hearkener (first e silent), herkener

[Eng. hearken; -er.] One who hearkens, hears, or listens; a hearer, an auditor. "O hearkener to the loud-clapping shears." Keats: Endymion , i. 279. hear-say, *heare-say, s. & a. [Eng. hear , and say.] A. As subst .: Common talk or report; rumor, fame. "Sometimes a rumor, a hearsay, an inarticulate whisper." Long fellow: Evangeline , ii. 1. B. As adj .: Of or pertaining to common talk or report; depending upon or derived from rumor; told or given at second hand. "All hearsay reports are to be discarded."-Lewis: Cred. Early Roman Hist . (1855), ch. xiv., § 2, vol. ii., p. 492. hearsay-evidence, s . Law : Evidence given at second hand by persons who have heard the actual witne relate or admit what he knew of certain transactions. Such evidence, as a general rule, is not admi ible in courts of justice. "In some cases, as in proof of any general customs, or matters of common tradition or repute, the courts admit of hearsay-evidence, or an account of what persons deceased have declared in their lifetime: but such evidence will not be received of any particular facts." -Black stones Comment., bk. iii., ch. 23.