ernestn.
Misprint of in earnest (see earnest n.1 1b) as an Ernest in the first printed edition of W. Lambarde's Archeion (1635 as Archion; uncorrected in the new edition of the same year). The correct reading is preserved in MS Bodl. Tanner 435, a copy prepared in 1579 by or for Lambarde of one of the commentaries that made up the text of Archeion.Lambarde himself appears to have misinterpreted Old English ornest trial by combat (see orrest n.) as a variant of eornest earnest n.1; compare the following clauses in the putative source:
lOE Laws of William I: Lad (Rochester) i. 483 Gif Englisc man beclypað ænigne Frænciscne mann to orneste for þeofte oððe for manslihte.., þe gebyrige ornest fore to beonne... Gif Frencisc man beclypað Engliscne man to orneste.., se Englisca be fulre leafe hine werige mid orneste... Gif se Englisca beclypað Frencisne.., se Fræncisca bewerie hine mid orneste.
ΚΠ
a1601 W. Lambarde Archion (1635) 52 If a French man doe appeale an English man of..murder, the French man may defend himselfe by Battaile, which was then termed in English, Ernest [1579 MS Tanner 435 Eornest]; a word that we keepe yet, saying, when wee see a man fight, hee is an Ernest [1579 MS Tanner 435 in earnest].
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2015; most recently modified version published online December 2019).
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