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DICTIONARY OF EARLY ENGLISH 



MIDCENTURY 
REFERENCE LIBRARY 

DAGOBERT D. RUNES, Ph.D., General Editor 



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PHILOSOPHICAL LIBRARY, INC. 
Publishers 



15 E. 40th Street 



New York 16, N. Y. 



DICTIONARY OF 

EARLY ENGLISH 



JOSEPH T. SHIPLEY 



'ith a Preface oy 

MARK VAN DOREN 




PHILOSOPHICAL LIBRARY 

IN e\\r York 



Copyright, 1955, by 
PHILOSOPHICAL LIBRARY, INC. 

15 East 40th Street, New York, N. Y. 
All rights reserved 



Printed in the United States of America 



To 



BURKE _, THORNE 

and 
NICOLE LINDA 



PREFACE 



Mr. Shipley's Dictionary has been a delight to me, and I can imagine no 
reader, erudite or otherwise, to whom it will be anything less than that, I 
claim no erudition in my own case;*I am not a student of the English language 
of its history, at any rate nor am I, to tell the truth, a scholar of any sort. 
But this does not prevent me from taking a lively and perpetual interest in the 
words men use and have used. There is a sense in which man lives by words 
more than he does by bread; neither is enough for life alone, but whereas 
all animals must eat in order to keep on being themselves, only man must talk 
to this same end. And Mr. Shipley shows him, in so far as he talks English, 
as having pleased himself, generation after generation, by more words than we 
might suppose would ever be remembered, let alone written or spoken in 
their time. 

Among these there are monsters like floccinaucinihilipilification and honor- 
ificabilitudinitatibus which amuse us rather than enlighten us concerning the 
way our forebears thought. Mr. Shipley is rightly more interested in a host 
of terms, gathered by him out of a thousand years, from which we can learn 
fascinating things about the folklore, the medicine, the psychology, the 
philosophy, the art, the cookery, the morals, and the entertainments of ages 
that long since went to sleep and for the most part have ceased even to dream. 
Yet some of them do dream, and to the extent that we can participate in the 
experience we may find ourselves edified; for it is not alone in our generation 
that men have been sensible, acute, and wise. Mr. Shipley is nowhere more 
interesting than he is in those unobtrusive notes or side-remarks which span 
like an electrician's arc the distance between dead and living days, and make 
us wish that we had not thrown away certain words for which we still have 
the things. "Everyman's wife, in America, is noted for her emacity." Absalon- 
ism., he suggests, might still "serve the psychoanalysts." Accidie has been a 
genuine loss for something we shall have always with us; so has atonement 
in its original meaning; and so perhaps has glother I should love to be able 
to say to someone, "Don't glother me," and be sure that he understood. 

But every reader will find his own examples in this copious work which 
will so richly repay the investment of long evenings devoted to it; and these 
evenings need not be merely winter ones; they could be aestival as well. 

Mark Van Doren 
vii 



INTRODUCTION 



"Forgotten" Words 

If a word were completely forgotten, I could not list it here. One man's 
oblivion, moreover, may be another's crowded store. 

Gathered in this DICTIONARY are, in the main, words that have dropped 
from general use. Many of them are Anglo-Saxon words that have been re- 
placed by other terms, or that describe ways of living that have passed. Others 
are learned introductions into our tongue, fashioned from Latin or Greek 
forms, that failed to take long root. In many cases, words came into the 
language in various forms, only some of which not always the simplest; see 
couth may have won survival. 

Language is in a constant process of change, of growth here and decay 
there; although, since recorded writing, no word has wholly died. Some words, 
indeed, have been so transformed as to mean their own opposite (see avaunt). 
In this DICTIONARY are a few still current words, included because of their 
old associations, or because of older meanings lapsed from use. 

The Basis of Selection 

From the vast number of words used in the English past, selection has been 
guided by the following principles. There have been included: 

(1) Words that are likely to be met in literary reading. Chaucer, Spenser, 
Shakespeare, the Tudor pamphlets and translations, are richly represented 
in words and illustrative quotations. The late 18th and early 19th century 
revival has been culled: Chatterton, Ossian; Percy's Reliques and Child's 
Ballads; Scott, in his efforts to bring picturesque words back into use. In 
addition, anthologies, for the general reader or the student, have been ex- 
amined, and works they include combed for forgotten words. 

(2) Words that belong to the history of early England, describing or illumi- 
nating social conditions, political (e.g., feudal) divisions or distinctions, and 
all the ways of living, of thinking and feeling, in earlier times. Anxiety, for ex- 
ample, is indicated, not in the 99 phobias listed in a psychiatric glossary of the 
1950*5 but in the 120 methods (see aeromancy) of discovering if not influencing 
the future. 

Incidentally, research for this volume has made it quite clear that once upon 
a time (as all good stories start!) the English were superb cooks. Cardinal 



Introduction 



Wolsey had 22 specialists in his private kitchen. Some of the early dishes, 
recipes of which are given in this volume, water the anticipant mouth. Judg- 
ing by the dates, it was when the Stuarts returned from their exile in Paris 
that French menus became the London fashion, so that gradually the native 
cooking fell into desuetude. In such ways, the forgotten words send flashes 
of light upon the olden culture. 

(3) Words that in various ways have special interest, as in meaning, back- 
ground, or associated folklore. Included in this group are various imaginary 
beings, and a number of magic or medicinal plants. 

(4) Words that are not in the general vocabulary today, but might be 
pleasantly and usefully revived. 

The Times' Emphases 

Among the many contributions to our English speech, a few tendencies 
seem notable for our purpose, currents in the two main rivers, Germanic and 
Romanic-Greek, that have fed the English ocean. From the Norman Conquest 
(1066) to the 16th century, there was a continuous process of commixion of 
the Anglo-Saxon tongue and the Norman French, with a seeping in of Latin 
terms from the law court, and Latin and Greek from the church. The best 
known example of this amalgamation is in Scott's Ivanhoe, where the jester 
and the swineherd present the point that, when domestic animals have to be 
cared for and tended, they are the defeated but stalwart Saxon pig, bull, calf, 
or sheep, but when they are dressed and served to be eaten, they are the 
triumphant but tender Norman pork, beef, veal, or mutton. 

This observation, however, was rather Scott's than the jester's; it manifests 
a consciousness largely lacking in the language growth of those five hundred 
years. It was in the late i6th century that a conscious concern with words 
developed widely, never to slacken since. Holinshed in his Chronicles (1577) 
said that Anglo-Saxon was "an hard and rough kind of speech, Godwotte, 
when our nation was brought first into acquaintance withall." The many 
monosyllables in the current speech, mainly Anglo-Saxon, were attacked, and 
a wide-ranging quest of variety was begun, that produced the Elizabethan 
profusion. 

Reaction against newfangled words, inkhorn terms, against phrases bor- 
rowed like fashions in dress from Italy, France, and Spain, set in with the 
surge of national spirit that hailed the defeat (1588) of the Invincible Armada. 
For the first sixty years of the 17th century, there was a remarkable interest 
in Anglo-Saxon. An Anglo-Saxon lectureship was established at Cambridge 
University; a dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon tongue was compiled. Enthusi- 
asts went so far as to declare that the parent of Anglo-Saxon, German, was 
the oldest and best of all tongues the original language, indeed, of the Bible. 






Introduction 



As the Germans (Cambrians) were not among the builders of the Tower of 
Babel, their speech in its purity had survived. This boast of preeminence of 
tongue, in Richard Hawkins* A Discourse of the Natural Excellences of Eng- 
land (1685), was expanded to a more general claim: "The English descend 
from those people of Germany which are called Saxons. These by good 
authors were esteemed the strongest and valiantest of its nations ... In a word, 
they were dreaded for their arms, and commended for their extraordinary 
chastity: so that the English derive from a most noble and pure fountain, 
being the offspring of so valiant and so chaste a people." 

The courtiers and writers exiled with the Stuarts had other thoughts. Back 
across the Channel in 1660 came more than Parisian cooking, came also a 
scorn for the rough though chaste "German" speech of the Puritans, and a 
taste for the fluent French. James Howell in 1662 declared, of the English 
tongue, that the French "hath not only enriched but civilized and smoothed 
her with many thousands of words derived from the Latin." 

Some scholars emphasized the idea that in truth all the modern tongues were 
mutable, were ephemeral, that permanence was to be found only in Hebrew, 
Latin, and Greek. This was no new notion; while Chaucer in the 14th century 
was shaping modern English, Gower, to ensure survival, wrote three long 
poems each in a different tongue. In the i7th century not only church ritual 
but international correspondence was still carried on in Latin. About 1650, 
Edmund Waller wrote: 

But who can hope his lines should long 
Last in a daily changing tongue? 
While they are new, envy prevails, 
And as that dies, our language fails. 
Poets that lasting marble seek 
Must carve in Latin or in Greek. 

While such opinions did not loose a flood of works in the classical languages 
Milton wrote Latin poems, but his major works speak to his countrymen in 
their own tongue for a century there were many borrowings from Greek 
and Latin, the classical words being given English forms. Writers sprinkled 
Latinisms in their works, as offering alms to oblivion. Macaulay's schoolboy 
knows how Johnson corrected his lapse into Anglo-Saxon: "It has not wit 
enough to keep it sweet . . . Hrmph ... It has not vitality sufficient to 
preserve it from putrefaction." 

Hence it is that many words of Anglo-Saxon origin lapsed from use in 
the 16th and 17th centuries; while many from Latin and Greek, in those 
centuries first used, lapsed in the 18th or early 19th century. Not within the 
scope of this volume, of course, are the many more, along either stream of 

xi 



Introduction 



history, that remain a vital part of our living speech and that, in the joining 
of their turbulent flow, make English the richest language of all time. 

The Period Covered 

* The centuries covered by this DICTIONARY are, roughly, the 8th to the 
18th. Where a word's use was limited, the period is usually indicated in the 
discussion. Dates of books quoted are, in some cases, approximate; the purpose 
is to indicate the period during which the word was used. 

The Spelling 

In the early, more flexible times, many variations of spelling developed; 
major ones are included. Thus dole, dool, dule appear in the general listing; 
under the main entry, dole, thirteen variants are given. In the illustrative 
quotations, spelling has been shaped to the reader's convenience: the old 
form of the word under discussion has been retained; with other words, the 
old spelling is usually retained if the sense is clear. The aim has been to 
focus attention on the word in hand. 

A capital within a quotation usually indicates the beginning of a new 
line of verse. 

A cknow ledgments 

The indebtedness of a lexicographer extends to all his predecessors. In 
addition to the literary works of the authors named above, I have had re- 
course to the more technical volumes listed below, and my thanks go to the 
many that have lighted and lightened my way. "Forgotten" words have cropped 
up, also, in many an odd corner of my reading, and friends have frequently 
asked me whether one of their favorites is in. Beyond all such aid must be 
listed hers whom I cannot and would not forget, bully in word-play, but ever 
concerned, the golden thread in the pattern of my days. 



WORKS IN MY LIBRARY 

An Universal Etymological English Dictionary, by N. Bailey. London. First Edition, 
1721; my copy, 1751. 

A Glossary and Etymological Dictionary, by W. Toone. London, 1834. 

English Etymologies, by H. Fox Talbot London, 1847. 

A Dictionary of the First, or Oldest Words in the English Language, by the late Her- 
bert Coleridge. London, 1863. 

Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English, by Thos. Wright. London, (2 vols.) 
1869. 

xii 



Introduction 



A Dictionary of the Old English Language, by Francis Henry Stratmann. Krefeld, 
1878. 

A Glossary ... in the works of English authors, particularly Shakespeare and his con- 
temporaries, by Robert Nares, with additions by Halliwell and Wright. London 
(2 vols.), 1882. 

Renaissance Dictionaries, by De Witt T. Starnes. Austin, 1954. 

A Shakespeare Glossary, by C. T. Onions. Oxford, 1941. 

Shakespeare's Bawdy, by Eric Partridge. New York, 1948. 

Two dozen dictionaries and glossaries of cant, slang, and specialized vocabularies. An 
excellent general volume is the Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 
by Eric Partridge. New York, 1908. 

The Oxford English Dictionary (13 vols.). Referred to in the text as the O, E. D. 
being a revision of the New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. The 
most comprehensive dictionary of the kind in any language, especially rich in 
illustrative quotations; to it, all succeeding lexicographers, myself included, owe 
an inestimable debt. 

OTHER WORKS FOUND USEFUL 

The Dictionary of Thomas Eliot knyght. 1538. 

An Alvearie or triple dictionarie ... by John Baret. 1573. 

Bibliotheca Scholastica, by John Rider. 1589. 

A Worlde of Wordes, by John Florio. 1598 (enlarged 1611). 

A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, by Cotgrave. 1611. 

Glossographia, by Thos. Blount. 1656. 

A Collection of English Words Not Generally Used, by John Ray. 1674. 

Dictionary ... by E. Coles. 1676. 

B.E.'s Dictionary of the Canting Crew. 1700. 

Vocabularium Anglo-Saxonicum, by Thos. Benson. 1701. 

Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. 1785. 

Welsh and English Dictionary, by W. Owen. 1793. 

A Dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon Language, by J. Bosworth. 1838. 

A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, by J. O. Halliwell. 1850. 

Slang and Its Analogues, by Farmer and Henley (7 vols.). 1904. 

J. T. S. 



xin 



aadom. An afternoon repast; afternoon. 
Also aandorn; arndern is evening. Used 
to the ISth century. 

aande. Breath. Not uncommon in the 
15th century, as in Hampole: Hys mynde 
es schort when he oght thynkes, Hys nese 
[nose] oft droppes, hys aande stynkes. 

aas. An early form of ace, aces, 

abacinate. To blind by holding red hot 
metal close to the eyes. Latin ab, off 4- 
bacinus, basin. Hence abadnation; a 
mild medieval torture. 

abactor. One who steals cattle in herds. 
From Latin ab, away + agere, to drive. 
Hence, abaction, cattle-stealing. Ham- 
mond in his commentary ON PSALMS 
(1659) speaks of abactors, whose breaking 
in . . . is attended with the catties passing 
through or going out Lamb, in a letter 
of 1829, refers to an abactofs wife. There 
is no English verb to abaci, but N. Bail- 
ey's ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY of 1751 
includes ab acted, drawn away by stealth 
or violence. 

abafelled. Treated scornfully; an early 
form (and sense) of baffled. 

abalienate. To estrange; to make mad. 
From Latin ab~, away 4- alienare, to es- 
trange, to give to another; alienus, belong- 
ing to another. John Gaule in PYSMANTIA 
THE MAG-ASTRO-M ANGER (1651) says: Ex- 
tastes of prophets did not so abalienate 
their minds as that they apprehended not 



what they did. S. Clark in his LIVES (1683) 
states: Neither difference of opinion, nor 
distance of place, nor seldomness of con- 
verse, nor any worldly respect, did cause 
the least ab alienation. Note that one 
meaning of alienation (from 1450 on) is 
also loss of mental faculties; Lord Brou- 
gham on THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION (1862) 
speaks of a state of mental alienation. 

abarcy. A state of always desiring more. 
In the 1731 edition of his ETYMOLOGICAL 
DICTONARY, N. Bailey traces this to a 
medieval Latin word abartia, insatiable- 
ness. The word, in both languages, seems 
to be the lexicographer's invention. The 
present lexicographer, in a 1953 letter to 
THEATRE ARTS, invented the word eucili- 
ast, a deliberately pompous term (eu, 
good -f cilia, hairs H- -ast, an eager one) 
for a person interested in hirsute adorn- 
ment. In similar vein, H. L. Mencken of- 
fered the word ecdysiast as an elevated 
term for the burlesque 'strip- teaser/ This 
has, however, counterpart in other crea- 
tures; ecdysis (from Greek ec- f ex-, out, 
off + dyein, to put) is the scientific term 
for the shedding of its shell by the cray- 
fish, and for other such slough. 

abarnare. To report or disclose a secret 
crime. The word seems another inven- 
tion of the fertile N. Bailey in his ETY- 
MOLOGICAL DICTIONARY (1751). 

abastardize. To render illegitimate or 
base. Daniel in THE QUEEN'S ARCADIA 
(1605) wrote: Being ourselves Corrupted 



abastick 

and abastardized thus, Thinke all lookes 
ill, that doth not looke like us. Also to 
abastard, 

abastick. Insatiable. Cp. abarcy. 

abate. In the 13th century (Robert of 
Gloucester's CHRONICLE) abate meant not 
to lessen, but to put an end to, to cease. 

abawe. To astonish, confound. Also 
abaue; abave. Also, to bow, cp. abow. 
Chaucer, in THE ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE 
(1366) has: For soche another, as I gesse, 
Aforne ne was, ne more vermaile; I was 
abawed for merveile. 

abb. The woof or weft in something 
woven. Also aw ebb, oweb; Old English 
awefan; a, up + wefan, to weave. 

abbey-lubber. A lazy monk; a fat slug- 
gard, a porridge-belly. A term used in 
scorn by the anti-Catholics of the 16th and 
17th centuries. Thus Cotgrave in 1611 
defined archimarmitonerastique: an abbey- 
lubber, or arch-frequenter of the cloyster 
beefe-pot. THE BURNYNGE OF PAULES 
CHURCH (1563) said it was a commen 
proverb e to call him an abbey-lubber, that 
was idle, wel fed, a long lewd lither 
loiterer, that might worke and would not. 

abbord. See abord. 

abditoriumu A secret place, especially for 
hiding things. Also abditory. From the 
Latin abdere, abditum, from ab, away 
4- dare, to put. The word is used of a 
chest in which religious relics are kept, 
or money but also, by Dr. Robinson in 
EUDOXA (1658) to say: In the center of 
the kernel of grain, as the safest abditory, 
is the source of germination. Hence also 
abditive, remote, hidden. 

abdominous. Paunch-bellied; unwieldy. 
This is, of course, abdomen + ous, full 
of. The origin of abdomen is unknown; 

^ _ 9 



abigail 

it may be related to abdere, to put away, 
or to adipem, adipomem, fat. Cleveland 
in the DIALOGUE OF Two ZEALOTS (1651) 
says: If s so abdominous, the Trojan Horse 
was not so fully lined. H. M. Stanley, 
whose most famous words are "Dr. Living- 
stone, I presume?", spoke in THE DARK 
CONTINENT (1878) of a native surrounded 
by fat wives and abdominous brats. Sev- 
eral members of the New York sophisti- 
cates* Three-hours-for-lunch Club were, 
as might be expected, abdominous. 

abece. ABC; the alphabet, or an 
alphabet-book. In Robert of Gloucester's 
CHRONICLE,, 13th century: He was more 
than ten yer old ar he couthe ys abece. 
Cp. abecedary; absey-book. 

abecedary. An alphabet book; a primer. 
Used from the 15th to the 18th century; 
also abscedary, absedary. ABCDary; ac- 
cent on the see. Also used as an adjective, 
relating to the alphabet; needing the al- 
phabet, illiterate. Also abecedarie; abece- 
dario (plural abecedarii) , a teacher, or a 
learner, of the ABC's. Cp. abece; absey- 
book. Florio in his translation (1603) of 
Montaigne said: There is a kind of abece- 
darie ignorance preceding science; an- 
other, doctorall, following science. 

abeche. To feed; to satisfy. From Old 
French abeschier; a, to, with + bee, beak: 
the early references were to birds. Gower 
in CONFESSIO AMANTIS (1393) has: Yit 
schulde I sum delle been abeched, And 
for the tyme wel refreched. 

abelde. Become bold. In the romance of 
KYNG ALYSAUNDER, 13th century. 

abequitate. To ride away. Latin ab, 
away + equus, horse. In 17th century 
dictionaries. 

abie. See abye. 

abigail. A waiting-woman. In the BIBLE 



abject 

(FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL, XXV. 24-31) Abi- 
gail o Carmel throws herself at the feet 
of King David, calling herself "thine 
handmaid ... I pray thee, forgive the 
trespass of thine handmaid . . . thine 
handmaid" until he marries her. In 
Beaumont and Fletcher's play THE 
SCORNFUL LADY (1610) the "waiting gentle- 
woman" is named Abigail; from the popu- 
larity of the play, the name became the 
common term for a maid-servant. Smollett 
in HUMPHREY CLINKER (1771) speaks of 
an antiquated abigail, dressed in her 
lady's cast clothes, Congreve in THE OLD 
BACHELOR (1693) indicates another role 
she often played: Thou art some forsaken 
abigail we have dallied with heretofore. 

abject. As a noun, a servile person; one 
cast off, an outcast. Latin abicere, to cast 
off; ab, away + iacere, iactum (in com- 
pounds iectum, whence also conjecture 
and many an object). Shakespeare in 
RICHARD III (1592) speaks of the Queen's 
objects; Shelley in PROMETHEUS UNBOUND 
(1818): The subject of a tyrant's will 
Became, worse fate! the abject of his 
own. 

ablactation. Weaning of a child from 
the mother. From the Latin a b, from 
+ lactare, to suckle, from lac, lactis, milk 
the galactic universe is the Milky Way. 
Ablaction is also used of a type of grafting 
trees in which the "mother" tree is so 
close to the new stock that they may be 
at first joined, then gradually separated. 
Hence ablactate, to wean; ablacted, 
weaned. 

ablaqueate, ablaqueation. This is a term 
drawn from Roman husbandry: Latin ab, 
from + laqueatum, entangled, from 
laqueus, a noose. It meant at first loosen- 
ing hard soil around the roots of trees, 
so that their fibres might spread. Later, 

3 



abluted 

it meant (Bailey's DICTIONARY, 1751) to 
lay bare "the bottom of the trunks and 
roots of trees, that so being exposed to 
the sun and air, etc. they may bear fruit 
the better." 

ablegate. To send abroad; to send far 
off, as used to be done with a son in dis- 
grace. Latin db, away 4- legare, legatum, 
to send on a message, whence legate. An 
ablegate is (still) a messenger of the pope, 
that brings his insignia to a newly ap- 
pointed cardinal. Hence ablegation, des- 
patch, dismissal. Used in the 17th cen- 
tury. 

ablende. To make blind. In Robert of 
Gloucester's CHRONICLE, 13th century. 

ablepsy. Blindness. Greek a, not + 
blepso, I see. Also figuratively, as in 
Urquhart's THE JEWEL (1652) : Who 
doubteth, that is not blinded with the 
ablepsie of an implicite zealf 

abligate. To bind away from; to tie up 
so as to keep away. Latin ab f from + 
ligare, ligatum, to bind, whence ligature. 
An 18th century dictionary word (Bailey; 
Johnson). Also abligation. 

abligurition. Squandering, spending lav- 
ishly, on food and drink. Latin ab, away 
4- ligurire, to eat delicately, to enjoy 
dainties; lingere, to lick; lingua, the 
tongue. Some 17th century dictionaries 
give the form abligury, abligurie, spend- 
ing in belly-cheer. 

abluted. Washed away; washed clean. 
Latin ab, away + lucre, lutum, to wash. 
Abluvion, that which is washed away. 
Ablution, the act or process of washing 
clean: in alchemy first, the purification 
of bodies with suitable liquids; Chaucer 
in THE CANON'S YEOMAN'S PROLOGUE 
(1386) speaks o oyles ablucioun, and 
metal fusible. Then, washing the body 



abodement 



abraid 



as a religious rite (16th century); thence 
(mid-18th century) the washing of one's 
person. When George Gissing, the Grub 
Street writer (18574903) found it neces- 
sary to use the British Museum Library 
as his washroom, he came one morning to 
discover the sign, For casual ablutions 
only. Although the positive form seems 
not to have been used in English, that 
which cannot be washed clean, or washed 
away, is inablutible. 

abodement. A foreboding, especially of 
ill. Also to abode, to presage, to be 
ominous; an abode was also (17th cen- 
tury) a prediction. Shakespeare has both 
noun and verb in HENRY VI, PART THREE 
(1590): The owle shrieked at thy birth, 
an evill signe, The night-crow cryde, 
aboding lucklesse time . . . Tush man, 
aboadments must not now affright us. 

aboht. A 13th century form of bought. 

abolete. Obsolete. Latin abolere, abole- 
tum, to abolish; ab, away 4* the root ob, 
or, to grow, whence also origin; abortive; 
adolescent; proletarian. Skelton in WirV 
COME YE NOT To COURTE? (1522) spoke 
of those that dare use this experiens To 
practyse such abolete sciens. I wonder 
when our sciens will seem abolete. 

abone. (1) To make good or seasonable; 
to ripen. (2) an early form of above. (3) 
well. The 14th century SIR GAWAYNE 
spoke of a good swerde, what wolde byte 
abone. 

abord. To approach; enter, take footing 
upon; to accost; to challenge. Also abourd, 
abb or d, abb oar d; later aboard; French 
ab order, from a bord, to the side of. It was 
also used as a noun, manner or avenue 
of approach, as in Lassels' VOYAGE TO 
ITALY (1670), of Genoa: I never saw a 
more stately abord to any city then to 

4 



this, abordage, an attack on a ship by 
boarding it. abordering, neighboring. Gre- 
ville in THE LIFE OF THE RENOWNED SIR 
PHILIP SIDNEY (1652) calls Sidney born in 
too strong a fortification of nature for 
the less worthy to abbord, either with 
question, familiarity, or scorn. 

abow. To make bend; to bow. Cp. 
abawe. He abueth; past tense forms, 
abuyde, abouynde. In Robert of Glou- 
cester's CHRONICLE, 13th century. 

abowes. Patron saints. French avoues, 
sworn ones, devotes. Used in Robert of 
Gloucester's CHRONICLE, 13th century. 

abrade. See abrase. 

abraham. A tawny or brown color; ap- 
plied to human hair. Also abram. Per- 
haps a corruption of auburn, which 
was sometimes spelled abron. But Shake- 
speare, who uses the term in CORIOLANUS 
(1607): Our heads are some brown, some 
black, some abram, some bald, in THE 
MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR tells us Slender 
has a Cain colored beard; and many 
writers speak of Judas-hair. In the old 
tapestries Judas' hair was red; Cain's, 
yellow; Abraham's, brown. The 1685 edi- 
tion of CORIOLANUS altered abram to au- 
burn. An Abraham man, Abram man, 
was a vagabond, especially after the clos- 
ing of the monasteries, as Amdelay said 
in THE FRATERNITYE OF VACABONDES 
(1565), that walketh bare armed and bare 
legged, and fayneth him selfe mad. 

abraid. To wrench or pull out, to draw 
(a sword) ; to start, as out of sleep; to 
startle, arouse; to burst into speech or 
sudden cry. Chaucer in THE SQUIRE'S TALE 
(1386) says she gan of swoun abreyde. 
Lydgate uses the word in these senses (it 
is from Old English a, back + bregdan, 
to twist), but he adds another meaning, 



abraxas 



absist 



to consort with, to frequent, as in his 
translation (1430) o Bochas' FALL OF 
PRINCES: To thy flatterers I never did 
abrayde. See abray. 

abraxas. This meaningless word was used 
in cabalistic writings as a charm. It was 
also engraved on rings and gems worn 
as a talisman; hence Warburton in 1738 
speaks of gems called abraxas. 

abray. An error by Spenser for abraid, 
q. v. Spenser took the form abraid, 
abrayde, as though it were the past tense 
of abray. He uses the verb four times, e.g. 
THE FAERIE QUEENE (1596) : the brave 
maid would not for courtesy Out of his 
quiet slumber him abrade. 

abrodietical. This word appears in 17th 
century dictionaries, from the Greek abro- 
diaitos, as meaning eating daintily, or a 
person of delicate ways. No instance of 
its use has been found. 

abrook. To endure; replaced by brook. 
Shakespeare in HENRY VI, PART Two 
(1590) says: Sweet Nell, ill can thy noble 
mind abrooke the abject people, gazing 
on thy -face. 

abrase. To rub or wear off. Also to 
abrade, Latin ab, off + radere, rasum, to 
smooth, scrape, shave. Also abraded, ab- 
rased, abrase, with all marks rubbed off; 
blank, clear, Jonson in CYNTHIA'S REVELS 
(1600) remembers the Latin tabula rasa: 
The fourth, in white, is Apheleia, a 
nymph as pure and simple as the soul, or 
as an abrase table, and is therefore called 
Simplicity. 

abruption. A breaking off, as in one's 
utterance. Latin ab, off + rumpere, rup- 
tum, to break; whence abrupt, corrup- 
tion, eruption, rupture. Thus Shake- 
speare, in TROILUS AND CRESSIDA (1606): 
Troilus: O Cressida, how often have I 

5 



wished me thus! Cressida: Wisht my Lord? 
the gods grant O my Lord, Troilus: 
What should they grant? What makes this 
pretty abruption? 

absalonism. The practice of rebellion 
against a father, from the ways of the son 
of David, in the BIBLE. Listed in Bailey's 
DICTIONARY (1751), this word never came 
into use, but might well serve the psy- 
choanalysts. 

absconce. To hide. Used in the 16th 
century. Latin abscondere, absconditus; 
absconsus, to hide; ab, away + con, to- 
gether + dare, to put. This is an early 
form of abscond, which in the 17th 
century meant to hide; then, to hide one- 
self (as when one seeks to elude the law). 
Hence abscond, absconded, hidden; 
D'Urfey in PILLS TO PURGE MELANCHOLY 
(1719) is pleased with the thought that he 
should sit abscond and see them. Also 
abscondence, abscondment, concealment, 
seclusion. In monasteries and churches, an 
absconce was a dark lantern. 

absentaneous. This word, which never 
grew into use, is found in 18th century 
dictionaries. Fashioned by analogy with 
instantaneous, etc., it refers to something 
done in absence, or while one is absent. 

absey-book. An a-b~c~book, a hornbook. 
See abece. Shakespeare has in KING JOHN 
(1596): And then comes answer like an 
absey-book. 

absinthe. See wormwood. 

absist. To desist, withdraw. Latin ab, 
from + sistere, to stand, reduplicative of 
stare, statum, to be erect, whence status, 
destiny, obstinate. The agent-verb was 
statuere t to make stand, to set up, whence 
statue, statute, obstinate, obstacle, resti- 
tution, destitute; resistance; assist, desist. 
The first meaning of to assist was to be 



absoil 

present at, which assister still means in 
French. Raleigh in A HISTORY OF THE 
WORLD (1614) wrote: They promised to 
absist from their purpose of making a 
war. 

absoil. See assoil. 

absonism. The practice o being dis- 
cordant in the use of language, incongru- 
ous, absurd or an instance of such in- 
congruity. From the Latin ab, away + 
sonus, sound + ism, this term was used 
only by Thomas Nashe, in STRANGE NEWS 
(1592): Everie third line hath some of 
this over-rackt absonisme. The adjective 
absonous, incongruous, unreasonable, was 
more frequently used through the 17th 
century, though even the still current 
absonant was employed in the same sense. 
(All have the accent on the first syllable.) 

abster. To deter. Latin ab(s), from + 
terrere, to frighten. Becon in A PLEASANTE 
NEWE NOSEGAY (1542) wrote that un- 
feigned humility . . . also absterreth and 
frayeth us from all arrogancy, pride, and 
elation of mind. 

abuccinate. To trumpet abroad, to pro- 
claim. This word, from Latin bucina, a 
trumpet, occurs only once in the language, 
in T. Newton's essay (1569) on CICERO: 
But all men cannot be Scipiones or 
Maximij to abuccinate and recount what 
Cities they have sacked* Modern pub- 
licity serves the same purpose. See ebuc- 
cinate. Latin bucina may be from 
bovicina, from bos, bovis, bull (from the 
bull's horn used as a trumpet) + the root 
can, to sound, to sing; but note also 
that bucca means the cheek, as the wall of 
the mouth. The mouth-piece of a helmet, 
in Latin, was buccula; and bucca itself 
is used, as a figure of speech, for a 
trumpeter. 

abusion. Misuse; deceit; violation of 

6 



abye 

law or right. The old (14th through 16th 
century) noun of the verb abuse, from 
Latin ab, away + uti, usus, use. A very 
common word, often used by Chaucer, 
Caxton, Occlere, Penn, Spenser, e.g., in 
THE FAERIE QUEENE (1596) : Foolish de- 
lights and fond abusions, Which do that 
sense besiege with fond illusions. 

abuyde. See abow. 
aby. See abye. 

abydocomist. Stating that the inhabi- 
tants of Abydos were known for their 
slanderous tongues, Bailey in his DIC- 
TIONARY (1751) defines the abydocomist 
as a sycophant who boasts of his suc- 
cesses achieved by flattery and falsehood. 
Do you know such a fellow? 

abye. This was an early alternate . form 
of buy; having the prefix a, it meant to 
buy from or buy back. In the sense of pay 
for, it came to be used, figuratively, to 
pay the penalty for. It died out of the 
language about 1600; the latest recorded 
use was in Beaumont and Fletcher's THE 
KNIGHT OF THE BURNING PESTLE (1613): 
Foolhardy knight, -full soon thou shalt 
aby this fond reproach; thy body will I 
bang. Then the word was revived by Sir 
Walter Scott, in the LORD OF THE ISLES 
(1815) : By Heaven . . . they shall abye 
it! and used by others since, as Bancroft 
in his HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 
(1876): Dearly did the Cherokees aby 
their rising. Also (13th century) able, 
abigge; past tense aboughte. In the early 
uses, from paying the penalty the word 
abye came also to mean to suffer, to 
endure; and in the sense of endure it 
came also to mean to last in which 
meaning abye was confused with abide. 
Thus Spenser, who uses the word twenty 
times in THE FAERIE QUEENE (1596) ob- 



ac 



accidie 



serves that nought that wanteth rest can 
long aby. 

ac. But. Common from the 10th to the 
15th century. Also ok, oc, ok, ah, ach, 
and the like. When Orfeo (cp. levedi) 
found his wife stricken, He asked conseil 
at ech man, Ac no man him help no can. 
For another instance of its use, see ferly. 

academe. See deme. 

