A SELECT GLOSSARY

A

SELECT GLOSSARY

OF

ENGLISH WORDS USED FORMERLY IN SENSES DIFFERENT FROM THEIR PRESENT

BY

RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, D.D.

ARCHBISHOP

‘Res fugiunt, vocabula manent’

SEVENTH EDITION

REVISED BY A. L. MAYHEW, M.A.

LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, & CO., 1 PATERNOSTER SQUARE
1890

(The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved)

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

This volume is intended to be a contribution, though a very slight one at best, to a special branch of the study of our own language. It proposes to trace in a popular manner and for general readers the changes of meaning which so many of its words have undergone; words which, as current with us as they were with our forefathers, yet meant something different on their lips from what they mean on ours. Of my success in carrying out the scheme which I had set before myself, it does not become me to speak, except to say that I have fallen a good deal below my hopes, and infinitely below my desires. But of the scheme itself I have no doubts. I feel sure that, if only adequately carried out, few works of the same compass could embrace matter of more manifold instruction, or in a region of knowledge which it would be more desirable to occupy. In the present condition of education in England, above all with the pressure upon young men, which is ever increasing, to complete their educational course at the earliest possible date, the number of those enjoying the inestimable advantages, mental and moral, which more than any other languages the Latin and the Greek supply, must ever be growing smaller. It becomes therefore a necessity to seek elsewhere the best substitutes within reach for that discipline of the faculties which these languages would better than any other have afforded. And I believe, when these two are set aside, our own language and literature will furnish the best substitutes; such as, even though they may not satisfy perfectly, are not therefore to be rejected. I am persuaded that in the decomposition, word by word, of small portions of our best poetry and prose, the compensations which we look for are most capable of being found; even as I have little doubt that in many of our higher English schools compensations of the kind are already oftentimes obtained. Lycidas suggests itself to me, in the amount of resistance which it would offer, as in verse furnishing more exactly what I seek than any other poem, perhaps some of Lord Bacon’s Essays in prose.

In such a decomposition, to be followed by a reconstruction, of some small portions of a great English Classic, matters almost innumerable, and pressing on the attention from every side, would claim to be noticed; but certainly not last nor least the changes in meaning which, on close examination, would be seen to have passed on many of the words employed. It is to point out some of these changes; to suggest how many more there may be, there certainly are, which have not been noticed in these pages; to show how slight and subtle, while yet most real, how easily therefore evading detection, unless constant vigilance is used, these changes often have been; to trace here and there the progressive steps by which the old meaning has been put off, and the new put on, the exact road which a word has travelled; this has been my purpose here; and I have desired by such means to render some small assistance to those who are disposed to regard this as a serviceable discipline in the training of their own minds or the minds of others.

The book is, as its name declares, a Select Glossary. There would have been no difficulty whatever in doubling or trebling the number of articles admitted into it. But my purpose being rather to arouse curiosity than fully to gratify it, to lead others themselves to take note of changes, and to account for them, rather than to take altogether this pleasant labour out of their hands and to do for them what they could more profitably do for themselves, I have consciously left much of the work undone, even as, unconsciously no doubt I have left a great deal more. At the same time it has not been mere caprice which has induced the particular selection of words which has been actually made. Various motives, but in almost every case such as I could give account of to myself, have ruled this selection. Sometimes the past use of a word has been noted and compared with the present, as usefully exercising the mind in the tracing of minute differences and fine distinctions; or, again, as helpful to the understanding of our earlier authors, and likely to deliver a reader of them from misapprehensions into which he might else very easily fall; or, once more, as opening out a curious chapter in the history of manners; or as involving some interesting piece of history, or some singular superstition; or, again, as witnessing for the good or for the evil which have been unconsciously at work in the minds and hearts of those who insensibly have modified in part or changed altogether the meaning of some word; or, lastly and more generally, as illustrating well under one aspect or another those permanent laws which are everywhere affecting and modifying human speech.

And as the words brought forward have been selected with some care, and according to certain rules which have for the most part suggested their selection, so also has it been with the passages adduced in proof of the changes of meaning which they have undergone. A principal value which such a volume as the present can possess, must consist in the happiness with which these have been chosen. Not every passage, which really contains evidence of the assertion made, will for all this serve to be adduced in proof; and this I presently discovered in the many which for one cause or another it was necessary to set aside. There are various excellencies which ought to meet in such passages, but which will not by any means be found in all.

In the first place they ought to be such passages as will tell their own story, will prove the point which they are cited to prove, quite independently of the uncited context, to which it will very often happen that many readers cannot, and of those who can, that the larger number will not, refer. They should bear too upon their front that amount of triumphant proof, which will carry conviction not merely to the student who by a careful observation of many like passages, and a previous knowledge of what was a word’s prevailing use in the time of the writer, is prepared to receive this conviction, but to him also, to whom all this is presented now for the first time, who has no predisposition to believe, but is disposed rather to be incredulous in the matter. Then, again, they should, if possible, be passages capable of being detached from their context without the necessity of drawing a large amount of this context after them to make them intelligible; like trees which will endure to be transplanted without carrying with them a huge and cumbrous bulk of earth, clinging to their roots. Once more, they should, if possible, be such as have a certain intrinsic worth and value of their own, independent of their value as illustrative of the point in language directly to be proved—some weight of thought, or beauty of expression, merit in short of one kind or other, that so the reader may be making a second gain by the way. I can by no means claim this for all, or nearly all, of mine. Indeed, it would have been absurd to seek it in a book of which the primary aim is quite other than that of bringing together a collection of striking quotations; any merit of this kind must continually be subordinated, and, where needful, wholly sacrificed, to the purposes more immediately in view. Still there will be many citations found in these pages which, while they fulfil the primary intention with which they were quoted, are not wanting also in this secondary worth.

In my citations I have throughout acted on the principle that ‘Enough is as good as a feast:’ and that this same ‘Enough,’ as the proverb might well be completed, ‘is better than a surfeit.’ So soon as that earlier meaning, from which our present is a departure, or which once subsisted side by side with our present, however it has now disappeared, has been sufficiently established, I have held my hand, and not brought further quotations in proof. In most cases indeed it has seemed desirable to adduce passages from several authors; without which a suspicion may always remain in the mind, that we are bringing forward the exceptional peculiarity of a single writer, who even in his day stood alone. I suspect that in some, though rare, instances I have adduced exceptional uses of this kind.

One value I may claim for my book, that whatever may be wanting to it, it is with the very most trifling exceptions an entirely independent and original collection of passages illustrative of the history of our language. Of my citations, I believe about a thousand in all, I may owe some twenty at the most to existing Dictionaries or Glossaries, to Nares or Johnson or Todd or Richardson. In perhaps some twenty cases more I have lighted upon and selected a passage by one of them selected before, and have not thought it desirable, or have not found it possible, to dismiss this and choose some other in its room. These excepted, the collection is entirely independent of all those which have previously been made; and in a multitude of cases notes uses and meanings of words which have never been noted before.

