Forms: (? 1 edisc, -esc), 6–7 edysche, -ysshe, -ish, 6–8 etch(e, 7–8 eadish (7 esh), (9 dial. eddige, hedditch), 7– eddish. See also EARSH, ARRISH. [Of obscure etymology.
Usually identified with OE. edisc park or enclosed pasture (glossed vivarium), with which cf. OE. yddisc, rendering L. supellex, supellectile, ? household stuff. It is difficult to see how the meaning of the OE. word could have given rise to the mod. sense of eddish, which, though widely diffused in dialects, has not been traced further back than the 15th c.; and the assumption that ‘aftergrowth’ is the unrecorded primary sense of OE. edisc ‘park’ appears too hazardous. The current derivation from OE. ed- ‘again’ suits the modern sense, but (even if this sense were demonstrated for OE.) involves difficulties with regard to form.]
† 1. OE. edisc: A park or enclosed pasture for cattle.
a. 700. Epinal Gloss., 147. Broel, edisc [Corpus 324 Broel, edisc, deortuun].
778. Ags. Charter, in Sweet, O. E. Texts, 427. Agellum qui dicitur tatan edisc. Ibid. (822), 458. Greotan edesces lond.
a. 1000. Ags. Ps. xcix. [c.] 3. We his folc syndan and his fæle sceap, þa he on his edisce ealle afedde.
2. a. Grass (also clover, etc.) that grows again; an aftergrowth of grass after mowing (in first quot. perhaps ‘brushwood’). b. Stubble; a stubble-field.
1468. Medulla Gram., in Promp. Parv., 136. Frutex, a styke, a yerde, and buske, vnderwode, or eddysche.
1523. Fitzherbert, Surv., 2. Yet hath the lorde the Edysshe and the aftermathe.
1573. Tusser, Husb., xviii. (1878), 43. Soile perfectly knowe, er edish ye sowe.
1634. W. Wood, New Eng. Prosp., I. iv. There is little edish or after-pasture.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 325. Eddish, Eadish, Etch, Ersh or Eegrass, the latter Pasture, or Grass that comes after Mowing or Reaping.
a. 1728. Bp. Kennett, Lansdowne MS. 1033, in Promp. Parv., 135, note. Eddish, roughings or aftermath in meadows, but more properly the stubble or gratten in corn-fields.
1744–50. W. Ellis, Mod. Husbandm., V. i. 101. Eddishes, stubble-fields.
1795. Vancouver, Agric. Survey Essex, 50. The bean etche well cleaned in the autumn and sown again with wheat; a small portion of these etches are occasionally sown with tares.
1830. Boston (Linc.) Gazette, 19 Oct. Pastures have been abundant and the eddishes luxuriant.
1862. B. Brierley, Tales & Sk. Lanc. Life, 52. Owd Ned had gone … a-helpen … t’ heawse ther hedditch.
1879. Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Word-bk., s.v., The young beäs han broke into the clover eddish.
b. = EATAGE.
1843. Ld. Abinger, 12 Meeson & Welsby’s Rep., LXII. The action is brought … for the eddish or eatage of a field.
3. attrib., as in eddish-grass; eddish-cheese, cheese made from the milk of cows fed on the aftermath; eddish-crop (see quot. 1863); † eddish-hen [f. OE. edisc; see 1], a quail.
c. 825. Vesp. Psalter civ. [cv.] 40. Bedun flæsc & cwom him edeschen.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter civ. [cv.] 40. Þai asked, and come þe edissehenne.
1610. Markham, Masterp., I. xxxv. 68. Eddish grasse … in some countries is called after-maths. Ibid. (1615), Eng. Housew., II. vi. (1668), 152. Touching your Eddish cheese, or Winter cheese.
1861. Whyte-Melville, Mkt. Harb., 267. A ham … an Eddish cheese, and a few other trifles.
1863. Morton, Cycl. Agric. (E. D. S.), Eddish-crop (Ess.) is a grain crop after grain.
