endware

E1N1D2W4A1R1E1
Early, Modern/ˈɛndˌwæːr/

noun

A hamlet or township; a small settlement or locality.

Scrabble 11

Meanings

nounendware (plural endwares)

plural endwares

  1. EarlyEssexModernNorthwesternrareA hamlet or township; a small settlement or locality.

    To John my son my messuage with the lands free and copy in an endware called Beaseleye End in Wethersfield.

    2000 [1599], “JOHN OVERED senior of Shalford clothier, 28 Oct. 1599 (685)”, in F.G. Emmison, editor, Essex wills: the Bishop of London's Commissary Court, 1596-1603 (Essex Record Office Publication; 143), Essex Record Office, →ISBN, page 136
    2 more examples

    To the poor people 6s. 8d. to be paid to the churchwardens to distribute to 40 of the poorest householders at their discretion, only 'this endware to be none of them' [sic].

    1994 [1570/1], “WILLIAM HAISTLER of Finchingfield, 2 Feb. 1570/1 (418)”, in F.G. Emmison, editor, Essex wills: the Bishop of London's Commissary Court, 1569-1578 (Essex Record Office Publication; 127), Essex Record Office, →ISBN, page 90

    Yet herin I will commẽde manye of the monaſticall votaries, eſpeciallye Monkes, foꝛ that they were authors of many goodly boꝛowes and endwares, neare vnto their dwellinges, although otherwyſe they pꝛetended to be men ſeparated from the woꝛld.

    1577, William Harrison, “An Historicall Description of the Islande of Britayne, […]”, in The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC, folio 82, verso, column 1

Origin

  1. Old English*endeware
  2. Middle English*endeware
  3. Englishendware

Inherited from Middle English *endeware, from Old English *endeware (literally “village people”), from ende (“end, extremity”) + -ware (“inhabitants”), metonymically extended from the inhabitants of a settlement to the settlement itself. Compare endship for a similar formation.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

endware. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/endware

MLA

“endware.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/endware. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “endware,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/endware.

Source: endware on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.