Acadina. Used in the expression to sink 
in Acadina. Acadina was a fountain in 
Sicily wherein a false oath written on a 
tablet would sink. The lie lay heavy on 
the board. The word is listed in Bailey's 
DICTIONARY (1751). 

acate. Originally this meant purchasing, 
then a thing purchased. It is from Nor- 
man achater (French acheter, to buy). In 
the plural, acates, things purchased, it 
was used of all provisions not baked and 
brewed at home; hence, delicacies. In 
this sense it was shortened (about 1450) 
to cates. The purchaser, then provider 
and preparer of cates, delicacies, was an 
acater, later caterer. Variant forms were 
achate (used by Chaucer and Spenser); 
hence achater, achatour, achatry (acatery), 
the room of the achatour. Ben Jonson in 
THE SAD SHEPHERD (1637) speaks of all 
choice that plenty can send in: bread, 
wine, acates, fowl, feather, fish or fin. In 
THE DEVIL is AN Ass (1637), Jonson has: 
He is my wardrobe man, my acater, cook, 
butler and steward. 

acatharsy. Filth, impurity; lack of purg- 
ing. Greek a, not + katharsios, purging; 
kathairein, to cleanse; hence also the 
tragic catharsis (described by Aristotle as 
the consequence of tragedy, which 
through the arousal of pity and horror 
effects their purging) and the physical 
cathartics. 



accend. To kindle, to set on fire. From 
the Latin ad, to + cendere, to light, 
from candere, to glow whence also 
candid and candidate, one (originally) 
garbed in white as a sign he was seeking 
office. Trevisa about 1440 speaks of a 
stone called asbestos, "which accended 
once is never extinct." The noun is ac- 
cension; Shelvocke in his treatise on 
ARTILLERY (1729) speaks of the great quan- 
tity of windy exhalation, produced by the 
accension of the salpeter. The verb may 
be used figuratively, as in Twyne's 
JENEID (1573): The valiant brothers band 
with grief accensed in ire. In this use, 
accensed has been supplanted by in- 
censed. 

acceptation. A term in Roman law: 
canceling a debt by a receipt from the 
creditor who has not been paid. Latin 
accepti lationem, accounting (a thing) as 
received. Hence, to acceptilate, to dis- 
charge a debt in this fashion. Used also as 
a religious term (16th and 17th centuries) 
applied to Christ's forgiveness. Our justi- 
fication which comes by Christ, said 
Jeremy Taylor in his ANSWER TO THE 
BISHOP OF ROCHESTER (1656), is by impu- 
tation and acceptilation, by grace and 
favour. 

accidie. This is the English form of the 
Latin acedia, sloth the fourth cardinal 
sin, from Greek a, not 4- kedos, care: the 
state of not caring. Also acyde, accydye, 
acedy (17th century), torpor. It was 
thought of, by the ecclesiastics, especially 
as an indisposition to devotion. The word 
was quite common, from the ANCREN 
RIWLE (1230) used by Chaucer, Gower, 
Caxton to the middle of the 16th cen- 
tury. Bailey in his 1731 DICTIONARY lists 
accidious, slothful; he omits it from the 
1751 edition, presumably because he 
found no instance of its use. Neither has 
7 



accite 



acersecomic 



anyone else. The origin of the word accidie 
was forgotten for several centuries, dur- 
ing which it was supposed to be derived 
from acid, sour, hence repulsive, or from 
accidere, to happen as by a spell, an 
access. Chaucer, who uses the word eight- 
een times just in THE PARSON'S TALE 
(1386), calls it this roten-herted sinne, 
and warns that one needs great corage 
against accidie. 

accite. To summon, to quote; an early 
form of cite. Also to arouse, an alternate 
form of excite. Used by Chapman, Donne, 
Jonson, Milton; Shakespeare uses it in 
both senses: in TITUS ANDRONICUS: He 
by the Senate is accite d home from weary 
wars; In HENRY IV, PART Two (1597): 
And what accites your most -worshipful 
thought to think so? 

accoup. See acoup. 

accoutre. To dress, equip. Also acoutre, 
accoustre; French a to + coustre, the 
church vestry keeper, one of whose func- 
tion was to robe the clergyman. Used 
mainly in the participial form; Shake- 
speare in JULIUS CAESAR (1601) has Cas- 
sius boast: Upon the word, accoutred as I 
was, I plunged in. Hence accoutrement 
(mainly in the plural), apparel, equip- 
ment; especially of a soldier, except his 
arms and dress. Shakespeare in THE 
MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR: Not onely in 
the simple office of love, but in all the 
accustrementj complement, and ceremony 
of it. 

accoy. To calm, appease; to soothe; 
coax; tame, daunt. Old French d to -f 
coi f calm; Latin quietum, whence also 
quietude. Spenser in THE FAERIE QUEENE 
(1596) tells: I received was, And oft im- 
brast . . . And with kind words accoy d. 



acedy. See accidie. 



aceldama. A field of bloodshed; a scene 
of slaughter. Pronounced with a k sound, 
accent on the dah; Aramaic okel damo > 
the field of blood; the field near Jerusa- 
lem bought with the blood money given 
to Judas Iscariot, and in which (THE 
BIBLE: Acts 1) "falling headlong, he burst 
asunder in the midst, and all his bowels 
gushed out." Young in NIGHT THOUGHTS 
(1742) spoke of earth's aceldama; De 
Quincey said that THE CAESARS (1859) all 
brought their tributes of beauty or de- 
formity to these vast aceldamas of Rome. 
Gilbert in PATIENCE (1881) has the poem 
"Heart Foam": Oh to be wafted away 
From the black aceldama of sorrow, 
Where the dust of an earthy today Is the 
earth of a dusty tomorrow. 

acele. To seal. Also asele. In Robert 
of Gloucester's CHRONICLE, 13th century. 

acephalist. One that acknowledges no 
superior. Greek a, not + kephale f head. 
Hence acephal, acephalan, acephalous f 
recognizing no head; headless; a headless 
animal or man. The acephali were a race 
of men without heads, as the cynocephali 
were men with heads like those of dogs. 
Also acephalisis, akephalisis (accent on 
the phal), headlessness; refusal to recog- 
nize a head or leader; applied (17th cen- 
tury) to the condition of a country with- 
out a head. 

acerb. Bitter. Latin acerbus, harsh to 
the taste, surviving in acerbity. Shake- 
speare has, in the First Folio OTHELLO 
(1604): The food that to him now is lus- 
cious as locusts shall be to him shortly 
acerb as coloquintida. 

acerophobia. See aeromancy. 

acersecomic. One whose hair has never 
been cut. Also an adjective; Greek 
akersekomes, with unshorn hair. In 17th 
century dictionaries. 



_ 8 



achape 

achape. See chap e. 

achate. See acate. (Modern French 
acheter, to buy.) 

achesoun. See anchesoun. 

acme. The period of full growth, the 
full bloom of life. So used especially in 
the 17 tli century. Jonson in the Prologue 
to THE STAPLE OF NEWS (1624) says: He 
must be one that can instruct your youth 
And keepe your acme in the state of 
truth. 

acolaust. A riotous liver. Greek a, 
not + kolastos, chastened. Applied to the 
prodigal, in the Biblical parable, by T. 
Adams in his EXPOSITION (1633) of THE 
SECOND GENERAL EPISTLE OF PETER. Hence 
acolaustic, preferably acolastic, unbridled, 
licentious, lascivious. 

acomelyd. Enervated with cold. In the 
PROMPTORIUM PARVULORUM (1440). 

aconite. A plant, wolf's-bane; an extract 
from this plant, used as a poison; hence, 
a deadly poison, Shakespeare uses aconi- 
tum in HENRY IV PART Two (1597); 
Dekker, in a note to NEWES FROM HELL 
(1606): Ingenious, fluent, facetious T. 
Nash, from whose abundant pen hony 
ftow'd to thy friends, and mortall aconite 
to thy enemies. Hence (Urquhart, 1642) 
aconital, poisonous. 

acopede. A variant form of the past 
tense of aculp, q.v. Used in Robert of 
Gloucester's CHRONICLE, 13th century. 

acore. To make sorry; to grieve. Hence 
acorye, chastened, punished. In Robert of 
Gloucester's CHRONICLE, 13th century. 

acoup. To accuse. By way of the French 
acoulper, from Latin ad, to + culpare, 
blame whence English culpable, etc. 
Langland in PIERS PLOWMAN (1377) uses 
till conscience acouped him; Blount 



acrisy 

(1717) and Bailey (1731) in their diction- 
aries quote this as his conscience accouped 
him. 

acoynte. An early form (in the METRI- 
CAL CHRONICLE of Robert of Gloucester; 
1297) of acqueynt, acquainted. Gower also 
used acqueynt for quenched: so that me 
thynketh, my thurst shall never be 
acqueynt. 

acquist. The act of acquiring; that which 
has been acquired. Used by Milton at the 
end of SAMSON AGONISTES (1671): His 
servants he with new acquist Of true ex- 
perience from this great event With peace 
and consolation hath dismist. Also ac- 
quest, which is commonly used for the 
thing acquired, acquist being used for 
the action of acquiring. 

acrasia. Intemperance. Used nine times 
by Spenser who in THE FAERIE QUEENE 
(1596) personifies Acrasy as the Enchant- 
ress of intemperance. Late Latin acrasia 
probably fuses and confuses Greek 
akrasia (second a long), meaning in a 
badly mixed state and akrasia (second a 
short), incontinence, lack of power. 

acratism. A cordial, a drink before 
meals, as an appetizer. Accent on the first 
syllable. Greek akratos, neat (wine); 
akratisma, breakfast. 

acrilogy. Bitter speaking; the use of 
sharp words, as in reproof or scorn. 
Latin acer, acris, sharp; Greek logos, 
word. Used in the 17th century. 

acrisy. Lack of judgment. Also, from 
medieval Latin acrisia, a state of disease 
"in which no right judgment can be made 
of it, or of the patient, whether he will 
recover or no." So Bailey's DICTIONARY 
(1731) ; the few known uses of the word 
employ the Latin form. It is from Greek 
a, not + crisis, a judging, a quarrel, re- 



9 i--"~ 



actity 



acupunctuate 



lated to antes, a judge, criterion, and 
critikos, critic. Many a reputed critic 
suffers from acrisy. 

acrity. Keenness, sharpness. Latin acris> 
keen; also alacrity. But acritude (acridity 
as well) is limited to sharpness of taste, 
pungency. 

acroamatic. Relating to hearing; hence 
(with relation to Aristotle's acroama, 
private lectures, esoteric doctrines for his 
initiate disciples, as opposed to the exo- 
teric doctrines of his public lectures), 
privately communicated by word of 
mouth; esoteric; secret Also acroamatical, 
acroatic. An acroasis (plural acroases) a 
discourse or poem spoken or read aloud. 

acroke. Crooked, awry. Used by Chaucer. 

acrospire. The first sprout or curling 
shoot of a plant in spring. Greek akros, 
tip, peak 4- speira, curling shoot; speirein, 
to sow. Also acrospyre, ackerspyre, aker- 
spire; ackersprit. Used also of corn, and 
barley germinating before it is malted; 
gathered potatoes that sprout prematurely 
are ackerspritted. Used from the 17th 
century. Also as a verb, to acrospire, to 
shoot up the first sprout. 

active citizen. A louse. A late 18th and 
early 19th century phrase, listed in LEXI- 
CON BALATRONICUM: A DICTIONARY OF 
BUCKISH SLANG, UNIVERSITY WIT, AND 
PICKPOCKET ELOQUENCE (1811). 

acton. A quilted cotton (later, a leather) 
jacket worn under a suit of mail. In later 
use, a plated jacket worn instead of heavy 
armor. Used from the 12th to the 16th 
century. Roundabout from Arabic al qutn, 
the cotton. The French form, in the 15th 
century, developed an h (hocqueton), 
whence English hequeton, haketon, hac- 
ton. The word occurs in the 13th century 

10 



romance of KYNG ALYSAUNDER; Chaucer 
in THE RIME OF SIR THOPAS (1386) states: 
And next his schert an aketoun, And 
over that an haberjoun. 

acuation. See acuminate. 

acue. On his rump. French, au cul. 
From the 13th century (THE LIFE OF ST. 
MARGARET). 

aculp. To accuse. A 13th century form. 
Cp. acopede. Literally, to put guilt upon; 
Latin culpa, fault, guilt, whence culpable, 
culprit. 

acuminate. To sharpen, bring to a 
point. Also as an adjective, pointed. Also, 
intellectually sharpened; keen in dis- 
cernment, concentrated in attention. 
Hence, acumination; also acuminous, 
marked by acumen, as in Bolton's Ad- 
dress to the Reader in FLORUS (1618); 
whose writings are altogether as luminous 
as acuminous. Used both literally: Whe- 
well, HISTORY OF THE INDUCTIVE SCIENCES 
(1837) : Truncation, acuation, and acumin- 
ation, or replacement by a plane, an edge, 
a point, respectively and figuratively: 
CORNHILL MAGAZINE (December 1879); 
The acumination consisting mainly in a 
more frequent and sarcastic repetition of 
the unfortunate Mr. Disraeli's titles and 
distinctions. The diminutive form has 
also been used: acuminulate, tapering; 
somewhat pointed. 

acupunctuate. To prick with a needle or 
pin; also acupuncture. The noun was 
represented (17th to 19th century) by 
acupunctuation, acupunchuration, acu- 
punchure; it was applied, specifically, to 
the thrusting of needles into the body 
for remedial purposes, as for gout in 17th 
century England though M. Collins ob- 
served (1875) that the bees were stinging 



acydenandys 

with unusual sharpness of acupuncture. 
The verb was also used figuratively, as 
when MACMILLAN'S MAGAZINE of January, 
1865, commented on that exquisite sweet 
malice wherewith French ladies so much 
delight to acupunctuate their English sis- 
ters. 

acydenandys. See asiden. This form 
occurs in the lexicon PROMPTORIUM PAR- 
VULORUM (1440). 

acyrology. Incorrect use of language. 
Greek a, not + kyros, authority + logos, 
speech. Hence acyrological. Used from 
the 17th century. Lady Rosina Bulwer- 
Lytton in CHEVELY; OR, THE MAN OF 
HONOUR (1839) wrote: His work . . . was 
meant to be ... a condensation of all 
the 'logics' and all the 'ologys'; but, un- 
fortunately, tautology and acryology were 
the only ones thoroughly exemplified. 

ad. A fire; especially, a funeral pyre or 
blazing pile. Also od. Gothic root aids; 
Greek aithos, burning heat. Used from 
the 9th to the 13th century. 

adaction. Driving in violently or by 
force. Also adact, to drive or force (to a 
course of action). Latin ad, to + agere, 
actum, to drive, to act. Fotherby in 
ATHEOMASTIX (1622) said: God himself e 
once compelled the wicked Egyptians, by 
flyes, and frogs . . . to confesse the power 
of his divine Majestie; not vouchsafing to 
adact them by any other of his creatures. 

Adam. The first man; hence, the basic or 
unregenerate traits in a person: the old 
Adam; Shakespeare in HENRY V (1599) 
has the offending Adam. Also (buff was 
used for the bare skin; the bailiff's officer 
of Elizabethan times wore buff) in THE 
COMEDY OF ERRORS, the Old Adam, the 
bailiff's office. In MUCH ADO ABOUT 
NOTHING: Hang me in a bottle like a cat 
and shoot at me, and he that hits me, let 



adaw 

him be clapped on the shoulder and called 
Adam Adam, expert, from the famous 
archer, Adam Bell. Hence the emendation 
in ROMEO AND JULIET: Young Adam 
Cupid, he that shot so trim When King 
Cophetua loved the beggar maid; the 
early editions have Abraham Cupid, 
which has not been explained. 

adamant. This is still used to mean a 
material, especially stone, of surpassing 
hardness, its first sense, from Greek 
adamas, adamanta, invincible; a, not + 
damao, I tame. By way of Late Latin 
diamas came English diamond. The word 
was mistaken, in Medieval Latin, as com- 
ing from adamantem, having a liking for; 
ad, to, for + amantem, present participle 
of amo, amare, amatum, to love. Hence 
up to the 17th century adamant was 
often used to mean a magnet. Thus Drey- 
ton in THE TRAGICALL LEGEND . . . (1596) 
wrote: My lookes so powerfull adamants 
to love. Lyly in EUPHUES (1579) con- 
founds the two senses in one image; 
Shakespeare does likewise in A MIDSUM- 
MER NIGHT'S DREAM (1590): You draw me, 
you hardhearted adamant, But yet you 
draw not iron, for my heart Is true as 
steele. Minsheu's THE GUIDE INTO 
TONGUES (1617) lists adamate, to love 
dearly. 

adaw. (1) To wake up; recover con- 
sciousness; to rouse. Old English a, to 4- 
daw; dayian, to dawn, become day. Used 
by Chaucer, as in TROILUS AND GRISEYDE 
(1374): He gan his breeth to drawe, And 
of his swoun soone aftir that adawe. (2) 
adawe, out of life. Old English o dawe, of 
dayum, from days, from life. Used from 
the 13th to the 16th century, usually 
in the expression to bring (do) adawe, to 
put out of life, to kill. The expression 
they did him adawe led some in the 16th 
century to assume that adawe was a verb, 
11 



addle 

formed from awe; hence (in Tottel's MIS- 
CELLANY; 1557, and into the 17th cen- 
tury). (3) to adaw, to daunt, to subdue. 
Spenser uses this form several times, as in 
THE FAERIE QUEENE (1596): Therewith 
her wrathful courage gan appell, and 
haughty spirits meekly to adaw. 

addle. This is two words, one quite 
common from the 10th to the 19th cen- 
tury, the other in northern England since 
1200. (1) Addle akin to German adel, 
mire, originally meant stinking urine, or 
other miry filth. As late as Burns (1789) 
we find Then lug out your ladle Deal 
brimstone like adle. This early became an 
adjective in addle egg, corresponding to 
Latin ovum urinum, a rotten egg. Since 
that egg would not hatch, many word- 
plays linked addle and idle; Thus Shake- 
speare in TROILUS AND GRESSIDA (1606): 
// you love an addle egg as well as you 
love an idle head, you would eat chickens 
i f the shell. Thus addle came to mean 
idle, vain, or muddled, and developed 
such compounds as addle-brain, addle- 
head, addle-pate. Then the adjective (in 
the 17th century) appeared as addled, from 
which by back-formation came the verb 
to addle (like to sour, to wet, etc.). Charles 
Dickens complains, in a letter of 1841: / 
have addled my head with writing all 
day. (2) From the Old Norse othla, to 
acquire, comes a form addle meaning to 
earn or (of crops) to produce. A 1680 
trial at York records the words: He 
would give me more than I could addle 
in seven years. Tusser, in his HUSBANDRY 
(1580) wisely warns: Where ivy embraces 
the tree very sore, kill ivy, or tree will 
addle no more. Addlings are wages, but 
addling is muddling of the wits. 

adelantado. A Spanish grandee; a gover- 
nor of a province; a commander. Span- 
ish adelantar, to promote, advance; ad, 

~ 12 



adible 

to + el, the -f ante, fore. Common in 
early 17th century pamphleteers and 
playwrights: Nashe; Jonson; Massinger 
and Dekker in THE VIRGIN MARTIR (1622): 
Invincible adelantado over the armado of 
pimpled faces. 

adhibit. To let in; to apply; to employ. 
From Latin adhibere, from ad, to -h 
habere, to hold; whence, with different 
prefixes, the more familiar spirituous 
prohibition and the psychic inhibition. 
This word was used from the 16th into 
the 19th century; thus an advertisement 
in Scott's OLD MORTALITY, in 1862, said: 
The subscribers to the Shilling Edition 
of the Waverley Novels . . . will receive 
a set of adhesive labels, which may be 
adhibited to the back of the volumes. The 
noun adhibition was used, literally, in 
various fields, as with (1838) the adhibi- 
tion of the Seal of the body corporate; 
or as in Leigh Hunt's LONDON JOURNAL 
(1835): An apple pie was improved by the 
adhibition of a quince. (Good cooks take 
notice!) See assation. 

adiaphory. Indifference. Accent on the 
aff. Also adiaphoricy; Greek a, not + 
diaphoros, differing; dia, apart + p here in, 
to bear. The form adiaphorism was used 
especially of religious indifferentism. 
Hence adiaphorist, adiaphorite, one that 
is indifferent (as of religious matters, or 
among the creeds) ; also adiaphoral, adia- 
phorous, adiaphoristic. An adiaphoron is 
a matter of indifference; specifically, a 
practice or belief for which there is no 
church decision, which is therefore left 
to the will of the individual. J. Smith 
(SELECTED DISCOURSES; 1652) said: These 
we may safely reckon, I think, amongst 
our adiaphora in morality, as being in 
themselves neither good nor evil. 

adible. Accessible. Used from the 16th 
century; Latin adire, aditum, to go to; ad, 



adipate 

to + ire, itum, to go;; whence also reiter- 
ate, itinerary, and (from the 17th cen- 
tury) adit, an approach, entrance. Tenny- 
son in THE PRINCESS (1847) promises: 
Yourself and yours shall have free adit. 

adipate. To eat fat; to eat so as to grow 
fat. A 17th century dictionary word that 
describes the procedure of one that should 
diet. Latin adeps, adipem, fat; whence 
also adipal, adipous, and the current 
adipose (Latin -osus, full of). Also adi- 
posity, adiposeness. 

adipsy. Lack of thirst. Greek a, not + 
dipsa, thirst. Also adipsia. An adipson 
(17th century) is a drink that allays thirst, 
sometimes prescribed for a fever, more 
often imbibed in a bar. Adipsic, adipsous, 
quenching thirst. The converse of adipsy 
produces the dipsomaniac. 

adlubescence. Delight. From Latin ad, 
to 4- lubes care, to be pleasing; libet or 
lubet, it is pleasing; libido, pleasure, de- 
sire whence the Freudian libido. An- 
drew Marvell, in THE REHEARSAL TRANS- 
POSED (1673), speaks of Such an expansion 
of heart, such an adlubescence of mind 
. . . that he could scarce refrain from 
kissing it. Samuel Johnson copies from 
Bailey's 1731 DICTIONARY the form allu- 
bescency, willingness, content; it exists 
only in the lexicographers' listings. 

admirative. Relating to or characterized 
by wonder. Hence, an early term for the 
exclamation point (1) . Latin ad, at + 
mirari, to wonder. The phrase note of 
admiration was also used to mean the 
exclamation point, by Swift (1719) and 
earlier by Shakespeare in THE WINTER'S 
TALE (1611): The changes I perceived in 
the King and Camilla, were very notes 
of admiration. 

admonish. See comminate. Also ad- 
monest; Caxton in POLYCRONICON (1482) 

13 



adown 

said that Those thynges whiche our pro- 
genytours by the taste of bytternes and 
experyment of grete jeopardyes have 
enseygned, admonested, and enformed us 
excluded fro such peryllys, to know what 
is prouffytable to oure lyf. Enseygned 
means given a sign of, pointed out. 

adnate. See agnate. 

adnichil, adnitchil. Occurring only in 
17th century dictionaries, this is derived 
from an old French adnichiller, modern 
annihiler, whence annihilate. It is de- 
scribed as an old law term, meaning to 
annul, make void. The word seems to 
have been adnichiled before it was used. 

adnomination. An early form of agnom- 
ination, q.v. Note however that adnomi- 
nal is also a grammatical term, meaning 
attached to a noun, relating to an ad- 
noun (adnomen, adname: which is an 
adjective used with a noun). 

adnoun. An adjective "added to" a 
noun. Occasionally adnoun is used for an 
"adjective" employed as a substantive, as: 
The good are outnumbered. Cp. ad- 
nomination. 

adonize. To adorn (of a man) ; to make 
an Adonis of. The word (accent on the 
ad) is from Adonis, the young man whose 
beauty attracted Venus; hence, an Adonis, 
a dandy. 

adosculation. Impregnation by external 
contact, without intromission. Latin ad, 
to + osculari, osculatum, to kiss; osculum, 
diminutive of os, orem, mouth. Divers 
kinds of birds and fishes, said the CHAM- 
BERS CYCLOPEDIA (1753) are also impreg- 
nated by adosculation. One wonders what 
is implied in that also! 

adown. Down. The earlier form, adown 
(adun, adoun, adown, etc.) is from Old 
English of dune, off the hill. As early as 



adreint 

1200 adown was shortened to down, which 
supplemented but never quite supplanted 
the earlier form, still used by poets. 
Chaucer, in THE KNIGHT'S TALE (1586): 
On their bare knees adoun they falle; 
Scott, in MARMION (1808): His gorgeous 
collar hung adown; Hawthorn, in AMERI- 
CAN NOTE-BOOKS (1868): There is a 
beautiful view from the mansion, adown 
the Kennebec; Morris, in THE EARTHLY 
PARADISE (1870) Till the wretch falls 
adown with whirling brain. CHAUCER'S 
DREAM (1500) shows the transition: There 
were a few wells Came running fro the 
cliffs adowne, That made a deadly sleep- 
ing soune, And runnen downe right by a 
cave That was under a rocky grave. Also 
see drury. Cp. bove, which has added, 
instead of losing, the a. 

adreint. Drowned. Past participle of 
adrenchen, to drown; past tense, he 
adrente. Also adrench; past participle 
adraynt, adreynt The verb was an alter- 
native form (in all senses) of adrink, 
meaning also to give to drink; as in 
the AYENBITE OF INWIT (1340): And hire 
adraynkth and maketh dronke of holy 
love. The ANCREN RIWLE (1230) said: 
Ther adreinte Pharao. Lydgate's PYL- 
GRYMAGE or THE SowLE (1413) pictures one 
adrenchyng hym self, as it were, in 
wordly vanyte. 

adrench. See adreint. Earlier adrenchen. 

adrink. To swallow too much water; 
that is, to drown. Let that be a warning 
to youl Past forms are adranc, adronke, 
adrunken. See adreint. 

adrogation. Taking, as a member of 
one's family, of a person of legal major- 
ity, of one that is his own master. Espe- 
cially in Roman law; adoption means the 
taking into one's family of a minor. Hence 
adrogator; to adrogate. Latin ad, to -f 

14 



adure 

rogare, rogatum, to ask, whence also 
arrogate, which now means to take with- 
out asking. Adopt is from Latin ad, to + 
optare, to choose; opere, to wish. 

adscititious. Originally meaning added 
from outside, supplementary, this word 
was used in the 18th century (Bailey's 
DICTIONARY, 1751) to signify counterfeit, 
false. Also ascititious. It is from Latin ad, 
to 4- sciscere, to acknowledge, the incep- 
tive form of scire, to know. It is still oc- 
casionally employed in the original sense, 
which Bacon exemplifies in the NOVUM 
ORGANUM (1620), referring to "perpetual 
and proper" motions on the one hand, 
and on tie other motions that are adsciti- 
tious. 

adure. To scorch; to burn up; to calcine. 
Latin ad, to + were, ustum, to burn, 
whence also combustion. Adure was used 
from the 15th century. In the 16th and 
17th the less common verb to adust was 
used, to scorch, to dry up with, heat; 
Milton in PARADISE LOST (1667) has Sul- 
phurous and nitrous foame . . . Con- 
cocted and adusted they reduced To 
blackest grain. More common was the 
adjective adust (adusted), burnt up, 
parched; browned, sunburnt; dried out 
especially of the four humours in the 
body (see humour), resulting in a state 
that alarmed Medieval and Renaissance 
physicians. The word was also used figura- 
tively; Nabbe in his MICROCOSM (1637) 
exclaimed: Provoke me no more; I am 
adust with rage. Note that adust may also 
be an alternate form for dusty; George 
Eliot in ROMOLA (1863) says: He was tired 
and adust with long riding. Also adustion, 
burning, fiery; adustible, capable of being 
burnt. John Bale in his APOLOGY AGAINST 
A RANKE PAPYST (1550) declares: What 
your adusted conscience thynketh of it 
I can not telL 



adust 



aeromancy 



adust. See adure. 

advertence. Notice, attention, consider- 
ation. Via the French, from Latin ad, 
to + vertere, to turn. Chaucer in TROYLUS 
AND CRISEYDE (1370) has the query: What 
fel experience Hath fro me reft, alas, 
thine advertence'? (The accent, nonethe- 
less, is on the second syllable.) THE LADY'S 
CALLING of 1673 admonishes that a serious 
advertence to -the divine presence is the 
most certain curb to all disorderly appe- 
tites. The habit or quality of being atten- 
tive is advertency; thus Bryden in THE 
LIFE OF PLUTARCH (1683) states that 
through want of advertency he has been 
often guilty of that error. We still must 
frequently admit that an act was in- 
advertent. 

advertisement. The act of turning the 
mind toward, noticing; heed. Also, the 
act of calling attention to; hence, a notice, 
a public notice, as by the town-crier; 
thence (from the 18th century) the cur- 
rent use. Accent always on the second 
syllable. Latin ad, to -f vertere, versum, 
whence verse, obverse, reverse, and more 
diversions. Shakespeare uses it in the sense 
of information, in HENRY IV, PART ONE 
(1597); in other senses in PART ONE, in 
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, and in 
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING: My griefs 
cry lowder than advertisement. 

advesperate. From Latin ad, to + vesper, 
evening: advesperascere, advesperatum, 
to draw toward evening; this word means 
to grow toward night. It exists in 17th 
and 18th century dictionaries. 

advision. See avision. 

advoutress. An early variant of adulter- 
ess; cp. advowtrie. 

advowtrie. An early variant (as in 
Chaucer), of adultery. Also advouter, ad~ 

15 



vowter, advowterer; advowteress, advou- 
tress; advowterie, advowtry, avowtry. Cp. 
spousebreach. 

adwole. Mistaken, in error. Cp. dwale. 
Used in the 13th century (THE OWL AND 
THE NIGHTINGALE). 

ae-. In words from Latin and Greek, 
an original ae has frequently been short- 
ened to e. As late as March 1847, we 
could read in THE LONDON QUARTERLY 
REVIEW, of Johnson's edition of Shake- 
speare's plays: His great general powers 
enabled him to paraphrase into perspi- 
cuity many an involved and aenigmatical 
line to stamp with a more legible im- 
press many a noble specimen of worn or 
corroded coinage. 

aegritude. See egritude. 

aeipathy. A long-felt passion. From 
Greek aiei, aei, always 4- pathos, feeling, 
this word, pronounced I-ip'-athy, cap- 
tures the lovelorn. 

aeolist. A pretender to inspiration; a 
wind-bag. From Latin Molus, the god of 
the winds. One use is recorded, by Swift 
in the TALE OF A TUB (1704): The 
learned aeolists maintain the original 
cause of all things to be wind. Hence 
aeolistic, long-winded. 

aequiparate. See equiparate. 

aeromancy. Divination foretelling 
events, predicting the future by appear- 
ances in the air. The depths of the desire 
to know what is coming, or what is the 
best course to pursue to bring about a 
wished-for end, are indicated by the great 
number of types of divination practiced 
in times not long gone by. These include: 
aichomancy, by sharp points, alectro- 
mancy, by a cock's picking up grains. 
aleuromancy, by dough, alphitomancy, 



aeromancy 

barley meal, amathomancy, dust, antko- 
mancy, flowers (She loves me, she loves 
me not!) anthropomancy , human entrails; 
anthroposcopy, observation of personal 
characteristics; auspicy, haruspicy, ap- 
pearance of things being sacrificed; heiro- 
mancy, entrails of sacrificed animals; ex- 
tispice, entrails plucked from a fowl. 
armomancy, shoulders of beasts, austro- 
mancy, winds, axinomancy, a balanced 
hatchet, belomancy, arrows, bibliomancy, 
the Bible; sortes Virgilianae, opening at 
random to a page of Virgil's works; 
stlchomancy, a verse, a passage in a book; 
foliomancy, leaves (of a book; later, tea 
leaves), brontomancy, thunder, capno- 
mancy, altar smoke, catotromancy, mirrors. 
ceromancy, melted wax on water, chao- 
mancy, clouds, chiromancy, palm reading. 
cleromancy, dice, conchomancy, shells. 
coscinomancy, a sieve, cristallomancy, crys- 
tallomancy, images in a crystal ball; 
spheromancy, a crystal sphere, critho- 
mancy, cake dough, barley, cryptomancy, 
by unrevealed means, dactyliomancy, a 
suspended ring; dactylomancy, fingei 
rings, daphnomancy , a laurel tree, or 
branch therefrom, demonomancy, with 
the help of demons; necyomancy, necyo- 
manty, calling up the devil or other 
damned spirits, dririmancy, dripping 
blood, gastromancy (1) rumbles of the 
belly a sort of "fatiloquency," said 
Rabelais (1533), long practiced in Ferrara 
(2) ventriloquism (3) a child looking into 
the "belly" of a glass bottle of water. 
geloscopy, observing the manner of laugh- 
ing, geomancy, digging, graphomancy, 
handwriting, gyromancy, spinning in a 
circle, halomancy, salt, hariolation, sooth- 
saying, hydromancy, ydromancy, water 
(in many ways), hyomancy, the tongue 
bone; as the tongue wags, ichthyomancy, 
the next fish caught, iconomancy, images. 
keraunoscopy, thunder and lightning. 

