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AnWulf commented on the word boonwork
Also boon-work
February 28, 2013
Gammerstang commented on the word boonwork
(noun) - (1) Work done by the tenant for his landlord, the remains of socage, which now generally consists in a day or two's work with a horse and cart, drawing coals, materials, &c. In former times, many other various things were added. The tenant kept a cock for his landlord in cock-fighting days, and a dog. The landlord's pig and geese were turned into the tenant's fields after the crops were removed. A tenant also brought his landlord every year a cheese or a goose. In short, it was a sort of barter in times when the exchangeable medium of goods, money, was not plentiful, in fact very scarce, and the purchase of commodities had to be subvented in other ways.
--Edgerton Leigh's Glossary of the Dialect of Cheshire, 1877
(2) Hence booning, rendering service to a neighbour.
--Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary, 1896-1905
January 21, 2018