Words In History: Great
Historian George Redmonds explains that 'great' refers to refers to agreement to carry out work for an agreed price, rather than being paid for the time it takes to do the job.
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This word occurs in the phrase 'by great' or 'by the great', and the earliest evidence for this is in the accounts of St John's Hospital in Canterbury. There, money was, 'paied to a carpenter by grete for mendyng of Myster Collettis house' (1523).
Similarly, in York in 1527, the churchwardens paid 16s 8d 'to John Teyller for makyng of ys Chymnay that he toyke (took) by grett'.51 According to Wright these expressions survived into relatively recent times in many parts of England and Scotland, where they referred to agreements to carry out work by the piece rather than by time.
Among numerous nineteenth-century examples that he quotes is one from Worcestershire; 'He arns a lot o' money; he'll never work except by the great'.