16 



aeromancy 

lampadomancy, candles; what burns (and 
how it burns or the wick floats about) 
in a lamp; libanomancy, burning of in- 
cense (so the Fates are not incensed); 
lecanomancy, a bowl of water reflecting 
candle flames a practice still current in 
some Slavic lands, especially at Christmas- 
tide. THE PSYCHOANALYTIC REVIEW in 
1913 reported that testing with free asso- 
ciation shows *'the divinations are merely 
the results of the medium's own com- 
plexes." lithomancy, (precious) stones; 
psephomancy, heaped pebbles; pesso- 
mancy, tossed pebbles, logomancy, words. 
macromancy, the largest thing near; 
micromancyj the smallest thing near. 
maculomancy, spots, mathemancy , quan- 
tity, mazomancy , a suckling babe, meco- 
nomancy, sleep, induced by drugs; pop- 
pies, meteoroscopy, meteoromancy, shoot- 
ing stars, miner amancy, found minerals. 
molybdomancy, motions and forms in 
molten lead, myomancy, mice, necromancy 
(Greek nekros, corpse; Latin nigrem, 
black), communicating with the dead; 
sciomancy, shadows, or the shades of the 
dead, necromancy is also the general term 
for illicit divination, black magic; also 
nygromauncy, negromancy, nycromancy, 
necromancy, necromonseys. nephro- 
mancy f the kidneys, odontomancy, the 
teeth, oenomancy, oinomancy, wine. 
omoplatoscopy, scapulimancy, the cracks 
in a shoulder-blade when the bone is 
placed on a fire. See omphalomancyi by 
the navel, oneiromancy, dreams, ono- 
mancy, onomatechny, the letters of one's 
name, onychomancy, nails reflecting the 
sun. ooscopy, inspection of eggs, ophio- 
mancy, serpents, orniscopy, birds; orni- 
thomancy, the flight of birds, orycto- 
mancy, things dug up. ossomancy, bones. 
ouranomancy, uranomancy, the heavens. 
pegomancy, fountains, physio gnomancy, 
phyznomancy, fiznomancy, the coun- 



aeromancy 

tenance; metoscopy, the face, pneumancy, 
blowing; a vestigium of this is the blow- 
ing out of candles on a festival cake. 
pseudomancy, with intent to deceive, as 
when the witches promise Macbeth hell 
be safe till Birnam Wood shall come to 
Dunsinane which would leave more 
than a dunce inane, psychomancy, spirits. 
pyromancy, flames; ceneromancy, ashes; 
tephramancy, tracings in ashes, retro- 
mancy, things seen looking over one's 
shoulder, rhabdomancy, a rod or wand. 
scatomancy, feces, dung, selenomancy, 
the moon, sideromancy, hot metal, sorti- 
lege, sortilegy, casting lots, spasmato- 
mancy, bodily twitchings. stercomancy, 
seeds in dung, sycomancy, figs, terato- 
scopy, prodigies, natural marvels, theo- 
magic, theomancy, oracles, or calling on 
the god. theriomancy, by the movements 
of wild animals, topomancy, the shape of 
the terrain, trochomancy, wheel tracks. 
tyromancy, the coagulation of cheese. 
urimancy, urine, xenomancy, the first 
stranger that appears, zygomancy, weights. 
Astrology has many terms, including 
astromancy, the position of the stars; 
genethliacs, the stars at birth, alchocoden, 
the planet that reigns over a nativity; 
cp. apotelesm. 

Persons today may be less gullible as 
to the prophets and soothsayers and man- 
tics in general; less hopeful of foretell- 
ing the future, they are more manifold in 
their fears of what is to come. The OX- 
FORD PSYCHIATRIC DICTIONARY lists 264 
words for specific dreads, from acero- 
phobia, fear of sourness (to many, the 
world has turned sour) to zoophobia, 
fear of animals. While it lists pono- 
phobia, dread of work, it does not list 
logophobia, dread of words. The topic is 
capped with moromancy, foolish divina- 
tion, a 17th century term that covers 
them all. 



aetites 

aerwene. Desperate, The Old English 
prefix ae-, aer- is a privative, like the cur- 
rent suffix -less. An old word for hope 
is wen. Layamon, in BRUT (1205) used 
aerwene to mean without hope. 

aerwitte. Witless, foolish. Used in Laya- 
mon's BRUT (1205). For etymology, see 
aerwene. 

aestivate. To spend the summer. Latin 
aestus means heat; hence English aestival, 
relating to summer. In zoology, aestivate 
is used as the converse of hibernate, 
spending the season in torpor or sus- 
pended animation. Often used figura- 
tively, as in the PALL MALL GAZETTE of 
December 11, 1870: With -what we are 
pleased to call the cold weather Calcutta 
rouses herself pom her aestivation of 
seven long months. There are other 
forms than the verb and the noun with 
other meanings: aestive, estive, hot; 
aestuant, heaving with heat. By exten- 
sion, the sense of boiling suggesting 
turbulent tides, we find aestuary, a vapor 
bath; aestuate, to heave, to surge like 
the tide, to boil; aestuous, agitated, heav- 
ing. Chapman in his translation of the 
ODYSSEY (1615) says that the seas retain 
Not only their outrageous aesture there. 
It is by calmer seas that city folk delight 
to aestivate. 

aesture. Boiling; rage. See aestivate. 

aetites. Pronounced in three syllables, 
this is the English form of a Greek word 
that means of the eagle, aetites is the 
eagle-stone, so-called from its being 
found (according to the fable) in the 
eagle's nest. Lyly in EUPHUES (1579) called 
it the precious stone aetites; Bacon in 
SYLVA (1626) mentions the peculiarity 
that gave it distinction: the aetites or 
eagle's stone, which hath a little stone 
within it. This effect is produced, ac- 

17 



aeviternal 



affeer 



cording to CHAMBERS' CYCLOPEDIA (1753) 
through the fact that it "consists of sev- 
eral crusts, which have in them a cavity 
with matter in it, loose and moveable." 
Such a stone naturally had powers at- 
tributed to it; as late as 1862 the London 
READER (July 8) said that the aetites 
possessed the singular property . . . of 
detecting theft. The word, despite its 
plural form, is also singular. 

aeviternal; aeviternity. The emphatic 
(and original) forms of eternal and 
eternity, from Latin aevum, age 4- the ad- 
jective suffix. Thus T. Stanley in the 
HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY (1660) mentions 
the Gods placed in the highest regions 
of aether, aeviternal. 

afait. This is an early form of affect, via 
Old French afaiter from Latin affectare, 
frequentative of afficere, affectum; ad, to 
4- facere, to make, to do. It meant to in- 
fluence; to shape, mould, adapt to a 
purpose; to fit out, dress; to train (hawks 
and hounds), hence, to tame; to subdue. 
Also affayte, afaytye, affaite; afaite. 
Hence afaitement, training; proper be- 
havior; breeding. Robert of Gloucester's 
CHRONICLE (1297) said: To Yolond he gan 
wende Var to afayty that lond, and to 
wynne ech ende. Langland in PIERS PLOW- 
MAN (1362) wrote: It afaiteth the flesh 
From folies ful manye. 

afear. See affeer. Also of ere, afered, afeir. 

afeng. To take up, receive. The past 
tense was afong. Used in the 13th century 
(Robert of Gloucester's CHRONICLE)* 

aferd, Busied, charged with a matter to 
be executed. A variant form of affaired, 
used in the 13th century (the romance of 
KYNG ALYSAUNDER). 

affect. (The surviving sense, to influ- 
ence, came from the simple Latin affi- 



cere, to do to, to attach to; ad, to 4- facere, 
to make, to do. Other senses came from 
the reflexive form, se facere ad, to apply 
oneself to, to aim at. Hence:) To aim at, 
aspire to; to be drawn toward, to have 
affection for; to do (wear, go) often; 
to show a liking for; to put on, to pre- 
tend. Shakespeare, in HENRY IV, PART 
Two (1593): Have I affected wealth, or 
honour? (TWELFTH NIGHT): Maria told 
me once, she did affect me. (LEAR): Who 
having beene prais'd for bluntnesse, doth 
affect A saucy roughnes. Also, to prefer. 
Marlowe in HERO AND LEANDER (finished 
by Chapman; 1598) states that life (fate) 
chooses for us: And one espedallie do 
we affect Of two gold ingots like in each 
respect. The reason no man knows; let 
it suffice What we behold is censured by 
our eies. Where both deliberat, the love 
is slight; who ever loved, that loved not 
at first sight? 

affectuosity. The vehemence of passion; 
great affection. More common (15th to 
17th century) were the adjective forms, 
affections, affectuous, affectual, earnest, 
eager; tender, loving affectionate; rousing 
the emotions; (more rarely) influential, 
successful perhaps by error for affectu- 
ous. In NERO (1607) we read: Therefore 
my deare, deare wife, and dearest sonnes, 
Let me ingirt you with my last embrace: 
And in your cheekes impress a fare-well 
kisse, Kisse of true kindness and affec- 
tious love. 

affeer. To set a price. Also affear, affere, 
affeir, affure. In law courts, to settle the 
amount of an amercement; to reduce to 
a fair price. From Old French afeurer, 
from Late Latin afforare, from ad, to 4- 
forum, market. The word was a legal term 
from about 1450; Blackstone's COMMEN- 
TARIES (1768) says that the precise sum of 
an amercement (q.v.) is usually set by 
18 



affie 

affeerors, or jurors sworn to affeere, that 
is tax and moderate., the general amerce- 
ment according to the particular circum- 
stances of the offence and the offender. 
From the meaning, to settle, affeer was 
used figuratively in the sense of to con- 
firm, as by Shakespeare in MACBETH 
(160S): Wear thou thy wrongs, the title 
is affeard. 

In the north of England and in Scot- 
land, from about 1350 (in Barbour's 
BRUCE, 1375) to about 1600, quite an- 
other word, from Old French affeirir, to 
pertain, from Latin ad, to + ferire, to 
strike, to affect, also took the form affere, 
affeir. Thus Lyndesay in his DREME (1552) 
wrote Some swift, some slow,, as to their 
kind affeirs (pertains). They did him great 
honour, said MERLIN (1450) as affiered to 
so high a man. 

These words are not to be confused 
with afear, meaning in fear, of ere, afered, 
afeir, as in Chaucer's MONK'S TALE 
(1386): Ever he is afere to do amiss. 

John Shakespeare, father of William, 
was elected in 1559 one of the affeerors 
of Stratford. 

affie. A variant of affy, q.v. 

affine. A relation by marriage; more 
loosely, a relative. Affined related; also 
affinal, in relation to, derived from the 
same source. Latin ad, to -f finem, end, 
border. In a letter of Henry VII (1509) 
we read: His cousyn and affyne the king 
of Spayne. Hence, also affined, related; 
bound by some tie. Thus Shakespeare in 
OTHELLO (1604) bids: Be judge yourself, 
Whether I in any just terme am afin'd To 
love the Moor. 



affy 

ing. Latin afflatus serpentis, hissing. Since 
among many peoples the snake was an 
agent of supernatural communication 
the pythoness of Greek oracle, the ser- 
pent of the Garden of Eden, and other 
worms afflation, afflatus came also (first 
in the Latin forms) to mean the impart- 
ing of supernatural knowledge, or of a 
creative impulse: inspiration, the divine 
afflatus. Also afflatitious (17th century), 
afflated (19th century), inspired. Thack- 
eray in THE ROUNDABOUT PAPERS (1862) 
remarks: We spake anon of the inflated 
style of some writers. What also if there 
is an afflated style when a writer is like 
a pythoness? Gary in his translation (1814) 
of Dante's PARADISO wrote: Diversely Par- 
taking of sweet life as more or less Affla- 
tion of eternal bliss pervades them. 

affodill. See daffadowndilly. Also affa- 
dille, affodell, and more. Applied to the 
king's spear, or asphodel, and to the daffo- 
dil, a species of narcissus. 

affrication. The Latin verb fricare, to 
rub, had two forms for the past: fricatum 
and frictum. From the second comes the 
common English word friction; from ad> 
to, upon -f- fricatum come affrication and 
affricate. Both exist mainly in late 17th 
and early 18th century dictionaries 
(Blount 1656; Bailey 1751) , but Francis 
Hauksbee, in his PHYSICO-MECHANICAL 
EXPERIMENTS (1709) speaks of the affrica- 
tion of a glass tube. 

aflxend. To reconcile. A variant of 
affriend. Apparently used only in the past, 
as by Spenser in THE FAERIE QUEENE 
(1596): She saw that cruell war so ended, 
And deadly foes so faithfully affrended. 



afflate. To blow upon. Latin ad, to + affy. To trust; to entrust; to confide in; 
flare, flatum, to blow, whence also inflated to assure, to secure by solemn promise; 
and flatulence. Hence afflation, a blow- hence (since the 16th century) to affiance, 
ing or breathing upon; afflatus, breath- to betroth, whence also (though by a 

19 



afgod 

second trip from France) fiancee. Early 
forms were affie, afye, afyghe. Via Old 
French after; Latin ad, to -f- fidare; fidus, 
trusty, fides, faith. Shakespeare in HENRY 
VI, PART Two (1593) exclaims: And 
wedded be thou to the hags of hell For 
daring to affye a mighty lord Unto the 
daughter of a worthlesse king. 

afgod. An idol; a false god. Old English 
af, off + God. THE GENTLEMEN'S MAGA- 
ZINE in 1793 stated: The figure on the 
stone was not intended to represent a 
griff en, but an afgod. The afgod was an 
image like a dragon placed at the feet of 
Woden. 

afoled. Made a fool of. Used in the 13th 
century (THE OWL AND THE NIGHTIN- 
GALE) . 

afrete. To devour. Old English of, away 
-h fretan, to gnaw. Also afretie, afretye. 
A political song of the 13th century ex- 
presses the pious hope: The devel them 
afretye! 

afterblismed. Pregnant. Anglo-Saxon 
blosma, a bud, blossom. In a 13th cen- 
tury translation of the 77TH PSALM. 

afterclap. An unexpected blow after one 
has ceased to be on guard, a further 
disaster when it seems life can bring no 
more, a misfortune that 'caps the climax/ 
Used from the 15th century. Butler in 
HUDIBRAS (1663) knows the unrelenting 
drive: What plaguy mischiefs and mis- 
haps Do dog him still with after claps. 

afterdeal. A disadvantage. Caxton's 
translation of REYNART THE FOXE (1481) 
stated: Isegryn was woe begon, and 
thought he was at an after dele. Malory, 
in THE HISTORY OF KING ARTHUR (1634), 
reported: The battle was great, and often- 
times that one party was at a fordele, and 
anon at an after dele, which endured long. 

20 



agamy 

afterspring. Posterity; offspring. Gold- 
ing in his translation (1583) of Calvin on 
' DEUTERONOMY has: // He should destroy 
the whole world and leave no afterspring 
to call upon Him. 

afterwending. Following. Used in the 
13th century (romance of KYNG % ALY- 

SAUNDER). 

afterwit. (1) Knowledge arrived at in 
later years. (2) Second thought, reconsid- 
eration. Both of these were 17th century 
uses. (3) Wisdom that comes too late. G. 
Whitney (1586): Afterwits are like a 
shower of rayne Which moistes the soile 
when witherd is the graine. The French 
call I'esprit d'escalier, staircase wit, the 
clever remark one thinks of on the way 
home. (4) By extension, recognition of 
one's former follies, 'coming to one's 
senses/ Hence afterwitted, lacking fore- 
thought; wise when too late. 

again-bite. See agenbite. 
againchar. See chare. 

againsay. To refuse; to reverse (a ver- 
dict) ; to contradict. Literally, to speak 
against. Hence againsaw, againsaying, 
contradiction. Used since the 13th cen- 
tury; later shortened to gainsay. 

agambo. An early variant of akimbo. 

agamy. Non-recognition, or non-exist- 
ence, of the marriage tie. From Greek a, 
not -f gamos, marriage. (The accent is 
on the first syllable.) The word had some 
popularity around the beginning of the 
19th century, when rebellious romantics 
preferred agamy to bigamy, and cer- 
tainly to monogamy. The adjective 
agamous was more frequent, and has 
survived as a biological term meaning 
without (distinguishable) sexual organs. 



aganippe 



agelast 



An agamist is one opposed to the institu- 
tion of matrimony. 

aganippe. A source of inspiration; poetic 
power. Aganippe was a fountain on 
Mount Helicon, sacred to the Muses. THE 
LIFE OF ANTONY A WOOD (1695) said: 
Such towering ebullitions do not exuber- 
ate in my aganippe. 

agape. In two syllables, this means on 
the gape, in a state of wonder. Milton in 
PARADISE LOST 1667) mentions a rich 
retinue that Dazzles the crowd, and sets 
them all agape; Tennyson in MAUD (1855) 
pictures a rabbit mouth that is ever agape. 
In three syllables, from Greek agape, 
brotherly love, the word was used of a 
love-feast of the early Christians, at first 
in connection with the Lord's Supper. 
In the primitive days, as Chambers ob- 
serves in his CYCLOPEDIA (1727), the 
agapes were held without scandal or 
offence. That they later became more 
licentious is evident from Bailey's defini- 
tion (1736) of agapet: a man that hunts 
after women. 

agar. A sea-monster. So-called in early 
dictionaries, and so felt to be in Tudor 
times: later identified with the eager, a 
tidal bore, also eagre, q.v. The bores (un- 
usually high tidal waves) were found 
especially in the estuaries of the Humber, 
Trent and Severn. Lyly in GALLATHEA 
(1592) said of Neptune: He sendeth a 
monster called the agar, against whose 
coming the waters roare, the fowles flie 
away, and the cattel in the field for terrow 
shunne the bankes. Sprigge in 1647 neatly 
defined eager, a sudden surprisal of the 
tide. 



It is still a botanical term for a genus 
of mushroom. In Renaissance pharma- 
ceutics, the "female agarick" was widely 
used as a cathartic; another type of tree 
fungus, the "male agarick," was used as 
a styptic to coagulate blood. The Fairy 
Agaric was frequently found in the circles 
of grass called Fairy Rings. From such 
associations, the word moved into poetry. 
Note that Shelley accents the second syl- 
lable, in THE SENSITIVE PLANT (1820): 
And agarics and fungi, with mildew and 
mould; while Tennyson accents the first, 
in GARTH (1859): As one That smells a 
foul-flesh 1 'd agaric in the holt. 

agast. To terrify. From the 13th through 
the 16th century; by 1700 the participle 
agasted, struck with terror, had been 
replaced by aghast. The h came in under 
the influence of the word (and the idea) 
ghost. Spenser in THE FAERIE QUEENE 
(1596) has: Or other griesly thing, that 
him aghast. Cp. gast. 

agate. A tiny person in reference to 
the small figures cut in the precious stone, 
agate, set in rings and used as seals. 
Shakespeare has Falstaff say to his new 
page (HENRY IV, PART Two; 1598): Thou 
whoreson mandrake, thou are fitter to be 
worn in my cap than to wait at my heels. 
I was never manned with an agate till 
now. Note the verb to man, to equip 
with a serving-man. 

agathodemon. See eudemonic. 
agathokakological. See eudemonic. 

agathopoietic. Tending, or intended, to 
do good. Greek agathos, good + poiein, 
to make, do. 



agaric. From Greek agaricon, which agelast. This three-syllable word is from 

Dioscoribes said was named from Agaria, Greek a, not -f- gelastes, a laugher: one 

a place in Sarmatia, comes this word who never laughs. George Meredith in 

agaric, the tree fungus used for tinder, the London TIMES of February 5, 1877, 



agemate 

wrote of men whom Rabelais would have 
called agelasts. The form agelastic is also 
found (in Bailey's DICTIONARY, 1731) with 
the same meaning; or, as an adjective, 
never laughing; sullen, sad. 

agemate. A person of the same age. 
Stanyhurst in the AENEIS (1583) has: 
Whilst I beheld Priamus thus gasping, my 
sire his agemate. Even the staid O.E.D. 
ventures the opinion: "This word is worth 
reviving." That is especially true in this 
era of increased longevity. 

agenbite. Remorse. Also ayenbite; actu- 
ally again-bite, again here meaning back, 
on oneself, against See commorant. The 
AYENBITE OF INWIT, Remorse of Con- 
science, is a translation (about 1340) by 
Dan Michel of Northgate, Canterbury, of 
a French moral treatise. 

agerasia. Eternal youth; a green old age; 
aging without the signs of years. Also 
agerasy. From Greek a, not H- geras, old 
age. Leo H. Grindon, on LIFE; ITS NA- 
TURE, VARIETIES AND PHENOMENA (1856) 
cogently remarks: Agerasia belongs only 
to the soul. 

agesse. To expect. The a is intensive, 
the verb (hard g) became guess. The 13th 
century KING HORN has: He sede he wolde 
agesse To drive in westernesse. 

aggerate. To heap up. Latin aggerare, 
aggeratum, to pile; agger, a heap, whence 
also exaggerate. Foxe plays on the two 
words in THE BOOK OF MARTYRS (1587): 
aggerating and exaggerating the fault to 
the uttermost. Hence aggeration, raising 
a heap; aggerose, formed in heaps; full 
of heaps. To agger ate a tree, to heap earth 
or dung about it. The term aggeration is 
used in archaeology to mean the making 
of a mound, as a method of raising the 
menhir, the giant standing stone of cer- 

22 



aglet 

tain ancient peoples, as at Stonehenge, 
England though many agree with what 
Southey wrote in a letter of 1832: / think 
the stones are more likely to have been 
raised by mechanical means than by the 
rude process of aggeration. 

aghast. See agast. 

agilt. An early spelling (also agulte, 
aguylt, agelte) of the verb aguilt, q.v. 

aginator. A retail dealer. To aginate, to 
retail small wares, Latin aginare, agina- 
tum } to trade; agina, the tongue of a 
balance. In 17th century dictionaries. 

agio. A percentage charged for exchang- 
ing currency. Italian agio, aggio, ease, 
convenience. By extension, money-chang- 
ing; also agiotage, which was extended in 
the 19th century to mean speculation, 
stock-jobbing. Disraeli in ENDYMION 
(1880) says: What they mean by peace is 
agiotage, shares at a premium, and 
bubble companies. 

agist. To take cattle in, for pasture, at 
a price. To agist cattle; also, to agist the 
forest, to pasture cattle in the forest. Per- 
haps from French a giste, for pasture, 
perhaps from adgistare (a Late Latin 
form after the French); Latin jacitare, 
frequentative of iacere, to lie. Hence 
agistage, agistation, agistment, the process 
of agisting, of pasturing or of opening 
the forest for pasturage. The agistor was 
the King's officer who kept charge of 
cattle agisted in the royal forests, or kept 
the accounts of the agistment. 

aglet. The metal tip (earlier called 
point) of a lace, intended for easier 
threading through the eyelets, but later 
made in various shapes as an ornament 
on the lace-ends. Hence, an ornament 
attached to a lace or fringe, a metallic 



agnail 

stud or spangle on a dress. By extension, 
a fragment of flesh hanging by the skin; 
hence, a scrap, a shred. In current use, 
ai guile He, the point or cord over the 
shoulder in certain uniforms. Also aiglet, 
aglotte, aigulet, via French aiguilette, 
diminutive of aiguille, needle; Late Latin 
acicula, diminutive of acus, needle, acuere, 
acutus, to sharpen, whence also acute. At 
the Progress of Queen Elizabeth I in 
1564, when Lord Leicester was made a 
Knight of the Garter, the robe of the 
Garter King at Arms had on the sleeves 
38 paire of gold aglets. Spenser in THE 
FAERIE QUEENE (1596) mentions a silken 
camus . . . Which all above besprinckled 
was throughout With golden aygulets that 
glistred bright, Like twinckling starres. 
An aglet-baby was either a tag shaped like 
a baby, or a doll or baby adorned with 
aglets; Shakespeare in THE TAMING OF 
THE SHREW (1596) says: Give him gold 
enough, and marry him to a puppet or 
an aglet-babie, or an old trot with ne'er 
a tooth in her head. 

agnail. This word was corrupted to hang- 
nail, which has supplanted it. The change 
was established in Bailey's DICTIONARY 
(1742), where agnail is defined as "a sore 
slip of skin at the root of a nail." From 
900 to 1700^agnaz7 meant a corn on the 
foot. It is from ang, compressed, painful 
(Gothic aggurus, whence anguish) + nail. 
The word nail at first did not refer to a 
fingernail or toenail, but to a nail one 
hammered; by extension, the word was 
applied to a round-headed excrescence in 
the flesh, like a wart (originally a wer- 
nail, wer meaning man, as in werwolf: 
a wernail or warnel was a wart). Thus 
agnail meant first a corn, then a whitlow 
(from white + flaw?; a pus-producing in- 
flammation near or under the nail) , then 
a hangnail. The term hang seems appropri- 

23 



agnate 

ate to the hanging shreds of flesh, but 
originally the h was just the cockney 
addition to the sound of the word. 

agname. A name in addition to one's 
formal appellation, a nickname. Latin 
agnomen, ag, ad, to -f- nomen, name, 
whence also agnomen. In Roman use, 
agnomen referred to a third or fourth 
name added because of some special 
event, as Publius Cornelius Scipio was 
called Africanus, as we learn in the first 
act of Shakespeare's play that Gaius Mar- 
cius, victor at Corioli (493 B.C.) was called 
Coriolanus. In English, Scott in WAVERLY 
(1814) speaks of small pale features, from 
which he derived his agnomen of Bean; 
Urquhart in THE JEWEL (1652) men- 
tioned Colonel Alexander Hamilton, 
agnamed dear Sandy. 

agnate. A descendant wholly on the 
male side. Agnation is relationship 
through the male line, through male links 
alone, as in the Salic law. The Salic law 
was established by Clovis (died 511); Ed- 
ward III of England claimed the French 
throne by virtue of the Salic law (re- 
ferred to in Shakespeare's Henry V) and 
thus started the Hundred Years War. 
When Victoria became Queen of England 
in 1837, the Salic law kept her from the 
throne of Hanover. The Justinian Code 
(529-565) , however, modified the regula- 
tions, so that agnation and agnate came 
to include descendants in the male line 
even though female links have inter- 
vened. Agnate is also used as an adjec- 
tive, although both words have now 
purely historical associations. Agnate and 
agnation are from Latin adgnatum, from 
ad, to -J- gnasci, to be born, of the stem 
gen-, to beget, generate. From the same 
source come the forms adnate and adna- 
tion, which are still used in botany and 
physics; but adnate was used in the 17th 



agnification 

century in the sense of acquired, as op- 
posed to native, thus in Theophilus Gales' 
THE COURT OF THE GENTILES (1677): 
There is an adnate or acquired hardness 
by custom in sin. 

agnification. Representing persons as 
sheep. From Latin agnus, lamb + fica- 
tion, the act of making, from facere, to 
make. When God's minister is called a 
pastor (shepherd) it is natural that his 
"flock" be pictured as sheep. The image 
appears throughout medieval church liter- 
ature and painting. Also, of course, Jesus 
as agnus Dei, the lamb of God. 

agnit. An early form of recognize, from 
the 16th through the 18th century. Also 
agnize, agnition. Motteux, in his transla- 
tion of Rabelais (1708), says that the 
silence of the Egyptians was agnited as an 
expressive manner of Divine adoration. 
Gary, in his translation (1814) of Dante's 
INFERNO, has: I was agnized of one, who 
by the skirt Caught me. Richard Crom- 
welFs succession as Protector of the Com- 
monwealth of England was established 
more firmly, it was thought, by changing 
recognizing to agnizing, "that so his right 
might appear to be founded upon the 
consent of the people represented in this 
assembly." Neither the succession nor the 
word proved firm. 

agnomination. (1) The giving of a sur- 
name; also adnomination, q.v.; annomi- 
nation. (2) A word-play, pun; allusion of 
one word to another. On hearing that in 
THE SECOND SHEPHERD'S PLAY a stolen 
lamb was hidden in the cradle that 
awaited the about-to-be-born Jesus, a 
schoolboy not knowing how many layers 
of thought were in the agnomination 
commented: "Mary had a litle lamb." Cp. 
agnification. (B) Alliteration. Camden (RE- 
MAINS,, 1605) remarked that the English 

24 



agrise 

and the Welsh delighted much in licking 
the letter and clapping together agnomi- 
nations. 

