Obs. ? Mistake for OE. ornest single combat; the ground for the concluding statement in the quot. is unknown.
1591. Lambarde, Archeion (1635), 44. That if a French man doe appeale an English man of perjurie or murder, the French man may defend himselfe by Battaile, which was then termed in English, Ernest; a word that we keep yet, saying, when wee see a man fight, hee is an Ernest.
