The most interesting words are those that have survived from Middle
English or from Tudor English times. Examples are _aigre_, sour, tart,
which is Shakespeare's _eagre_, _Hamlet_, I, v 69; _ambry_, _aumbry_,
cupboard, spelt _almarie_ in _Piers the Plowman_, B XIV 246; _arain_,
a spider, spelt _yreyn_ in Wyclif's translation of Psalm XC 10, which,
after all, is less correct; _arles_, money paid on striking a bargain,
a highly interesting word, spelt _erles_ in the former half of the
thirteenth century; _arris_, the angular edge of a cut block of stone,
etc., from the O.F. _areste_, L. _arista_, which has been revived by
our Swiss mountain-climbers in the form _arete_; _a-sew_, dry, said
of cows that give no milk (cf. F. _essuyer_, to dry); _assoilyie_,
to absolve, acquit, and _assith_, to compensate, both used by Sir
W. Scott; _astre_, _aistre_, a hearth, a Norman word found in 1292;
_aunsel_, a steelyard, of which the etymology is given in the
_E.D.D._; _aunter_, an adventure, from the A.F. _aventure_; _aver_,
a beast of burden, horse, used by Burns, from the A.F.
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