Alew is an obsolete term for a cry of despair. Alew is also the cry used to call hounds at a hunt, a variation of halloo.
I was unable to find much about the word alew in my hunt, much to my despair (you see what I did there.). The few facts I was able to find about alew mark it an obsolete term with either definition and it was being used in 1596 by the poet Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene ~ “Yet did she not lament with loude alew, / As women wont, but with deepe sighes and singults few.”
This would be a prime example of one lamenting with loud alew
Alew is an interesting word since it is such a simple one that seemed to slip from collective use. What do you think of alew?
Namaste ~ Ella
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Lawhimsy 