Now dial. Forms: 5 lynyolf, lynolf, (inniolf), 6 lyngell, 6–7 lingell, 7 Sc. linyel, 8 lingan, 9 lingal, liniel, 6– lingel, 7– lingle. [a. OF. lignoel, ligneul:—popular L. *līneolum, f. L. līnea LINE sb.2] A shoemaker’s waxed thread.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 306/1. Lynyolf, or inniolf [H., P. lynolf], threde to sow wythe schone or botys, indula, licinium.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 142. Bodkyn, knyfe, lyngell, gyue thy horse mete, se he be shoed well.
1530. Palsgr., 239/2. Lyngell that souters sowe with, chefgros, lignier.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 110. For may he once get his shooes on my feete, Without last or lingel his woordes make them meete.
1576. Turberv., Venerie, 231. And he must have a lyngell in readinesse to sow up the skin, and at euery stitch that he taketh let him knit his threed or lyngell.
1611. Beaum. & Fl., Knt. Burn. Pestle, V. iii. Whose Master wrought with Lingell and with All.
1635. D. Dickson, Pract. Writ. (1845), I. 196. He had his elsin and linyel for sewing of leather.
1721. Ramsay, Ode to Mr. F—, i. Hinds wi’ elson and hemp lingle, Sit soleing shoon out o’er the ingle.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl., 10 July. A little hemp, which he spun into lingels.
c. 1817. Hogg, Tales & Sk., III. 306. George … scratched his head with the awl, and gave the lingles such a yerk, that he made them both crack in two.
1868. G. Macdonald, R. Falconer, I. 104. Settling in haste to his awl and his lingel.
b. attrib., as lingel- (or † lingel’s) end, -tail.
1589. R. Harvey, Pl. Perc. (1590), 25. My shoe shall rend, my nall blade bend, My lingels end, first shall I spend, Before his works goe downe.
c. 1774. C. Keith, Farmer’s Ha’, v. (1801), 48. They pow and rax the lingel tails.
1899. Colville, Vernacular, 16. The sutor … deftly birsed a fresh lingle-end.
Hence Lingel v. trans., to bind firmly with cobbler’s thread. Sc.
1819. Hogg, Jacobite Relics, I. 102. Come like a cobler, Donald Macgillavry, Beat them, and bore them, and lingel them cleverly.
