hawebake

Middle English

Etymology

See haw, bake.

Noun

hawebake

1. (nonce word) The baked berry of the hawthorn tree, i.e. coarse fare.
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Man of Lawes Prologue”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC, lines 94-96:

     But nathelees, I recche noght a bene / Though I come after hym with hawebake. / I speke in prose, and lat him rymes make.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)