endware
A hamlet or township; a small settlement or locality.
Noun
- A hamlet or township; a small settlement or locality.
- To the poor people 6s. 8d. to be paid to the churchwardens to distribute to 40 of the poorest householders at their discretion, only 'this endware to be none of them' [sic]. - 1994 [1570/1], “WILLIAM HAISTLER of...
- Yet herin I will commẽde manye of the monaſticall votaries, eſpeciallye Monkes, foꝛ that they were authors of many goodly boꝛowes and endwares, neare vnto their dwellinges, although otherwyſe they pꝛetended to be men...
- To John my son my messuage with the lands free and copy in an endware called Beaseleye End in Wethersfield. - 2000 [1599], “JOHN OVERED senior of Shalford clothier, 28 Oct. 1599 (685)”, in F.G. Emmison, editor, Essex...
Origin
Inherited from Middle English *endeware, from Old English *endeware (literally “village people”), from ende (“end, extremity”) + -ware (“inhabitants”), metonymically extended from the inhabitants of a settlement to the settlement itself. Compare endship for a similar formation.