Obs. or dial. Abbrev. of LENTIL, quasi ‘Lent-till’: see quot. 1640 (Chiefly in pl.)
1388. Wyclif, Ezek. iv. 9. Take … wheete, and barli, and beenys, and tillis [1382 lent].
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. xcvi. (Bodl. MS.). Malice off Tille is temprid ȝif þe skynne is ido aweye & þe piþ sode in fresche water.
14[?]. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 594/5. Lupinus, Tylles.
1607. Schol. Disc. agst. Antichr., I. ii. 95. What maketh the fitches, tylles, tares … which are mingled with the wheate?
1640. Parkinson, Theatr. Bot., 1068. Wee in English [call it] Lentills, but the country people in Hampshire, and other countries … call it Tills, leaving out the Lent, as thinking that word agreeth not with the matter.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 42. The least of all Pulses is the Lentil, in some places called Tills.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 330. Tills, Ervum.