Westminster: May 25, 1859.

In the present edition the ‘Select Glossary’ has been carefully revised, and a few of the articles have been rewritten. In the work of revision special attention has been paid to two points, the etymologies and the Middle English quotations. The aim of the editor has been to bring this useful and interesting little book up to date, by purging it of obsolete or doubtful etymologies, and giving those which commend themselves to the best modern authorities on the subject. Nearly all the quotations from the works of Middle English authors have been collated with the best modern editions, and care has been taken to make the references in each case as clear and precise as possible. It is hoped that the Alphabetical Lists of Authors quoted, and of Philological Works referred to, may be found useful to the student.

A. L. MAYHEW.

Wadham College, Oxford: Oct. 28, 1889.

LIST OF AUTHORS QUOTED.

The references are to the pages of the ‘Select Glossary.’ Two dates separated by a hyphen denote the birth and death date of the author; a date preceded by an obelisk denotes the death date; a single date unmarked denotes the date of the work.

• Adams, Thomas (p. [139]): The Devil’s Banquet, 1614.
• Allestree, Richard (p. [23]): Sermons, 1619-1681.
• Andrewes, Bp. (p. [154]): Sermons, 1555-1626.
• Articles of the Church, 1552.
• Ascham, Roger (pp. [13], [290]): Toxophilus, 1545; Schoolmaster (1570, published posthumously), † 1568.
• A. V., Authorized Version of the Bible, 1611.
• Bacon, Francis (pp. [12], [73], [282]), 1561-1626.
• Bale, Bp. (p. [29]): Select Works, 1495-1563.
• Ballad of John de Reeve (pp. [135], [162]); see Bishop Percy’s MS. II. 550, ed. Hales and Furnivall, 1868.
• Barnes, Robert (p. [102]): Works, † 1540.
• Barrow, Isaac (pp. [93], [98]): Sermons, 1630-1677.
• Bates, William (p. [149]): Spiritual Perfection, 1625-1699.
• Baxter, Richard (p. [98]), 1615-1691.
• Beaumont and Fletcher (pp. [11], [59]); Beaumont, Francis, 1586-1616; Fletcher, John, 1576-1625.
• Beaumont, Joseph (p. [153]): Psyche, 1616-1699.
• Becon, Thomas (pp. [73], [143]): Works, 1512-1570.
• Berners, Juliana (p. [228]): The Book of St. Albans, 1481.
• Blount, Charles (pp. [70], [141]): Philostratus, 1680, 1654-1693.
• Bolton, Edmund (p. [12]): Hypercritica, fl. 1620.
• Boorde, Andrew (p. [307]): The Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge, 1547, E.E.T.S. X.
• Broughton, Hugh (p. [302]), 1549-1612.
• Browne, Sir Thomas (p. [8]), 1605-1682.
• Burke, Edmund (p. [194]), 1729-1797.
• Burton, Robert (pp. [24], [193]): Anatomy of Melancholy, 1576-1640.
• Butler, Samuel (pp. [48], [199]): Hudibras, 1612-1680.
• Capgrave, John (p. [232]): Chronicle of England, 1460.
• Cavendish, George (p. [24]): Life of Cardinal Wolsey, † 1562.
• Caxton, William (p. [5]): Legenda Aurea, † 1491.
• Chapman, George (p. [75]): translator of Homer, 1557-1634.
• Chaucer, Geoffrey (p. [263]): The Astrolabe (p. 52), 1328-1400.
• Cheke, Sir John (p. [47]): The Gospel of St. Matthew, 1514-1557.
• Chillingworth, William (pp. [80], [218]), 1602-1644.
• Clarendon, Lord (p. [139]): History of the Rebellion, 1608-1674.
• Corbet, Richard (p. [195]): Iter Boreale, 1582-1635.
• Coryat, Thomas (p. [119]): Crudities, 1577-1617.
• Cotgrave, Randle (p. [6]): Dictionary, 1611.
• Cotta, John (p. [304]): The Trial of Witchcraft, 1616.
• Cotton, Charles (p. [224]): Montaigne’s Essays, 1685.
• Coverdale, Miles (pp. [40], [63]), 1488-1568.
• Cowell, John (p. [45]): The Interpreter, 1554-1611.
• Cowley, Abraham (pp. [33], [140], [220]), 1618-1667.
• Cranmer, Thomas (p. [33]), 1489-1556.
• Cudworth, Ralph (p. [210]): Intellectual System, 1617-1688.
• Daniel, Samuel (p. [198]): The Tragedy of Philotas, 1562-1619.
• Davenant, Sir William (p. [251]), 1605-1668.
• Davison, Francis (p. [245]): Poetical Rhapsody, 1602.
• Denham, Sir John (p. [116]), 1615-1668.
• Dodoens, History of Plants, see Lyte.
• Donne, John (p. [20]), 1573-1631.
• Drayton, Michael (pp. [58], [114], [222]), 1563-1631.
• Dryden, John (p. [99]), 1631-1701.
• Eger and Grine (p. [135]); see Bishop Percy’s Folio MS. I. 341, ed. Hales and Furnivall, 1867.
• Ellis, Clement (p. [298]): Character of a True Gentleman, 1630-1700.
• Elyot, Sir Thomas (p. [31]), † 1546.
• English Gilds (p. [186]), E.E.T.S. 40.
• Fairfax, Edward (p. [13]): Tasso, 1600.
• Faringdon, Anthony (p. [199]): Sermons, 1596-1658.
• Feltham, Owen (p. [116]): Resolves, fl. 1650.
• Fletcher, Phineas (pp. [5], [95]): Purple Island, 1584-1650.
• Florio, John (pp. [53], [119]): Montaigne, 1603; Italian Dictionary, 1598, † 1625.
• Forby, Robert (p. [132]): East Anglia, 1830.
• Foxe, John (p. [28]): Book of Martyrs, 1517-1587.
• Frith, John (p. [144]), † 1533.
• Fuller, Thomas (pp. [4], [7], [11]), 1608-1661.
• Gascoigne, George (pp. [31], [278]), † 1577.
• Gauden, John (p. [28]): Hieraspistes, 1605-1662.
• Genesis and Exodus (p. [277]), E.E.T.S. 7.
• Geneva Version of the Bible (p. [27]), 1560.
• Gibbon, Edward (p. [179]), 1737-1794.
• Glanville, Joseph (p. [279]): Sermons, 1636-1680.
• Golding, Arthur (pp. [50], [108], [156]), fl. 1570.
• Gower, John (pp. [40], [233]), † 1402.
• Grafton, Richard (pp. [118], [273]): Chronicle of King Richard III., fl. 1550.
• Greene, Robert (pp. [227], [271]): Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, † 1592.
• Grenewey, Richard (p. [128]): Tacitus, 1598.
• Grimeston, Edward (p. [76]): History of Lewis XI., 1614.
• Grindal, Edmund (p. [81]): Articles of Enquiry, 1519-1583.
• Gurnall, William (p. [37]): The Christian in Complete Armour, 1617-1679.
• Habington, William (p. [70]): History of Edward IV., 1605-1645.
• Hacket, John (p. [30]): Life of Archbishop Williams, 1592-1670.
• Hakluyt Society (p. [171]): Memorials of Japan.
• Hales, John (p. [215]): Sermons, 1584-1656.
• Hall, Bp. (p. [19]): Satires, 1574-1656.
• Hall, Edward (p. [62]): Henry V., † 1547.
• Hamilton, William (p. [40]): The Braes of Yarrow, 1704-1754.
• Hammond, Henry (p. [23]), 1605-1660.
• Hampole, Richard Rolle de (pp. [27], [130]): The Pricke of Conscience (Philolog. Soc.); The Psalter (Clar. Press), † 1349.
• Harington, Sir John (p. [49]): Orlando Furioso, 1561-1612.
• Harleian Miscellany (p. [41]), published 1808-1812.
