earsh
{{Wiktionary|earsh}}
Earsh (noun) ({{langx|ang|ersc}}) was used in South and West England to describe a stubble field in which a grain crop — wheat, barley or rye — had been harvested, leaving short stubble or short stalks.History and Antiquities of Horsham, Dorothea E Hurst, Farncombe & Co., Lewes, (1889)Dictionary of the Sussex Dialect, W D Parish, 2nd Ed, (1975), p. 39 The field is prepared for seeding by ploughing the stubble into the ground, or burning. As the earsh decomposes, nutrients including nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are released back into the soil. It is frequently pronounced "ash". It is written also as arrish, arish, eddish or ersh.The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, The Century Company, USA (1891)
Etymology
The word as a description for a stubble field is found in medieval tithe maps and their apportionments,A Glossary of the Provincialisms in Use in the County of Sussex, William Durrant Cooper, 2nd ed. (1853), p. 43 and is Saxon in origin.
Place names such as Earsham, Winnersh and Wonersh derive from their situation in an earsh field.History of Wonersh, Wonersh History Society Hazlehurst means earsh (arable) land overgrown with Hazel.Medieval Clearances in The East Sussex Weald, P F Brandon pp. 135-153
Noah Webster describes earsh as a plowed (sic) field linking it to arrish, but also to eadish which is described as latter pasture of grass that comes after mowing or reaping, called also eargrass, earsh, and etch.Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
Literary references
Fires oft are good on barren earshes made, With crackling flames to burn the stubble blade Thomas May 1628Translation of Georgics by Virgil, Thomas May, 1628
It can wait another day, today I will do like Tarka, and gallop joyfully through the arrish. Henry Williamson 1927Henry Williamson, Tarka the Otter: His joyful water-life and death in the two rivers, illus. C.F. Tunnicliffe, Harmondsworth, Puffin Books, 1976 (1927), p. 188
The hay was gathered from the fields, and the cattle turned onto the eddish. D H Lawrence 1913 D.H.Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, Gerald Duckworth and Company Ltd, (1913) chapter 1
References
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External links
- [http://www.sussexhistory.co.uk/sussex-dialect/sussex-dialect%20-%200139.htm] A Dictionary of The Sussex Dialect on-line
Category:Agricultural terminology
Category:English dialect words
Category:Place name element etymologies
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