Archaic KJV Word
Ear
Modern equivalent: plow
What Was Lost
A direct, monosyllabic Anglo-Saxon verb for humanity's oldest labor. To ear the ground was as basic as to eat or sleep -- a one-syllable word for the fundamental act of opening earth to receive seed. The agricultural parables of scripture lose their linguistic immediacy when 'ear' requires footnotes.
Closest Survivor in Modern English
arable (from Latin arare, the same root -- land fit for earing/plowing)
Peak Usage (1611)
KJV 1 Samuel 8:12 -- 'To ear his ground, and to reap his harvest'; Isaiah 30:24 -- 'The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground'
Died ~1700
The verb 'to ear' (to plow/till) from Old English erian (Latin arare) died as English adopted 'plow' from Scandinavian influence. The body-part meaning consumed the word entirely.
What Replaced It
“plow”
Mechanical; ear-as-plowing connected the farmer's labor directly to the earth through an ancient, primal verb
“till”
Broader and vaguer; ear specifically meant the act of breaking open the ground with a cutting tool
“cultivate”
Latinate and abstract; ear was raw, physical, Old English labor