alnage
.
Searchable Lemmata: aunage (AF), alnagium (L), ulnagium (L), ulnatio (L), ulnage (ME), alnage (MdE).
Alternate Forms: alnage, aulnage, *avenagio, aulnagio, ulnagiato.
Definitions and Defining Citations:
1(n.)
Law/Custom;
official measurement and quality inspection of cloth. Specifically, from the fifteenth century, wool and woollen cloth was measured by the ell; its value was attested by the affixing of a lead seal. Cf. auner, aunour. From the seventeenth century onwards primarily in historic usage.(circa 1250 still in current use)
3. [a] ... Within viii dayes after the fest of All Halowes ... the Steward of youre honorable Houshold, the chief Baron of youre Eschequer, for the tyme beyng, and other at youre pleasure, or iii of theym ... be named to be Keper or Kepers of the Ulnage within the same Shire, Cite, or Borough, havyng ... power therby to seale the seid Clothes and halve Clothes. [b] ... Wollen Cloth fulled in Milles called Gygmylles and Toune Milles
Legal.
[MED RParl. (5.502a-b) 1463/1464]
Sex: N/A Use: n/a Status: n/a Rank: n/a Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: N/A.
2(n.)
Law/Custom;
fee charged for the inspection of cloth; the revenue derived from the inspection of cloth.(circa 1280 - 1600)
4. Provided also, that the said Petition ... be not prejudiciall ... of the Graunte or the Assignation made by us to Leon Lord Welles, of cxiii mark yerely, to be taken of the Subsidie and ulnage of Clothes, aswell within the Countee of Yorke ... and Subarbes of the same ... unto the tyme that the said Leon be contente of the sommes of money to hym due ... by the handes of the Fermours, Collectours, or Occupiours of the said Subsidie and ulnage.
Legal.
[MED RParl. (5.186a) 1450]
Sex: N/A Use: n/a Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: N/A.
Etymological Evidence:
Definite, from Old French alnage (Mod. F. aunage) < alner 'to measure by the alne', alne = 'ell', from Late Latin *alena < Germanic; cf. Old English eln 'an ell'. The word may have come directly into French from Frankish. The same root is seen in Latin ulna.
WF: Borrowed into the British Isles
Etym Cog: ulna.
References:
Archaeological Evidence:
Stamped lead cloth seals are common archaeological finds, especially in London, but according to Endrei and Egan 1982, the earliest datable finds are late fifteenth-century. The first English specifications of cloth standards were established in 1197. The affixing of seals to cloth continued until the nineteenth century in England.
