Forms: α. 4–5 lettorne, 5 leteron(e, -vn, letteroun, letrone, -une, leyterne, letyrn, 5–7 lettron, 6 lettrone, -une, letteron, -ane, litterne, letaring, 6–8 latron(e, 6–7, 9 lettern, 7 lettren, Sc. lettering, 9 Sc. lateran, lattern. β. 5 lectrone, -un, 5–6 lectron, -yne, 5–7 lectorn(e, 6 lecteron, -erne, -urne, 9 lecturn, 6, 9 lectern. γ. 6 lecter, lector, lettour. [ME. lettrun, etc., a. OF. lettrun, leitrun, semi-popular form of late L. lectrum, ‘analogium super quo legitur’ (Pseudo-Isidore Lib. Glossarum), f. leg-, root of legĕre to read: cf. mulctrum milking pail, f. mulgēre to milk. The β forms are influenced by the L. lectrum, or perh. rather by the synonymous med.L. lectrīnum, f. the same root (cf. textrīnum weaver’s shop, f. tex-ĕre to weave), which was the more usual word in eccl. Latin in the 15th c.
The mod.F. lutrin (15th c. lieutrin, leutrin) seems to represent a mixture of OF. leitrun (the vowel of the first syll. being influenced by that of the last) with OF. letrin, ad. med.L. lectrīnum. There seems to be no foundation for the common statement that Isidore’s lectrum is ad. Gr. λέκτρον, for which no other sense is known in Gr. of any period than that of ‘bed,’ ‘marriage-bed.’]
1. A reading- or singing-desk in a church, esp. that from which the lessons are read; made of wood, metal, or stone, and often in the form of an eagle with outspread wings supported on a column.
α. c. 1325. Deo Gratias, 18, in E. E. P. (1862), 124. In silke þat comely clerk was clad, And ouer a lettorne leoned he.
c. 1425. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 648/27. Hic ambo, letrune.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 299/2. Leterone, or lectorne, deske (K. lectrone, H., P. letrone, or lectrun, S. leteron, or letervn), lectrinum.
c. 1475. Pict. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 757/1. Hoc lectrinium, Hic ambo, Hic discus, a leyterne.
1541. Ld. Treas. Acc. Scot., in Pitcairn, Crim. Trials, I. 320*. To be coveringis to the Lettronis in þe Chapell, xij elnis blak Birge Sating.
1600. Vestry Bks. (Surtees), 278. For mending of the letaring, ivd.
1676. W. Row, Contn. Blair’s Autobiog., ix. (1848), 159. Mr. Blair went to the lettren and took the Bible from the reader.
1845. Ecclesiologist, IV. 147. The nave will contain both lettern and litany-stool.
1877. J. D. Chambers, Div. Worship, 6. There should be Desks or Letterns in the Choir.
fig. 1401. Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 78. So longe … thou hast lerned to lyen that thi tonge is letteroun of lyes.
β. 1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), VI. 447. [He] putte his gloves on a lectryne whiles he prayede.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 165/1. Thenne thys felowe wente up to the lectron where as saynt James preched.
1530. Palsgr., 238/1. Lecterne to syng at, levtrayn.
1538. Leland, Itin., IV. 7. Buried yn the Paroche Chirch of S. Albane under the Place of the lectern in the Quier.
1571. Grindal, Injunct. at York, B ij b. So that a conuenient deske or lecterne, with a rowme to turne his face towardes the people be there prouided.
1665. in Dean Granville’s Rem., App. in Miscellanea (Surtees), 263. The Lectorne and Litany Desk are meane and uncomely.
1845. Times, 3 Feb., 5/5. The reading-desk was taken away, and a ‘faldstool’ and ‘lectern’ substituted.
1852. Hook, Ch. Dict. (1871), 437. The lectern in English cathedrals usually stands in the midst of the choir facing westwards.
γ. 1516. Indenture, in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), II. 243. Of the Qwyer … the oon halfe thereof on every syde shall be double staulled, wyth lyke lettours, Staulls, and Seats.
1553. Mendlesham Acc., in 5th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., 593/2. Payde to Thomas Whyghtyng for makyng of ye lector that stonde on the alter iiiid.
1566. in Peacock, Eng. Ch. Furniture (1866), 38. An old lecter wt a deske yet remayninge.
2. Chiefly Sc. a. A reading-desk in a private house. b. A writing desk; an escritoire. To be bred, sent to the lattern: see quots. 1825–80, 1888.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VII. Prol. 145. Seand Virgill on ane lettrune stand, To writ anone I hynt ane pen in hand.
1517. Watson, Ship of Fools, A ij. I make my lectrons and my deskes clene rygh[t] often. My mansyon is all repylnysshed with bokes.
1534. Ld. Treas. Acc. Scot., in Pitcairn, Crim. Trials, I. 284*. iiij1/2 elnis sad grene, to covir the Latronis in the Kingis Study.
1561. MS. Acc. Treasurer Edinb., Ane great four-square latterane turning on ane vice.
a. 1575. Earl Huntly’s Death, in Bannatyne, Jrnl. Trans. Scot. (1806), 486. The whole cofferis, boxis, or lettronis, that the erle him self had in handling; and had ony geir in keping in.
c. 1610. J. Melvill, MS. Mem., 5 (Jam.). The whole expenses of the process and pices of the lyble, lying in a several buist by themselves in my lettron.
1691. Z. Haig, in Russell, Haigs, xi. 226. At that time I desired to be put to a lettering.
1697. Inv., in Sc. N. & Q., Dec. (1900), 90/1. A writting latron and chamber box.
1719. Wodrow, Corr. (1843), II. 442. I have forgot my book of Ministers’ names…. It stands behind the latron, in that shelf where my manuscript sermons stood.
1825–8. Jamieson, ‘He was bred to the Lettron.’ He was bred a writer; a phrase still used by old people in Edinburgh.
1888. J. Ramsay, Scotl. & Scotsm. in 18th c., I. iii. 181. It was in those days [18th cent.] very common for young men intended for the bar to attend a writer’s chambers…. In a word, the lattern, as it was called, answered nearly the same purpose in Scotland that the Inns of Court did to the English. Ibid., II. 63. People of moderate estate used to send their eldest son for some time to the lattern.
† c. (a) A music-stand; (b) see quot. 1612. Obs.
1557–8. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), II. 292. A lecturne for ye orgaines in the quere.
1612. Sc. Bk. Rates, in Halyburton’s Ledger (1867), 297. Desks or lettrones for wemen to work on covered with veluott, the peice vil.
d. Sc. (in form lateran). The precentor’s desk in a Scotch Presbyterian church.
1860. Ramsay, Remin., Ser. I. 208. What is commonly called the Lateran; a kind of small gallery at the top of the pulpit steps.
1871. W. Alexander, Johnny Gibb, xxxv. (1873), 200. The mole-catcher … now occupied the precentor’s desk, but … on great occasions he would always have Johnny Gibb in the ‘lateran’ also.