• Harris, John (p. [120]): Voyages, 1702.
• Harrison, William (p. [298]): Description of England, 1577.
• Harvey, Gabriel (pp. [87], [177]): Pierce’s Supererogation, 1592.
• Havelok the Dane (p. [85]), E.E.T.S. IV., ab. 1300.
• Hawes, Stephen (p. [46]): Pastime of Pleasure, 1506.
• Hawkins, Sir Richard (p. [4]): Observations, 1593.
• Herbert, George (p. [40]): The Temple, 1593-1633.
• Herbert, Sir Thomas (p. [189]): Travels, 1634.
• Herrick, Robert (p. [11]): 1591-1674.
• Heylin, Peter (pp. [39], [41], [102]), 1600-1662.
• Heywood, Jasper (p. [85]): Seneca’s Hercules Furens, 1561.
• Hobbes, Thomas (p. [78]): Thucydides, 1588-1679.
• Hodgson, William (p. [35]): Verses on Ben Jonson.
• Holland, Philemon (pp. [7], [8], [13], [28], [58], [70]), 1551-1636.
• Holyday, Barten (p. [146]): Technogamia, 1593-1661.
• Homilies (p. [6]), 1562.
• Hooker, Richard (p. [83]), † 1600.
• Hooper, John (p. [18]), 1495-1555.
• Howe, John (pp. [39], [93]): The Redeemer’s Dominion, 1630-1705.
• Howell, James (pp. [32], [88], [137]): Letters, Lexicon, † 1666.
• Hutchinson, Simon (p. [132]): Drainage of Land, 1846.
• Isaacson, Henry (p. [217]): Life of Lancelot Andrewes, 1650.
• Jackson, Thomas (p. [14]): Blasphemous Positions of Jesuits, † 1640.
• Jewel, Bp. (p. [13]), 1522-1571.
• Johnson, Samuel (p. [194]), 1709-1784.
• Jonson, Ben (p. [48]), 1574-1637.
• Joseph of Arimathie (p. [40]), E.E.T.S. 44.
• King, Bp. (p. [134]), 1591-1670.
• Knolles, Richard (p. [285]): History of the Turks, † 1610.
• Kyngdome of Japonia (p. [173]).
• Latimer, Bp. (p. [4]), † 1555.
• Locke, John (p. [149]), 1632-1704.
• Lydgate, John (p. [107]): fl. 1400.
• Lyly, John (p. [120]): Euphues, 1579.
• Lyndesay, Sir David (p. [122]): The Monarchie, 1553.
• Lyte, Henry, translator of Dodoens’ History of Plants (p. [307]), 1578.
• Machyn, Henry (p. [133]): Diary, 1550, Camden Soc.
• Malory, Sir Thomas (p. [169]): Morte d’Arthur, 1469.
• Mandeville, Sir John (pp. [52], [229]): Travels, 1350.
• Marlowe, Christopher (pp. [22], [50]), 1564-1593.
• Massinger, Philip (pp. [24], [114]), 1584-1640.
• Mede, Joseph (p. [302]): Sermons, 1586-1638.
• Middleton, Thomas (p. [88]), † 1627.
• Milton, John (pp. [2], [5]), 1608-1674.
• Monro, Robert (p. [230]): His Expedition, 1657.
• More, Henry (p. [56]): Immortality of the Soul, 1662.
• More, Sir Thomas (pp. [18], [96]), 1480-1535.
• Morte Arthure (p. [130]), E.E.T.S. 8.
• Murray, Lady (p. [166]): Life of George Baillie, 1822.
• Nashe, Thomas (p. [70]): Christ’s Tears over Jerusalem, 1593.
• Nelson, Robert (p. [28]): Address to Persons of Quality, 1715.
• Nicolson, Bp. (p. [183]): Exposition of the Catechism, 1671.
• North, Thomas (pp. [10], [26], [38]): Plutarch’s Lives, fl. 1600.
• Oldham, John (p. [184]), 1653-1683.
• Oley, Barnabas (p. [265]), fl. 1650.
• Overbury, Sir Thomas (p. [142]), 1581-1613.
• Palsgrave, John (p. [265]): French Grammar, † 1564.
• Pecock, Bp. (p. [136]): Repressor, 1449, Rolls Series.
• Phillips, Edward (p. [280]): New World of Words, 1630-1680.
• Piers Plowman (p. [40]): Clar. Press, ed. Skeat.
• Pilkington, Bp. (pp. [18], [82]), 1520-1575.
• Pinkerton, John (p. [34]): Select Scottish Ballads, 1783.
• Pope, Alexander (p. [3]), 1688-1744.
• Preston, John (p. [51]): Of Spiritual Death and Life, 1587-1628.
• Promptorium Parvulorum (pp. [40], [54]), 1440, Camden Soc.
• Prynne, William (p. [242]), 1600-1699.
• Purvey, John (p. [158]), fl. 1380.
• Puttenham, George (pp. [136], [150]): Art of English Poesy, 1589.
• Quarles, Francis (p. [246]): Emblems, 1592-1644.
• Raleigh, Sir Walter (p. [83]): History of the World, 1552-1618.
• Randolph, Thomas (p. [136]), 1605-1634.
• Rawley, William (p. [207]): Life of Bacon, 1588-1667.
• Reynolds, John (p. [31]): God’s Revenge against Murder, 1621.
• Rheims Version of the New Testament, 1582.
• Richeome’s Pilgrim of Loretto (p. [61]), 1630.
• Rogers, Daniel (p. [25]): Naaman the Syrian; Matrimonial Honour, 1642.
• Romaunt of the Rose (p. [66]), ab. 1400.
• R. V., Revised Version of the Bible, 1885.
• Rycaut, Sir Paul (pp. [48], [289]), † 1700.
• Sancroft, William (p. [237]): Variorum Shakespeare, 1616-1693.
• Sanderson, Bp. (pp. [68], [104]), 1587-1663.
• Scoticisms (p. [47]), 1787.
• Selden, John (p. [125]), 1584-1654.
• Seven Champions, The (p. [19]).
• Shaftesbury, Lord (p. [138]), 1671-1713.
• Shakespeare, William (pp. [2], [185]), 1564-1616.
• Shirley, James (p. [152]), † 1666.
• Short Catechism, A (p. [20]), 1553.
• Sidney, Sir Philip (p. [16]), 1564-1586.
• Skelton, John (p. [277]): Manerly Margery, † 1529.
• Skinner, Stephen (pp. [48], [165]): Etymologicon, 1671.
• Smollett, Tobias (p. [57]), 1721-1771.
• Somers’ Tracts (p. [277]).
• South, Robert (p. [15]), 1633-1716.
• Southwell, Robert (p. [193]): Lewd Love is Loss, 1560-1595.
• Spectator, The, 1711-1714.
• Spenser, Edmund (pp. [11], [162]), † 1599.
• Stanyhurst, Richard (p. [283]), † 1618.
• State Papers (p. [52]).
• Sterling, Lord (p. [59]): Darius, 1603.
• Stow, John (p. [143]): Annals, 1525-1605.
• Strong, William (p. [222]): Of the Two Covenants, 1678.
• Strype, John (pp. [34], [124]), 1643-1737.
• Stubbes, Philip (pp. [30], [278]): Anatomy of Abuses, 1583.
• Surrey, Earl of (p. [165]), † 1547.
• Swedish Intelligencer (p. [174]), 1632-1635.
• Swift, Jonathan (p. [264]), 1667-1745.
• Sydenham, Humphrey (p. [97]): The Athenian Babbler, 1627, † 1650.
• Sylvester, Joshua (p. [29]), 1563-1618.
• Taylor, Bp. (pp. [4], [7], [12]), 1613-1667.
• Temple, Sir William (p. [7]), 1628-1698.
• Teonge, Henry (p. [238]): Diary, 1675.
• Townley Mysteries (p. [189]), Surtees Soc.
• Trevelyan Papers (p. [86]), Camden Soc.
• Trevisa (p. [258]), Rolls Series, 41.
• Turkish Spy (p. [273]).
• Tusser, Thomas (pp. [31], [208]): Points of Good Husbandry, 1516-1580.
• Tyndale, William (pp. [49], [54], [65]), † 1536.
• Waller, Edmund (p. [14]), 1605-1687.
• Walpole, Horace (p. [256]), 1717-1797.
• Webster, John (p. [11]): Duchess of Malfi, printed 1619
• Weever, John (p. [133]), 1576-1632.
• Whitlock, Richard (p. [8]): Zootomia, 1654.
• Wiclif, John (pp. [9], [158]), † 1384.
• William of Palerne (p. [153]), E.E.T.S. I.
• Wood, Antony à (pp. [87], [188]), 1632-1695.
• Worthington, William (p. [287]): Life of Joseph Mede, 1703-1778.

