EARRING, an old English agricultural term for ploughing, occurs in Genesis 45:6; Exodus 34:21; 1 Samuel 8:12, as a translation of the term חָרַישׁ (charish', ploughing, as it is elsewhere rendered). (See Critica Biblica, in, 210.) The same now obsolete word is used by our translators in Deuteronomy 21:4; Isaiah 30:24, to represent the Hebrews word עָבִד (abad', to till, as it is often elsewhere rendered). (See AGRICULTURE); (See EGYPT). So Shakspeare says "to ear the land that has some hopes to grow" (Richard II, 3, 2). It is etymologically connected with the Latin aro, to plough. It is directly derived from the Anglo-Saxon erian, " to plough, " and is radically the same with harrow. What we call arable land was originally written ear: able land. The root ar is one of wide use in all the Indo-European languages (see Miller, Science of Language, p. 239). (See PLOUGH).