agnosy. Ignorance. Greek a, not 4- gno-, 
to know (akin to gnaw: "Chew upon 
this") . Agnostic is a common word: 
agnosy, not in the O.E.D., has the accent 
on the first syllable. 

agonal. A book of martyrs, or of stories 
of heroes that sacrificed their lives. Also 
agonel. Shortened from Latin liber 
agonalis, book of agonies. 

agonyclite. From Greek a, not -f gony, 
knee + clitos, bending, this word marks 
one of the 7th century heretics that would 
not kneel but prayed standing. By exten- 
sion, one that refuses to bow to authority. 

agoreblood. Adrip with clotting blood. 
Plutarch's LIVES in the North translation 
(1580) mentions the floods and rivers 
running all agore-blood, by reason of the 
great slaughter. 

agrest. Rustic, rude. From Latin agres- 
tis, of the open country, from agrum, 
field. Caxton in Ovid's METAMORPHOSES 
(1480) uses it as a noun, the agrests that 
enjoy the countryside. Agresty appears in 
18th century dictionaries, meaning rus- 
ticity. More frequent from the 17th 
through the 19th century is agrestic; Dis- 
raeli mentions in ENDYMION (1880) a de- 
lightful ramble to some spot of agrestic 
charm. 

agrill. To annoy. Used in the 13th (THE 
OWL AND THE NIGHTINGALE) and the 14th 
centuries. 

agrise. To shudder, to be full of terror; 
to dread, abhor; to terrify. From a-, an 
intensive prefix 4- gris, horror, as in 
grisly. See grise. A common word, found 
in the Laws of Cnut (1000) and up to 



agrodolce 

1650, in many spellings. Thus Chaucer in 
THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN (1385) 
And in his heart he suddenly agroos, and 
pale he waxed; Spenser uses the word 
several times in THE FAERIE QUEENE 
(1596) e.g., whom when she saw . . , Like 
ghost late risen from his grave agryz'd, 
She knew him not. Past tense forms in- 
clude agras, agros, agroos; agresyd, 
agryzd. For another instance of its use, 
see garb oil. 

agrodolce. See aigredoux. 

agrote. To cram, to cloy. This verb, of 
unknown origin, is found from about 1350 
to 1450, only in the past participle form, 
agroted, surfeited, as in Chaucer's LEGEND 
OF GOOD WOMEN (1385): / am agrotyed 
here beforn to write of them that been on 
love forsworn. This also appears in the 
form agroten: agroten (agrotonyd) with 
meat or drink. 

agrypnia. Sleeplessness. Greek a, not -f 
grypnia, drowsiness, sleeping. Hence 
agrypnode, sleep preventing; agrypnotic, 
something administered to keep one 
awake. [The form, from Greek agrypneti- 
koSj should be agrypnetic; the word was 
fashioned, in the mid 9th century, after 
hypnotic.] 

aguilt. To offend, to sin against. From 
Old English a-, with intensive force 
+ gyltan, to sin; gieldan, to pay for, to 
requite. Sometimes used with against, 
sometimes directly as in Chaucer's PAR- 
SON'S TALE (1386): He hath agultid his 
God and defoulid his soule. 

aguise. To adorn; to dress. Used several 
times by Spenser, as in MOTHER HUB- 
BERD'S TALE and in THE FAERIE QUEENE 
(1596): Sometimes her head she fondly 
would aguize With gaudy girlonds. 

aha. A variant of haha, q.v. Not to be 
confused with the exclamation Aha!, 

25 



airling 

which runs from Chaucer and the villains 
of melodrama, a combination of the two 
interjections Ah! and Ha! 

aheave. To lift up (heave); hence, to 
rear, to educate. Also aheve, ahebban. 
Used from the 10th to the 14th century; 
Layamon in 1205 recorded: Cador his 
sweard ahof. 

ahof. An old past tense of aheave, q.v. 

ahte. (1) Possessions, property. (2) 
ought. (3) aught. (4) eight. 

ahwene. See awhene. 
aichomancy. See aeromancy. 

aiel. A grandfather; forefather, ancestor. 
Old French aiel, aieul; Late Latin aviolus, 
diminutive of avus, grandfather, Chaucer 
in THE KNIGHT'S TALE (1386) has: / am 
thyn aiel, redy at thy wille. 

aigredoux. Sweet and sour. Also aigre- 
douce, agerdows. Skelton in A GARLAND 
OF LAUREL (1523) said He wrote an epi- 
taph for his grave stone With wordes 
devoute and sentence agerdows. The 19th 
century used an Italian form; Ford in 
HANDBOOK FOR SPAIN (1845) said: In 
Spain, as Sappho says, love is . . . an 
alternation of the agrodolce. The term is 
also applied to food, as described in Bad- 
ham's HALIEUTICS (1854) a blending of 
sweets and sours, and is made by stewing 
in a rich gravy prunes, Corinth currants, 
almonds, pine-kernels, raisins, vinegar, 
and wine. 

aimcrier. One that indicates the mark. 
By extension, an encourager, applauder; 
one that helps with words alone. Mark- 
ham in ENGLAND'S ARCADIA (1638) said: 
Her own creatures, like aimcriers, beheld 
her mischance with nothing but lip-pity. 

airling. A young, thoughtless person; a 
coxcomb. Also earling. Jonson in CATI- 



airstone 



alamort 



LINE (1611) says: Some more there be, 
slight airlings, will be won With dogs and 
horses. 

airstone. A meteorite. A letter of 1608 
said: They talk of divers prodigies, as 
well in these parts as in Holland, but 
especially airstones. 

aischrology. Shameful discourse, Greek 
aischros, disgracing, shameful; also, ugly 
(opposed to kalos, beautiful, whence callis- 
thenics, calligraphy; see callipygian). 
Aischrology is not in O.E.D., but for an 
illlustration of its use, see morology. 

ait. See eyot. 



ajar. 



See chare. 



ajax. An outhouse; a privy; a room 
for a close-stool, q.v. The word is a pun 
on the name of the ancient hero, which 
in Tudor times was pronounced a jokes. 
A jakes (q.v.) was a toilet. Sir John Har- 
ington is credited with the invention of 
the overhead water closet for flushing; 
for his punning discussion of it, THE 
METAMORPHOSIS OF AJAX (1596), Queen 
Elizabeth I kept him in disgrace. Gamden 
in his REMAINS (1625) told that one 
Solomon, a Jew, -fell into a jakes at 
Tewkesbury on a Saturday. Shakespeare 
used the word earlier, in LOVE'S LABOUR'S 
LOST (1588): Your lion that holds his 
pollax sitting on a close stoole, will be 
given to Ajax. Camden, speaking of pet 
(French for an anal expulsion of wind) 
said: Inquire, if you know it not, of 
Cloacina's chaplains., or such as are well 
read in Ajax. The subtitle of Harington's 
work was A CLOACINEAN SATIRE; Cloacina 
was the goddess of disposal; Latin cloaca, 
sewer; cluere, to purge. In English, cloaca 
has been used for a privy; figuratively, 
for a receptacle of moral filth. Adjectives 
formed from it were cloacal (current as a 

26 



scientific term), cloacaline, cloacean, cloa- 
cinal, doacinean; Meredith in THE EGOIST 
(1879) says: We, sir, dedicate genius to 
the cloacaline floods. The cloaca makes a 
sorry end for next to Achilles the 
bravest of all the Greek heroes, Ajax. 
Jonson shows the rhyme in his poem ON 
THE FAMOUS VOYAGE: And 1 could wish 
for their eterniz'd sakes My muse had 
ploughed with his that sung Ajax. 

akerspire. See acrospire. 

alabandical. Barbarous, sottish, stupid. 
A good word though hitherto found only 
in dictionaries of the 17th and 18th cen- 
turies. Pliny (who died A.D. 79 through 
trying too closely to observe an eruption 
of Vesuvius) speaks of Alabanda, a city 
in Caria, as a barbarous place. In Medie- 
val Latin the word took on meaning from 
Old Teutonic alilandisc, foreign, out- 
landish. 

alacriate. To speed up; brighten; to fill 
with alacrity. Also alacrify. Latin alacris, 
brisk, lively. Hence alacrative, pertain- 
ing, or tending, to alacrity; speeding up; 
sprightly; also alacrious. Warner in AL- 
BION'S ENGLAND (1602) spoke of his alacri- 
ous intertainments, and upright govern- 
ment. 

aladdinize. To transform as if at a rub 
of Aladdin's magic lamp, described in the 
ARABIAN NIGHTS. 

alamort. A form of the French a la mort, 
to the death; mortally sick, dispirited. 
Common from 1550 to 1800. Also all 
amort, amort. Thus Shakespeare in THE 
TAMING OF THE SHREW (1596): What 
sweeting, all-amort?; Dryden in THE 
WIFE OF BATH'S TALE (1700): Mirth 
there was none, the man was a-la-mort; 
Keats in. THE EVE OF ST. AGNES (1820): 
She sighs . . . all amort. 



alan 



alcahest 



alan. A large hunting dog, a wolf-hound. 
Also alant, alaunt. Chaucer in THE 
KNIGHT'S TALE (1386) says: Aboute his 
chaar ther wenten white alauntz. Used 
into the 18th century; Bailey in his DIC- 
TIONARY calls the dog aland; revived by 
Scott in THE TALISMAN (1825) as the 
wolf-greyhound. 

alange. Wearisome, dreary; lonely and 
by confusion with elelende (see alabandi- 
cal), strange, foreign. Also alenge. In 
ARTHUR AND MERLIN (1330) we read In 
time of winter alange it is. The same work 
uses the word as a verb: Rain alange th 
the country; this is the only such use. 
The adjective is found in Occleve and 
Chaucer. It also takes the form elenge, 
which Chaucer accents to rhyme with 
challenge. As late as 1858 MURRAY'S 
HANDBOOK TO KENT claimed that the 
fairies . . . may still be heard in the more 
elenge places of the Downs. A noun 
meaning loneliness was also formed; in 
THE ROMANCE OF THE ROSE (1400): She 
had a . . . scrippe of faint distresse, that 
full was of elengenesse; in a letter of 
1536 King Henry VIII wrote to his Queen 
of the hour, of the great ellingness that I 
find here since your departure. 

alapat. To strike. Medieval Latin ala- 
pare, alapatum; alapa, a slap. Melton 
in SIXE-FOLD POLITICIAN (1609) warned not 
with a wand to alapat and strike them. 
An alapite, in Old French, was a clown 
that took a beating to amuse the public, 
what we might call a slapstick artist. 



Greek a, not + last-; lathein, to forget. 
Taylor in THE MONTHLY MAGAZINE in 
1810 wrote of Imps, alastors, and every 
other class of cacodemons. Shelley's first 
important poem (1816) was Alastor, or 
The Spirit of Solitude. 

alate. Three words have used this form. 
(1) alate,, lately. A of 4- late. Greene in a 
poem of 1590 wrote: Where chilling frost 
alate did nip, There flasheth now a fire. 
Mrs. Browning used the word in a poem 
of 1842. (2) alate, to suckle. Latin adlac- 
tare, to give milk to; ad, to + lacturn, 
milk, whence also the galactic universe. 
(3) alate, winged. This meaning demands 
the accent on the first syllable; the word 
is used of leaves, insects and the like, as 
in the observation of G. Buckton (1876) 
of the aphis: The alate females are never 
so plentiful as the apterous. 

alatrate. To bark, bark at. More properly 
allatrate; Latin allatrare, allatratum, from 
ad, at + latrare, to bark. Stubbes in THE 
ANATOMY OF ABUSES (1583) said: Let 
Cerberus, the dog of hel, alatrate what he 
list to the contrary. H 

albification. The process or art of mak- 
ing white. The verb, to albify is used by 
Nicholas Breton in his lines for Sir Philip 
Sidney's OURANIA (1606): As a red brick 
by waters albified. The noun was used 
chiefly as a term in alchemy; Chaucer 
in THE CANON YEOMAN'S TALE (1386) 
speaks of watres albificacioun. To albify 
might well be used figuratively, as now 
to whitewash. 



alaski. To release, free. Via Old French 
a + laskier (modern French Idcher); Late 
Latin lascare; Latin laxare, whence also 
relax; laxative; Latin laxus, loose. Laya- 
mon (1250) wrote Ich wole . . . alaski him 
of care. 

alastor. An avenging spirit, a nemesis, alcahest. A variant of alkahest, q.v. 

27 



albricias. In the days when the bearer of 
ill tidings might be whipped or put to 
death, albricias (still current in Spanish) 
meant a reward given one that brought 
good news. 



alcatote 

alcatote. A simpleton, silly fellow. Ford 
in his FANCIES (1638) confessed: Z am ... 
an oaf, a simple alcatote, an innocent. 

alchemusy. A reflector to catch the sun's 
rays, for prophesying; forecasting by the 
use of this. Cp. aeromancy. Golding in 
his translation (1587) of P. de Mornay's 
WOORKE CONCERNING THE TREWNESSE OF 
THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION wrote: After- 
ward he (who would prophecy) must 
gather together the beames of the skie 
into a mirror., which they call alchemusic, 
made according to the rules of catop trick. 

alchocoden. See aeromancy. 

alday. Every day; all the day. Chaucer 
prefers this form to the later all day. 

alder-. Jn combinations, this is a variant 
of aller, the old genitive plural of all. 
Thus alderbest means best of all. Chaucer 
uses this prefix with many words, among 
them: alderfairest, alderfastest, alder first, 
alderlast, alderleast, aldermost, aldernext 
(nearest of all), alderliefest (best loved of 
all), alderwisest, alderworst. Alderman is 
from a different source: the aldor or elder 
was oldest and therefore most respected, 
therefore leader of the family (as in 
China until 1948) or of the clan. The 
alderman is the political successor of 
the aldor. Humorous words have sprung 
from this: aldermanity, behavior proper 
to an alderman (coined after humanity]; 
aldermanikin, a petty office-holder. Shake- 
speare in HENRY VI, PART Two (1590) 
has Queen Margaret pay respect to mine 
alderliefest sovereign. 

aleatory. Dependent on the throw of a 
die, hence, hanging upon uncertain con- 
tingencies. From Latin aleatorius, from 
aleator, dice player, from alea, die. As 
Caesar crossed the Rubicon which com- 
mitted him to the march on Rome he 

28 



aleconner 

said Alea jacta est, The die is cast. Urqu- 
hart, in his translation (1693) of Rabelais, 
speaks of the aleatory way of deciding 
law debates. 

aleberry. Ale boiled with spice and 
sugar and sops of bread. Also albry, ale- 
brue, alemeat. The word is from ale H- 
Old English briw, pottage; this shifted 
to alebre, alebrey, and then by folk- 
etymology to aleberry. It was a popular 
concoction of the 15th and 16th cen- 
turies. By a similar folk-fancy, bread 
brewed in hot water and spiced or sweet- 
ened was called breadberry. 

alec. A herring; also, a sauce of or with 
small herrings, anchovies and the like. 
Used from the 16th century. Hence, 
alecize, halecize, to dress with such a 
sauce. 

alecie. Intoxication; wandering of wits, 
under the influence of ale (as lunacy 
means the state of being under the in- 
fluence of luna, the moon). Also alecy. 
Lyly in MOTHER BOMBIE (1594) said: // 
he had arrested a mare instead of a horse, 
it had beene a slight oversight, but to 
arrest a man, that hath no likenesse of 
a horse, is flat lunasie, or alecie. 

aleconner. An inspector of ale also of 
bread, beere, etc. sold within his juris- 
diction. From the 13th century; also 
alekonner, alecunner. Johnson in 1755 
observed: "Four of them are chosen an- 
nually by the common-hall of the city; 
and whatever might be their use formerly, 
their places are now regarded only as 
sinecures for decayed citizens." The EN- 
CYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA nevertheless re- 
corded in 1876: In London four alecon- 
ners are still chosen annually by the 
liverymen in common hall assembled on 
Midsummer Day (cp. midsummer men). 



alectorian 



alexicacon 



The British Information Office tells me 
they serve today. 

alectorian. A stone (said John de Trevisa 
in his translation (1398) o Bartholomews' 
DE PROPRIETATIBUS RERUM) that is founde 
in the mawes of capons and is lyke to 
dymme cristall. It had the valuable 
property of rendering one invisible. The 
word is from Greek alector, cock; the 
story is cock and bull. 

alectromancy. See aeromancy. Also alec- 
toromancy and alectryomancy. 

alectryomachy. Cock-fighting. A common 
sport, for centuries, in various parts of 
the world. The English also enjoyed bear- 
baiting; the Chinese wagered large sums 
on cricket fights. The word is from Greek 
alectryon, cock 4- machia, fighting; the 
accent falls on the om. A good fighting 
cock is still worth over $1000 in Spanish- 
speaking countries, where alectryomachy 
rivals bull-fighting. The word ale dry- 
omachy, however, seems confined to 17th 
and 18th century dictionaries. 

alecy. See alecie. 

aleger. (1) Ale-vinegar; alegar is to ale 
what vinegar is to wine (1881 glossary). 
Also aleager, alegre; ale + eager; French 
aigre, sharp, sour. Used from the 16th 
century; Carlyle in THE FRENCH REVO- 
LUTION (1837) inquires: Whose small 
soul, transparent wholesome-looking as 
small ale, could by no chance -ferment 
into virulent alegar? (2) lively, cheerful. 
Via Old French from Latin alacrem, 
whence also alacrity; Italian allegro. 
Bacon in SYLVA (1626) noted that the 
root, and leafe befell; the leafe tobacco; 
and the teare of poppy . . . doe all con- 
dense the spirits, and make them strong, 
and aleger. (Both words are pronounced 
in three syllables; the first is accented on 



the long a; the second, with short a, is 
accented on the ledge.) 

aleiptic. Relating to physical training. 
A 17th century word that somehow our 
modern educators have missed. From 
Greek aleiptikos, aleiptes, a gymnastic 
trainer, a rubber; aleiphein, to anoint. 

ale-knight. A tippler (used in scorn). 
Guilpin, in SKIALETHEIA, OR A SHADOWE 
OF TRUTH IN CERTAINE EPIGRAMS (1598) 
said: There brauls an aleknight for 
his fat-grown score. 

alembic. An early type of apparatus, 
used for distilling, especially by the al- 
chemists. From 1500 to 1700 almost com- 
pletely supplanted by the shorter form 
limbec, q.v.; then the full form reap- 
peared, often in figurative use, as when 
Scott in WAVERLY (1814) speaks of the 
cool and procrastinating alembic of 
Dyer's Weekly Letter, or Walpole in a 
letter of 1749, the important mysteries 
that have been alembicked out of a 
trifle. 

alembroth. A universal solvent. Long 
sought by the alchemists, this self-con- 
tradictory substance was often hailed but 
never held. What could hold it? Thus 
sal alembroth was the double chloride 
of mercury and ammonium, also called 
the salt of wisdom. 

alenge. See alance. 
aleuromancy. See aeromancy. 

alexicacon. A preservative against, or 
remedy for, evil. A panacea sought in 
the 17th and 18th centuries. The word 
is from Greek alexein, to keep off 
+ kakon, evil. We need an alexicacon 
for current cacophony via the air 
waves. A dose against poison was called 
an alexipharmic; something to ward off 
29 



alexipharmac 

contagion was an alexiteric or alexitery. 
The PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY for 1671 declare 
that the heart or liver of a viper is one 
of the greatest alexitery's in the world. 
The name Alexander, by the way, means 
protector of men. 

alexipharmac. An antidote to poison. 
Also alexipharmic; see alexicacon. Greek 
pharmakon, poison; hence pharmacy, 
where remedies against poison were 
available. For an illustration of its use, 
see theriac. 

alfavourite. A 17th century hairdress, 
for ladies; probably from France. THE 
LAMES DICTIONARY (1694) listed: al- 
favourites, a sort of modish locks hang 
dangling on the temples. 

alfin. A 15th and 16 century word for 
the bishop, in the game of chess. Also 
alphin, alphyne, alfyn, aufyn, awfyn. Via 
the Romance tongues from Arabic al-fil 
(Sanskrit pilu), the elephant. Rowbotham 
in his ARCHAEOLOGY (1562) said: The 
bishoppes some name alphins } some 
fooles, and some name them princes; other 
some call them archers. The second book 
on the first English printing press, trans- 
lated (1475) by the printer, Caxton, THE 

GAME AND PLAY OF THE CHESSE, Said that 

the alphyns ought to be made and formed 
in manner of judges, sitting in a chair, 
with a book open before their eyes. By 
extention, alfin, a person of limited 
powers, a fool; The MORTE D'ARTHUR 
(1440) exclaimed: Myche wondyre have I, 
that syche an alfyne as thow dare speke 
sych wordez! Wright (1869) defines this 
as a lubberly fellow and suggests it is a 
form of elfin, elvish. 

alfridary. According to astrology, a 
temporary power the planets have over 
the life of a person, each presiding over 

30 



algorism 

his destiny for seven years. From the 
Arabic, al, the + fariydah, a fixed part. 
Cp. almuten. 

algate. In Old English, this was alle 
gate, every way; its meaning grew in many 
ways, and it was a very common word 
into the 17th century. Also algates. It still 
survives, meaning everywhere, in north- 
ern dialects, along with the forms any 
gate, na-gate, sumgate. Among the mean- 
ings are: (1) Always, continually. Used 
by Wyclif; Staynhurst (AENEIS; 1583); 
Holinshed in the CHRONICLES (1587): 
These strangers in Ireland would algate 
now be also called and accompted Nor- 
mans. (2) In any way, by any means. Lyd- 
gate; Gabriel Harvey in THREE WITTY 
LETTERS (1580): Seeing you gentlewomen 
will allgates have it so. (3) At all events, 
in any case. Chaucer; Lydgate; Douglas 
(AENEIS; 1513): Since algatis I must die. 
(4) Altogether. Chaucer (THE .SQUIRE'S 
TALE; 1386): Which is unknown algates 
unto me; Spenser. 

algor. Cold; specifically, the chill that 
marks the onset of fever. Latin algor; 
algere, to be cold. Also algidity, algidness, 
in 17th and 18th century dictionaries. 
More frequent (especially in science and 
medicine, 17th century) were the adjec- 
tives: algid, cold; algific, algifical, causing 
cold, making one chill; algose, very cold. 
Burton in his picture of DAHOME (1864) 
spoke of the algid breath of the desert 
wind. 

algorism. The Arabic system of number- 
ing; hence, arithmetic. Hence algorism- 
stones, counters; cypher in algorism, the 
figure 0; hence, a dummy, a nobody. An 
algorist was one skilful in figuring. From 
the Arabic surname of Abu Ja' far Mo- 
hammed Ben Musa, the translation of 
whoe early 9th century treatise on algebra 



alicant 



alkermes 



brought Arabic numerals into wide use in 
Europe. A native of Khwarazm, he was 
called al-Khowarazmi; this gave his figures, 
in English, such names as augrim, 
awgrym, digram, agrim, agrum, algrim, 
algarisme, algorithm, algarosme. Chaucer 
in THE MILLER'S TALE (1386) says: His 
augrym stoones leyen faire apart. 

alicant. A wine of mulberries, made at 
Alicante, Spain. Also alegant, aligaunt, 
allegant, alycaunt, alligaunte, aligant, and 
the like. Fletcher, in THE CHANCES (1620) 
said: You brats, got [begotten] out of 
alicant. TIMON (1585) depicts a wondrous 
land: Thirtie rivers more With aligaunte; 
thirtie hills of sugar; Ale flowed from the 
rockes, wine from the trees Which we call 
muscadine. Alicant was a popular drink; 
its deep red color was attractive; many 
a courtier wore a doublet of allicant. 
Shakespeare may have had this in mind 
when Mistress Quickly tells Falstaff (in 

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR; 1598) that 

he has brought Mistress Ford into such a 
canaries as 'tis wonderful, when knights 
and lords wooing her have failed, despite 
gift after gift; smelling so sweetly all 
musk and so rushling, I warrant you, in 
silk and gold; and in such alligant terms; 
and in such wine and sugar of the best 
and the fairest, that would have won any 
woman's heart Mistress Quickly uses 
elegant, if not alicant, terms. 

alienation. See ab alienate. 

alife. Dearly. Especially in the expres- 
sion to love alife; Shakespeare in THE 
WINTER'S TALE (1610) has: / love a ballad 
in print alife. Some editions print this 
o' life, as though it meant as one's life; 
but it is probably an adverbial form from 
lief, dear, which survives in the expres- 
sion I'd just as lief. 

aligaunt. See alicant. 



alkahest. The universal solvent sought 
by the alchemists. Also alcakest, alchahest; 
cp. alembroth; alexicacon. The word 
alkahest was created by Paracelsus (cp. 
bombast], as though from an Arabic form; 
a number of English words begin with 
Arabic al, the. Hence alkahestic, alkahesti- 
cal. It has also been suggested, however, 
that alkahest is (1705) from the German 
word Al-gehest, which signifies all spirit. 
There remains the old query: if the uni- 
versal solvent be found, what container 
will hold it? The word has also been used 
figuratively, as of love; Carlyle (MISCEL- 
LANEOUS ESSAYS; 1832) said Quite another 
alcahest is needed. Alger in THE SOLITUDES 

OF NATURE AND OF MAN (1866) Spoke 

neatly of an intellectual alkahest, melting 
the universe into an idea. 

alkanet. A plant, whose root yields a 
bright red dye. Also alcanna and, in the 
East, henna; orco.net, orchanet; a kind of 
bugloss, q.v.; also used in cookery, and 
esteemed as a cordial. 

alker. A kind of custard. A recipe of 
1381 might still prove good to follow: 
For to make rys alker. Take figys, and 
raysons, and do awey the kernelis, and 
a god party of apply s, and do awey the 
paryng of the applis and the kernelis, 
and bray hem wel in a morter; and temper 
hem up with almande mylk, and menge 
hem with flowr of rys, that yt be wel 
chariaunt, and strew therupon powder 
of galyngale, and serve yt forth. 

alkermes. A confection or cordial, made 
with the kermes 'berry/ Arabic al, the 4- 
girmiz, kermes only the 'berry* turned 
out to be an insect, the scarlet grain 
(female of coccus ilicis). Alkermes was also 
used to mean the 'berry* of which the 
concoctions were made. Accent on the 
kur. Captain John Smith, in his account 



alkin 

of his VOYAGE TO VIRGINIA (1624) stated 
that the fruits are of many sorts and kinds, 
as alkermes, currans, mulberries . . . Bacon 

in THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING (1605) 

lists Venice treacle, mithridate, diascor- 
dium, the connection of alkermes. 

alkin. Of every kind, all kinds of. A 
12th to 16th century form; also alra cynna, 
alle kunnes, alkyns, alken. Wors than 
they, said Lyndesay in a COMPLAYNT of 
1552, in alkin thyng. 

allatrate. See alatrate. 

allect. To allure. After the Latin allec- 
tare, frequentative form of allicere, from 
ad, to H- lacere, to entice, laqueus, a noose, 
a snare. Sir Thomas More in HERESYES 
(1528): To allect the people by preaching. 
Allectation, found only in old dictionaries, 
and the once-used (1640) allection were 
formed from allect, to mean an alluring, 
enticement. Allective, as adjective and 
noun, was more frequent in the 16th 
and 17th centuries; Elyot in THE COVER- 
NOUR (1531): There is no better alective 
to noble wits; Gabriel Harvey in PIERCES 
SUPEREROGATION (1592): Her beautiful 
and allective style as ingenious as elegant. 