PHILOLOGICAL WORKS REFERRED TO.

• Davies, Supplementary English Glossary, 1881.
• Grimm, J. and W., Deutsches Wörterbuch, 1854 ff.
• Halliwell, Dict. of Archaic and Provincial Words, 1874.
• Kluge, Etym. Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 1888.
• Marsh, Lectures on the English Language, 1861.
• Mätzner, Altenglisches Wörterbuch (A-I), 1878 ff.
• Mayhew-Skeat, Concise Dict. of Middle English, 1888.
• N.E.D., New English Dict., ed. Murray, 1884 ff.
• Oliphant, The New English, 1886.
• Skeat, Etym. Dict. of Eng. Lang., 1884.
• Trench: Study of Words, 1888; English Past and Present, 1889; Synonyms of the New Test., 1886.
• Wright-Wülcker: Old English Vocabularies, 1884.

A
SELECT GLOSSARY
ETC.

[Abandon. Now only used in the sense of to give up absolutely, to forsake, or desert; but in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries often found in the sense of to put to the ban, to proscribe, to cast out, reject. O. Fr. abandoner, to give up into the power of another, is due to the phrase mettre à bandon, to put under anyone’s jurisdiction; O. Fr. bandon (Low Lat. bandonem) is a derivative of Low Lat. bandum for older bannum; O. H. G. ban, an order, decree, proclamation. For O. Fr. bandon, used in the sense of free disposal, unfettered authority, compare Chanson de Roland, 2703: ‘All Spain will be to-day en lur bandun,’ i.e. in their power. The Germanic word bann, an open proclamation, survives in our ‘banns of marriage.’ The word bandit, It. bandito, means properly a proclaimed, proscribed man.]

Blessed shall ye be when men shall hate you, and abandon your name as evil [et ejecerint nomen vestrum tanquam malum, Vulg.] for the Son of man’s sake.—Luke vi. 22. Rheims.

Beggar. Madame wife, they say that I have dreamed

And slept above some fifteen years or more.

Lady. Aye, and the time seems thirty unto me,

Being all this time abandoned from thy bed.

Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew, act i. sc. 1.

Achievement. Of ‘achievement’ and ‘hatchment’ it need hardly be said that the latter is a contracted and corrupted manner of pronouncing the former. This ‘achievement’ or ‘hatchment’ is an escutcheon or coat of arms erected when a person of distinction has died; originally so called from its being granted in memory of some ‘achievement’ or distinguished feat. In the Heralds’ College there are ‘achievements’ still, as there were for Milton two centuries ago; but in our common language we call them ‘hatchments,’ and have let any such employment of ‘achievement’ go.

As if a herald in the achievement of a king should commit the indecorum to set his helmet sideways and close; not full-faced and open, as the posture of direction and command.—Milton, Tetrachordon.

Act. The verb ‘to actuate’ seems of comparatively late introduction into the language. The first example of it which our Dictionaries give is drawn from the works of the Latinist, Sir Thomas Browne, of Norwich. I have also met it in Jeremy Taylor.[1] But even for some time after ‘actuate’ was introduced—as late, we see, as Pope,—‘act’ did often the work which ‘actuate’ alone does now.

Within, perhaps, they are as proud as Lucifer, as covetous as Demas, as false as Judas, and in the whole course of their conversation act and are acted, not by devotion, but design.—South, Sermons, 1737, vol. ii. p. 391.

Many offer at the effects of friendship; but they do not last. They are promising at the beginning, but they fail and jade and tire in the prosecution. For most people in the world are acted by levity and humour, and by strange and irrational changes.—Id. Ib., vol. ii. p. 73.

Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul.

Pope, Essay on Man, ep 2.

