ledger
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈlɛd͡ʒə/
ipa: /ˈlɛd͡ʒɚ/
rhymes: -ɛdʒə(ɹ)
homophone: leger
Forms: form: ledgers
form: ledgering
form: ledgered
form: ledgered
form: leger
Etymology: From Middle English liggere, ligger, leger (“large breviary; beam, plank; dweller, inhabitant”), from liggen, leggen, variants of līen (“to lie down; to bow, kneel, prostrate; to die; to be located (somewhere); to remain in place, stay”), from Old English liċġan (“to lie down; to be situated”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie down”). The word is cognate with Saterland Frisian Lägger (“floor board, joist, plank”), West Frisian lêger (“beam, plank”), Dutch legger (“daybook; layer”) (from leggen (“to lay”), liggen (“to lie down”)), and is related to English ledge, lie (“to be prostrate”).
The verb is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: Our tears are bottled, to signify that our griefs are carefully measured; and they are booked, to teach us that they are numbered.—Psal[ms] lvi. 8. Our tears being bottled, and ledgered, will signify that our afflictions are not the effects of change, but the registered dispensations of heaven. Ay, and your enjoyments are by lot.
ref: [1862?], S[amuel] Cozens, “Dedication”, in A Christmas Box, or The Great Festival; […], London: Printed for the author by T. Matthews, […], →OCLC, page v:
text: I never saw a man who knew so thoroughly well all that he [Philip Syng Physick] knew. It seemed as if his science and art were ledgered in his brain, so that he could turn on the instant to page and line.
ref: 1868 April, S[amuel] W. G[ross], “Art. XVII.—Pennsylvania Hospital Reports. Edited by J. M. DaCosta, M.D., and William Hunt, M.D. Vol. I. 8vo. pp. 420. Philadelphia. Lindsay & Blackiston, 1868.”, in Isaac Hays, editor, The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, volume LV, number CX (New Series), Philadelphia, Pa.: Henry C[harles] Lea, →OCLC, page 473:
text: [T]he only thing that can cause delay is the calling for explanations at the end of the year, and this can be avoided if you ledger for each registering post or group the figures of each month as received, and in making progressive totals compare them each month with the totals of former years, which can be entered at the head of the ledger. The labour of ledgering is but small, and it enables you to keep your eye on the progress of trade all through the year, […]
ref: 1883 November 17, A. H. L. Fraser, “[Letter from A. H. L. Fraser, Esquire, C.S., Offg. Secretary to the Chief Commissioner, Central Provinces, to the Director of Agriculture, Central Provinces.]”, in Department of Agriculture, C[entral] P[rovinces]: Report on the Trade and Resources of the Central Provinces for the Year 1882–83, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India: Printed at the Chief Commissioner’s Office Press, →OCLC, page 1:
text: [In the play Angels in America] [Tony] Kushner is less interested in objectifying or ledgering the specific sufferings AIDS causes than in how it collates and coalesces those aspects of our suffering that are general and ordinary.
ref: 2010 October, Asma Abbas, Liberalism and Human Suffering: Materialist Reflections on Politics, Ethics, and Aesthetics, New York, N.Y.: Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN:
text: They were not looking for their reckoning but totally rejected Our revelations. Everything We had ledgered in a book.
ref: 2012, “Islamic Beginnings: Revelation, State Building, and Culture”, in Marvin Gettleman, Stuart Schaar, editors, The Middle East and Islamic World Reader, revised and expanded edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, →ISBN, section 1 (The Quran and Other Islamic Texts):
glosses: To record (something) in, or as if in, a ledger.
examples: text: The added advantage of legering a small bait rather than freelining one is that you can tighten up harder to the bait and so spot runs earlier.
ref: 1997, Paul Gustafson, “Rigs”, in How to Catch Bigger Pike from Rivers, Lochs and Lakes, London: Collins Willow, HarperCollins Publishers, →ISBN; republished as How to Catch Big Pike: All the Insight and Technique You Need to Catch Bigger Pike, whatever the Location, London: Robinson, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, 2016, →ISBN, page 160:
text: The flounder spends its life between the tideline and the 25 to 30 fathoms mark, but they are often caught several miles upstream in freshwater rivers by anglers legering worms or gentles.
ref: 1998, Martin James, “Flounder”, in Paul Morgan, editor, Saltwater Flyfishing: Britain and Northern Europe, Machynlleth, Powys: Coch-y-Bonddu Books, published 2006, →ISBN, page 156:
topics: fishing
hobbies
lifestyle
glosses: To use (a certain type of bait) in bottom fishing.
examples: text: In the fashion pursued by the fishermen who require to cast a long line on the Thames, for ledgering or spinning more particularly, the line is drawn off the reel and laid loosely in coils at the fisherman's feet, […]
ref: 1872, Francis Francis, “Bottom-fishing—Continued”, in A Book on Angling: Being a Complete Treatise on the Art of Angling in Every Branch: […], 3rd revised and improved edition, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 59:
text: The best baits for ledgering are, firstly, worms; secondly, greaves; and, thirdly, a bunch of gentles, though some people occasionally catch barbel with raw beef or ham; […]
ref: 1877, Francis Francis, “The Gudgeon (Cyprinus Gobio)”, in Angling, London: “The Field” Office, […], →OCLC, page 35:
text: [T]he salmon were playing hard to get. So were the trout. So, come to that, were any fresh water shrimps that might be around. Obviously the recommended bunch of worms on a large hook ledgered to the bottom was an insufficient inducement.
ref: 1976, Simon Brett, chapter 13, in So Much Blood: A Crime Novel (Gollancz Thriller), London: Gollancz, →ISBN; republished as So Much Blood (A Charles Paris Mystery; 2), [Sutton, Surrey]: Severn House Publishers, 2011, →ISBN:
topics: fishing
hobbies
lifestyle
glosses: To engage in bottom fishing.
Related terms: book of original entry