THE REMEDY OF LOVE (1532) Speaks of 

most allective bait, which has its place 
and allective power in our time. The 
same meaning appears with the forms 
alliciate and allicit. See illect. 

alliciate, allicit. See allect. 
allide. See allision. 

alligate. To tie or bind. From Latin 
ad, to + ligare, to bind. More common 
was the noun, alligation, the act of attach- 
ing, or the state of being attached or 
bound. Phillips (1706) and Bailey (1781) 
in their dictionaries list alligator, a binder 
(as of vines to the stakes up which they 



allograph 

are to grow). The reptile alligator is from 
Spanish al lazardo, the lizard, applied to 
the large American saurians. Allegation 
and alienator (one that alleges or asserts) 
are via Norman alegier from Latin exliti- 
gare, to clear at law, modified by con- 
fusion with Latin allegare, from ad, to 
+ legare, to designate. There is another 
obsolete allege, to lighten a burden, to 
allay, via Old French aleger from Latin 
alleviare (whence also alleviate), from ad, 
to + levis, light. THE ROMANCE OF THE 
ROSE (1400) says: / would this thought 
would come ageyne, For it alleggith well 
my peyne. These words should not be 
confusedly alligated. 

ailing. Altogether, wholly; quite; in- 
deed. Also allings; allunga, allinge, 
allynge, allyng. Used from the 9th into 
the 15th century. Maundeville wrote in 
1366: It is not allynges of suche savour. 

allision. The action of dashing against 
or striking upon. Latin al, ad, to 4- 
laedere, laesum, to dash, strike violently, 
whence the frequent collision. Thus also, 
to allide. Donne, in a sermon of 1631, 
held the old view that the allision of those 
clouds have brought forth a thunder. 

allodium. An estate held in full and 
free ownership, without any service or 
recognition of an overlord; as opposed 
to feudum, feud. Also alodium, allody, 
alody, allod, alod. From all + od, prop- 
erty, estate. An early Teutonic term; the 
forms ending ium are Latinized, and in 

the DOMESDAY BOOK (1086). 

allograph. A writing (as a signature) of 
one person for another. Greek allos, other 
-f graph, writing. The opposite of auto- 
graph; Greek auto, self. Among words in 
English formed with allos may be men- 
tioned: allogeneity, difference in nature; 
allogeneous, the opposite of homogene- 



allophyle 

ous. allonym, an assumed name; a book 
bearing a name as the author's, not that 
of the author; allonymous, falsely at- 
tributed, allo theism, worship of other or 
strange gods, allotropy (accent on the 
lot; current in scientific use), the varia- 
tion of physical properties without 
change of substance first noticed (by 
Berzelius) of charcoal and diamond. 

allophyle. This is a formal term for an 
alien; hence, sometimes, with a measure 
of scorn, a Philistine. It is from Greek 
allos, other + phyle, tribe. It is mainly 
a 19th century term. J. Pritchard, in 
BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE of 1844, speaks 
of the allophylian nations. 

alloquial From Latin ad, to + loquor, 
to talk, alloquial refers to the style of 
speech used in talking to addressing 
others. It is thus contrasted with the col- 
loquial style, used in talking with others; 
conversational. 

allubescency. See adlubescence. 

allycholly. Misused for mallycholly, a 
corrupt form of melancholy (Greek melan, 
black -f choler, bile). Dame Quickly in 
Shakespeare's THE MERRY WIVES OF 
WINDSOR (1598) says: She is given too much 
to allicholy and musing; in his THE TWO 

GENTLEMEN OF VERONA the Host Says tO 

Julia (disguised as a boy): Now, my young 
guest, methinks you're allycholly. I pray 
you, why is it? Julia responds: Marry, 
mine host, because I cannot be merry. To 
cheer her, he has sung the charming song 
Who is Silvia? 

almagest. Originally, the great astro- 
nomical treatise of Ptolemy, of Alexan- 
dria, 2d century; later applied to any 
important book of astrology or alchemy. 
Thus Chaucer in THE MILLER'S TALE (1386) 
has: His almageste and bokes gret and 

33 



almoner 

smale. The word is the title of the Arabic 
translation of Ptolemy's work; it adds the 
Arabic al, the, to Greek megiste, greatest. 
Scott revived the word in THE LAY OF THE 
LAST MINSTREL (1805): on cross, and char- 
acter, and talisman, And almagest, and 
altar, nothing bright. We have had many 
almagests, but only the stars remain 
bright. 

almain. A dance; also, the music there- 
for. References in the 17th century and 
later speak of a slow tempo, and grave or 
solemn measures, but many references in- 
dicate a livelier dance, also called the 
almain-leap. Thus Jonson in THE DEVIL 
is AN ASS pictures a man take his almain- 
leap into a custard. Also almaun, alman, 
almane, aleman, almond. The word liter- 
ally meant German (French aleman, alle- 
mand); Almany, Germany, and an Ale- 
man was a German, almain-quarrel, a 
dispute over nothing, an unnecessary argu- 
ment, almain-rivets, a flexible type of 
light armor, first worn in Germany. 

almariole. See ambry. An I, in combina- 
tions, often replaced an r. 

almifluent. Benovolent, bounteous. Latin 
almus, kindly (as in alma mater) + 
fluentem, flowing. Used in the 15th cen- 
tury. 

almoner. An official, in a monastery, or 
the household of a noble, whose function 
it was to distribute alms. The word was 
naturally popular; it took many forms, in- 
cluding almner, aumoner, almoseir, 
almousser, almaser; almosner, almoisner, 
almosyner; almener, almonar, almoigner, 
aumere, amonerer. These are all round- 
about from Latin eleemosynarius, relat- 
ing to alms; Greek eleos, compassion. 
Almoner was also the purse such a person 
carried; by extension, a bag, a purse. 
Other forms for alms were almose, almus, 



almuten 

almous. The almonry (see ambry) was the 
place where the alms were distributed; 
also almosery. Cavendish in THE LYFFE 

AND DEATH OF CARDYNAL WOOLSEY (1557) 

wrote: Now let us retorne agayn unto the 
almosyner, whose hed was full of subtyll 
wytt and pollecy. 

almuten. The prevailing planet in a 
horoscope. Cp. alfridary. Originally, the 
horoscope meant the point of the ecliptic 
just rising at the time of a person's birth; 
hence, the "house" then at that position; 
hence, one's future as forecast by the stars. 
The heavens were divided into 12 houses 
or sections of 30 each: life, riches, 
brethren, parents, children, health, mar- 
riage, death, religion, dignities, friends, 
enemies. The planet in the eighth house 
(at the time of one's birth) is called the 
anareta (accent on the nar; Greek anair- 
etes, destroyer). The apheta is the giver of 
life, which must counteract the anareta; 
it stems from Greek aphetes; aph, off + 
hienai, to send, the starter in the chariot 
race, hence, the one that starts a human 
on his life's journey. The twelve signs 
of the zodiac (Greek zodion, diminutive 
of zoon, animal; so called from their vari- 
ous names), which successively occupy the 
twelve houses, are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, 
Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagit- 
tarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces. The 
Chinese named them more humbly: rat, 
ox, tiger, hare, dragon, serpent, horse, 
sheep, monkey, hen, dog, pig. The fault, 
dear Brutus, is not in our stars ... but 
the word disaster means that the star 
(aster) has not been shining. While 
almuten is the usual form, almute, with 
plural almutesj also occurs. 

alod. See allodium. 

alogy. Absurdity. From Greek alogia, 
from a, not + logos, reason. Sir Thomas 

34 



alow 

Browne in PSEUDODOXIA EPIDEMICA (1646) 
an inquiry into common errors, remarks 
that the error and alogy in this opinion 
is worse than in the last. An allogism, 
alogism is an instance of alogy, being an 
alogical or illogical statement. The poet 
Swinburne uses the Greek form as a suffix, 
in the title of his parodies: Heptalogia, 
or Seven Against Sense. 

a lostell. Disperse! A command for a 
crowd to go to their homes, or soldiers to 
their quarters; used also by heralds to 
the finished fighters at a tournament. 
From Old French a I'ostel (whence Eng- 
lish hostel), to your quarters. The Kyng, 
said Hall's CHRONICLES (1548) caused the 
her aides to cry a lostell, and every man to 
departe. Old ostel t hostel, became hotel, 
and gave Sarah Bernhardt her one pun. 
When she became famous, the public 
wished to know whether she was married 
to the man she was living with. No one 
dared ask, but one reporter ventured to 
inquire: " Where were you married, 
Madame Bernhardt?" Knowing his intent, 
the actress mischievously replied: Natu- 
rellement, a Vautell (Naturally, at the 
altar altar, in French, having the same 
sound as hotel). Cp. hostelity. 

alow. (1) To lower, lessen. Also allow. 
Used in the 16th century, as in Wyatt's 
PSALMS (1541): Whereby he . . . gynneth 
to alowe his payne and penitence. (2) 
Ablate, in flame. Used in the 13th cen- 
tury; revived by Scott in THE HEART OF 
MIDLOTHIAN (1818): To speak to him 
about that . . . wad be to set the kiln alow. 
From a, in, on + low, flame. Low (logh, 
lawe, lou; Aryan root lauk, akin to light) 
was a common word for flame or blaze 
into the 16th century, much later in Scot- 
land. Burns in his VISION (1785) says: By 
my ingle lowe I saw . . . a tight, out- 
landish hizzie. Kipling used the word in 



alp 

BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS (1892). In a low, 

on fire. To take a low, to catch fire, liter- 
ally or figuratively. 

alp. In addition to the mountains (which 
are probably from Latin albiiSj white, 
whence also perfidious Albion: the white 
cliffs o Dover) alp (alpe, awbe, olph) 
meant (1) a bullfinch; 15th to 17th cen- 
tury; (2) an elephant; elp. Hence alpes- 
bone, ivory; 13th century; (B) a bogie, 
nightmare; BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGA- 
ZINE of 1836 mentioned those alps and 
goblins, those nixies and wood-nymphs. 

alphin. See alfin. 
alphitomancy. See aeromancy. 
Alsatia. See bonaroba. 

alsauf. Without fail. Literally, all safe. 
The CHRONICLE of Robert of Gloucester 
(1297) recorded: The kyng . . . bed hym 
alsauf to hym to Gloucestre wende. 

als ob. See ob. 

altam. A variant form of autem (mort), 
q.v. 

altiloquence. Pompous discourse. In the 
18th century dictionaries. A criticism of 
1808 spoke of elegant archaisms . . . con- 
taining an altisonant altiloquence. Altilo- 
quent and altisonant are synonyms; altilo- 
quious means talking much and loud. 
There is more merit in altitonant speech; 
the word is applied to the gods "thunder- 
ing from on high/' Thus Cowley in THE 
GUARDIAN (1641): Hear, thou altitonant 
]ove, and Muses three. 

altitonant. See altiloquence. 

alveary. A company of busy workers; a 
moriumental work, such as an encyclo- 
pedia. (From Latin alvearium, a range of 
beehives; alveus, a hollow vessel, hence 

35 



amarant 

a beehive. Also Latin alvus, womb; hence 
English alvary, womb, lap, as in Barn- 
field's CASSANDRA, 1595: From his soft 
bosom, th' alvary of bliss.) Baret, in 1580, 
used the word alveary of an interlingual 
dictionary (English, Latin, French, and 
Greek), which, for the apt similitude be- 
tween the good scholars and diligent bees 
in gathering their wax and honey into 
their hive, I called then their alvearie. 
For another quotation from Baret, see 
prick (11). By an equal similitude, 
anatomists call the hollow of the ear, 
where wax accumulates, the alveary. 

amabyr. See amober. 

amand. To send away, dismiss. Latin a,, 
ob, off -h mandare, to order. R. Carpenter 

in THE PRAGMATICAL JESUIT NEW-LEVEN*D 

(1665) wrote: I will amand . . . thee to 
some vast and horrid desert. Hence 
amandation., dismissal; the act of sending 
on an errand. 

amanse. To curse, to excommunicate. 
Old English a, away -f mansum, familiar; 
literally, to put out of familiarity. Cp. 
manse. Used until the 14th century (Bede, 
9th century; THE OWL AND THE NIGHTIN- 
GALE, 13th). Hence, amanse d, amansumod, 
anathematized, excommunicated; amans- 
ing) curse, excommunication. 

amarant. The amaranthus (as though 
from Greek a, not + mar, mortal + an- 
thos, flower) was a legendary flower that 
never faded; then the word was used 
figuratively. Drummond of Hawthornden 
speaks (1630) of th' immortal amaranthus; 
Milton uses this form in LYCIDAS (1637), 
but in PARADISE LOST (1667) he exclaims: 
Immortal amaranth! a flower which once 
In Paradise, fast by the tree of life Began 
to bloom. Southey in the QUARTERLY RE- 
VIEW of 1815 says: His laurels are entwined 
with the amaranths of righteousness. 



amaritude 



ambidextrous 



Amaranth is still used in botany, of a 
flower; also, of its purple color. See 
asphodel. There is also an adjective 
amarant(h)ine, meaning immortal, unfad- 
ing. Cowper in HOPE (1781) declares that 
hope Plucks amaranthine joys from 
bowers of bliss. May yours be likewise! 

amaritude. Bitterness. From Latin amari- 
tude, from amarus, bitter. Used from 
about 1450 to 1700, as in Speed's HIS- 
TORY OF GREAT BRITAIN (1611): 
with much more bleeding amaritude of 
spirit. The adjective amarous (accented 
on the second syllable), bitter, hard to be 
appeased, though found only in diction- 
aries, is a useful word; it must not be 
confused with amorous, in love, from 
Latin amor, love though this state often 
leads to the other. 

amate. (1) To dismay, dishearten, daunt. 
Common in the 16th century; from Old 
French a, to + mater; mat, downcast. Re- 
vived by Keats (1821): A half -blown 
flow'ret which cold blasts amate. (2) amate, 
to match, equal, be a mate to. Spenser 
in THE FAERIE QUEENE (1596) has Many a 
jolly paramoure, The which them did in 
modest wise amate. Note that while amat- 
ing meant dismaying, daunting, amation 
is listed in 17th century dictionaries as 
meaning wanton love. Latin amor, love; 
amare, amatum, to love (only fortui- 
tously related to amare, bitter, cp. amari- 
tude). Thus amatorian, amatorious, 
older forms of amatory, loving, pertain- 
ing to love. In the 17th century, amatory 
was also used to mean a love-potion. An 
amatorculist was a man that trifled with 
women's affections, a Don Juan, a 'gen- 
eral lover/ Also amorevolous (17th cen- 
tury), loving tender, affectionate. Thomas 
Heywood in THE HIERARCHIE OF THE 
BLESSED ANGELLS (1635) listed magicke vani- 
ties, exorcisms, incantations, amatories. 

36 



amathomancy. See aeromancy. 
amatorculist. See amate. 

ambage. Circumlocution, equivocation. 
Usually used in the plural, ambages, 
from Latin amb~, about + agere, to drive. 
Ambage was used in the Renaissance as 
a term in rhetoric, periphrasis, or round- 
about discourse. It may be used literally, 
of winding paths; or figuratively of in- 
direct ways and delaying practices. Bacon 

in THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING (1605) 

gave the formula: by ambages of diets, 
bathings, anointings, etc., prolong life. 
Sir Francis Palgrave, in THE HISTORY OF 

NORMANDY AND OF ENGLAND (1857) CUt 

through the ambagious obscurity: He 
commenced by a few politic ambages, or 
to speak more plainly lies. Hence 
ambagical, ambaginous, ambagious, 
ambagitory, roundabout; winding; cir- 
cumlocutory. Thus ambagiosity. Scott in 
WAVERLEY (1814) wrote: Partaking of what 
scholars call the periphrastic and ambagi- 
tory, and the vulgar the circumbendibus. 

ambesas. Two aces, the lowest throw 
at dice. Latin ambo, q.v. Hence, to cast 
an ambesas, to have bad luck. Used 10th 
to 14th century, as in THE LIFE OF BEKET, 
13th century. Also ambezas; ambsace, 
ambes aas, aumsase, almsace, amsace, 
ame's ace, and the like. Shakespeare in 
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL (1601) has: 
I had rather be in this choice than throw 
ames-ace for my life. Lowell in AMONG 
MY BOOKS (1870) speaks of a lucky throw 
of words which may come up the sices 
of hardy metaphor or the ambsace of con- 
ceit. 

ambidextrous. The earlier form, both 
as an adjective and as a noun (the per- 
son) , is ambidexter (in the 17th century 
usually ambo dexter) from Latin ambo, 
both + dexter, right-hand. And those 



ambient 



amel 



that know the meaning "able to use both 
hands alike" may be surprised that the 
first English use of the word (1532) signi- 
fied double-dealing; or, in the law courts, 
a juror that took bribes from both sides. 
Thus De Foe in 1731 spoke of those 
ambodexters in religion, who can any- 
thing dispute, yet anything can do. 

ambient. As a noun. The atmosphere; 
an encompassing circle or sphere; by ex- 
tension, a 'hanger around/ a suitor or 
aspirant. Bishop Hall in CONFIRMATION 
(1649) asked: What fair-like confluences 
have we there seen of zealous ambientsf 
Latin amb-, on both sides, around + 
lent em, present participle of ire, to go. 
The noun is a special use of the adjec- 
tive, ambient, turning round; surround- 
ing. 

ambigu. An entertainment where the 
various courses are served together, the 
viands and the desserts at the same time. 
The term was used during the 17th and 
18th centuries; the practice continues at 
parties and picnics. 

ambilevous. See ambo. Accented on the 
lee. 

ambiloquent. Double-tongued, compe- 
tent in "double talk." From Latin ambi-, 
both + loquor, to talk. The great num- 
ber of those that can and do take 
either side of an argument makes this 
a good word to revive. It is accented on 
the second syllable. 

ambo. The pulpit or reading desk in 
early Christian churches; usually a raised 
oblong enclosure with steps at both ends. 
Also ambon; plural ambos or (three 
syllables) ambones. Greek ambon, a ris- 
ing; anaba-, go up. Milton in 1641 ex- 
claimed: The admirers of antiquity have 
been beating their brains about their 



ambones. Note that Latin ambo (as in 
the quotation Arcades ambo, Arcadians 
both) meaning both, is a frequent prefix 
in English (ambosexous, hermaphrodite) 
in the form ambi-, as in ambiguous; 
ambiloquent; ambidextrous and its op- 
posite ambilevous, doubly lefthanded, 
also ambisinistrous, ambilaevous; hence, 
uncommonly awkward. 

ambry. A place for keeping things; a 
cupboard; especially, a place for keeping 
food. Thus an ambry of hair was a meat- 
safe lined with haircloth. Also aumbry; 
from Latin armarium, a place for keep- 
ing arms and armor, then clothing, etc. 
(The sound b frequently slips into words, 
e.g., Latin numerus, English number.} 
Ambry was a common English word, with 
a dozen spellings, from the 14th to the 
mid- 19th century. Through the 17th and 
18th century, ambry was sometimes used 
as a short form of almonry, the place in a 
church or palace from which alms were 
distributed. Cp. almoner. Stanyhurst in 
his AENEIS (1583) uses ambry of the Trojan 
horse into which the Greeks "rammed a 
number of hardy tough knights/' The 
word was also used figuratively; Earl 
Rivers in THE DICTES OF THE PHILOSOPHERS 
(1477) says The tongue is the door of the 
almerye of sapience. Langland in PIERS 
PLOWMAN (1393) points out that avarice 
hath almaries and yre-bounden [iron- 
bound] co f res. The ambry appeared also 
as almary; a little closet was an almariole. 

ambsace. See ambesas. 

amel. An early form of enamel. Used 
from the 14th century; also ammel, 
aumayl, amall; anmaile and esmayle were 
also used in the 16th century, before 
they were superseded by enamel. The 
forms are via Old French esmail from a 
Teutonic root smalti, to smelt. The word 



amerce 



was often applied figuratively; Phineas 
Fletcher in THE PURPLE ISLAND (1633) men- 
tioned Heav'ns richest diamonds, set in 
ammel white. 

amerce. To fine. Also amercement, a 
penalty, fine. From the French phrase a 
merci, at the mercy of. To be amerced 
was to be at some one's mercy as to the 
penalty one must pay; to amerce was to 
set an arbitrary penalty. (Often this was 
lighter than could have been exacted.) 
Chaucer uses various forms, as in THE 
PARSON'S TALE (1386): Else take they of 
their bondman amerciament which might 
more reasonably be cleped extortions 
than amerciments. Grote, in his HISTORY 
OF GREECE (1849) speaks of the defeat, the 
humiliation, and the amercement of the 
Carthaginians. The words are now mainly 
legal or historical, though it has been 
asked, in recent humorous verse: May a 
miss amerce a mister if he missed her for 
a kiss? See also affeer. 

ames-ace. See ambesas. 
amess. See amice. 

amethodist. A person that follows no 
rational procedure; applied often to a 
quack doctor. Used in the 17th century; 
Whitlock in ZOOTOMIA, OR OBSERVATIONS 

ON THE PRESENT MANNERS OF THE ENGLISH 

(1654) observed: It cannot be lookt for, 
that these empirical amethodists should 
understand the order of art, or the art of 
order. 

amfractuous. See anfractuous. 

amice. Two words fused in this one 
which also took other forms: amess, amict, 
amit, ammas, ames, amysse, ammesse, and 
more. One form came, perhaps, from 
Arabic al, the + German mutse, cap. The 
other came from Latin amictus, some- 

38 



amiss 

thing thrown around; amicere, amictus, 
to throw or wrap around; amb, about 
+ iacere (iaciere), to throw. The first 
meaning, from the Latin, was a scarf, a 
kerchief, or other loose wrap; then, in 
church use, an oblong of white linen for 
the head and neck, later the neck and 
shoulders. In religious costume symbolism 
this was taken as the 'helmet of salva- 
tion'; although this was disputed by 
protestant Tindale, who in his ANSWER TO 
SIR THOMAS MORE'S DIALOGUE (1530) said: 
The amice on the head is the kerchief 
that Christ was blindfolded with . . . 
now it may well signify that he that 
putteth it on is blinded, and hath pro- 
fessed to lead us after him in darkness. 
From the other source, am ice was a part 
of the religious costume (originally a cap) 
lined with gray fur; later, a hood or a 
cape with a hood. Marriott in his study 
of church costume, VESTIARIUM CHRIS- 
TIANUM (1868) tries to keep the two apart: 
Of similar origin is the amess, often con- 
fused with the amice. Sometimes the word 
amice was used of the fur with which the 
garment was lined (marten or gray 
squirrel). Since the 17th century, if a 
distinction is drawn, the fur-lined article 
is called a gray amice. This was used 
figuratively by Milton in PARADISE RE- 
GAINED (1671): Morning fair Came forth 
with pilgrim steps in amice gray. For a 
use by Francis Thompson, see thurifer. 

amicitial. Relating to friendship; 
friendly. Also amicous. Used in the 17th 
century. Latin amicitia, friendship; ami- 
cus, friend; amare, amatum, to love. 
These forms were superseded by amical 
and amicable; the latter, however, is a 
late variation of amiable; similarly, ap- 
pliable existed before applicable. 

amiss. As a noun. An error; an evil 
deed. Shakespeare in HAMLET (1602) says: 



amit 



amoret 



Each toy seemes prologue to some great 
amisse. For another instance, see can- 
tharides. 

amit. See amice. 

amiture. The O.E.D. defines this as 
clothing, dress; as from Latin amicire, 
amictum, to cover, from amb-, about H- 
iacere, to throw, whence also English 
amict, also amice, q.v.; amit, a kerchief, 
a cloth for enveloping the head, or cov- 
ering the neck and shoulders. Thus in 
KYNG ALYSAUNDER (13th century) we find: 
Yursturday thow come in amiture. Her- 
bert Coleridge, however, referring to the 
same passage in his DICTIONARY OF THE 

OLDEST WORDS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 

(1863), defines amiture as friendship (as 
from Latin amicus, friend, whence also 
amity. Both meanings fit the use of the 
word in English. 

ammove. To move away. Supplanted by 
remove, which literally meant to move 
back. Ammove was not found by the com- 
pilers of the O.E.D. It occurs in a muni- 
cipal order in York (1476), calling four 
players in the mystery cycle to examen all 
the players and plays and pageants. And 
all such as they shall find sufficient in 
person and connyng, to the honour of the 
city, and worship of the said crafts, to 
admit; and all other insufficient persons, 
either in connyng, voice or person to dis- 
charge, ammove and avoid. Connyng was 
sometimes an old form of cunning, which 
then meant skilful, but here it is the 
noun from the verb to con, to learn (by 
repetition). 

amnicolist. See amnigenous. 

amnigenous. From Latin amnis, river 
+ genus, born, this word signifying born 
by a river, like Moses, Shakespeare and 
me, or born on a river, was copied in 

39 



Johnson's DICTIONARY from Bailey's (1731). 
It is a good but apparently unused word. 
Also amnicolist, one that dwells by a 
river. Both are accented on the second 
syllable. 

ainober. The maiden-fee, formerly pay- 
able to a lord (in Wales) on the marriage 
of a maid of his manor. From Welsh am 
+ wobr, gwobr, reward. The lord had the 
right primae noctis, of the first night, 
when virgins of his household were mar- 
ried; if the husband wished to have that 
privilege, he had to buy his bride's vir- 
ginity with the amober. Another spelling 
of the word for this practice, or for the 
fee, is amabyr. 

amoebaean. Alternately answering; of 
verse in which two speak alternately. Also 
amoebean, accent on the be. Greek 
amoibaios, interchanging; amoibe, change, 
whence the volatile amoeba. THE SATUR- 
DAY REVIEW of 25 May, 1861, spoke of 
that amoebean exchange of witticisms be- 
tween the Bench and the Bar. THE CORN- 
HILL MAGAZINE of January 1883 said that 
Spring and Winter sing an amoebean ode. 

amoret. This word has a number of 
lovely senses, from French amourette, 
diminutive of amour, love; Latin amorem. 
(1) A sweetheart, a girl in love. (2) A 
paramour, a mistress. (3) A love-knot or 
other amorous decoration. (4) A love- 
song or sonnet. (5) Loving glance or dalli- 
ance; allurement, love-play. The Italian 
form (masculine) amoretto, similarly has 
several meanings as an English word: (1) 
A lover. (2) A love song. Spenser entitled 
his sonnets (1596) AMORETTI. (3) A game 
or play of love. (4) A Cupid, in statue or 
painting. For this, the word amorino was 
also used. Other forgotten words drawn 
from Latin amorem, both of the 17th 
century, are arnQrevolous (via Italian 



amorevolus 



anacampserote 



from amorem + volo, I want), loving; 
and amoring, love-making. Also amorist, 
a specialist in love-making, like jolly 
Dan who's determined to know a lass of 
every land. Sidney, in a Sonnet of 1581, 
exclaims: Faint amorist! What, dost thou 
think To taste love's honey and not drink 
One dram of gall? Like all Gaul, the 
realm of the amorist is divided into three 
parts: anticipation, exploration, disillu- 
sion. Amoret was spelled amorit in Lodge's 
ROSALYNDE (1590), from which Shakespeare 
drew the plot of AS YOU LIKE IT. Thus 
Rosalynde's eyes were sparkling favour 
and disdaine, courteous and yet coy, as 
if in them Venus had placed all her 
amorits, and Diana all her chastity. 

amorevolus. See amate; amoret. 

amoroso. A lover. This is the Italian 
word, used in English in the 17th and 
early 18th centuries. (In the 15th century, 
amorous was used as a noun, a lover.) 

A RICH CABINET FURNISHED WITH VARIETIE 
OF EXCELLENT DISCRETIONS (1616) re- 

counted that Nobody many times maketh 
the good man cuckold, for though his 
wife's amoroso have beene at home all 
day, yet if hee aske who hath beene there, 
she answer eth suddenly, nobody, who 
should be here, I say againe, sweete hart, 
nobody. In opposite vein Polyphemus the 
Cyclops was misunderstood, when his fel- 
low Cyclopes asked who had blinded 
him; they took his answer, 'No-man/ to 
imply that it was one of the gods. (As a 
matter of fact, the gods had dropped out 
of the picture: when asked his name 
Odysseus sloughed the Zeus, replying 
Odys, which means no man.) 
amort. See alamort 
amphisbaena. A serpent with a head at 
each end. From Greek amphis, both 
ways + bainein, to go. Poets have 
favored the ancient creature: Milton (see 

40 



ellops); Pope, in THE DUNCIAD (1728): 
Thus amphisbaena (I have read) At 
either end assails: None knows which 
leads, or which is led, For both heads 
are but tails; Tennyson more seriously in 
QUEEN MARY (1878): For heretic and 
traitor are all one: Two vipers of one 
breed an amphisbaena, Each end a sting. 
The figurative use still has its uses. 

amphiscii. The dwellers in the torrid 
zone, whose shadows fall northward or 
southward according to the season and 
the sun. Also amphiscians. From Greek 
amphi, on both sides + skia, shadow. 
One of them is an amphiscius, amphis- 
cian. 

amygdaline. This pleasant but ever 
neglected word means relating to the 
almond, which from the 10th to the 13th 
century was also called an amygdaL Greek 
amygdale, almond; also (from its shape) 
a tonsil. Hence amygdalate, made of 
almonds; also as a noun, almond-milk, 
which, heated, makes a delicious dessert- 
broth in China. Amygdaliceous, amygda- 
laceous, amygdalicious, relating to the 
almond. Amygdaliferous, almond-bearing; 
amygdaloid, almond-shaped, also a rock 
with mineral nodes (agate, etc.) the shape 
of almonds, Amygdalitis, however, is ton- 
sillitis. It would be pleasant to rest, of a 
late Spring twilight, within an amygda- 
line grove. 

anabiotic. A restorative; a tonic, a 
stimulant. Greek ana, again + biotikos, 
pertaining to life. Anabiosis, recovery; re- 
turn to life after death (as Lazarus) or 
seeming death. Greek anabioein, to come 
to life again. 

anacampserote. An herb that restores 
departed love. From Greek ana, again 
-f camptein, to bend 4- erot-, love. Mot- 
teux says, in his translation (1708) of 



anacamptic 

Rabelais: Let's taste some of these ana- 
campserotes that hang over our heads. He 
was not referring to the mistletoe. Ana- 
campserotes now are harder to find than 
four-leaf clovers. 

anacamptic. Producing or undergoing 
reflection, as a ball or sound from a wall, 
and light from a surface. From Greek 
ana, back + camptein, to bend. Echoes, 
said the 18th century physicists, are 
sounds produced anacamptically. Ana- 
camp tics is the branch of acoustics or 
optics that deals with reflection, ana- 
campsts. I once saw a deer, on a frozen 
lake, turn and advance toward the 
hunter because the far-off anacamptic 
forest echoed the shot. 

anachorism. Something out of place in 
a reference to a land, as lions in Bo- 
hemia, or a seaport in Switzerland; also, 
the fact of such a misplaced reference, in 
a literary work. Greek ana, back + 
chorion, country, place. Lowell in THE 
BIGLOW PAPERS (1862) spoke of opinions 
that were anachronisms and anachorisms, 
foreign both to the age and to the coun- 
try. Anachronism, Greek chronos, time: 
as a wrist watch on Julius Caesar. 

anachronism. See anachorism. Also (17th 
century) anachronicism. 

anadem. A wreath, a garland, a 
circlet of flowers for the hair. Greek 
ana, together, up 4- deein, to bind; 
Greek diadeein, to bind around, gave us 
English diadem. Used from the 17th cen- 
tury. Shelley in ADONAIS (1821) has: 
Another dipt her profuse locks, and 
threw The wreath upon him, like an 
anadem. In the 17th century the form 
anadesm was used for a surgeon's 
bandage. 



anareta 

Also analeptical. Used since the 17th cen- 
tury, mainly in medicine. In sundialling 
and astronomical calculation, the form 
analemma was used; first it meant the 
pedestal of the sundial, then the dial; 
also, an astrolabe. Greek analemma, a 
support; analeptikos, restorative; ana, up, 
back + lambanein, to take. THE EDIN- 
BURGH REVIEW in 1805 noted that sage is 
analeptic. 

anapes. From Naples; originally (15th 
century) of cloth, fustian a napes, fustian 
o' (of) Naples. The term later -became cor- 
rupted; Middleton (WORKS; 1627) com- 
plained: One of my neighbors . . . set 
afire my fustian and apes breeches. Hav- 
ing lost its meaning, it lost its usefulness. 

anaphroditous. Without sexual desire; 
accent on the die. Greek an, not 4- Aphro- 
ditos, love. Hence anaphroditic, "de- 
veloped without concourse of sexes," as 
the O.E.D. phrases it; and the current 
anaphrodisiac, antaphrodisiac, something 
that lessens or removes sexual desire. 

anaplerosis. The making up of a de- 
ficiency. Hence anaplerotic, that which 
makes up a deficiency (current in medi- 
cine, of deficiencies in tissue, as with an 
ulcer) ; anaplerotical. Greek ana, again 
+ pleroun, to make full, pleres, full, 
whence English pleroma, plenitude, used 
in religion to mean the spiritual universe 
as filled with the totality of the divine 
powers and emanations. Thus Lightfoot 

in his COMMENTARY ON COLOSSIANS (II, 9: 

1875) observed: The ideal church is the 
pleroma of Christ, and the militant church 
must strive to become the pleroma. Used 
since the 17th century; Henry More in 

APOCALYPSIS APOCALYPSEOS (1680) WTOtC 

respecting the voices of the three angels, 
and anapleroses of them. 



analeptic. Strengthening, restorative, anareta. See almuten. 