Adamant. It is difficult to trace the exact motives which induced the transferring of this name to the lodestone; but it is common enough in our best English writers, thus in Chaucer, Bacon, and Shakespeare; as is ‘aimant’ in French, and ‘iman’ in Spanish. See ‘Diamond,’ and the art. ‘Adamant’ in Appendix A to the Dictionary of the Bible.

Right as an adamaund, iwys,

Can drawen to hym sotylly

The yren, that is leid therby,

So drawith folkes hertis, ywis,

Silver and gold that yeven is.

Romaunt of the Rose, 1182 (ed. Morris).

Demetrius. Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.

Helena. You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;

And yet you draw not iron, for my heart

Is true as steel.

Shakespeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream, act ii. sc. 1.

If you will have a young man to put his travel in little room, when he stayeth in one city or town, let him change his lodging from one end and part of the town to another; which is a great adamant of acquaintance.—Bacon, Essays, 18.

Admiral. This was a title often given in the seventeenth century to the principal and leading vessel in a fleet; the ‘admiral-galley’ North (Plutarch’s Lives) calls it.

Falstaff (to Bardolph).—Thou art our admiral; thou bearest the lantern in the poop—but ’tis the nose of thee; thou art the Knight of the Burning Lamp.—Shakespeare, 1 Henry IV., act iii. sc. 3.

Lincoln spake what was fit for comfort, and did what he was able for redress. He looked like the lanthorn in the admiral, by which the rest of the fleet did steer their course.—Hacket, Life of Archbishop Williams, part ii. p. 143.

His spear—to equal which the tallest pine

Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast

Of some great ammiral, were but a wand—

He walked with, to support uneasy steps

Over the burning marle.

Milton, Paradise Lost, i. 292.

The admiral of the Spanish Armada was a Flemish ship.—Hawkins, Observations, &c., 1622, p. 9.

It now always implies to wonder with approval; but was by no means restrained to this wonder in bonam partem of old.

Neither is it to be admired that Henry [the Fourth], who was a wise as well as a valiant prince, should be pleased to have the greatest wit of those times in his interests, and to be the trumpet of his praises.—Dryden, Preface to the Fables.

Let none admire

That riches grow in hell; that soil may best

Deserve the precious bane.

Milton, Paradise Lost, i. 690.

It may justly seem admirable how that senseless religion [Mahometanism] should gain so much on Christianity.—Fuller, Holy War, part i. c. 6.

In man there is nothing admirable but his ignorance and weakness.—Bishop Taylor, Dissuasive from Popery, part ii. b. i. § 7.

I understand that you be in great admirations of me, and take very grievously my manner of writing to you.—Latimer, Sermons and Remains, vol. ii. p. 419.

And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints ... and when I saw her I wondered with great admiration.—Rev. xvii. 6. (A.V.)

Alchymy. By this we always understand now the pretended art of transmuting other metals into gold; but it was often used to express itself a certain mixed metal, which, having the appearance of gold, was yet mainly composed of brass. Thus the notion of falseness, of show and semblance not borne out by reality, frequently underlay the earlier uses of the word. Compare the second quotation under ‘Bullion.’

As for those gildings and paintings that were in the palace of Alcyna, though the show of it were glorious, the substance of it was dross, and nothing but alchymy and cosenage.—Sir J. Harington, A brief Allegory of Orlando Furioso.

Whereupon out of most deep divinity it was concluded, that they should not celebrate the sacrament in glass, for the brittleness of it; nor in wood, for the sponginess of it, which would suck up the blood; nor in alchymy, because it was subject to rusting; nor in copper, because that would provoke vomiting; but in chalices of latten, which belike was a metal without exception.—Fuller, Holy War, b. iii. c. 13.

Toward the four winds four speedy Cherubim

Put to their mouths the sounding alchymy.

Milton, Paradise Lost, ii. 516.

Such were his arms, false gold, true alchemy.—P. Fletcher, Purple Island, vii. 39.

‘To allow,’ from the French ‘allouer,’ and through it from the Latin ‘allaudare,’—and not to be confounded with another ‘allow,’ derived from another ‘allouer,’ the Latin ‘allocare,’—had once a sense very often of praise or approval, which may now be said to have departed from it altogether. Thus in Cotgrave’s French and English Dictionary, an invaluable witness of the force and meanings which words had two centuries ago, ‘allow’ is rendered by ‘allouer,’ ‘gréer,’ ‘approuver,’ ‘accepter,’ and ‘allowable’ by ‘louable.’

Mine enemy, say they, is not worthy to have gentle words or deeds, being so full of malice or frowardness. The less he is worthy, the more art thou therefore allowed of God, and the more art thou commended of Christ.—Homilies; Against Contention.

The hospitality and alms of abbeys is not altogether to be allowed, or dispraised.—Pilkington, The Burning of Paul’s, § 12.

Truly ye bear witness that ye allow [συνευδοκεῖτε] the deeds of your fathers.—Luke xi. 48. (A. V.)

A stirring dwarf we do allowance give

Before a sleeping giant.

Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, act ii. sc. 3.

Though I deplore your schism from the Catholic Church, yet I should bear false witness if I did not confess your decency, which I discerned at the holy duty, was very allowable in the consecrators and receivers.—Hacket, Life of Archbishop Williams, part ii. p. 211.

Amiable. This and ‘lovely’ have been so far differentiated that ‘amiable’ never expresses now any other than moral loveliness; which in ‘lovely’ is seldom or never implied. There was a time when ‘amiable’ had no such restricted use, when it and ‘lovely’ were absolutely synonymous, as, etymologically, they might claim still to be.

Come sit thee down upon this flow’ry bed,

While I thy amiable cheeks do coy.

Shakespeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream, act iv. sc. 1.

How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts.—Ps. lxxxiv. 1. (A.V.)

Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm,

Others whose fruit, burnished with golden rind,

Hung amiable.

Milton, Paradise Lost, iv. 248.

The notion of diversion, entertainment, is comparatively of recent introduction into the word. ‘To amuse’ was to cause to muse, to occupy or engage, and in this sense indeed to divert, the thoughts and attention. The quotation from Phillips shows the word in transition to its present meaning. [O. Fr. amuser is a compound of muser, to muse, study, linger about a matter, to sniff as a hound, from *muse, a muzzle, nose of an animal (whence Mod. Fr. museau). Compare Florio’s Italian Dictionary: ‘Musare, to muse, to muzzle, to gape, to hold one’s muzle or snout in the air.’ The O. Fr. *muse is the same word as the Lat. morsus, see Mayhew-Skeat, Dict. of Middle English.]

Camillus set upon the Gauls, when they were amused in receiving their gold.—Holland, Livy, p. 223.

Being amused with grief, fear, and fright, he could not find a house in London (otherwise well known to him), whither he intended to go.—Fuller, Church History of Britain, b. ix. § 44.

