earlship

American  

[url-ship] / ˈɜrl ʃɪp /

noun

1. earldom.

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Etymology

Origin of earlship

before 1000; Middle English; Old English eorlscipe. See earl, -ship

Example Sentences

For Offa by arms while only a child, First among fighters won the fairest of kingdoms; 40 Not any of his age in earlship surpassed him.

From Old English Poems Translated into the Original Meter Together with Short Selections from Old English Prose by Various

But the host-gear befretted he held many seasons, 2620 The bill and the byrny, until his own boy might Do him the earlship as did his ere-father.

From The Tale of Beowulf Sometime King of the Folk of the Weder Geats by Anonymous

"His honorable earlship, then—since mamma is with us."

From Out of the Primitive by Bennet, Robert Ames

They praised his earlship, his acts of prowess worthily witnessed: and well it is that men their master-friend mightily laud, heartily love, when hence he goes from life in the body forlorn away.

From Beowulf by Gummere, Francis Barton

Furthermore, a man who found it so easy to be disloyal could not safely be entrusted with such great territorial authority as the earlship of Mercia.

From Canute the Great The Rise of Danish Imperialism during the Viking Age by Larson, Laurence Marcellus