lore, n
1. The act of teaching; the condition of being taught; instruction, tuition, education. In particularized use: A piece of teaching or instruction; a lesson. Now arch. and dial. Phr. †to set to lore: to place under instruction, send to school. at, to the lair (Sc.): at or to school.
2. That which is taught; (a person's) doctrine or teaching. Applied chiefly to religious doctrine, but used also with reference to moral principles (e.g. virtue's lore). Now poet. or arch.
†b. pl. Doctrines, precepts, ordinances. Obs.
†c. A form of doctrine, a creed, religion. Obs.
†d. Rule of behaviour. Obs.
3. Advice, counsel; instruction, command, order.
†4. Used vaguely, esp. in alliterative poetry, for: Something that is spoken; information; story; language. Obs.
5. That which is learned; learning, scholarship, erudition. Now only arch. and Sc. (in the form lair, LEAR). Also, in recent use, applied (with a colouring derived from contexts like quot. 1766) to the body of traditional facts, anecdotes, or beliefs relating to some particular subject; chiefly with attributive n., as animal, bird, fairy, plant lore.
In the Gentl. Mag. for June, 1830, p. 503, a correspondent suggested that Eng. compounds of lore should be substituted for the names of sciences in -ology: e.g. birdlore for ornithology, earthlore for geology, starlore for astronomy, etc. The suggestion was never adopted, though some few words out of the long list of those proposed are occasionally used, not as names of sciences, but in the sense above explained. In German, several compounds of the equivalent lehre are in regular use as names of sciences or departments of study: e.g. sprachlehre (= speech-lore) grammar. Cf. FOLKLORE.
†b. A body of knowledge, a science. Obs.
6. Comb.: †lore-child, a scholar, apprentice; †lore-father, a master in learning; †lore-master = lore-father. Also LORESPELL.
(excerpted from Oxford English Dictionary Online)