A siege of Maestricht or Wesel (so garrisoned and resolutely defended), might not only have amused, but endangered the French armies.—Sir W. Temple, Observations on the United Provinces, c. 8.

To amuse, to stop or stay one with a trifling story, to make him lose his time, to feed with vain expectations, to hold in play.—Phillips, New World of Words.

In a just way it is lawful to deceive the unjust enemy, but not to lie; that is, by stratagems and semblances of motions, by amusements and intrigues of actions, by ambushes and wit, by simulation and dissimulation.—Bishop Taylor, Ductor Dubitantium, b. iii. c. 2.

Anatomy. Now the act of dissection, but it was often used by our elder writers for the thing or object dissected, and then, as this was stripped of its flesh, for what we now call a skeleton. ‘Skeleton,’ which see, had then another meaning.

Here will be some need of assistants in this live, and to the quick, dissection, to deliver me from the violence of the anatomy.—Whitlock, Zootomia, p. 249.

Antiquity held too light thoughts from objects of mortality, while some drew provocatives of mirth from anatomies, and jugglers showed tricks with skeletons.—Sir T. Browne, Hydriotaphia.

A hungry lean-faced villain,

A mere anatomy, a mountebank,

A needy, hollow-eyed, sharp-looking wretch,

A living deadman.

Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors, act v. sc. 1.

Animosity. While ‘animosus’ belongs to the best period of Latin literature, ‘animositas’ is of quite the later silver age. It was used in two senses; in that, first, of spiritedness or courage (‘equi animositas,’ the courage of a horse), and then, secondly, as this spiritedness in one particular direction, in that, namely, of a vigorous and active enmity or hatred (Heb. xi. 27, Vulg.) Of these two meanings the latter is the only one which our ‘animosity’ has retained; yet there was a time when it had the other as well.

When her [the crocodile’s] young be newly hatched, such as give some proof of animosity, audacity, and execution, those she loveth, those she cherisheth.—Holland, Plutarch’s Morals, p. 977.

Doubtless such as are of a high-flown animosity affect fortunas laviniosas, as one calls it, a fortune that sits not strait and close to the body, but like a loose and a flowing garment.—Hacket, Life of Archbishop Williams, part i. p. 30.

In these cases consent were conspiracy; and open contestation is not faction or schism, but due Christian animosity.—Hales, Tract concerning Schism.

Cato, before he durst give the fatal stroke, spent part of the night in reading the Immortality of Plato, thereby confirming his wavering hand unto the animosity of that attempt.—Sir T. Browne, Hydriotaphia.

Now rather to vex and disquiet than seriously to hurt and harm. But until comparatively a late day, it admitted no such mitigation of meaning. [The subst. annoy is the O. Fr. anoi (Mod. Fr. ennui), Sp. enojo, O. It. inodio, from Lat. in odio, lit. in hatred, used in the phrase in odio habui, I had in hatred, i.e. I was sick and tired of.]

For the Lord Almygti anoyede [nocuit, Vulg.] hym, and bitook him into the hondes of a womman.—Judith xvi. 7. Wiclif.

Thanne cometh malignité, thurgh which a man annoieth his neighebor, as for to brenne his hous prively, or empoysone him, or sleen his bestis, and semblable thinges.—Chaucer, The Persones Tale (Morris, p. 306).

Against the Capitol I met a lion,

Which glared upon me, and went surly by,

Without annoying me.

Shakespeare, Julius Cæsar, act i. sc. 3.

Look after her,

Remove from her the means of all annoyance,

And still keep eyes upon her.

Id. Macbeth, act v. sc. 1.

Antics. Strange gestures now, but the makers of these strange gestures once.

Behold, destruction, fury, and amazement,

Like witless antics, one another meet.

Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, act v. sc. 4.

Have they not sword-players, and every sort

Of gymnic artists, wrestlers, riders, runners,

Jugglers and dancers, antics, mummers, mimics?

Milton, Samson Agonistes, 1323.

With the exception of the one phrase ‘heir apparent,’ meaning heir evident, manifest, undoubted, we do not any longer employ ‘apparent’ for that which appears, because it is, but always either for that which appears and is not, or for that which appears, leaving in doubt whether it is or no.

It is apparent foul play; and ’tis shame

That greatness should so grossly offer it.

Shakespeare, King John, act iv. sc. 2.

At that time Cicero had vehement suspicions of Cæsar, but no apparent proof to convince him.—North, Plutarch’s Lives, p. 718.

The laws of God cannot without breach of Christian liberty, and the apparent injury of God’s servants, be hid from them in a strange language, so depriving them of their best defence against Satan’s temptations.—Fuller, Twelve Sermons concerning Christ’s Temptations, p. 59.

Love was not in their looks, either to God

Or to each other, but apparent guilt,

And shame and perturbation and despair.

Milton, Paradise Lost, x. 111.

At that time [at the resurrection of the last day], as the Scripture doth most apparently testify, the dead shall be restored to their own bodies, flesh and bones.—Articles of the Church (1552).

Apprehensive. As there is nothing which persons lay hold of more readily than that aspect of a subject in which it presents matter for fear, ‘to apprehend’ has acquired the sense of to regard with fear; yet not so as that this use has excluded its earlier; but it has done so in respect of ‘apprehensive,’ which has now no other meaning than that of fearful, a meaning once quite foreign to it.

See their odds in death:

Appius died like a Roman gentleman,

And a man both ways knowing; but this slave

Is only sensible of vicious living,

Not apprehensive of a noble death.

Webster, Appius and Virginius, act v. sc. 3.

She, being an handsome, witty, and bold maid, was both apprehensive of the plot, and very active to prosecute it.—Fuller, The Profane State, b. v. c. 5.

My father would oft speak

Your worth and virtue; and as I did grow

More and more apprehensive, I did thirst

To see the man so praised.

Beaumont and Fletcher, Philaster, act v. sc. 1.

Ark. The ark of Noah, and ark of the covenant, were not the only ‘arks’ of which our ancestors spoke. Indeed, in Lancashire at this day a press to keep clothes in is an ‘ark,’ a large bin for holding meal a ‘meal-ark.’

Then first of all came forth Sir Satyrane,

Bearing that precious relicke in an arke

Of gold.

Spenser, Fairy Queen, iv. 4, 15.

In the riche arke Dan Homers rimes he placed.

Earl of Surrey, Poems, p. 35 (ed. 1717).

You have beheld how they

With wicker arks did come,

To kiss and bear away

The richer cowslips home.

Herrick, Hesperides.

That was ‘artificial’ once which wrought, or which was wrought, according to the true principles of art. The word has descended into quite a lower sphere of meaning; such, indeed, as the quotation from Bacon shows, it could occupy formerly, though not then exactly the same which it occupies now.

Queen Elizabeth’s verses, some extant in the elegant, witty, and artificial book of The Art of English Poetry, are princely as her prose.—Bolton, Hypercritica.

