Obs. Forms: 1 leng(o, lengu, 1–2 læng, 5 leyngh, 4–5, 7 lengh(e. [OE. lęng(u, lęngo wk. fem. = OHG. langî (MHG. lenge, mod.G. länge), Goth. laggei:—OTeut. *laŋgîn-, n. of quality f. *laŋgo- LONG a.] Length (of time or space); in OE. also height, stature. At the lengh: in the long run.
c. 888. K. Ælfred, Boeth. (Sedgefield), xviii. § 3. Tele nu þa lengu [MS. B. lenge] þære hwile.
c. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., IV. xiv. [xi.] (1890), 296. Heo … toætecton lengeo þære þryh tweʓra fingra ʓemet.
a. 1000. Salomon & Sat. (Kemble), 180. Hu lang wæs Adam on lenge ʓesceapen?
c. 1200. Vices & Virtues (1888), 39. Ne wraððe mid ðe ne wuneð ones daiȝes længe.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 12393. A treen bedd, þat suld o lengh [Fairf. lenght, Gött. lenth] thre eln haf.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., A. 416. In lenghe of dayez þat euer schal wage.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, xx. 2. Þou gaf til him lenghe of dayes.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 5086. Lamprays sloȝis, þat sex cubettis clere was of clene lenghe.
c. 1400. trans. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh., 72. In þis tyme þe day and þe nyght ys of oon lengh.
c. 1450. Lyarde, in Rel. Ant., II. 281. Elevyne myle on lenghe the parke es mett.
1483. Act 1 Rich. III., c. 8. Preamb., Clothes … drawen out in leyngh and brede.
1612. in 2nd Rep. Rec. Irel., 265. They knew that they must be emprisoned at the lengh, and therefore (said they) as good now as hereafter.
a. 1699. Lady Halkett, Autobiog. (1875), 67. The third was a man that had a horne on the left side of the hinder part of his head … and his wife told mee shee had cutt the lengh of her finger off … because the weight of itt was troublesome.