41 



anagrif 



ancile 



anagrif. According to the laws of the 
Longobards, this otherwise unused word 
meant rape. Also anagriph. Bailey (1751) 
defines it as the lying with an unmarried 
woman. 

anamnesis. Recollection; memory. From 
Greek ana, back + mna-, call to mind, 
from menos, mind: anamimenokein, to 
remember. In rhetoric, a figure of speech: 
the dwelling upon past joys or sorrows. 
In medicine: (1) the story the patient tells 
of his illness, as in diagnosis from anam- 
nesis (1876); (2) in anamnestic symptoms, 
phenomena recurring and remembered, 
by which the present condition is clari- 
fied (1879). Anamnetics are medicines, or 
exercises, to aid the memory. In religion, 
the doctrine (from Plato) that the soul 
had an earlier existence in a purer state, 
where its basic ideas came to it. Anam- 
nesis is not to be confused with amnesia, 
loss of memory: a-, back, away + mna-. 

ananyin. A name written backward: 
Revel; Serutan. Etymologically the form 
should be anonym, from Greek ana-, back 
+ onoma, name; but anonym is used 
with quite other meaning. A man may, 
however, use an ananym seeking to remain 
anonymous. 

anatocism. Compound interest. Term 
used in the 17th and 18th centuries for 
the "y ear ty revenue of usury, and taking 
usury for usury/' From Greek ana-, back, 
again + tokos, interest. (Literally this 
tokos meant something produced, from 
tiktein, tektein, whence all our technolo- 
gies and techniques, not to mention 
(puro-, pyro-, fire) our pyrotechnics. Or 
consult any bank. (The accent falls on the 
second syllable.) 

anatomy. From the 16th century: a 
skeleton; a skeleton with the skin on; 
a mummy; a withered lifeless form; a 



'walking skeleton/ a person all skin and 
bone. In these senses, often atomy, q.v. 
Shakespeare uses the word in several 
senses. It was also used figuratively, as 
in PAPPE WITH A HATCHET (1589) So like 
the verie anatomie of mischiefe, that one 
might see through all the ribbes of his 
conscience. Shelley in EPIPSYCHIDION (1821) 
pictures Incarnate April, warning . . . 
Frost the anatomy Into his summer grave. 

anchesoun. Occasion, reason, motive, 
cause. Later and more commonly en- 
cheason; also ancheisun, ancheysone, and 
the like. Earlier achesoun; via Old French 
from Latin occasionem, occasion. The 
ancheysoun forms were used in the ANCREN 
RIWLE (1230) and the AYENBITE OF INWIT 
(REMORSE OF CONSCIENCE; 1340). 

anchor. An early variant of anchoret, 
anchoress; used from the 10th century. 
Hence anchorhouse, anchorage, anchor- 
idge, an anchoret's cell, a monastery or 
nunnery. The word took many forms, in- 
cluding ancra, anker, ankyr; the plural is 
well known from the book (1230) ANCREN 
RIWLE, Rule of Nuns. The longer forms 
superseded anchor after Shakespeare, who 
has the Player Queen in HAMLET (1602) 
exclaim: To desperation turn my trust and 
hope, An anchor's cheer in prison be my 
scope. 

anchoret. See eremite. Also anchorite, 
anachorete. 

ancile. The sacred shield of the Romans. 
Like the Stone of Scone, it was said to 
have fallen from heaven, and upon its 
possession hung the power of the city. 
The Trojans had, similarly dropped from 
heaven, an image of the goddess Pallas, 
called the palladium, on which their 
safety hung. It is reputed to have been 
borne (like Anchises) from the city 
doomed by more potent signs, and ulti- 

42 



ancilla 



anele 



mately brought to Rome. Gower in the 
CONFESSIO AMANTIS (1390) reports that the 
priest Thoas . . . Hath suffered Anthenor 
to come And the palladion to steal. 
Thence the word palladium has been used 
of anything on which the safety of a 
nation or whatnot may be said to de- 
pend. Thus, for England: Hume in 1761 
remarked: This stone was care-fully pre- 
served at Scone as the true palladium of 
their monarchy; Blackstone in 1769 stated 
that the liberties of England cannot but 
subsist, so long as this palladium [trial 
by jury] remains sacred and inviolate; 
and McCulloch in 1845 declared that the 
Habeas Corpus act (is) denominated the 
palladium of an Englishman's liberty. It's 
good to have one! The element palladium 
was named in 1803, from the goddess, but 
via the newly discovered asteroid named 
Pallas; likewise named from gods via stars 
are plutonium and cerium. Cp. Palladian. 

ancilla. A maidservant Directly from 
Latin ancilla, diminutive of early Latin 
anca, servant. A word in the 19th cen- 
tury world of fashion; M. Collins in THE 
INN OF STRANGE MEETINGS (1871) says: The 
pert ancilla flutters foolish feet. Similarly 
affected in the 19th century was the adjec- 
tive, ancillary, as used by Thackeray and 
others, e.g. Charles D. Badham in PROSE 
HALIEUTICS (1854): Ancillary reformation 
has not yet begun to be thought of; cats 
are no more detrimental to mice . . . 
than these smashing wenches to . . . 
Sevres teacups. Much earlier, these words 
had legitimate use. In CHAUCER'S ABC 
(1365) we find: From his ancille he made 
the mistress of heaven and earth; and 
ancelle to the lord was a frequent phrase, 
in both lay and religious reference. The 
adjective is still used, in the sense of sub- 
servient or subordinate, as a teacher's an- 
cillary licence. The word has recently 

43 



been revivified (1954) as the title of Moses 
Hadas' learned volume, ANCILLA to 

CLASSICAL READING. 

ancipitous. Doubtful. From Latin an, 
am, ambi, both (as in ambiguous, ambi- 
dextrous) + capit-, head. A 17th century 
term, used in astrology when a planet 
hung hesitant over one's birth, whether 
to tip toward evil or toward good. The 
form ancipitate is used literally of two- 
headed things; the form ancipital means 
having two sharp edges, like certain 
blades of steel or grass. 

anconal. Relating to the ancon, the el- 
bow. Also anconeal, anconeous. Hence 
anconoid, elbow-like. Greek ankon, a 
nook, a bend; the elbow. 

ancren. See anchor. 

and. Sometimes used to mean if; in this 
sense, more often an. For an illustration 
of this use, see the Shakespeare quotation 
for very. 

anecdotographer. Obviously, one who 
writes down anecdotes. The word, used 
but once, by F. Spence in 1686, belongs 
to our era of the gossip-columnist. Anec- 
dotes, by the way, originally meant secret 
and unpublished details of history. The 
word is from Greek an, not 4- ekdotos, 
published, from ek (ex)- out 4- didonai, to 
give. Procopius called by the term Anec- 
dota his "unpublished memoirs" of the 
private life of the court of Emperor 
Justinian; from this use, the term was 
applied to brief personal episodes, the 
tidbits of the anecdotographer. 

anele. To anoint; to administer the last 
anointing, the 'supreme unction/ to the 
dying [Unction; Latin ungere, unctum, to 
anoint; whence also unctuous, unguent. "\ 
Anele (also aneyle, anneal, aneal, aneil, 
enele) is from an, on + elien, to oil; Old 
English ele, oele, oil; Latin oleum, 



anend 

whence also petroleum (rock oil). See 
unaneled. 

anend. At the end; to the end, straight 
through; on end, upright. Shakespeare 
uses the word in the first and the third 
senses; the third in HENRY vi, PART TWO 
(1593) Mine hair be fixed anend, like one 
distract. Richardson shows the second 
sense in CLARISSA HARLOWE (1748) of a man 
who would ride a hundred miles anend 
to enjoy it. The use lasted to Coleridge, 
and well into the 19th century. 

anenst. Over against, against, towards. 
Also anempst, aneynst; these are variants, 
in form and meaning of anent, q.v. 
Thomas Keyword in TROIA BRITANICA 
(1609) wrote: Foure times the brazen horse, 
entring, stuck fast Anenst the ruin'd 
guirdle of the towne. 

anent. Originally this meant on even 
ground with (Old English on efen, on 
emn); by 1200 it had acquired the final t. 
From the original sense it came to mean 
in company with, in the sight of; then 
it was applied to position beside or facing 
something therefore (its latest sense) "re- 
garding," in respect to. Cp. anenst. In 
WyclifFs BIBLE, MARK (1382) we read that 
all things ben possible anemptis God. 
Scott in THE ABBOTT (1820) writes: Nor is 
it worth while to vex oneself anent what 
cannot be mended. 

anerithmoscope. A magic lantern to dis- 
play any number of successively shown 
pictorial advertisements, changed electri- 
cally. Greek anerithmos, countless; an, 
not + arithmos, number -f skopos, ob- 
serving (whence also many other words 
with scope). A primitive (19th century) 
anticipatory form of television. 



angelica 

The can-can exposed upper reaches of 
her nether extremities. 

anfractuous. Winding, involved, cir- 
cuitous. The Latin anfractus, a breaking 
round, a bending, from an-, amb-, about 
-h frangere, fractus, to break, led to sev- 
eral English forms. Anfractuosity, cir- 
cuitousness, was usually used in the 
plural, to mean winding crevices or 
passages. A winding route (as in Coryat's 
CRUDITIES, 1611) was an anfract, or an an- 
fracture. Sometimes the forms are spelled 
with an m, amfractuous, as in Bailey's 
DICTIONARY (1751). Urquhart in THE DIS- 
COVERY OF A MOST EXQUISITE JEWEL (1652) 

revels in the sweet labryinth and melli- 
fluent anfractuosities of a lascivious de- 
lectation. Henry More, in DIVINE DIA- 
LOGUES (1667) prefers to ponder: So intri- 
cate, so anfractuous, so unsearchable are 
the ways of Providence. Boswell (1780) 
tells us that Johnson once remarked: Sir, 
among the anfractuosities of the human 
mind I know not if it may not be one, 
that there is a superstitious reluctance to 
sit for a picture. In anatomy, scientists 
still speak of the anfractuous cavities of 
the ear, and call by the term anfractuosi- 
ties the sinuous depressions separating the 
convolutions of the brain. T. S. Eliot, 
in Sweeney Erect (1920) cries Paint me the 
bold anfractuous rocks Faced by the 
snarled and yelping seas. It is a good, an- 
fractuous word. 

angard. Proud, boastful; boastfulness, 
arrogance. There may be a relation to Old 
Norse agjarn, insolence; there is no rela- 
tion (though some confusion) with 
angered. Used in the 14th and 15th cen- 
turies, as in THE DESTRUCTION OF TROY 

(1400): Angers me full evyll your angard 
desyre. 



anether. To lower; humiliate. Nether is 
still used, in the literal sense of neath, low 
(whence underneath); nether, lower, as: angelica. See angel-water. 

_ 44 



angelot 

angelot. (1) A musical instrument, like 
a lute, used in the 17th century and in 
Browning's Sordello (1863). (2) a gold 
coin of France, minted by Louis IX; also 
by the English King Henry VI in Paris. 
It bore a representation of St. Michael 
subduing a dragon. From French angelot, 
diminutive of Latin angelus, angel; Greek 
aggelos, messenger (the angels were the 
messengers of God). (3) a small cheese, 
first made in Normandy, stamped with 
the coin, the angelot. Various recipes exist 
for the making of angelots, angellet . . . 
and within a quarter of a year they will 
be ready to eat. 

angel-water. A perfume, fashionable in 
the 17th century. Also used as "a curious 
wash to beautify the skin." Short for 
angelica-water. The aromatic angelica 
(Medieval Latin herba angelica) was cul- 
tivated in England, after 1568, for cook- 
ing, for medicine it was used as an anti- 
dote to poison and pestilence and for a 
candy made from its root. Harvey used the 
term figuratively in a letter of 1592: Con- 
verting the wormwood of just offence into 
the angelica of pure atonement. Sedley 
in BELLAMIRA (1687) exclaimed: I met the 
prettiest creature in new Spring Garden! 
her gloves right marshal, her petticoat of 
the new rich Indian stuffs . . . angel-water 
was the worst scent about her. 

anget. To recognize; to acknowledge. 
Appeared in several forms ongetan; 
anndgaeten from the 10th to the 14th 
century. It is the opposite of forget, which 
word is still quite necessary. 

anhang. A 10th to 14th century form of 
hang. Chaucer uses it frequently, as in 
The Monk's Tale (1386): Anhanged was 
Croesus, the proud Kyng. 



anlace 

Old French from Latin ambi, on both 
sides, doubtfully 4- halare, halatus, to 
breathe, whence exhale. Thus anhelant, 
breathing; anheled, breathed out with 
effort; anhelose, anhelous, panting, out 
of breath. To anhele, to puff; to pant 
for; eagerly desire. The figurative use 
developed as early as 1425, in Wyntoun's 

THE ORYGYNALE CRONYKIL OF SCOTLAND: 

Constantynys sonnys three That anelyd to 
that ryawte [royalty]; the reference is to 
the story of the three princes that desired, 
and divided, their father's kingdom, with 
the legend of the three rings, superbly 
retold in Schiller's NATHAN THE WISE. 

anility. Dotage; a more scornful term 
than senility. Senility is from Latin senilis, 
senile, from senex, old man; anility is 
from Latin anilis, from anus (which if 
feminine meant old woman; if masculine, 
what she sat on). Hence, anilar, anile, 
anicular, like an old woman; over-fussy; 
imbecilic. BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE in 1841 
scoffed at the fopperies and anilities of 
fashion. Another instance of its use is at 
editrix. 

animalillio. A tiny creature, an animal- 
cule. Howell (in FAMILIAR LETTERS; 1650) 
wrote: As I was musing thus, I spyed a 
swarm of gnats waving up and down the 
ayr about me, which I knew to be part of 
the univers as well as I, and methought 
it was a strange opinion of our Aristotle 
to hold that the least of those small in* 
sected ephemerans should be more noble 
than the sun, because it had a sensitive 
soul in it, I fell to think that the same 
proportion which those animalillios bore 
with me in point of bignes, the same 1 
held with those glorious spirits which 
are near the throne of the Almighty. 



anhelation. Shortness of breath; pant- anlace. A short two-edged knife or dag- 
ing; hence, (panting after) aspiration. Via ger, tapering to a point. Matthew Paris 

45 



annes 

(1259) Latinized it as anelacius. Also 
anelas, analasse. Used into the 15th cen- 
tury. Blount in his 1656 GLOSSOGRAPHIA 
(retranslating Matthew Paris) spelled it 
anelate. The word was revived by Scott 
and Byron (CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE, 
1812): The Spanish maid . . . the anlace 
hath espoused, Sung the loud song, and 
dared the deed of war. 

annes. Unity; concord, agreement; being 
by oneself, solitude. Also annesse, anes. 
Common until about 1300; revived in the 
17th century in the form oneness. 

anno. Latin, in the year of. Used in 
abbreviations, to indicate various dates. 
Quite current is anno Domini, in the year 
of our Lord the Christian era, A.D. Less 
commonly encountered are: anno 
hebraico, in the Hebrew year, A.H. anno 
hegirae, in the year of the hegira (Arabic 
hijrah, separation, flight; the reference 
is to the forced journey of Mohammed 
from Mecca to Medina, 622 A.D.), A.H. 
anno mundi, in the year of the world 
(dated from 4004 B.C.), A.M. anno orbis 
conditi, in the year of creation, a.o.c. 
anno urbis conditae, in the year of the 
founding of the city (the Roman calendar, 
set at 753 B.C.), A.u.a The last abbrevia- 
tion may also be read as ab urbe condita, 
from the founding of the city; either way, 
the date is the same. 

annothanize. See indubitate. The correct 
form, anatomize, is from Greek ana, apart 
4- torn-, to cut. An atom is that which 
cannot be cut, i.e. the indivisible remnant 
according to physics before the electron 
and the atom-bomb. 

annoyous. Vexatious. Supplanted in the 
16th century by annoying. Chaucer speaks, 
in THE PARSON'S TALE (1386) of anoyouse 
veniale synnes. Also ennoyous and noyous. 
The word is ultimately from inodiosus, 

46 



anon 

Latin in with intensifying force + 
odiosus from odium, hatred, aversion. 

annueler. A priest that celebrates anni- 
versary masses for the dead. Chaucer in 

THE CHANOUNS YEMANNES TALE (1386) SaVS 

In Londoun was a prest, an annuellere. 

annuent. Nodding; adapted to nodding 
(as the muscles of the neck) . Latin an- 
nuare, annuatum, to nod to. Thus 
annuate, to nod to; to direct by signs. 
Used in the 17th and 18th centuries. 

anomphalous. Without a navel. From 
Greek an-, without + omphalos, navel. 
Medieval pictures show an anomphalous 
Adam and an equally smooth-bellied Eve, 
and many were the arguments as to 
whether they were thus correctly depicted, 
"not wanting nourishment in the womb 
that way." 

anon. This word has shifted its sense. 
Originally Old English on an, into one; 
on ane, in one, it first meant in one com- 
pany, all together; in accord, in unity. 
Then, in one course, straight ahead. Anon 
to, even to, as far as. Anon so, anon as, 
as soon as ever; anon after, anon right, 
immediately, at once; soon anon, quickly. 
Thus from the 10th into the 15th century. 
Man, however, is a tardy creature; 
presently used to mean in the present 
instant, at once; anon followed the same 
course so that by the 16th century anon 
meant, in a little while, in a while. Also 
anon, here, at this time (opposed to 'at 
that time/ mentioned or understood); 
Shakespeare in LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST 
(1588) has: Who now hangeth like a Jewell 
in the eare of Celo the skie . . . and anon 
falleth like a crab on the face of terra. 
Ever and anon, every now and then; in 
the same play ever and anon they made a 
doubt. 



anonymuncle 

anonymuncle. An anonymous writer of 
no account. Combining anonymous (From 
Greek an-, without 4- onyma, name) and 
the diminutive ending from Latin 
homunculus, a little man, from homo, 
man. Charles Reade in his ESSAYS AND 
STUDIES (1869) sneers at the anonymuncles 
that go scribbling about. Today, with 
less modesty, they sign their columns, and 
might be called scribuncles (with, if you 
please, a pun on their material) . 

anophysial. Supernatural; metaphysical. 
A rare form from Greek ano, above + 
physis, nature. 

anorexy. Lack of appetitie. From Greek 
an-, without + oregein, to reach for, de- 
sire. Richard Burton, in A MISSION TO 
GELELE, KING OF DAHOME (1864), rejoiced: 
We bade farewell to anorexy, 

anothergates. Of a different sort (a differ- 
ent "gate," or way) . Also another gaines, 
anotherguess, anotherguise, anotherkins. 
Sidney in ARCADIA (1580): // my father 
had not played the hasty fool ... 7 might 
have had anothergaines husband. Dryden 
in AMPHITRYON (1690): The truth on't is, 
she's anotherghess morsel than old Bromia. 
Butler in HUDIBRAS (1664): When Hudi- 
bras about to enter Upon anothergates 
adventure . . . 

anred. Steadfast, constant; having a 
single aim or purpose. Old English an, 
one + raed, counsel, purpose. Used from 
the 9th into the 13th century. Also 
anrednesse, anraednesse, onredness, stead- 
fastness; unanimity. 

ansal. Two-edged; cutting both ways. 
Used both literally and figuratively, from 
the 16th century, but not often. Latin 
ansa, handle (handles come in pairs). 
In English ansa, anse (plural arises, ansae) 
is used for the handle-like projects of 
the ring around the planet Saturn. John- 

47 



antepast 

son lists ansated (ansate), having handles, 
or something in the form of handles, but 
writers have seemed chary of its use. 

anserine. Pertaining to a goose; by ex- 
tension, stupid, foolish, silly. Also anser- 
ous. Latin anser, goose. Hood in his poem 
THE FORGE (1845) uses the word with refer- 
ence to "goose-flesh": No anserine skin 
would rise thereat, It's the cold that makes 
him shiver. Sydney Smith in a letter of 
1842 declared: He is anserous and asinine. 

anspessade. A petty officer in the in- 
fantry (17th and 18th century); originally 
a cavalier whose horse was killed under 
him he being then given minor rank on 
foot. The word was originally French 
lancespessade, after Italian lancia spezzata, 
broken lance; the I was misunderstood as 
the article le, the: I'ancespessade. Cole- 
ridge uses the term, anspessate, in his 

DEATH OF WALLENSTEIN (1800). Bailey's 

DICTIONARY (1751) gives lanspessade as 
well. 

antecedaneous. Happening before; pre- 
liminary. From Latin ante, before 4- 
cedere to go. The ending -aneous is 
formed as in contemporaneous, simultane- 
ous, coetaneous Cp. absentaneous. 

antejentacular. See jentacular. 

anteloquy. An actor's cue; a preface. 
From Latin ante, before + loquium, 
speech. Found only in the dictionaries, 
but even there sometimes (as in Cock- 
eram's of 1623) misspelled antiloquy. See 
antiloquist. 

antepast. Something taken before a meal, 
to whet the appetite. Hence, a fore- 
taste; a forerunner. Latin ante, before 
-h pascere, pastum, to feed; whence also 
repast, pasture [pastry, pasty, patty, paste, 
pastel, are from Greek paste, barley por- 
ridge; pastos, sprinkled; passein, to strew]. 



antesupper 

The word survives in Italian restaurants 
in the Italian form, antepasto. The Eng- 
lish word was frequently applied to things 
other than food, as when THE LONDON 
QUARTERLY REVIEW (June, 1847) said: It 
was, indeed, a part of the policy of the 
Romish church to encourage the Feast of 
Fools and other outbreaks of popular 
humor, in which popes and priests were 
ridiculed ad libitum; for the watchful 
guardians of the Spotless Hind were 
thus enabled to attend the antepasts of 
undeveloped heresies, which were not 
likely to be very dangerous so long as 
they could be represented as the outpour- 
ings of drunkenness or idiocy. 

antesupper. A display of viands before 
the eating of them. Osborn describes this 
17th century practice in his KING JAMES 
(1658): The Earl of Carlisle was one of 
the quorum that brought in the vanity 
of antesuppers, not heard of in our fore- 
fathers' time. The manner of which was 
to have the board covered at the first 
entrance of the ghests with dishes as high 
as a tall man could well reach, filled with 
the choicest and dearest viands sea or 
land could afford: and all this once seen, 
and having feasted the eyes of the invited, 
was in a manner thrown away, and fresh 
set on to the same height, having only 
this advantage of the other, that it was 
hot. 

anthomancy. See aeromancy. An ex- 
travagant passion for flowers was called 
anthomania, whence anthomaniac. THE 
LONDON TIMES of June 8, 1882 offered a 
proof that anthomania is as real and 
potent as bibliomania. 

anthropinistic. Concerned with what re- 
lates to man. See apandry. 

anthropomancy. See aeromancy. Also 
anthroposcopy; accent on the pos. 

48 



antiloquist 

anthropophagi. Cannibals. From Greek 
anthropos, man + phagein, to eat. Shake- 
speare in OTHELLO (1604) speaks of The 
Canibals that each other eat, the Antro- 
pophague. The word is rarely used in the 
singular, as by Carlyle in SARTOR RESARTUS 
(1831): That same hair-mantled, flint- 
hurling aboriginal anthropophagus. In 
THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Shakespeare 
speaks of an anthropophaginian. 

anthropurgic. Wrought by man; acted 
upon by man. From Greek anthropos, 
man 4- ergon, work. Used only once, in 
1838, but worth reviving. 

antic. A grotesque or burlesque enter- 
tainment, or entertainer. Also antique 
(accent on the first syllable) ; survives 
in plural, antics. Hence, to antic, to make 
grotesque; to perform antics. Shakespeare 
in ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA (1606) says: 
The wilde disguise hath almost antickt 
us all. Browning (1871) uses anticize, to 
perform antics. Shakespeare has HAMLET 
(1601) put an antic disposition on. Death 
is often represented as a grinning skull; 
hence, in Shakespeare's RICHARD 11: Within 
the hollow crown That rounds the mortal 
temples of a king Keeps Death his court, 
and there the antic sits . . . 

antilapsarian. One that disbelieves in 
the doctrine of the Fall of man; also as 
an adjective, antilapsarian heresies. Latin 
anti, against + lapsus, q.v., slip, fall. 

antilibration. Counterpoising, weighing 
one thing against another. Latin anti, 
against + librare, libratum, to balance; 
libra, a balance. The word rhymes with 
vibration. De Quincey in WHIGGISM (1858) 
spoke of: His artful antithesis, and solemn 
antilibration of cadences. 

antiloquist. One who contradicts; an 
opponent; one who speaks against some- 



antimacassar 



antre 



thing. Also antiloquy, contradiction. From 
Latin anti- f against -f loquor, to speak. 
See anteloquy. 

antimacassar. A covering, often hand- 
knitted by Victorian maidens, placed over 
the back of a sofa or chair, to protect 
this from the hair-oil of the Victorian 
gentleman. This popular hair-grease, 
macassar oil, was named from the district 
(native name Manghasara) of the island 
of Celebes, from which the manufacturers 
(Rowland & Son) averred that the ingredi- 
ents were obtained. The antimacassar re- 
mains as an ornament; in 1875 G. R. 
Sims freed the Victorian housewife from 
the need of such protection by concocting 
a stainless hair-balm. Sims also concocted 
melodramas, such as THE LIGHTS OF LON- 
DON (1881) and TWO LITTLE VAGABONDS 
(1896); along with Dickens in the novel, 
he was an apostle of the "gospel of rags." 
Some antimacassars are museum pieces. 

antimnemonic. Something that weakens 
the memory. Also as an adjective, 
antimnemonic unconcern. The first m is 
unpronounced. Greek anti, against; 
Mnemosyne^ Memory, daughter of Goelus 
and Terra (Heaven and Earth), was 
mother of the Muses. Coleridge (BIO- 
GRAPHICA LITTERARLA; 1817) said: The 
habit of perusing periodical works may 
be properly added to Averrhoes' cata- 
logue of antimnemonics. As an evil age 
passes many laws, so an ignorant age issues 
many periodicals. 

antipelargy. A return of love or of a 
kindness; specifically, a child's caring for 
an aged parent. Greek antipelargia, 
mutual love; pelargos, a stork (supposedly 
a most affectionate bird which is prob- 
ably a reason why it was selected to 
bring the baby). The word, with the ad- 
jective antipelargic, mutually loving, 

49 



occurs in 17th and 18th century diction- 
aries. 

antipharmic. Overcoming poison. Greek 
pharmacon, poison; see alexipharmac. 

antiphlebotomical. Relating to one that, 
as knowledge of medical treatment im- 
proved, was opposed to phlebotomy or 
blood-letting; opposed to bleeding. 
Phlebotomy is from Greek phleb-, vein 
+ temnein, to cut. 

antiphlogistian. One that, as scientific 
knowledge increased, opposed the phlogis- 
ton theory, the idea that there exists an 
element, fire, Also antiphlogiston. The 
word was also used as an adjective, 
equivalent to antiphlogistic; this term, 
however, was earlier, and developed two 
other senses: conteracting burns and in- 
flammation; allaying excitement. Hood in 

MISS KILMANSEGG AND HER SILVER LEG (1840) 

said: None more needs a Matthew to 
preach A cooling and antiphlogistic 
speech. Phlogiston is from Greek phlogis- 
tos, burning; phlegein f to burn, phlogistic, 
inflammatory, phlogisticate, to render 
flammable, as in arson. Note that Phlege- 
thon> the fiery river in Hades, (from the 
same root), gave us the 17th century ad- 
jectives phlegethontal, phlegetheontic f 
fiery, blazing. Byron in DON JUAN (1821) 
spoke of Cogniac, sweet naiad of the 
phlegethontic rill! A drink that made the 
throat cry for an antiphlogiston! 

antipodize. To turn upside down. The 
antipodes (Greek anil, opposite 4- pous, 
podis, foot) were formerly pronounced 
with three syllables, thus developed a 
singular form, an antipod, antipode; Tay- 
lor, in MAD FASHIONS (1642) declared: This 
shewes mens witts are monstrously dis- 
guis'd, Or that our country is antipodis'd. 

antre. (1) Old English (into the 13th 
century) for adventure, risk. (2) A cavern, 



antur 

a cave. Also (especially of body cavities), 
antrum. Via French from Greek antron, 
cave. Shakespeare in OTHELLO (1604) 
speaks of antars vast, and desarts idle. 
Keats in ENDYMION (1818): Outshooting 
. . . like a meteor-star Through a vast 
antre; Meredith in THE EGOIST (1879): 
She . . . shunned his house as the antre 
of an ogre. 

antur. A short form of adventure. A 
book of the year 1400 was called the 
Anturs of Arther. Cp. antre. 

anxiferous. Causing anxiety, as often 
a child's or a nation's behavior. The 
word has been repeated from 17th century 
dictionaries. 

anythingarian. One that embraces any 
attitude that presents itself as timely or 
advantageous. Hence, anythingarianism. 
Thomas Brown (WORKS, 1704) spoke of 
Bifarious anythingarians, that always 
make their interest the standard of their 
religion. Swift, in his POLITE CONVERSA- 
TIONS (1738) picked up the term; when 
Lady Spark inquires as to a man's re- 
ligion, Lord Spark answers: He is an Any- 
thingarian. This is not a protestant faith. 

anywhen. At any time. We still say 
somewhere and anywhere, but have lost 
the convenient and pleasant somewhen, 
anywhither, and anywhen. (Anywhere 
used to be written separately; before 
1450, its forms were owhere, oughwhere, 
aywhere.) Carlisle in SARTOR RESARTUS 
(1831) wished you were able, simply by 
wishing that you were anywhen, straight- 
way to be then! Similarly, elsewhere calls 
for as elsewhen; indeed Robert A. Hein- 
lein, on its republication in 1953, changed 
the title of a story to ELSEWHEN. Often one 
would rather it were elsewhen than now. 

apagoge. A proof of something by show- 
ing the absurdity of its not being; the 

50 



apandry 

type of argument called reductio ad 
absurdum. Pronounced in four syllables, 
accent on the go. Also apogogy. PHILO- 
SOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS of 1671 said that 
theorems may be demonstrated by the 
apagogick way. Also apogogic, apogogical. 

apair. To damage; to deteriorate. From 
Latin em, en, into + peior-are, to make 
worse. This word has had many forms in 
English: amp ay r, appere, appayr, em- 
pair, etc. and the form still current, im- 
pair. Chaucer in THE MILLER'S TALE (1386) 
laments that one should apeyren any 
man, or him defame. 

apanage. Originally, provision made for 
the maintenance of younger sons of great 
families. Thus Richard Carew in THE 
SURVEY OF CORNWALL (1602) mentions that 
Belinus had for his appanage Loegria, 
Wales, and Cornwall Later, it was applied 
to an appropriated possession; in the 
LONDON REVIEW of July 26, 1862, it was 
-stated that the diplomatic service . . . 
must always remain the apanage of the 
wealthy. Then, figuratively, apanage was 
also applied to a quality or attribute that 
seems to go naturally with something else, 
as by Swinburne in his ESSAYS AND STUDIES 
of 1875: This fretful and petulant appe- 
tite for applause, the proper apanage of 
small poets. Apanage (accented on the 
first syllable) comes via French from 
Latin ad, to -f panare, to supply, from 
panis, bread. It is sometimes spelled 
appanage, as by John Yeats in THE 
GROWTH OF COMMERCE (1872), referring 
to the period when a 'New World' 'was 
the appanage of a European peninsula. 

apandry. Male impotence. Not in 
O.E.D. Greek ap-, away, off + andros, 
anthropos, man. O.E.D. does list apanth- 
ropy, love of solitude, desire to be away 
from men, and apanthropinization, with- 



apanthropinization 



apogean 



drawal from concern with things relating 
to man. G. Allen in the quarterly MIND 
(1880) declared: The primitive human 
conception of beauty . . . must have been 
purely anthropinistic . . . All its subse- 
quent history must be that of an apanthro- 
pinisation ... a gradual regression or 
concentric widening of aesthetic feeling 
around this fixed point, man. 

apanthropinization. See apandry. 
aparage. See apparage. 

apay. To please. Via French from Late 
Latin adpacare; ad, to + pacare, to ap- 
pease, satisfy; pax, pacem, peace. Chaucer 
in TROYLUS AND CRISEYDE (1374) wrote (ah, 
fickle woman!): She elleswhere hath now 
her herte apeyde. Spenser used the word, 
in the sense of repay, requite, and it was 
revived by William Morris (1870) in the 
first sense; but it never quite died out in 
the past tense, as an adjective, apayede, 
apaid, apaied, appayd, satisfied, pleased; 
repaid, rewarded, as in Thomson's THE 
CASTLE OF INDOLENCE (1748): Thy toils but 
ill apaid. 

apert. Open, manifest; clear to the un- 
derstanding; straightforward, bold; out- 
spoken, forward in manner. The last 
sense survives in the shortened form, pert. 
Via French from Latin apertum, open, 
aperire, to open. Confused, in some early 
uses, with Old French espert from Latin 
expertus, expert; malapert, from this form 
(Latin malus, bad + appert, espert, ex- 
perienced) shifted its meaning by associa- 
tion with apert, and came to mean im- 
properly frank, saucy, impudent. The 

ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE (1366) Speaks of 

Falsnesse that apert is. Henry Hickman, 

in his ANIMADVERSIONS ON DOCTOR HEYLIN's 

QUINQU ARTICULAR HISTORY (1674) states: 
There are in Zuinglius . . . most apert 
sentences from which it is gathered that 

51 



God is the Author of sin. Many words 
from this source have struggled to find 
place in the language: apert ement, openly 
(14th century); apertion, opening, an 
opening (16th and 17th century) aper- 
tive, manifest (17th century); apertly, 
openly, plainly (13th to 18th century); 
apertness, frankness, plainness of speech 
(17th to 19th century) one succeeded: 
aperture. 

apheta. See almuten. 

aphlogistic. Flameless. From Greek a-, 
without + phlogiston, flame. Applied in 
science to the aphlogistic lamp, invented 
by Sir Humphrey Davy, in which a glow- 
ing platinum wire consumes the fuel. 
Most modern illumination is aphlogistic, 
though a fireplace retains its charm. Cp. 
antiphlogistic. 

apocrisiary. A person appointed (espe- 
cially by the Pope) to give and receive 
answers. From Greek apo- f away, back 
-h crisis, judgment. Used, from .the 15th 
through the 18th century, of a papal 
nuncio. 

apodiabolosis. The common word 
apotheosis, meaning to rank among the 
gods, to deify, is from Greek apo-, used 
as an intensifier, + theoein, to make a 
god of, theos, god. By analogy, in the 
19th century was coined the word apodia- 
bolosis, to devilify, to lower to the rank of 
devil. Accent on the bol Thus in THE 
REALM of May 25, 1864, is the descrip- 
tion: With one base imbecile smugness, 
which is the very apodiabolosis of art. 

apogean. Proceeding from the earth. 
Also apogeal; apogaeic, apogaic. Accent 
on the jee; except the last, which has the 
accent on the gay. Greek apo, away; gala, 
ge, the earth. Baroness Rosina Bulwer- 
Lytton in CHEVELEY; OR, THE MAN OF 



apolaustic 

HONOUR (1839) wrote: When this enter- 
prising and apogaeic old lady had gone 
up so high, she went still -further, even 
to the moon. We still speak of planets 
(or a person's fancies) being at their 
apogee. 

apolaustic. Self-indulgent, seeking pleas- 
ure. Used in the Victorian age, when 
pleasure was seldom mentioned directly. 
Thus the SATURDAY REVIEW in 1880 spoke 
of the lordly, apolaustic, and haughty un- 
dergraduate. Sir William Hamilton, in 

his LECTURES ON METAPHYSICS (1836) SUg- 

gested apolaustics for what Baumgarten 
was calling ^Esthetics; but in the world of 
metaphysics the German term prevailed. 
In its basic meaning, however, the word is 
still widely applicable; we are an apo- 
laustic world. 

apollonicon. A powerful chamber organ, 
with keys and barrels, invented in 1817. 
H. Coleridge in his ESSAYS (1849) wrote: 
Sing 'Songs of Reason' to the grinding of 
a steam apollonicon. 

apomecometry. This smooth-sounding 
word, scarcely used since the 16th century, 
should be renewed in our space-probing 
age. From Greek apo-, away + mecos, 
length + metria, measuring, it means the 
art or science of measuring distance. (The 
accent is on the com; but perhaps the 
six syllables are too many for our speedy 
days.) 

apopemptic. Relating to farewell. From 
Greek apopemptikos, apo-. away + 
pempein, to send. Used in the 18th and 
19th centuries. ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA 
(1815) says They dismissed them, follow- 
ing them to the altars with apopemptic 
hymns. 

apophoret. Though found only in 17th 
and 18th century dictionaries, apophoret 

52 



apostolicon 

(accent on the second syllable) is a smil- 
ing word for a present a hostess gives 
her guest (as at a wedding or a party, or 
for knowing when to take leave). It is 
from Greek apo-, away -f pherein, to 
carry. 

aposiopesis. A rhetorical device more 
often used than named, in which the 
speaker comes to a sudden stop, as if 
(or stating that) he is unable or unwilling 
to speak further. The accent is on the pee. 

