Tillynge

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Preparing and working over soil by ploughing or turning it for planting crops ; an archaic sense of striving or aiming eagerly toward some objective
2. Turning and breaking up ground to make it ready for sowing ; a dated meaning of directing one's effort or endeavor toward a particular end
3. The act of cultivating the earth for crops ; an obsolete usage describing the pursuit or aiming of a purpose through determined exertion

Etymology: The farming sense of "till" began as a sense of striving. Old English "tilian" meant "to strive after, aim at, or try to get," and it developed the sense of working or cultivating land only later, as the idea of labouring toward a goal narrowed to labouring on the soil. "Tillynge" is a Middle English spelling of the verbal noun, the name for that striving or effort. The root sits in Proto-Germanic "*tilōn," meaning to aim or strive for something. Its connection to a related Old English word meaning "goal" or "aim" supports that sense, and it is why the older meanings centre on purpose and effort rather than soil. Because the record for Middle English spellings is thin, the exact date of this particular spelling is uncertain, so I would treat it as a regional or scribal variant of the older "tilung" rather than a separate word.