praught

Derived from preach by analogy with teach : taught. Apparently a modern jocular construction but taken seriously by some. In print, generally appearing as a nonce in a much-quoted doggerel verse, attributed by some to Phoebe Cary in 1854, appearing in Punchinello 1.27 in 1870, there attributed to Amos Keeter. See quot. 1870.

praught

1. (nonstandard) simple past tense and past participle of preach
   • 1870 Amos Keeter, “The Lovers,” in Punchinello Vol. 1 No. 27.

     SALLY SALTER, she was a young teacher, who taught,

     And her friend, CHARLEY CHURCH, was a preacher, who praught;

     Though his enemies called him a screecher, who scraught.

   • 1996-05-22 The Anglican Mailing List

     [...] I don't remember the earnest soul who praught it [...]

   • 2000-01-30 Larne Parish Homily Archive

     They praught in the synagogue every Sabbath, week in, week out.

   • 2000-11-18 CHRIST AND CUPID: a sermon praught by Richard Major in the church of St Mark, Florence. [subtitle]
   • 2002-08-16 The Church of Ireland Gazette Online

     [...] including, by the way, York Minster where in 1999 he praught at the consecration of a new area bishop.

   • 2004-05 Beautful Feet International Ministries

     So, I ‘praught’ at this group (median age of late 60’s-70’s J) just like they were teenagers [...]

   • 2004-06-01 Ian McLeod's Confusticated World

     Yesterday our new preacher praught a very good lesson, in which he stated [...]

   • 2005-09-19 Xander: And the Army is disciplined...

     I went to Balga Corps in the morning, then praught at a youth meeting at Morley Corps in the evening.

• preached