We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,[2]

Have with our neelds created both one flower.

Shakespeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream, act iii. sc. 2.

This is a demonstration that we are not in the right way, that we do not enquire wisely, that our method is not artificial. If men did fall upon the right way, it were impossible that so many learned men should be engaged in contrary parties and opinions.—Bishop Taylor, A Sermon preached before the University of Dublin.

This he did the rather, because having at his coming out of Britain given artificially, for serving his own turn, some hopes in case he obtained the kingdom, to marry Anne, inheritress to the duchy of Britany.—Bacon, History of Henry VII.

Artillery. Leaving the perplexed question of the derivation of this word,[3] it will be sufficient to observe, that while it is now only applied to the heavy ordnance of modern warfare, in earlier use any engines for the projecting of missiles, even to the bow and arrows, would have been included under this term.

The Parthians, having all their hope in artillery, overcame the Romans ofter than the Romans them.—Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 106 (ed. 1761).

So the Philistines, the better to keep the Jews thrall and in subjection, utterly bereaved them of all manner of weapon and artillery, and left them naked.—Jewel, Reply to Mr. Harding, article xv.

The Gods forbid, quoth he, one shaft of thine

Should be discharged ’gainst that discourteous knight;

His heart unworthy is, shootress divine,

Of thine artillery to feel the might.

Fairfax, Tasso, b. 17, s. 49.

And Jonathan gave his artillery (weapons, R.V.) unto his lad, and said unto him, Go, carry them to the city.—1 Sam. xx. 40. (A.V.)

‘Artisan’ is no longer either in English or in French used of him who cultivates one of the fine arts, but only those of common life. The fine arts, losing this word, have now claimed ‘artist’ for their exclusive property; which yet was far from belonging to them always. An ‘artist’ in its earlier acceptation was one who cultivated, not the fine, but the liberal arts. The classical scholar was eminently the ‘artist.’ ‘Artful’ did not any more than ‘cunning,’ which see, imply art which had degenerated into artifice or trick.

He was mightily abashed, and like an honest-minded man yielded the victory unto his adversary, saying withal, Zeuxis hath beguiled poor birds, but Parrhasius hath deceived Zeuxis, a professed artisan.—Holland, Pliny, vol. ii. p. 535.

Rare artisan, whose pencil moves

Not our delights alone, but loves!

Waller, Lines to Van Dyck.

For then the bold and coward,

The wise and fool, the artist and unread,

The hard and soft, seem all affined and kin.

Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, act i. sc. 3.

Nor would I dissuade any artist well grounded in Aristotle from perusing the most learned works any Romanist hath written in this argument. In other controversies between them and us it is dangerous, I must confess, even for well-grounded artists to begin with their writings, not so in this.—Jackson, Blasphemous Positions of Jesuits, Preface.

Some will make me the pattern of ignorance for making this Scaliger [Julius] the pattern of the general artist, whose own son Joseph might have been his father in many arts.—Fuller, Holy State, b. ii. c. 8.

Stupendous pile! not reared by mortal hands;

Whate’er proud Rome or artful Greece beheld,

Or elder Babylon its fame excelled.

Pope, Temple of Fame.

Ascertain. Now to acquire a certain knowledge of a thing, but once to render the thing itself certain. Thus, when Swift wrote a pamphlet having this title, ‘A Proposal for correcting, improving, and ascertaining the English Tongue,’ he did not propose to obtain a subjective certainty of what the English language was, but to give to the language itself an objective certainty and fixedness.

Sometimes an evil or an obnoxious person hath so secured and ascertained a mischief to himself, that he that stays in his company or his traffic must also share in his punishment.—Bishop Taylor, The Return of Prayers.

Success is intended him [the wicked man] only as a curse, as the very greatest of curses, and the readiest way, by hardening him in his sin, to ascertain his destruction.—South, Sermons, vol. v. p. 286.

Aspersion. Now only used figuratively, and in an evil sense; being that which one sprinkles on another to spot, stain, or hurt him: but subject to none of these limitations of old.

The book of Job, and many places of the prophets, have great aspersion of natural philosophy.—Bacon, Fiium Labyrinthi.

No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall

To make this contract grow.

Shakespeare, Tempest, act iv. sc. 1.

It is difficult to say at what date the name of ‘assassin,’ given first to the emissaries of the ‘Old Man of the Mountain,’ who were sent forth on his errands of blood, and who bore this name because maddened with ‘haschisch,’ a drink drawn from hemp, was transferred to other secret slayers. The word does not occur in Shakespeare (‘assassination’ once), and only once in Milton’s verse. Neither is it found in our English Bible; although it may be a question whether ‘assassins’ would not be an apter, as it would certainly be a closer, rendering of σικάριοι, on the one occasion of this word’s appearing (Acts xxi. 38), than the ‘murderers’ which we have actually adopted.[4] The verb ‘to assassinate,’ as used by Milton, obtained a meaning which still survives in the French ‘assassiner’ and the Italian ‘assassinare,’ and signifies, as these often do, treacherously to assault, extremely to maltreat, without suggesting the actual taking away of life, which ‘to assassinate’ now always implies for us. Doubtless it was the Italian use of the word which influenced him.

These assassins were a precise sect of Mahometans, and had in them the very spirits of that poisonous superstition.—Fuller, Holy War, b. ii. c. 34.

As for the custom that some parents and guardians have of forcing marriages, it will be better to say nothing of such a savage inhumanity, but only thus, that the law which gives not all freedom of divorce to any creature endued with reason, so assassinated, is next in cruelty.—Milton, The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, b. i. c. 12.

Such usage as your honourable lords

Afford me, assassinated and betrayed.

Milton, Samson Agonistes, 1108.

Used often in our elder writers in the sense of ‘to betroth,’ or ‘to affiance.’ See ‘Ensure,’ ‘Sure.’

King Philip. Young princes, close your hands.

Austria. And your lips too; for I am well assured

That I did so, when I was first assured.

Shakespeare, King John, act ii. sc. 2.

I myself have seen Lollia Paulina, only when she was to go unto a wedding supper, or rather to a feast when the assurance was made, so beset and bedeckt all over with emeralds and pearls.—Holland, Pliny, vol. i. p. 256.

But though few days were before the day of assurance appointed, yet Love, that saw he had a great journey to make in a short time, hasted so himself, that before her word could tie her to Demagoras, her heart hath vowed her to Argalus.—Sir Philip Sidney, Arcadia, p. 17.

Astonish. ‘To astonish’ has now loosened itself altogether from its etymology. The man ‘astonished’ can now be hardly said to be ‘thunderstruck,’ either in a literal or a figurative sense. But continually in our early literature we shall quite fall below the writer’s intention unless we read this meaning into the word.[5]

Stone-still, astonished with this deadly deed,

Stood Collatine and all his lordly crew.

Shakespeare, Lucrece.

