“Siker, thou’s but a lazy loord,
    And rekes much of thy swinke.”—­Joh.  Dict., w.  Loord.

OBS. 34.—­In the solemn style, (except in poetry, which usually contracts these forms,) the second person singular of the present indicative, and that of the irregular preterits, commonly end in est, pronounced as a separate syllable, and requiring the duplication of the final consonant, according to Rule 3d for Spelling:  as, I run, thou runnest; I ran, thou rannest.  But as the termination ed, in solemn discourse, constitutes a syllable, the regular preterits form the second person singular by assuming st, without further increase of syllables:  as, I loved, thou lovedst; not, “lovedest,” as Chandler made it in his English Grammar, p. 41, Edition of 1821; and as Wells’s rule, above cited, if literally taken, would make it. Dost and hast, and the three irregular preterits, wast, didst, and hadst, are permanently contracted; though doest and diddest are sometimes seen in old books. Saidst is more common, and perhaps more regular, than saidest.  Werest has long been contracted into wert:  “I would thou werest either cold or hot.”—­W.  Perkins, 1608.[251] The auxiliaries shall and will change the final l to t, and become shalt and wilt.  To the auxiliaries, may, can, might, could, would, and should, the termination est was formerly added; but they are now generally written with st only, and pronounced as monosyllables, even in solemn discourse.  Murray, in quoting the Scriptures, very often charges mayest to mayst, mightest to mightst, &c.  Some other permanent contractions are occasionally met with, in what many grammarians call the solemn style; as bidst for biddest, fledst for fleddest, satst for sattest: 

“Riding sublime, thou bidst the world adore,
And humblest nature with thy northern blast.”
—­Thomson.

“Fly thither whence thou fledst.”
—­Milton, P. L., B. iv, l. 963.

“Unspeakable, who sitst above these heavens.”
—­Id., ib., B. v, l. 156.

“Why satst thou like an enemy in wait?”
—­Id., ib., B. iv, l. 825.

OBS. 35.—­The formation of the third person singular of verbs, is now precisely the same as that of the plural number of nouns:  as, love, loves; show, shows; boast, boasts; fly, flies; reach, reaches.  This form began to be used about the beginning of the sixteenth century.  The ending seems once to have been es, sounded as s or z:  as,

   “And thus I see among these pleasant thynges
    Eche care decayes, and yet my sorrow sprynges.”—­Earl of Surry.