Pope in THE ART OF SINKING IN POETRY 

(1727) calls it "an excellent figure for the 
ignorant/' Goldsmith uses the term, in 

A CITIZEN OF THE WORLD (1762) to laugh 

at the tragedies of his day: Observe the 
art of the poet . . . When the Queen can 
say no more, she falls in a fit. While thus 
her eyes are shut, while she is supported 
in the arms of Abigail (q.v.), what horrors 
do we not fancy! We feel it in every 
nerve; take my word for it, that fits are 
the true aposiopesis of modern tragedy. 

aposta. Bailey, in 1751, defines this as 
"a creature in America, so great a lover 
of men that it follows them, and delights 
to gaze on them." Obviously an 18th cen- 
tury word for woman. 

apostasy. See apo tactical. 

apostil. This word of uncertain origin 
(perhaps from Latin ad, to + postum, 
positum, placed) means to write a note 
in the margin, or the note thus made. 
Motley, in THE RISE OF THE DUTCH RE- 
PUBLIC (1858) says that, in the opinion of 
Philip, the world was to move upon 
protocols and apostilles. A record of 1637 
notes, of Charles I: apostiled with his 
own hand. 

apostolicon. A cure for all kinds of 
wounds. Named because (like apostle's 
ointment) it is a mixture of twelve in- 



apotactical 

gradients, thus enforced with the apostles' 
power of healing. In the Wyclif (1382) 
and the King James (1611) BIBLE, Jesus 
is called the Apostle. The twelve apostles 
were originally persons sent; Greek 
apostolos, messenger; apo, forth, away 
+ stellein, to send. 

apotactical. Renouncing; recreant. 
Greek apo, away, apart; tasso, to arrange; 
apotassomai, to bid adieu, renounce, 
abandon. Apostasy (Greek stasis, stand- 
ing) means standing off, the renouncing 
of one's faith or allegiance; hence 
apostate; apostatic, apostatical. Bishop 
Hall in his tractate NO PEACE WITH ROME 
(1627) cried out upon monsters of men 
. . . apotacticall and apostaticall mis- 
creants. 

apotelesm. The casting of a horoscope 
(accent on the pot). Greek apo, off + 
teleein, to finish; teleos, complete; telos 
end, whence teleology, the doctrine of 
final causes. Literally apotelesm meant 
(17th century) the result, the sum and 
substance; one's horoscope settled one's 
outcome. Also apotelesmatic, apotelesmati- 
cal (accent on the mat), relating to the 
casting of horoscopes. 

apozen. A decoction, an infusion. Also 
apozume, apozeme; Greek apo, off + 
zeein, to boil. Hence apozemical. Jonson 
in SEJANUS (1603) speaks of physic more 
comforting Than all your opiates, juleps, 
apozems. 

appair. See apair. 
appanage. See apanage. 

apparage. An early form of peerage, 
noble rank. It is from Latin ad, to 4- par, 
equal, peer. Thus Stephen Hawes in THE 
EXAMPLE OF VIRTUE (1503) says: She is 
comen of royall apparage, and later speaks 
of a gown of silver for great aparage. 



applejohn 

apparance. Preparation. From Latin ad, 
for + parantem, preparing, par are, to 
arrange. Richard Hooker, in his ECCLESI- 
ASTICAL POLITY (1594) complains of one 
who would go about the building of an 
house to the God of heaven with no other 
apparance, than if his end were to rear 
up a kitchen. Originally apparatus meant 
the work of preparing; then it came to 
mean the things involved in the prepara- 
tion e.g., 1767: the gaudy apparatus of 
female vanity then the prerequisite 
instruments for an action (such as a scien- 
tific experiment). 

apparitor. A servant or attendant, espe- 
cially, of the Roman magistrates; hence, 
a minor court officer. Also a herald, an 
usher, an announcer; in this sense, also 
figuratively. More rarely, one that puts 
in an appearance; Carlyle in PAST AND 
PRESENT (1843) spoke of that Higher Court 
in which every human soul is an ap- 
paritor. The court officer might be used on 
questionable errands, as Landor implies 
in IMAGINARY CONVERSATIONS (1829): The 
judges will hear reason, when the wand 
of the apparitor is tipped with gold. 

appease. See pease. 

appere. A variant form of appear. Sur- 
rey's HOW NO AGE IS CONTENT WITH HIS 

OWN ESTATE (1537) uses this, in the 
poulter's measure (cp. himpnes): Layd in 
my quiet bed, in study as I were, I saw 
within my troubled head a heape of 
thoughtes appere: And every thought did 
shew so lively in myne eyes That now 1 
sighed, and then I smilde, as cause of 
thought dyd rise. 

applejohn. An apple supposed to be at 
its best when shriveled, keeping good for 
two years. Also johnapple; thus named be- 
cause ripening on St. John's day. Sir John 
Falstaff (in Shakespeare's HENRY iv, PART 
53 



applemose 

TWO; 1597) cannot endure an applejohn, 
because the Prince once set a dish of 
apple Johns before him, and told him 
there were five more Sir Johns and, 
putting off his hat, said, "I will now take 
my leave of these six dry, round, old, 
withered knights." 

applemose. A dessert made with the pulp 
of stewed apples, in the 14th and 15th 
centuries. Old English mos, pap, pottage. 
Also applemoise, appulmoy, appulmoce, 
and the like. A recipe o 1390 suggests: 
Take apples and seethe hem in water. 
Drawe hem thurgh a stynnor. Take al- 
mande mlyke, and hony, and floer of rys, 
safron and powdor-fort, and salt; and 
seeth it stondyng. 

applesquire. The male servant of a pro- 
curess or prostitute. Frequent in the late 
16th and early 17th century, as in the 
play WHAT YOU WILL: Of pages, some be 
court pages, others ordinary gallants^ and 
the third apple squires. The term was 
possibly coined with thought of Eve's 
proffering, but it has been suggested that 
the costermongers, dealers in apples, were 
often intermediaries in intrigues. 

apricate. To bask in the sun; to expose 
to the sun. Aubrey in 1697 wrote: His 
lordship was wont to recreate himself 
in this place,, to apricate and contemplate. 
(This place' was the top of the old gate- 
house at Chelsea; once, while Sir Thomas 
More was apricating there with his dog, 
a wandering Tom o' Bedlam climbed up 
and wished to throw Sir Thomas over 
the battlements. "Let's throw the dog 
over first," said Sir Thomas. Over it 
went "Now go down and fetch it up 
again." Tom o' Bedlam went down; Tom 
More locked the door, and continued 
his aprication.) Fire Island, New York, 
and Key West, Florida, are popular places 

54 



arbalest 

to apricate. Note that the apricot, some- 
times explained as from in aprico coctus, 
ripened in a sunny place, is via Latin 
praecoctum, early ripe, which sounded 
like the original Arabic name of the 
fruit, al birquq. The early European 
name was Armenian apple. Aprique is a 
rare word for sunny; Richard Tomlinson 
in his MEDICINAL DISPENSATORY (1657) avers 
that the sanlal-tree fruticates best in 
aprike places. See beek. Hence aprication, 
basking in the sun; apricity, the sun's 
warmth, as on an August afternoon, but 
also applied to the warmth of a sunny day 
in winter. 

apricide. See stillicide. 

aprike. See apricate. The accent is on 
the first syllable. With accent on the 
second syllable, aprick is a rare (13th 
century) verb meaning to spur on. 

aqueity. Wateriness; the essence of 
water. Cp. terreity. 

arace. Uproot; snatch away; tear. From 
Latin ab, away + radicem, root, whence 
also radish. One of the seven English 
nouns spelled race means (ginger) root. 
Under French influence, the word was 
sometimes spelled arache. Chaucer in 
TROYLUS AND CRiSEYDE (1374) has him soon 
out of your heart arace; in THE CLERK'S 
TALE (1386): The children from her arm 
they gonne arace. 

aradmean. See orifex. 

arain. A spider. Also erayne. Via French 
from Latin aranea; Greek arachne, spider. 
For the story of Arachne, see orifex. 

arbalest. A medieval weapon, a cross- 
bow: a steel bow fitted to a wooden shaft, 
with a mechanism for drawing the bow- 
string taut and letting it slip. Arrows and 
bolts were the usual missiles; occasionally 



arbor 



aread 



stones. The word had many forms 
arcubalist, arbalist, arblast, arbalust, al- 
blast, alablaste, aroblast; it is from Latin 
arcus, bow + ballista (q.v., a larger but 
similar weapon). Arbalester, arblaster, 
alblaster, a soldier armed with an arbalest; 
also, the missile shot from the weapon. 
Arbalestry, the art or practice of cross- 
bow shooting. 

arbor. See arbust. 

arbust. A shrub; a dwarf tree. Medieval 
Latin arbuscula, diminutive of arbos, 
arbor, tree. Also as a verb (17th cen- 
tury) arbust, to plant with trees. Also 
arbustal, arbustive, relating to shrubs or 
young trees. Other words for a dwarf tree 
or sapling are arbuscle, arboret, the lat- 
ter favored by poets (Spenser, 1596; 
Sou they, 1805; Milton in PARADISE LOST, 
1667: Among thick wov'n arborets and 
flours.) From Latin arbor, tree, come many 
forms: arboreal, arborean, arboral, arbori- 
cal, relating to trees, arboricole, dwelling 
in or among trees, arborescent, like a 
flourishing tree; with many branches; E. 
Burr in ECCE COELUM (1867) speaks of 
God whose unity is arborescent with end- 
less varieties of beauty and power. 
Arborous (Milton, 1667; Coleridge, 1796), 
with many trees. There is quite a distinct 
word arbor, now used in the sense of a 
bower, shady retreat, covered walk. This 
was originally herber, Old French herbier, 
a place covered with grass, a garden of 
herbs; Latin herba, grass, herb. This be- 
came erber; it was pronounced arbor (as 
clerk is pronounced dark), then spelled 
as pronounced. In the 14th century this 
arbor (arbour) meant a garden of herbs, 
a grassy lawn; then, since fruit trees were 
planted on grass plots, an orchard; then 
(15th century) trees or vines trained on a 
framework or trellis whence the current 



uses. 



arcanum. A mystery; a deep secret. 
Hence, one of the great secrets of nature 
the alchemists sought to discover; there- 
fore, a universal remedy, elixir of life. 
The word was often used in the plural, 
arcana, the dark mysteries. Latin arcanus; 
arcere, to shut up; area, chest, ark, arche 
(13th and 14th centuries, Noah's arche). 
Also arcanal, of a secret nature, mysterious, 
dim; arcane, hidden from the common 
eye, secret. Boorde in THE BREVIARY OF 
HEALTHE (1547) wrote of the eximiouse 
and archane science of physicke. Scott in 
KENILWORTH (1821) noted the pursuit of 
the grand arcanum. 

archlute. A long lute, with two sets of 
strings, one open, one stopped. Used for 
playing a thorough bass. Also arcileuto, 
archilute. 

arctation. Constriction; the act of draw- 
ing close together. Used in medicine, but 
also figurative, as of the huddling to- 
gether of children in fear. From Latin 
arctare, artare; artus, confined. There is 
an old English verb art, to cramp, restrict, 
press, used by Wyclif in his BIBLE (1382); 
Chaucer uses it in the sense of to press, 
to urge, in TROYLUS AND CRISEYDE (1374): 
What for to speke, and what to holden 
inne, And what to arten. 

arcticize. To make frigid; to accustom 
to arctic conditions. Cp. cynarctomachy. 

areach. See arecche. 

aread. To decree; to declare by super- 
natural counsel, to prophesy; to declare; 
to guess; to advise. Old English a, out 
+ redan, read. Also spelled arede, areed. 
Used from the time of King Alfred, about 
875, to about 1650, by Gower, Tindale, 
Chaucer in TROYLUS AND CRISEYDE (1374): 
What it is, 1 leye I kanne arede. Later 
used, as a revival, by Spenser, by Milton 



55 



arecche 

in his tract on DIVORCE (1643): Let me 
areed him, not to be the foreman of any 
ill-judgd opinion. The word is also used 
as a noun, advice, as by Lodge in 

EUPHUES' GOLDEN LEGACIE (1590): Follow 

mine arreede. In Spenser's THE FAERIE 
QUEENE (1596) the Faun has bribed one 
of Diana's nymphs to tell him where the 
goddess bathes; when he beholds her, he 
laughs aloud in joy: A foolish faune in- 
deed, That couldst not hold thy selfe so 
hidden blest, But wouldest needs thine 
owne conceit areed. Babblers unworthy 
been of so divine a meed. 

arecche. To explain, state the meaning 
of; to speak. Also areche, areccan. Past 
tense forms included arehte, araht, 
ar ought. An emphatic form of recche f 
reche, to tell, say; to go (by mistake for 
reach; arreche was similarly confused 
with areach), to get at, to obtain; to de- 
liver; to strike. Used (both recche and 
arecche} into the 15th century; Gower in 
CONFESSIO AMANTIS (1393) says: Christ 
wroughte first and after taught, So that 
the deed his word drought. 

arefy. To dry up, parch. From Latin 
arere, to dry (aridus, arid) 4- facere, to 
make. Bacon in SYLVA SYLVARUM (1626) 
says that the heat which is in lime and 
ashes . . . doth neither liquefy nor arefy. 
A synonym for arefied is arefacted, with- 
ered. 

arenate. To cover or mix with sand. 
From Latin arena, harena, sand, espe- 
cially the sand-covered battle-'ring' of an 
amphitheatre. The verb exists only in 
dictionaries, but arenation is an 18th cen- 
tury medical term for a sand-bath. Many 
a person, on a sunny summer day at the 
seashore, indulges in an arenation. Hence 
also arenous, arenose, sandy, full of sand, 
like one's shoes when one comes home 
from the seashore. 



arfname 

areopagy. A conclave; a secret tribunal. 
Also areopagus, a high tribunal. Accent 
on the op. From Areopagus, Greek 
Areios pagos, the hill of Ares (Mars), 
where the highest judicial court of Athens 
held its hearings; hence, a high tribunal. 
An areopagite, a member of the tribunal. 
Also areopagitic, areopagitical. Sir Thomas 
Browne in CHRISTIAN MORALS (1682) said 
that conscience sits in the areopagy and 
dark tribunal of our hearts. 

aret. To reckon; hence, to reckon to 
someone's account, to credit or blame. 
From Old French areter; a, to 4- reter, 
Latin reputare, to reckon, from re-, back 
4- puto, to think. This word was very 
frequent in the 14th and 15th centuries; 
Chaucer used it many times, as when he 
asks the reader, if he find an error in his 
work, to aret it to Adam Scrivener. Spen- 
ser (whom others have followed) misunder- 
stood aret as meaning to commit a charge 
to someone, to entrust; hence in THE 
FAERIE QUEENE (1596): The charge, which 
God doth unto me arrett . . . When the 
English learned Latin, they associated this 
word with Latin rectum, meaning right; 
hence during the 15th and 16th centuries 
we find the word often spelled arect, 
arrect. Which is incorrect. 

aretaics. The science of virtue. Four 
syllables; Greek arete, virtue. Grote in 
MORAL IDEAS (1865) said that in moral 
philosophy there are two sciences . . . 
the science of virtue, aretaics . . . the 
science of happiness, eudaemonics. In 
17th century dictionaries we find areta- 
loger (Blount, 1656): one that braggs or 
boasts of vertue in himself; a Iyer. 

arfname. An heir. Old Norse arfr, in- 
heritance; Old English numa, taker; 
niman, to take; see nim. Used from the 
10th to the 13th century. 



56 



argal 

argal. Therefore. A perversion of Latin 
ergo; cp. ergotize. By extension, as a 
noun, a clumsy piece of reasoning. 
Shakespeare in HAMLET (1602) has the 
gravedigger reason: He drownes not him- 
selfe, Argal, he . . . shortens not his owne 
life. THE TIMES of 23 August 1861 called 
Mr. Buckle's argument as absurd an 
argal as ever was invented by philosopher 
or gravedigger. 

argh. Cowardly, timid; inert, sluggish, 
loath, reluctant; base, good-for-nothing. 
From the 9th to the 15th century, later 
in northern dialects. Also, as a verb, argh, 
to be disheartened, frightened; to frighten. 
Me arghes, I am afraid. Other forms in- 
cluded arg, ergh, arwe, arewe, arwhe, 
arowe, arch, ergh, erf, arrow. Also arghship, 
arghth, arghness, arghhood, cowardice, 
timidity. William Stewart in THE BUIK OF 

THE CRONICLIS OF SCOTLAND (1535) WTOte: 

King Duncane so arch ane man wes he. 

argosy. A large merchant ship of the 
middle ages. Also a Ragusee, a ship from 
Ragusa in Italy. Ragusa was also called 
in 16th century England, Aragouse, 
Arragosa. Other forms for argosy in- 
cluded arguze, argosea, ragusye, argozee. 
Shakespeare uses the word in THE TAMING 
OF THE SHREW (1596) and THE MERCHANT 
OF VENICE: Argosies with portly saile Like 
signiors and rich burgers on the flood 
Do over-peer e the pettie traffiquers That 
curtsie to them, do them reverence. As 
they flye by them with their woven wings. 
There may later have been some thought, 
in connection with an argosy, of the Argo 
(Greek argos, swift) the ship in which 
Jason sailed in quest of the golden fleece, 
with his argonauts (Greek nautes, sailor). 
From a different story, but related in 
origin, comes Argus, a watchful guardian. 
Hence Argus-eyed, on the qui vive. This 
is from Greek Argos-Panoptes (literally, 

57 



ariolation 

the swift all-eyes), who had 100 eyes 
sprinkled over his body. The jealous 
Hera set him to watch lo, whom Zeus 
was courting; he was killed by Hermes 
(Mercury), thence called the Argus- 
queller. When Argus died, Hera set his 
orbs in the peacock's tail, wherefore 
Spenser in THE FAERIE QUEENE (1596) says: 
Fayre pecocks . . . full of Argus eyes 
Their tayles dispredden wide. 

Argus-eyed. See argosy. 

argute. Sharp; clear. From Latin 
argutus, from arguere, to make clear, to 
assert whence English argue. Argute 
tastes are sharp; argute sounds are shrill 
Landor wrote to Barry Cornwall in 
1864 of a rich but too argute guitar; 
argute persons are sharp, subtle, shrewd, 
especially in details. Thus the QUARTERLY 
REVIEW of 1818 speaks of argute emenda- 
tions of texts. Browning, in ARISTOPHANES' 
APOLOGY (1875): Thou, the argute and 
tricksy. There is also an adverb, as in 
Sterne's TRISTRAM SHANDY (1762): "You 
are wrong," said my father argutely. 

Ariachne. See orifex. 

arietation. The act of butting, from 
Latin arietatum, arietare, to butt, from 
aries, ram. Used in the Middle Ages of 
the battering-ram. Bacon observed in his 
ESSAYS (1625) that ordnance doe exceed 
all arietations; Fuller in THE HISTORY OF 
THE HOLY WAR (1639) says that Before 
ordinance was found out, ships were both 
gunnes and bullets themselves, and furi- 
ously ranne one against another. They 
began with this arietation. The word was 
also used figuratively, as in THE MONTHLY 
REVIEW in 1797: props of our old consti- 
tution against the arietations of democ- 
racy. Now it seems democracy's turn to 
be arietated. 

ariolation. Soothsaying. From Latin 



arista 



arnement 



ariolatum, hariolatum, from hariolus, 
soothsayer. Sir Thomas Browne in PSEUDO- 
DOXIA EPIDEMICA (1646) speaks of persons 
deluding their apprehensions -with ariola- 
tlon, sooth-saying, and such oblique idola- 
tries. John Gaule in THE MAGASTRO- 
MANCER (1652), in addition to ariolation, 
uses ariolist and ariolater for soothsayer, 
also the verb: to vaticinate and ariolate 
his Persian victory. There are other 
forms, e.g., Cassandra was a foredoomed 
ariole. For methods of ariolation, see 
aeromancy. 

arista. See muticous. 

aristarch. A severe critic. Used from the 
17th century; from Aristarchos (P220-150 
B.C.), librarian at Alexandria, who rejected 
much of Homer as spurious. Plural 
aristarchs, aristarchi. Harington (1612) 
used aristarchy to mean severe critics as a 
body. Note that the first meaning of 
aristocracy (Greek aristos, best) was gov- 
ernment by the best citizens; aristarchy, 
in that sense, is listed by O.E.D. as a 
spurious word. Samuel Johnson has by 
many been deemed an aristarch. Make 
your own choice among today's. 

aristology. The art of dining. Greek 
ariston f luncheon + logia, talk. Used in 
the 19th century; also aristological. An 
1864 cookbook was listed as by an Aus- 
tralian aristologist. The Romans, said M. 
Collins in PEN SKETCHES (1879) defied all 
the rules of aristology "by their abomi- 
nable excesses; for a contrary thought, see 
vomitorium. 

aimiger. This word comes directly from 
a Latin form meaning a bearer of arms; 
hence, a squire. Originally it meant a 
soldier who carried a knight's shield and 
spear. Later it was applied to a person 
entitled to bear heraldic arms (that is, a 
coat of arms). Shakespeare in THE MERRY 

58 



WIVES OF WINDSOR (1598) speaks of A 
Gentleman born . . . who writes himself 
Armigero. In his AUTOBIOGRAPHY (1840) 
Thomes De Quincey uses the word in the 
second sense, and defines it. Blackmore 
in his rousing romance LORNA DOONE 
(1869) says of a wealthy man: He . . . 
could buy up half the county armigers. 

armil. The word armilla was taken di- 
rectly from the Latin in the description 
(1485) of the coronation of King Henry 
VII, for the "stole woven with gold and 
set with stones" that the Cardinal placed 
upon the King at the coronation. More 
frequently, however, perhaps from the 
association of its first three letters, armilla 
meant the royal bracelet. In the sense of 
bracelet the word is still used in archae- 
ology. The Latin armus meant shoul- 
der. The word armil, or armilla was also 
applied to an astronomical instrument, 
consisting of one or two circular loops 
so arranged that shadows on them indi- 
cated the recurrence of the equinoxes 
and solstices. The word armillated, wear- 
ing bracelets, aptly describes one whose 
arms are thus burdened. 

arming. A wretched creature. Old Eng- 
lish earm, poor. In the play THE LONDON 
PRODIGAL (1605), formerly attributed to 
Shakespeare, occurs the exlamation: O 
here God f so young an armine! The word 
was more frequent in the llth, 12th, and 
13th centuries. 

armomancy. See aeromancy. 
armozeen. See ormuzine. 

arndern. See aadorn. Drayton's THE OWLE 
(1604) spoke of the sad arndern shutting 
in the light. 

arnement. Ink, or its components. Via 
Old French arrement from Latin atramen- 
tum, ink; atrum, black. From the 13th 



aroint 



arras 



through the 16th century. THE SEVEN 
SAGES (1320) neatly says: He let him make 
a garnement As black as any arnement. 
Thomas Lupton in A THOUSAND NOTABLE 

THINGS OF SUNDRIE SORTS (1586) offers a 

recipe: Take arnement, hony, and the 
white of eggs. (Some books are to be 
digested.) 

aroint. This is a word much discussed by 
commentators, apparently coined by 
Shakespeare, to mean Begonel He uses it 
in MACBETH (1605): Aroynt thee, Witch, 
the rump-fed ronyon cries, and also in 
KING LEAR. The nearest to an earlier use 
seems to be an old Cheshire exclamation: 
Rynt you, witch. The word has been 
used by writers after Shakespeare; in Sir 
Walter Scott's works it appears seven 
times; both Robert Browning and Eliza- 
beth Barrett Browning used it. In 
Cheshire, the milkmaids may say to a 
cow: Roint thee!, whereupon it moves off 
"the cow being in this instance," Nares 
remarks in his 1882 GLOSSARY, "more 
learned than the commentators on Shake- 
speare." 

Ronyon is an alternate spelling for 
runnion, which Samuel Johnson defines 
as a mangy creature, from French rogne, 
the itch. Shakespeare uses it not only in 

MACBETH but also in THE MERRY WIVES OF 

WINDSOR: Out of my door, you Witch, 
you Rag, you Baggage, you Polecat, you 
Runnion. No one seems to have followed 
Shakespeare in using runnion as a scorn- 
ful term for a woman; in the only other 
recorded use (1655), the word refers to 
the male organ. 

aromatizate. To spice, to render fra- 
grant. Used in the 16th and 17th centuries. 
The more familiar aromatize (from the 
15th century) was also used figuratively, 
as when Sir Thomas Browne (1646) spoke 
of Jews aromatized by their conversion. 

59 



In the 17th century, a dealer in spices 
might be called an aromatary. Barroughs 

in THE METHOD OF PHYSICK (1624) WTOte: 

Let it be boiled upon the coales without 
any smoake long time together, wringing 
the reubarbe strongly, being bound in a 
peece of linnen cloth, clarifie it, and 
aromatizate it. 

arrant. Originally a variant of errant, 
wandering, present participle of Latin 
errare, to stray. The original form is still 
used in knight errant. In such expres- 
sions as thief errant, arrant thief, the 
term meant a roving robber or highway- 
man; hence, a professed, manifest thief; 
hence, anything manifest, downright; 
thorough (thoroughly bad). The word is 
quite common from the 14th century to 
about 1850, and is still used, as by 
Chaucer, Langland, Shakespeare, Fuller, 
Richardson, Fielding TOM JONES (1749): 
The arrantest villain that ever walked 
upon two legs Washington Irving, a 
half-dozen times, occasionally without op- 
probrious implications, as in THE SKETCH 
BOOK. (1820): a tight brisk little man, with 
the air of an arrant old bachelor. More 
often there is an implication of evil 
arrant coward which sometimes becomes 
part of the meaning of the word, as in a 
letter (1708) of Pope: You are not so 
arrant a critic . . . as to damn them with- 
out a hearing. That would be a sign of 
an arrant ass! 

arras. A tapestry fabric, usually woven 
with colored figures and scenes; a hanging 
made of this material, often far enough 
from the wall to conceal a person, as 
Hamlet stabs Polonius through the arras. 
The word occurs in several spellings 
ares, arays, aresse, arrace but it is from 
Arras, a French town where the fabric 
was made. Common since 1400, the word 
is most frequent in literature: Bacon, 



arrect 

Cowper, Byron, Scott; Carlyle in SARTOR 
RESARTUS (1831) speaks of our dim arras- 
picture of these University years. 

arrect. See aret. There is also a verb 
arrect, to set upright; to set right, direct. 
See arrectary* As an adjective, arrect 
means set upright, pricked up (as a dog's 
ears); hence, on the alert. Bailey's DIC- 
TIONARY (1751), without any origin or 
instance, gives arrectate, suspected or 
accused of a crime. 

arrectary. An upright post, especially 
the upright post of the cross. From Latin 
arrect-, past participle of arrigere; ad> to 
-f rigere, regere, to straighten. 

arrectate. See arrect. 

arrestographer. A writer, or a collector 
and publisher, of arrets. An arret (also 
arrest] was a judgment, decision, decree; 
especially, of the French supreme court. 
The form arrest, used from the 15th 
through the 17th century, was supplanted 
by the French form arret. Scott in IVAN- 
HOE (1820) uses it figuratively, of an ex- 
pert in all matters concerning the arrets 
of love, 

arrha. An advance on sums to be paid; 
earnest-money; a pledge. Latin arrha, 
arrato; Greek arrabon. Used from the 
15th into the 18th century. Also arrhal, 
relating to, or given as, a pledge. 

arrhenotoky. Production of males only. 
See thelyphthoric (thelytoky). Also arreno- 
toky. Greek arren, male H- -tokos, be- 
getting. Hence arrenotokous (accent on 
the not). 

arride. To smile at; to please. From 
Latin arridere, ad, at 4- ridere> to laugh, 
whence also risible. Mainly in the 17th 
and 18th century, Jonson in EVERY MAN 
OUT OF HIS HUMOUR (1599) has: 'Fore 

60 



artolater 

Heavens, his humour arrides me exceed- 
ingly. Lamb in ESSAYS OF ELIA (1823): 
That conceit arrided us most . . . and still 
tickles our midriff to remember. The ad- 
jective arrident (accent on the long i) 
occurs, but rarely, meaning smiling, pleas- 
ant; Thomas Adams wrote, in 1616, of a 
pleasing murderer, that with arrident 
applauses tickles a man to death. 

ars. Art; one of the seven arts. This is a 
direct borrowing of Latin ars, artem 
which also included what we call science. 
A Master of Arts, or a Bachelor, was 
learned in the seven arts, which, until the 
advent of finer distinctions, were: arith- 
metic, geometry, music, astronomy, gram- 
mar, rhetoric, and logic. THE LEGEND OF 
POPE GREGORY (1300) said: Gregorii 
couthe not well his pars, And wele rad 
and songe in lawe, And understode wel 
his ars. Ars longa, vita brevis. 

arson. A saddle, as the tyro has reason 
to feel. The word is thus used in KYNG 
ALYSAUNDER, 13th century. More strictly, 
a saddle-bow; Via Old French from Late 
Latin arcionem; Latin arcus, bow. One 
of the two curved pieces of wood or metal, 
knobs, at the front and the back of the 
saddle, to give the rider greater security. 
Thus we read in KING ARTHUR (1557): The 
arson of his sadel brake, and so he fiewe 
over his hors tayle. The current arson is 
from Late Latin arsionem; Latin ardere 
(whence ardent), arsum, to burn. 

art. To press; to urge. See or elation. 

artolater. A worshipper of bread. Used 
in the 17th century against the Catholics, 
as by Lewis Owen in SPECULUM JESUITICUM 
(1629): Dare you (artolaters) adore a piece 
of bread, for the living God? Also 
artolatry, bread worship, from Greek 
artos, bread 4- latreia, worship. Used fig- 
uratively of one that gives preeminence 



artotyrite 

to his "daily bread/' to the material aspect 
of living. 

artotyrite. An eater of bread and cheese. 
Greek artos, bread + tyros, cheese. In 
ecclesiastic history, a follower of Mon- 
tanus (of the 2d century), who celebrated 
the Eucharist with bread and cheese. His 
most distinguished convert was Tertul- 
lian; the sect was finally suppressed under 
Justinian, by 565. With wine instead of 
religion, artotyrites flourish today. 

artry. A 15th century contraction of 
artillery. 

aruspicy. A variant of haruspicy; 
prophecy by inspecting sacrificed animals. 
See aeromancy. 

arval. (1) A funeral feast, a wake. Also 
arvel, arvill. Old Norse arfr, inheritance 
4- ol, ale, banquet. A feast (to celebrate 
the inheritance?) follows the funeral in 
many lands. Sometimes the late lamented 
would provide the banquet; in his will of 
1459 John Alanson left an ox for his 
friends and relatives, for my arvell. There 
are many references to the arvil-supper, 
and to arval-bread, in 1875 (averill-bread) 
described as "funeral loaves, spiced with 
cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, and raisins." 
(2) Related to ploughed land, from Latin 
arvolis, from arvum, arable land. The 
Arval Brethren were twelve priests of 
pagan Rome, whose task it was, by ap- 
propriate prayer and sacrifice, to ensure 
the fertility of the soil. 

aschewele. To frighten away. Rarely 
used; from Old English a- + schewel, a 
scarecrow. Sidney uses shew el in his 

ARCADIA (1590). THE OWL AND THE NIGHTIN- 
GALE (1250) has a figure hanging: There I 
aschwele pie and crow. The shewel (also 
sewel, sewell) was used especially to 
frighten away deer. 

