Also 4–7 lyng(e, 5 lynk, 5, 7 lingge, 6–7 linge. [a. ON. lyng (Da. lyng, Sw. ljung):—OTeut. type *lingwom. Cf. Sw. lingon cowberry.] A name applied to various ericaceous plants, chiefly Calluna vulgaris; see HEATHER.

1

c. 1357.  Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 559. Et in reparacione stagni molend. Abbathie cum Mos et Lyng pro eadem.

2

a. 1440.  Sir Degrev., 336. He laf slawe in a slak fforty score on a pak … Dede in the lyng.

3

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 305/2. Ly(n)ge of the hethe, bruera.

4

14[?].  Arund. MS. 42, f. 23 b, in Promp. Parv., 305, note. An heth þat groweþ ful … of lynk.

5

c. 1475.  Rauf Coilȝear, 397. Gif thow meitis ony leid lent on the ling.

6

1486.  Nottingham Rec., III. 249. For xiiij. thrave of lyng.

7

1538.  Leland, Itin., V. 122. In the Dales of Richemontshire they burne Linge, Petes, and Turffes.

8

1548.  Turner, Names of Herbes, 35. Erice … is named in english Heth, hather, or ling.

9

1577–87.  Holinshed, Chron., Hist. Scot., 95/1. There was growing in that place … verie much of that kind of heath or ling, which the Scotishmen call hadder.

10

1603.  Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 1206. Little beds … made of chast tree and of heath or lings.

11

1607.  Norden, Surv. Dial., V. 235. Heath is the generall or common name, whereof there is one kind, called Hather, the other, Ling.

12

1686.  Plot, Staffordsh., 357. Sheep will now abide that heath and feed upon Ling all the hardest winter.

13

1819.  Crabbe, Tales of Hall, XIX. She … stirr’d the fire of ling, and brush’d the wicker chair.

14

1822.  Bewick, Mem., 11. The shepherd might have his hovel thatched with heather and ling.

15

1882.  ‘Ouida,’ Maremma, I. 124. Their huts were always … thatched with rushes and ling.

16

  b.  attrib., as ling-thatch; ling-bird, the meadow-pipit, Anthus pratensis.

17

1814.  Sporting Mag., XLIV. 245, note. The small heath-bird or *ling-bird.

18

1893.  J. Watson, Confess. Poacher, 110. The ‘cheep-cheep’ of the awakening ling-birds rises from every brae.

19

1482–3.  Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 648. Pro tractacione xl travis (sic) del *lyngthake, xxd.

20

1884.  Gd. Words, 21. The heavy ling thatch hung low over window.

21