[f. EAR sb.1] Also 1 ear-hring, 5 aryng, 6 earing(e, eare ryng(e.
1. A ring worn in the lobe of the ear for ornament; often used for a pendant or ‘drop.’
c. 1000. Ælfric, Exod. xxxii. 2. Nymaþ ʓyldene ear-hringas of eower wifa earon.
1468. Medulla Gram., in Cath. Angl., 45. Inauris, þe Aryng in the ere.
1535. Coverdale, Judg. viii. 24. For in so moch as ye men were Ismaelites, they had earinges. Ibid., Ezek. xvi. 12. I put … eare rynges vpon thyne eares.
1600. Hakluyt, Voy., III. 380. I send your honour one Oxe-hide, certaine Turqueses, and two earerings of the same.
1638. G. Sandys, Paraph. Job, 54 (J.). And gave the precious Earerings which they wore.
1701. Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., II. xliv. 18. Her earrings … were two diamonds shaped exactly like pears.
1814. Scott, Wav., xviii. A pair of gold ear-rings.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U. S., III. xi. 174. The lifeless frame, dressed as became a war-chief, glittered with belts, and ear-rings, and brilliant vermilion.
2. dial. The common fuchsia. (Britten and Holland.)