The knaves that lay in wait behind rose up and rolled down two huge stones, whereof the one smote the king upon the head, the other astonished his shoulder.—Holland, Livy, p. 1124.

The cramp-fish [the torpedo] knoweth her own force and power, and being herself not benumbed, is able to astonish others.—Id. Pliny, vol. i. p. 261.

In matters of religion, blind, astonished, and struck with superstition as with a planet; in one word, monks.—Milton, History of England, b. ii.

As ‘chemist’ only little by little disengaged itself from ‘alchemist,’ and that, whether we have respect to the thing itself, or the name of the thing, so ‘astronomer’ from ‘astrologer,’ ‘astronomy’ from ‘astrology.’ It was long before the broad distinction between the lying art and the true science was recognized and fixed in words.

If any enchantress should come unto her, and make promise to draw down the moon from heaven, she would mock these women and laugh at their gross ignorance, who suffer themselves to be persuaded for to believe the same, as having learned somewhat in astrology.—Holland, Plutarch’s Morals, p. 324.

The astrologer is he that knoweth the course and motion of the heavens, and teacheth the same; which is a virtue if it pass not his bounds, and become of an astrologer an astronomer, who taketh upon him to give judgment and censure of these motions and courses of the heavens, what they prognosticate and destiny unto the creature.—Hooper, Early Writings, Parker Society’s Edition, p. 731.

See ‘Astrology.’

Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck,

And yet, methinks, I have astronomy,

But not to tell of good or evil luck,

Of plagues, of dearths, of seasons’ quality.

Shakespeare, Sonnets, 14.

Bowe ye not to astronomyers, neither axe ye onything of fals dyvynours.—Levit. xix. 31. Wiclif.

If astronomers say true, every man at his birth by his constellation hath divers things and desires appointed him.—Pilkington, Exposition upon the Prophet Aggeus, c. i.

The notion of satisfaction lies now in these words rather than that of reconciliation. An ‘atonement’ is the satisfaction of a wrong which one party has committed against another, not the reconciliation of two estranged parties. This last, however, was its earlier meaning; and is in harmony with its etymology; for which see the quotation from Bishop Hall.

He and Aufidius can no more atone

Than violentest contrarieties.

Shakespeare, Coriolanus, act iv. sc. 6.

His first essay succeeded so well, Moses would adventure on a second design, to atone two Israelites at variance.—Fuller, A Pisgah Sight of Palestine, vol. ii. p. 92.

Having more regard to their old variance than their new atonement.—Sir T. More, History of King Richard III.

Ye witless gallants I beshrew your hearts,

That set such discord twixt agreeing parts

Which never can be set at onement more.

Bishop Hall, Sat. 3. 7.

If Sir John Falstaff have committed disparagements unto you, I am of the Church, and will be glad to do my benevolence, to make atonements and compromises between you.—Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, act i. sc. 1.

Attire. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries specially head-dress, head-gear. ‘Attired with stars’ in Milton’s beautiful lines On Time is not, clothed with stars, but, crowned with them; compare Rev. xii. 1: ‘upon her head a crown of twelve stars.’

She tore her attire from her head, and rent her golden hair.—The Seven Champions, b. ii. c. 13.

With the linen mitre shall he be attired.—Lev. xvi. 4. (A. V.)

Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads.—Ezek. xxiii. 15 (A. V.)

The heralds call the Horns of a Stag or Buck his Attire.—Bradley, Fam. Dict. s. v.

Attorney. Seldom used now except of the attorney at law; being one, according to Blackstone’s definition, ‘who is put in the place, stead, or turn of another to manage his matters of law;’ and even in this sense it is going out of honour, and giving way to ‘solicitor.’ But formerly any who in any cause acted in the room, behalf, or turn of another would be called his ‘attorney;’ thus Phillips (New World of Words) defines attorney, ‘one appointed by another man to do anything in his stead, or to take upon him the charge of his business in his absence;’ and in proof of what high use the word might have, I need but refer to the quotation which immediately follows:

Our everlasting and only High Bishop; our only attorney, our mediator, only peacemaker between God and men.—A Short Catechism, 1553.

Attorneys are denied me,

And therefore personally I lay my claim

To my inheritance of free descent.

Shakespeare, King Richard II. act ii. sc. 3.

Tertullian seems to understand this baptism for the dead [1 Cor. xv. 29] de vicario baptismate, of baptism by an attorney, by a proxy, which should be baptized for me when I am dead.—Donne, Sermons, 1640, p. 794.

Authentic. A distinction drawn by Bishop Watson between ‘genuine’ and ‘authentic’ has been often quoted: ‘A genuine book is that which was written by the person whose name it bears as the author of it. An authentic book is that which relates matters of fact as they really happened.’ Of ‘authentic’ he has certainly not seized the true force, neither do the uses of it by good writers bear him out. The true opposite to αὐθεντικός in Greek is ἀδέσποτος, and ‘authentic’ is properly original, independent, and thus coming with authority, authoritative.[6] Thus, an ‘authentic’ document is, in its first meaning, a document written by the proper hand of him from whom it professes to proceed. In all the passages which follow it will be observed that the word might be exchanged for ‘authoritative.’

As doubted tenures, which long pleadings try,

Authentic grow by being much withstood.

Davenant, Gondibert, b. ii.

Should men be admitted to read Galen or Hippocrates, and yet the monopoly of medicines permitted to some one empiric or apothecary, not liable to any account, there might be a greater danger of poisoning than if these grand physicians had never written; for that might be prescribed them by such an authentic mountebank as a cordial, which the other had detected for poison.—Jackson, The Eternal Truth of Scriptures, b. ii. c. 23.

Which letter in the copy his lordship read over, and carried the authentic with him.—Hacket, Life of Archbishop Williams, part ii. p. 24.

It were extreme partiality and injustice, the flat denial and overthrow of herself [i.e. of Justice], to put her own authentic sword into the hand of an unjust and wicked man.—Milton, Εἰκονοκλάστης. c. 28.

[A father] to instil the rudiments of vice into the unwary flexible years of his poor children, poisoning their tender minds with the irresistible authentic venom of his base example!—South, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 190; cf. vol. viii. p. 171.

Men ought to fly all pedantisms, and not rashly to use all words that are met with in every English writer, whether authentic or not.—Phillips, New World of Words, Preface.

This used once to be often employed of that which felt awe; it is only employed now of that which inspires it.

The kings sat still with awful eye,

As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by.

Milton, On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity.

The highest flames are the most tremulous, and so are the most holy and eminent religious persons more full of awfulness, of fear and modesty and humility.—Bishop Taylor, Life of Christ, part i. § 5.

Awkward. In its present signification, unhandy, ungainly, maladroit; but formerly[7] untoward, and that, whether morally or physically, perverse, contrary, sinister, unlucky.

With awkward wind and with sore tempest driven

To fall on shore.