Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
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noun
A small piece of enclosed land, often by a hedge. Some authorities also indicate that a pightle tends to be associated with a house or messuage.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic, dialectal
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
Uncertain; probably a diminutive; forms widely attested from the early 13th century CE. Manning sees two different origins for the picle and pightle types, picle deriving from the verb to pick, as a portion of land picked off from a larger field, but pightle deriving from pight, an archaic past participle of the verb to pitch, as a portion of land pitched or set out from an open field. Since many dictionaries conflate the two terms, it is likely that they have influenced each other. Pingle seems to have appeared somewhat later than the other two types. Many instances of alternation with them are known, but it is unclear if it has a separate origin. Reformation by folk etymology with terms like piddle and pigtail is common.
