and his fæle sceap, þa he on his edisce ealle afedde. |
2. a. Grass (also clover, etc.) which grows again; an aftergrowth of grass after mowing (in first quot. perhaps ‘brushwood’). b. Stubble; a stubble-field.
| 1468 Medulla Gram. in Promp. Parv. 136 Frutex, a styke, a yerde, and buske, vnderwode, or eddysche. 1523 Fitzherbert Surv. 2 Yet hath the lorde the Edysshe and the aftermathe. 1573 Tusser Husb. xviii. (1878) 43 Soile perfectly knowe, er edish ye sowe. 1634 W. Wood New Eng. Prosp. i. iv, There is little edish or after-pasture. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 325 Eddish, Eadish, Etch, Ersh or Eegrass, the latter Pasture, or Grass that comes after Mowing or Reaping. a 1728 Bp. Kennett Lansdowne MS. 1033 in Promp. Parv. 135 note, Eddish, roughings or aftermath in meadows, but more properly the stubble or gratten in corn-fields. 1744–50 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandm. v. i. 101 Eddishes, stubble-fields. 1795 Vancouver Agric. Survey Essex 50 The bean etche well cleaned in the autumn and sown again with wheat; a small portion of these etches are occasionally sown with tares. 1830 Boston (Linc.) Gazette 19 Oct., Pastures have been abundant and the eddishes luxuriant. 1863 Lanc. Fents 23 Owd Ned had gone..a-helpen..t' heawse ther hedditch. 1880 G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk. s.v., The young beäs han broke into the clover eddish. |
c. = eatage.
| 1843 Ld. Abinger 12 Meeson & Welsby's Rep. LXII, The action is brought..for the eddish or eatage of a field. |
3. attrib., as in eddish-grass; eddish-cheese, cheese made from the milk of cows fed on the aftermath; eddish-crop (see quot. 1863); † eddish-hen [f. OE. edisc; see 1], a quail.
| c 825 Vesp. Psalter civ. [cv.] 40 Bedun flæsc & cwom him edeschen. a 1300 E.E. Psalter civ. [cv.] 40 Þai asked, and come þe edissehenne. 1610 Markham Masterp. i. xxxv. 68 Eddish grasse..in some countries is called after⁓maths. 1615 ― Eng. Housew. ii. vi. (1668) 152 Touching your Eddish cheese, or Winter cheese. 1861 G. J. Whyte-Melville Mkt. Harb. 267 A ham..an Eddish cheese, and a few other trifles. 1863 Morton Cycl. Agric. (E.D.S.) Eddish-crop (Ess.) is a grain crop after grain. |