Forms: 1 hlæst, 4–6 laste, lest(e, (6 lasse), 4– last. [OE. hlæst neut., corresp. to OFris. hlest, MLG., MDu., Du. last masc. and fem., OHG. hlast, last masc. and fem. (MHG., mod.G. last fem.); according to the now prevailing view repr. a pre-Teut. type *klat-sto- (-sti-), parallel with *klat-to- represented by ON. hlass neut., load; f. *klat- root of LADE v.
Some scholars still adhere to the older view that WGer. *hlast- and ON. hlass both represent a pre-Teut. *klatt-, the divergence being conjectured to be due to difference of accentual conditions.]
† 1. A load, burden, weight carried. Obs.
Beowulf (Z.), 52. Men ne cunnon secgan … hwa þæm hlæste on-feng.
c. 1000. Riddles, i. 15 (Gr.). Saʓa, hwa mec þecce oþþe hu ic hatte, þe þa hlæst bere.
1399. Langl., Rich. Redeles, IV. 74. Than lay the lordis a-lee with laste and with charge, And bare aboute the barge and blamed the maister.
2. A commercial denomination of weight, capacity, or quantity, varying for different kinds of goods and in different localities. Cf. G. last.
Originally the ‘last’ must have been the quantity carried at one time by the vehicle (boat, wagon, etc.) ordinarily used for the particular kind of merchandise. As a weight, it is often stated to be (like the Ger. weight of the same name) nominally equivalent either to 2 tons or to 4,000 lbs. In wool weight it is 4368 lbs. (= 12 sacks). A last of gunpowder is said to be 2,400 lbs. (= 24 barrels), and of feathers or flax 1,700 lbs.
The equivalence of the last of wool with 12 sacks seems to have led to an association of the word with the number twelve. Thus a last of hides was formerly 12 dozen (also 20 dickers of 10 hides each); of beer 12 barrels; of pitch 12 (sometimes 14) barrels; of cod and herrings 12 barrels (but of red herrings and pilchards 10,000 to 13,200 fish).
As a measure for grain and malt, the last was in the 16th c. 12 quarters, but is now 10 quarters = 80 bushels.
[1314–5. Rolls of Parlt., I. 312/2. IIII lest & dim’ de quyre.]
1333–4. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 30. In uno last et ix Ml allec. melioribus emp. … vjli. vjs. viijd.
1390–1. Earl Derby’s Exped. (Camden), 58. Et pro j laste de beer … Et pro j laste de vino de Ryne.
1396–7. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 600. In j last bituminis, 34s.
1428. in Surtees Misc. (1888), 2. John Bower proferd to sell hym a laste of osmundes.
1469. Househ. Ord. (1790), 102. White Herringes a laste, that is to say, xij barrelles.
c. 1483. Caxton, Dialogues, vi. 21. Men selle the goodes,… By sackes or by lastes.
1486. Naval Acc. Hen. VIII. (1896), 15. A last of pitch and Tarre.
1509–10. Act 1 Hen. VIII., c. 20 § 1. For the Subsidie … of every laste of hydes lxvjs. viijd.
1540. Act 32 Hen. VIII., c. 14. For every laste of whete and rye xxvis. viiid.
1548. Privy Council Acts (1890), II. 174. Serpentyne pouldre, iij lestes.
1583. Satir. Poems Reform., xlv. 882. To get a licence … For fortie last of Inglis beir.
1597. Skene, De Verb. Sign., s.v. Serplaith, Item 24 meales makis ane Last. Item, of meille and malt called coist, ane last makis ane Scottish chalder.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, Ep. Ded. (end), For a whole laste of redde Herrings.
1612. Hopton, Conserv. Yeares, 164. A Last of Wooll is 4368 pounds, or 12 Sackes.
1640. in Entick, London, II. 170. Quern-stones, the last.
1665. Lond. Gaz., No. 8/1. Sixteen Lasts of Gunpowder, and Four thousand Musquets are brought in hither.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v., A Last of Cod Fish is twelve Barrels; a Last of Herrings is twenty Cades, or ten Thousand. Ibid. (1727), s.v. Ale, Twelve Ale-Barrels making a Last.
1750. Carte, Hist. Eng., II. 418. An extraordinary duty of ten shillings on a sack of wool, and a last of leather for one year.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), I. VII. lxxxvi. 401. They have … exported fourteen thousand lasts. or twenty-eight thousand tuns English of all sorts of grain.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., II. xvi. 412. A grant of … forty shillings on the last of leather.
1884. Brit. Almanac & Companion, 33. A Yarmouth last of herrings is supposed to count 13,200 fish.
1893. Lang, Red Fairy Bk., 318. Someone who could brew a hundred lasts of malt at one brewing.
1894. R. Leighton, Wreck Golden Fleece, 143. A single ‘last’ [of herrings] being equal to ten thousand fish.
† b. transf. A huge indefinite number. Obs.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prioress’ Prol., 4. God yeve this Monk a thousand last quade yeer.
1581. Rich, Farew. Milit. Profess., Tj. Goyng his waie to his sweete harte, tellyng her the whole discourse … with a whole laste of kisses.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull, II. ix. Ten thousand last of devils haul me, if I don’t love thee as I love my life.
† 3. A unit in the measurement of a ship’s burden = 2 tons (occas. 1 ton). Obs.
1643. Declar. Lords & Comm., Reb. Irel., 46. The ship called Saint Michaell the Archangell of burden an hundred and twentie Lasts or Tuns.
1722. Lond. Gaz., No. 6096/3. The … Snow … is of the Burthen of 50 or 60 Tons or 25 or 30 Lasts.
1796. in Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 52. The Swedish vessels which perform the voyage to China, are generally of four hundred lasts burden.
† 4. ? A dozen (of hawks). Obs.
162[?]. Horsey, Trav. (Hakl. Soc.), 234. Two white garrfaulkens, a last of girckens and a last of sloght faulcons and two gashaukes.
† 5. Shetland. Last of land: a quantity of land = 18 merks. Obs.
1605. Feu Contract, in Mill, Diary (1889), 193. The said twa last of land in Sandwick.
a. 1733. Shetland Acts, 36, in Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. (1892), XXVI. 201. That none have more swine than four upon a last of land over winter.
