a. and sb. Obs. exc. dial. Also 4–5 lyarde, 4–5, 8 liard, 5–6 lyerd. [a. OF. liart, of obscure origin; perh. f. lie, LEE sb.2]
A. adj. A designation of color. a. Of a horse: Spotted with white or silver grey. b. Of hair: Grey, silvery grey approaching white. c. Applied by Burns to the color of withered leaves.
In north Eng. dialects ‘a white lyared horse means a grey one, or one dappled with white and black; and a red lyared one is dappled with bay or red and white’ (E. D. D.).
[c. 1300. Liber Quotid. Garderobæ (1787), 78. Pro uno equo nigro liardo empto de eodem [etc.] 10 0 0. Ibid. Pro uno equo griseo liardo empto de eodem ad opus Regis [etc.] 7 6 8.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Friar’s T., 265. This carter þakked his hors … ‘Hayt now’ quod he,… ‘Þat was wel twight, myn owne lyard boy.’
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 2542. Laggene with longe speres one lyarde stedes.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., IV. 826. Colouris now to knowe attendith ye:… The liard & the white, and broun is sure.
1438. Bk. Alexander Gt. (Bannatyne), 115. Yon ald man … With lyart berd and hare gresone.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, lxi. 70. Tak in this gray horss, Auld Dunbar, Quhilk in my aucht with schervice trew In lyart changeit is in hew.
1590. Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees, 1860), 247. To Oswin Fenwick a graie nagge. To William Fenwick the lyerd nagge.
1607. Markham, Caval., I. (1617), 22. The best colour for a stallyon, is browne bay dapled, dapple gray, bright bay, or white lyard.
1721. Ramsay, Prospect Plenty, xvii. Nereus rising frae his wat’ry bed, The pearly drops hap down his lyart head.
c. 1750. Miss Elliot, Song, The Flowers of the Forest, iii. The bandsters are lyart and runkled and grey.
1785. Burns, Holy Fair, 15. Twa had manteeles o’ doleful black, But ane wi’ lyart lining. Ibid. (1785), Jolly Beggars, 1. When lyart leaves bestrow the yird.
1804. J. Grahame, Sabbath (1808), 14. The lyart veteran.
1895. Crockett, Men of Moss-Hags, 156. His hair, lyart and long, fell upon his shoulders.
B. sb. As the proper name of a ‘lyard’ horse.
13[?]. Pol. Songs (Camden), 71. Thou shalt ride sporeles o thy lyard Al the ryhte way to Dovere ward.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XVII. 64. He lyȝte adown of lyard and ladde hym in his hande.
c. 1470. Gregory, Hist. Coll. Lond. Cit. (Camden), 238. As for beddyng, Lyard my hors had more ese thenn had sum good yeman.
1486–1504. in Denton, Eng. 15th Cent. (1888), 319. I sall gyff yow to yowr plesure lyerd my horse.
