Brewer's: Earing

Ploughing. (Anglo-Saxon, erian, to plough; Latin, aro.)

“And yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.”—Genesis xiv. 6.

“In earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.”—Exodus xxxiv. 21.

Earl (Anglo-Saxon, eorl, a man of position, in opposition to ceorl, a churl, or freeman of the lowest rank; Danish, jarl ). William the Conqueror tried to introduce the word Count, but did not succeed, although the wife of an earl is still called a countess.

“The sheriff is called in Latin vice-comés, as being the deputy of the earl or comés, to whom the custody of the shire is said to have been committed.” —Blackstone: Commentaries, book

i. chap. ix. p. 339.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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