v. Obs. Forms: 1 éanian, 4 enen, enye(n, 5 enyn, 6 eane, eyne, 7– ean. (Pa. pple. 4 eindyd.) [OE. éanian = Du. dial. oonen of same meaning; Prof. Sievers considers the OTeut. type to be *aunôjan, f. *aw-jâ EWE.
The current identification with OE. éacnian to bring forth does not account for the specialized sense, and the supposed loss of the c lacks analogy.]
trans. Of ewes: To bring forth lambs, to yean. Also intr. See YEAN.
a. 1000. Lamb. Ps. lxxvii[i]. 70 (Bosw.). He ʓenam hine of eowedum sceapa, fram eaniʓendum he ʓenam hine.
1397. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), IV. 451. An hoyfler … enyed a lomb. Ibid. (1398), Barth. De P. R., XVIII. iv. (1495), 757. Lambes whyche ben eindyd in spryngyng tyme.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 140. Enyn, feto.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 329. A lambe newly eyned.
1580. North, Plutarch (1676), 582. An Ewe that had eaned a Lamb which had upon her head, the form and Purple colour of the Kings Hat.
c. 1640. J. Smyth, Lives Berkeleys (1883), I. 243. Eaned and nursed up such a couple of twins as the kingdome … could not parralell.
1750. W. Ellis, Mod. Husbandm., IV. i. 115 (E. D. S.). When the ewe has lately eaned.
1864. in Webster.
Hence Eaned ppl. a., born (of lambs); Eaning vbl. sb., the action of bearing lambs; also attrib., as in eaning-mood, -time; Eanling, a young lamb.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., I. iii. 80. All the eanelings which were streakt and pied.
1599. Broughton’s Lett., vii. 24. Your selfe-conceiuing phantasie, being euer in the eaning mood.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 88. Salt is to be given to them after eaning.
1637. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., I. iv. (1640), 134. And both [ewes and rams] do feed, As either promised to increase your breed At eaning time.
1639. G. Daniel, Ecclus. xlvi. 47. When he the Ean-ling offer’d. Ibid. (a. 1648), Eclog., v. 57. Dire, as ye Smiting Haile to new-ean’d Lambs.
