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fleece

.
Searchable Lemmata: fléos (OE), flíes (OE), flýs (OE), fles (ME), fleece (MdE).
Alternate Forms: fleis, fleos, flus, vluis, fflese.

    Definitions and Defining Citations:

1a(n.) Raw Material; animal's coat, especially the woolly coat of a sheep; also the skin of a sheep with its wool attached (as a commodity or material for producing cloth, clothing, bedding, etc.; occasionally in the form shepes fles 'sheep's fleece', cf. shepes fel).(ante 1350 still in current use)
1. & astag swa swa regn on fleos & swa swa ðrowung ðrowiende ofer eorðan Et descendit sicut pluvia in vellus et sicut stillicidia stillantia super terram. [DOE PsGlB (Brenner) (104200 (71.6))]
2. Vellus flis. [DOE ClGl 2 (Quinn) (013100 (130))]
3. Moththes in the shepes flees anoyeth to the clothes Poetic. [MED Chaucer CT.Mel. ((Manly-Rickert) B.2187) ante 1382]
4. [247] ... Of Scotlonde the commoditees Ar felles, hydes, and of wolle the fleesse ... [250] ... And all here woll was draped for to sell In the townes of Poperynge and of Bell ... they ... Cowde never draper her woll ... But if they hadde Englysshe woll wythall. Poetic. [MED Libel EP ((Warner) 247-250) ante 1450/1500]
c.f.: vellus
ME, MdE, OE; Primarily N/A.
Sex: N/A    Use: n/a    Status: n/a    Rank: n/a    Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: N/A.
1b(n.) Raw Material; measure of wool (a1475).(ante 1475 - circa 1865)
1. How gret a subsidie was it, when the reaume gaff to thair kyng ... the ixth fflese off thair wolles and also the ixth shefe off þer graynes [MED Fortescue Gov.E. ((LdMisc 593), 140) ante 1475]
ME; Primarily Legal.
Sex: N/A    Use: Secular    Status: n/a    Rank: n/a    Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: N/A.
1c(n.) Garment; specifically, the Golden Fleece at Colchos.(circa 1387)
1. Iason fette þe golden flees [Higd.(2): fleese of golde]. Heroic, Historic, Romance. [MED Trev.Higd. ((StJ-C H.1) 1.319) ante 1387]
2. In an yle that called was Colcos, Beyonde Troye ... was a ram ... That hadde a fles of gold Biblical/Hagiographic, Poetic. [MED Chaucer LGW ((Benson-Robinson) 1428) circa 1430]
ME, MdE; Primarily Heroic.
Sex: N/A    Use: Secular    Status: n/a    Rank: n/a    Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: N/A.
1d(n.) Decoration; in heraldry, a sheepskin device (usually depicted hanging from a ring). The OED adds: 'Order of the Golden Fleece: an order of knighthood instituted at Bruges in 1430 by Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy. The right of investiture in the order of the Golden Fleece belonged (after 1700) to the sovereigns of Austria and Spain', [OED, 2nd ed., 1989, 'fleece, n.', 1b.-c.].(circa 1525 - post 1845 ?)
MdE.
Sex: N/A    Ceremonial: Yes
Body Parts: N/A.

    Etymological Evidence:

Definite, OE (Germanic).
WF:
Etym Cog: vlies (MHG); vlius (MHG); vlûs (MHG).
References:
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