61 



aspector 

ascititious. See adscititious. 
asele. See acele. 

asiden. Sideways, aslant. Also asyden; 
an early variant of aside. Cp. acy- 
denandys. An old saying (in Ray's 
PROVERBS; 1691) spoke of things all asid- 
ing as hogs fighting. 

asinego. A little ass; a fool. From Spanish 
asnicOj diminutive of asno, ass. In Shake- 
speare's TROILUS AND CRESSIDA (1606), 
Thersites cries to Ajax: Thou hast no 
more brain than I have in mine elbows; 
an asinego may tutor thee, thou scurvy- 
valiant ass! The word is also spelled asi- 
nico, assinego. 

askefise. A coward; especially, one that 
stayed home by the fire while his fellows 
went forth to combat. Swedish aske, 
ashes 4- fisa, to blow, to pass wind. Also 
askebathe. Used from the 13th to the 
16th century. There was also a form 
axwaddle, defined by Nares: One, who by 
constantly sitting near the fire, becomes 
dirty with ashes; an idle and lazy person. 

aslope. Slantwise. In origin this is prob- 
ably from Old English aslopen, slipped 
away; cp. adown. It was used both liter- 
ally and figuratively, the latter, for 
instance, in A WARNING TO FAIRE WOMEN 
(1599): My hope is aslope, and my joy 
is laid to sleepe. Also aslopen, fallen 
asleep; Middle ton in BLURT MASTER CON- 
STABLE (1604) said Good night, we are 
all aslopen. 

asmatographer. A writer of songs. This 
pompous word which might be revived 
in humor or scorn is from Greek asma, 
asmat-, song + graphos, writing. It is 
found only in 17th and 18th century dic- 
tionaries. 

aspector. Beholder. Also aspection f the 



asper 

action of looking at, of watching; this was 
the first meaning also of aspect; Bacon in 
SYLVA (1626) spoke of the tradition that 
the basilisk killeth by aspect. As a verb, 
to aspect (accent on the pect) f to look for, 
expect; to look upon; to look upon with 
favor. The verb was also used in astrology, 
of one planet looking upon another. 
Hence, aspectable, visible, within sight; 
fair to look upon. Also aspectabund, ex- 
pressive of countenance; aspectant, facing 
(each other); aspected, looked at; aspect* 
ful, of favorable aspect, benignant. J. 
Davies in EXTASIE (1618) spoke of Lyons, 
dragons, panthers, and the like That in 
th' asp ec tors harts doe terror strike. 

asper. This word, directly from Latin 
asper, rough, harsh, wild whence also 
asperity was frequent in the 16th and 
17th centuries; it was used by Caxton and 
Bacon. Chaucer earlier used it in both 
prose and poetry, as in BOETHIUS (1374): 
Thou . . . makest fortune wrothe and 
aspere by thine inpacience. The KALENDER 
OF SHEPHERDES (1503) declared that 
Naturally a man is . . . aviricious as a dog, 
and aspre as the hart. There was also a 
small silver Turkish coin called an asper 
(from Greek aspros, white; probably the 
same word as the Latin); in 1589 five 
aspers were "but two pence English." 
Scott uses this word in IVANHOE (1819): / 
relieve not with one asper those who beg 
for alms upon the highway. 

asperge. See aspersionating. 

aspersion. See conspersion; aspersionat- 
ing. In warm weather, a cold aspersion 
may be quite welcome. 

aspersionating. Casting slurs upon, un- 
justly defaming. There is no verb asper- 
sionate; the noun aspersion has the (less 
common) verb asperse. The original 
meaning of asperse was to besprinkle, from 



asphodel 

Latin ad, at + spergere, spersum, to 
sprinkle. There is also an English verb 
asperge, which kept the meaning be- 
sprinkle, in connection with religious 
ritual. Since that which is sprinkled may 
become spotted, muddy, soiled, to asperse 
came to mean to bespatter with false, in- 
jurious charges; an aspersion, a false and 
damaging charge or insinuation. Shake- 
speare in THE TEMPEST (1610) still uses 
the term in its early sense of shower, 
spray: No sweet aspersion shall the 
heavens let fall. Fielding in TOM JONES 
(1749) shows the other use: I defy all the 
world to cast a just aspersion on my char- 
acter. William Barriffe, in MILITARY DIS- 
CIPLINE (1635) makes the only use of the 
participle above, speaking of private and 
frosty nips from aspersionating tongues. 
Other words are retained for the ritual: 
aspersorium, the vessel to hold the holy 
water for sprinkling; asperge, asperges, 
aspergill, aspergillum, names for the 
brush with which the holy water is 
sprinkled. The Mass begins with the 
Latin words Asperges me, Domine: 
Sprinkle me O Lord . . . 

aspheterism. Disbelief in private prop- 
erty; communism. Greek a, not + sphe- 
teros, one's own; spheterismos, appropria- 
tion. Accent on the sfet. Also aspheterist. 
Hence also aspheterize, to be a com- 
munist, to practice communism. This is 
the name used by the English Romantics 
(Coleridge; Southey) in their considera- 
tion of communal living. As Coleridge 
put it in 1794, our aspheterismg in 
Wales. 

asphodel. A common flower; the earlier 
form of the word, affodil, gave us daffodil. 
Poets turned it into an immortal flower, 
like amaranth (q.v.), growing in the Ely- 
sian fields. Milton in COMUS (1634) thinks 
it pleasant to embathe In nectared lavers 
62 



aspic 



assuefaction 



strewed with asphodel; Tennyson tells us, 
in THE LOTUS-EATERS (1842): Others in 
Elysian valleys dwell. Resting weary 
limbs at last on beds of asphodel. 

aspic. A form of asp, the small poisonous 
serpent found in Egypt and Libya; from 
Greek aspis. Also spelled aspycke, aspike, 
etc. Found chiefly in poetry, as Shake- 
speare's Antony and Cleopatra (1606): 
This is an aspickes trail. Used also by 
Jeremy Taylor, Addison, Lamb, Tenny- 
son; in a figurative sense by George 
Daniel in TRINARCHODIA: HENRY v (1649): 
Stung with the aspicke of invading fear. 
The adjective, snaky, is not aspic, but 
aspine. 

aspre. See asper. 

assart. Forest land converted into arable 
land; a clearing in a forest; also, the 
action of grubbing up trees and bushes 
to make land arable. Also assartment. Via 
Old French from Latin ex, out + sartare, 
frequentative of sarrire, saritum, sartum, 
to hoe, weed. From the 13th century, to 
assart, to clear forest land; the noun ap- 
peared in the 16th century. It was illegal 
to assart without permission of the king 
or overlord, and usually paying assart 
rents. 

assation. Roasting. From Latin assare, 
assat-, to roast. Thomas Love Peacock in 
HEADLONG HALL (1815) speaks of the 
malignant adhibition of fire and all its 
diabolical processes of elixion and assa- 
tion. (See adhibit.) There is also a rare 
assate, to roast, and only in the dic- 
tionaries assature, a roast. For a dis- 
crimination, see semiustulate. The word 
might well be employed figuratively, as 
when a wife gives her husband (not at 
the table!) a rare assation. 

assinego. See asinego. 

assoil. To absolve, pardon, forgive: one 

63 



said, when mentioning a dead person, 
Whom God assoil! Hence, to set free 
(from obligations); to acquit, to clear. 
Also, to clear up, solve (soil, soyle; 16th 
century); to refute; to clear one self of, 
to atone for, to discharge, get rid of; 
Spenser thus in THE FAERIE QUEENE (1596): 
Till that you come where ye your vowes 
assoyle. Also asoylen, asoyli, asoylle, 
assoilzie; in Scotch law the term for to 
acquit is still to assoilzie. The forms are 
via Old French from Latin ab, from + 
solver e, to loosen, dissolve. A later form 
was absoil; and around 1500, directly 
from the Latin, was fashioned the form 
absolve, which supplanted assoil. Hence 
assoilment, absolution. Scott in THE 
ANTIQUARY (1816) has: "God assoilzie her!" 
ejaculated old Elspeth. "His mercy is in- 
finite." Oxford, said De Quincey in his 

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES in 1840, 

might avail to assoil me. 

assoine. A variant of essoin, q.v. Both 
noun and verb. Also asoyne, asunien, 
assoygne; assonzie (Scotch verb form). 
Used from the 13th century. 

assubtile. To subtilize; to refine. Also 
assubtiliate. Latin ad, to -f subtilis, 
subtle, woven fine; sub, under -f tela, 
web. Puttenham in THE ARTE OF ENGLISH 
POESIE (1589) speaks of much abstinence 
as assub tiling and refining their spirits. 
In his list of many more like usurped 
Latine and French words, Puttenham in- 
cludes methodicall, placation, compendi- 
ous, assub tiling, prolixe, figurative, in- 
veigle. Of all his list, assub tiling alone 
has not survived. 

assuefaction. The process of growing 
accustomed, or of making (someone) ac- 
customed, to a thing. Thus also assuete, 
accustomed, practiced. Latin as, ad, to 
+ suescere, suetum, to accustom, to grow 
used to; Old Latin suere, to make one's 



assyth 

own; suus, one's own (whence also sui- 
cide). Bacon in SYLVA (1626) said that 
assuetude of things hurtful, doth make 
them lose their force to hurt (Pope ex- 
pressed the idea otherwise, in his quatrain 
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, 
As to be hated., needs but to be seen; But 
seen too oft, familiar with her face, We 
first endure, then pity, then embrace) . 
The term assuetude has fallen into in- 
nocuous desuetude. 

assyth. To satisfy; to compensate. Also 
asyth, assithe, asith; cp. syth. As a noun, 
assyth, satisfaction; also assythment; as- 
sythzng, giving satisfaction for an offence. 
Mainly in Scotland, 14th to 17th century. 
A York Mystery of 1450 said: To hym 
will I make asith agayne. 

astart. To start up; to start (into ex- 
istence), to happen, to happen to; to 
start off, to escape. The word existed in 
many forms in the 14th, 15th and 16th 
centuries; in the third sense above, it is 
probably a variation of the earlier atstert. 
Chaucer in THE FRANKLIN'S TALE (1386) 
says that no man may from his death 
asterte. Spenser uses the word several 
times, as in THE FAERIE QUEENE (1596): 
Out of her bed she did astart; in THE 
SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR (1579): No danger 
there the shephard can astert. 

astatic. With no tendency or ability to 
remain in one position. Greek a, not + 
statos, stable; sta-, stand. An astatic needle 
is one so set as to be unaffected by the 
earth's magnetism; an astatic youngster is 
unaffected by other things. 

astert. To escape. An old variant of 
astart, q.v. 

asterve. To die; especially, of hunger; to 
kill, destroy, starve out. Used from the 
10th century, gradually replaced by 

64 



atheticize 

sterve, q.v., the early form of starve. 
(Sterve was pronounced starve as clerk, 
dark.) 

asthenia. Weakness, debility. Greek a, 
not + sthenos, strength. Also astheny. 
Used in the 19th century; still a medical 
term. Hence, asthenic, asthenical, weak. 

astrologaster. A foolish lying astrologer; 
a 'phony' fortune-teller. (There were, of 
course, astrologers that believed in the 
truth of the stars' telling.) The Latin 
ending aster originally meant somewhat 
like; hence, not genuine. In English it is 
used to mean a pretender, as in grammati- 
caster, poetaster, politicaster the last 
especially pointing to disaster. 

astromancy. See aeromancy. 
ate. See atel. 

atel. Hateful; hideous, foul. Also atelich, 
into the 13th century, as in Mapes THE 
BODY AND THE SOUL (1275): The bodi ther 
hit lay on bere, An atelich thing. Old 
Norse atall, fierce, dire; but Ate was the 
Greek goddess of discord: when not in- 
vited to a feast of the gods, she tossed in 
a golden apple with the message Tor the 
fairest'; the contest to win the apple led 
to the Trojan War. Hence Ates (two 
syllables), incitements to mischief; Shake- 
speare's LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST (1594): More 
Ates, more Ates! Stir them on! 

athanasy. Immortality. Also athanasia; 
Greek athanasia, from a-, without H- 
thanatos, death. Bryant's poem THANA- 
TOPSIS is (Greek opsis, sight) "a view of 
death." Lowell in MY STUDY WINDOWS 
(1871) queries: Is not a scholiastic athan- 
asy better than none? He seems to have 
achieved it. 

atheticize. To set aside, invalidate. 
Greek athetos, invalid; a, not + thetikos, 



athlothete 

positive. Also athetise, to condemn as 
spurious; athe tests. Beverley in THE PRAISE 

OF THE GLORY OF GRACE (1701) asked: 

Might he not even atheticize and disannul 
sin, and bring it even to nothing? 

athlothete. The judge, or awarder of 
prizes, at games. From Greek athlos, con- 
test, athlon, prize 4- thetes, one who 
places. 

atomy. (1) An anatomical preparation, a 
skeleton; hence, an emaciated person, a 
'walking skeleton/ Shakespeare in HENRY 
iv, PART TWO (1597) has: You starved 
blood-hound! . . . Thou atomy, thou! 
This is a shortening of anatomy, the 
word being understood as an atomy; also 
by misunderstanding (a) the forms natomy 
and nathomy developed. Cp. anatomy. 
Gay in THE BEGGAR'S OPERA (1728), Smol- 
lett (1755) and Cooper (1823) used the 
word. (2) At atom, a mote. A use as 
though it were singular, of atomi, plural 
of atomus, a 16th century learned form 
of atom via Latin from Greek a, not 
+ tomos, cut. Shakespeare in AS YOU LIKE 
IT tells us: It is as easie to count atomies 
as to resolve the propositions of a lover. 
Hence, anything tiny; a mite, a pigmy. 
Shakespeare, in ROMEO AND JULIET: 
Drawne with a teeme of little atomies 
Over mens noses; Kingsley in THE WATER 
BABIES (1863): / suppose you have come 
here to laugh at me, you spiteful little 
atomy. 

atonement. Reconciliation; harmony; 
the state of being at one with others. 
There was an earlier word, onement, with 
the same sense. Also attonement, atton- 
ment. The word was in use in the 16th 
century; the first occurrence of the sur- 
viving sense, expiation, is in the King 
James BIBLE (1611). More in RICHARD m 
(1513) spoke of men having more regarde 



atter 

to their olde variaunce then their newe 
attonement. 

atrabiliarious. See air amentaceous. Also 
atrabilar, atrabilarian (also, as a noun, 
a hypochondriac), atrabilarious, atrabi- 
laric, atrabilary, atrabiliary, atrabilious, 
atrabilous. Used mainly in the 17th and 
18th centuries. 

atramentaceous. Full of ink, like a poor 
writer's fingers; inky. Also atramental, 
atramentarious, atramentary, atramentous, 
atramentitious, all meaning inky; black 
as ink; of or pertaining to ink; hence, 
written or printed. Atrament, ink; black- 
ing. Latin atramentum; atrare, to blacken, 
ater, black. Hence also atrabiliarious, 
atrabilious, affected by black bile one 
of the four medieval humours better 
known from the Greek, melancholy. See 
humour. 

atretus. In Bailey's DICTIONARY (1751): 
"one whose fundament, or privy parts, are 
not perforated." From Greek atretos, a-, 
not + tresis, perforation. The noun 
atresia is used in pathology. 

atter. Atter was a common word for 
poison, from 1000 to 1650; almost as 
early, it was used figuratively to mean 
bitterness; later (again in a physical sense) 
it was used of pus or other exudation 
from abscess or wound. From an olden 
belief that spiders are poisonous, alter- 
cop (cop, cup, round head) came to mean 
spider; the word was also applied to a 
venomous person. Also ettercap; ether- 
cap. Bailey's DICTIONARY (1751), quoting 
Cumberland, gives "attercob, spider's 
web"; both spelling and meaning are in 
error. Our language is a tangled web. 
Other old forms include a-tterlich, bitter, 
venomous; atterling, a malignant person; 
atterlothe (Old English lath, hostile), an 
antidote for poison. 

65 



ittercop 



autem 



attercop. See atter. 

aucupate. To lie in wait for; to hunt 
for; to win by craft. Literally, to go bird- 
catching; Latin auceps, aviceps; avis, bird 
4- cap ere, cepi, cap turn, to catch. Hence 
aucupation; aucupable, fit for hunting, 
desirable. In the Water-Poet Taylor's 
WORKS (1630) we read: Some till their 
throats ake cry alowd and hollo, To 
aucupate great favors from Apollo. 

audaculous. Timidly daring, slightly 
bold. Latin audaculus, diminutive of 
audax, audacem, bold, whence audacious. 
Sir Christopher Heydon in A DEFENCE OF 
JUDICIALL ASTROLOGIE (1603) wrote: The 
ignorance hereof hath carried him too 
jarre in this audaculous dispute. 

auf. See ouph. 
aufyn. See alfin. 
Augean. See orgyan. 
augrym. See algorism. 

aulary. Relating to a hall. Also aularian. 
As a noun, aularian, a member of a hall 
(as distinct from a college) at an English 
university. Greek aule, court, hall; cp. 
aulic. Used from the 17th century. 

aulete. A flute-player. Hence auletic. 
Greek auletes; auleein, to play the flute; 
Sj flute. 



aulic. Courtly; relating to a court. Wat- 
son, in 1602, contrasted aulicall, martial, 
and rural Greek aule, hall, court; cp. 
aulary. T. Adams in his COMMENTARIES 
(1633; 2 PETER) said: God affects not auli- 
cisms and courtly terms. Aulicism, a 
courtly phrase. De Quincey (WORKS, 1853) 
spoke of investing the homeliness of &sop 
with aulic graces and satiric brilliancy. 

aumbry. See ambry. 



aunt. In addition to its still current 
sense, aunt was commonly used in the 
17th century as a light woman; a pro- 
curess or prostitute. One of Autolycus' 
songs in Shakespeare's THE WINTER'S TALE 
(1610) has a stanza: The lark, that tirra- 
lyra chants. With heigh! With heigh! the 
thrush and the jay, Are summer songs for 
me and my aunts While we lie tumbling 
in the hay. In this sense (and others) 
sometimes naunt, by improper shifting of 
mine aunt to my naunt. Shakespeare also 
uses aunt to mean an old gossip; in A 

MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM he has the 

wisest aunt telling the saddest tale. 

aunters. At a venture, in any case. A 
14th and 15th century form from of aven- 
ture, by adventure. Later used for per- 
adventure, perhaps. Cp. enaunter. Also 
auntre, aventurs, awnturs, anters. Chaucer 
uses auntre as a verb, to venture, i.e. in 
THE REEVE'S TALE (1386): / wol arise and 
auntre it, by my fay. Hence auntrous, 
adventurous. 

aurum potabile. A potion of minute 
particles of gold in an oil, to be drunk as 
a cordial. Directly from the Latin: drink- 
able gold. Quarles in JUDGMENT AND 
MERCY (1644) puns upon the potion: 
Poverty . . , is a sickness very catching. 
The best cordial is aurum potabile. 

auspicy. See aeromancy. 
austromancy. See aeromancy. 

autangelist. This word, apparently the 
creation of N. Bailey (I found it in hiy 
1751 DICTIONARY), might have more fre- 
quent use. It means one who is his own 
messenger. In Greek auto- means self; 
aggelos, messenger. Double g in Greek 
was given a nasal sound; an angel was a 
messenger of the Lord. 

autem. See pedlers French. Also altam, 
altham. 



66 



autophoros 

autophoros. A person "caught with the 
goods/' from Greek auto-, self + phoreo, 
phero, to bear. Found only in the dic- 
tionaries, but (with accent on the second 
syllable) not a bad word for "a thief with 
the thing he stole upon him." 

avage. A payment made by tenants (es- 
pecially of the manor of Writtel, Essex) 
for the privilege of feeding pigs in the 
manor woods. Also, avisage. 

avarous. Avaricious, Originally averous. 
The word was changed by association 
with French avare, miser; Latin avarus, 
greedy. It is, however, from aver (also 
havour; hawere, avyoure and more; 
common from the 14th to the 17th cen- 
tury); Latin hob ere, to have. English aver 
meant wealth, property; in the plural, 
possessions; farm-stock. In DIVES AND 
PAUPER (1496) we read: Unryghtfull 
occupyenge of ony . . . aver in this worlde, 
is called theeft. Chaucer in THE PERSONES 
TALE (1386) says: The avarous man hath 
more hope in his catel than in Jhesu 
Crist. 

avaunt. This word has had several mean- 
ings; among them, it came to be its own 
antonym. Via Old French avanter from 
Latin vanitare, to boast (frequentative of 
vanare) from vanus, empty, vain, it meant 
to speak proudly of, to boast, to praise, 
to vaunt. Chaucer (1386) used it so. As 
a verb, it was also an early form of ad- 
vance, French avant; Latin ab, from + 
ante, before. It meant (as in Spenser, THE 
FAERIE QUEENE; 1596: To whom avaunt- 
ing in great bravery) to come forward. 
Then it was widely used as a command: 
Avaunt! Move on! hence Begone! Thus 
the verb came to mean both to come and 
to go: its own opposite. 

So many words have meant their own 
opposite that it has been suggested that 



avent 

in early times a polarity (a wide scale of 
meaning) was designated by one word, as 
temper and humor may still be good or 
bad; but in humorous and He has quite a 
temper (or temperature) become specific. 
Thus, in ancient Egyptian, keu meant 
strong and weak; in Hebrew, sechel, wise 
and foolish; kieless, to mock, to pray; 
boruch, blessed, cursed; in Latin, sacer, 
sacred, accursed; altus, high, deep; 
damare, to shout, dam, secretly. In Eng- 
lish, with, together, for, but in com- 
pounds as withhold, withstand, apart, 
against. So cleave, to hold tight together, 
to cut clean apart. A fast horse runs 
rapidly, a fast color runs not at all. To 
let, to allow, permit, also to hinder, 
as a let ball in tennis. Seeded raisins have 
the seeds removed; seeded bread has the 
seeds put in; similarly dusted. Cp. dup; 
stickler (stightle); to-; trip, couth. There 
are also pairs of words that look like 
antonyms, yet are almost identical in 
meaning: sever, dissever; ravel, unravel; 
flammable, inflammable. More of both 
sorts can easily be gathered. 

avenage. From Latin avena, oats; the 
English word is accented on the first syl- 
lable. It is a term of feudal times, mean- 
ing a payment in oats, instead of service, 
to a landlord or feudal chief. The officer 
of the stable in charge of the provender 
was the avener accent on the second syl- 
lable. Might well be used for any pay- 
ment in goods instead of labor. 

avenant. Convenient, agreeable, hand- 
some. Via French avenir from Latin ad, 
to + venire, come; to be becoming. Used 
as a noun in the expression at your 
avenant, at your convenience. 

avener. See avenage. 

avent. To refresh with fresh air; hence, 
to open the aventayle for this purpose; by 

67 



aver 



avision 



extension, to come out into the open air, 
to escape from confinement. Old French 
esventer; Latin ex, out + ventum, wind. 
Used especially in the 14th and 15th cen- 
turies. An aventayle (aventail, avantaill, 
adventayle, aventaille) was the mouth- 
piece of a helmet, usually kept raised to 
admit fresh air. Chaucer tells, in TROYLUS 
AND CRISEYDE (1374), He drough a kynge 
by th' avantaille. After the 15th century, 
Scott brought the word back in THE LAY 
OF THE LAST MINSTREL (1805): And lifted 
his barred aventayle. 

aver. See avarous. Accent on the long a; 
not to be confused with the verb aver 
(Latin ad, to + verus, true), to declare to 
be true. 

avernal. Infernal, hellish. Also avernian. 
Avern (Latin Avernus; Greek a, without 
-f ornis, bird) was a lake in Campania, 
which supposedly gave off a poisonous 
effluvium that killed all birds flying over 
it. By extension, the infernal regions, as 
in the famous words of the JEneid: Facilis 
des census Averno, Easy is the road to hell. 
Both forms in English may be nouns, 
meaning a devil. In THE WYLL OF THE 
DEVILL (1550) at the courts avernall, 
Pamachios, we read, doth cause all his 
avernals, forked types and annointed 
gentlemen to come to the ready nge of 
the devylls testament and last wyll. 

averrancate. To avert, ward off. From 
Latin a, off 4- verruncare, to turn, often 
used in prayer: bene verruncare, to turn 
out well. The 17th century misinterpreted 
the word as from ab, off + eruncare, to 
weed off; whence it was used to mean to 
weed, to prune, to cut off what hurts. 
Thus De Quincey in THE CONFESSIONS OF 
AN OPIUM EATER (1821) speaks of His 
decree of utter averruncation to the simple 
decoration overhead. A long pole topped 

68 



by shears worked from below by wire, 
for pruning high branches, is still called 
an averruncator. In its basic sense Butler 
in HUDIBRAS (1663) has: Sure some mis- 
chief will come of it Unless by provi- 
dential wit Or force we averruncate it. 

averty. See verty. 

avetrol. A bastard. (Three syllables, 
accent on the last.) Roundabout, Old 
French awotron, from Latin adulterum, 
whence also adultery. Used in the 13th 
century romance of KYNG ALYSAUNDER: 
Whar artow, horesone! wharf . . . Thou 
avetrol, thou foule wrechel and into the 
15th century. 

aveugle. To blind; to hoodwink. Via 
French aveugle from Latin ab, away + 
oculus, eye. Sharington is quoted (1547) 
in Froude's HISTORY OF ENGLAND as being 
so seduced and aveugled by the lord ad- 
miral. The still current inveigle is from 
the same source, although it is suggested 
that Medieval Latin aboculus is a short- 
ening of albus oculus, blind (literally, 
white eye). 

avidulous. Although this word, meaning 
somewhat greedy, occurs only in dic- 
tionaries, the frequency of the quality 
produced a variety of words. Avid is from 
Latin avidus, from avere, to crave. John 
Bale, in THE IMAGE OF BOTH CHURCHES 
(1550) states: Nothing is more avidiously 
to be desired. Avidulous contains the 
diminifying root -ul-. Avidous is a stronger 
word, the -ous, from Latin -osus, meaning 
full of: courageous, full of courage; pious, 
full of piety. 

avisage. See avage. 

avision. A dream, a vision; a warning 
in a dream. Also a visyon, avysioun, and 
more; in the 16th century, often advision. 
Chaucer in THE NONNE PREESTES TALE 



aviso 

(1386) states that A litil or [before] he 
was mordred . . . His mordre in his avy- 
sioun he say [saw]. 

aviso. Information; a notification, dis- 
patch; a formal notice. From Spanish 
aviso, but in the 16th century often 
spelled adviso, as though more directly 
from Latin ad, to + videre, visum, to see, 
whence English advise, advice. 

avital. Ancestral, of long standing. Latin 
avitus, pertaining to the avus, grand- 
father. Pronounced a-vy-tal or av-i-tal. 
Also avitall, avitic, avitous (accents on 
the vit). The 17th century spoke of avital 
customs. 

avowtry. See advowtrie. 

avulse. To pluck off, tear away. Latin a, 
from + vellere, vulsum, to pluck, pull, 
whence also convulsion, revulsion. Hence 
avulsion, the action of pulling away, 
plucking off; forcible separation; also, a 
portion torn off. Lamb in a letter of 1822 
rejected the literal sense, saying that the 
eyes came away kindly, with no (Edipean 
avulsion. 

awhene. To vex, trouble. Earlier 
ahwene; Old High German hwennen, to 
shake. Most of the English words be- 
ginning wh (e.g., when, whither, while) 
were originally forms in hw and are still 
to be pronounced with the breath before 
the w. Awhene was used from the 10th 
to the 14th century. 

awk. Originally, with or from the left 
hand: hence, the wrong way, back- 
handed, perverse, clumsy. To ring awk, 
the wrong way: used of bells warning of 
evil, as a fire. To sing awk (of a bird), 
to call as an omen of evil. Hence, awky, 



ayword 

awkly; awkness, clumsiness, perversity, 
wrongness. The same development 
occurs in words from Latin; dexter, 
right, gives us dexterity, while sinister, 
left, remains sinister in English. Awk 
was also used as a noun, untoward- 
ness; Bulwer in CHIRONOMIA (1644) wrote: 
To fling words at his auditors out of the 
auke of utterance. The word survives in 
the form awkward, which originally 
meant upside down, turned the wrong 
way. 

axe. To ask. Forgotten in standard 
speech, this form occurs in the earliest 
printed books. In Caxton's ENEYDOS (THE 
AENEID; 1490), for example, we read that 
a mercer came in to a hows and axed for 
mete, and specyally he axyd after eggys. 
Incidentally, the good wyf understode 
hym not, until someone explained that 
by eggys he meant eyren. 

axinomancy. See aeromancy. 
axwaddle. See askefise. 
ayenbite. See agenbite. 

ayenst. An early form of against; also 
ayen. Sometimes used to mean in antici- 
pation of, as when Cavendish in THE 

LYFFE AND DEATHE OF CARDYNALL WOOL- 

SEY (1557) told of the coming of the 
King: He came by water to the Watergate 
without any noyse, where ayenst his 
commyng was layed charged many cham- 
bers. At whos landyng they ware all shot 
off, whiche made suche a romble in the 
ayer that it was lyke thonder. 

ayren. An early plural of egg: eggs. 
ayword. See nay word. 



69 



B 



babes-in-the-cradle. See Hymen's torch. 

babion. An early variant of baboon. 
From the French; also babian, babioun. 
Used in the 17th century as a contemptu- 
ous term for a person. Massinger in THE 
PARLIAMENT OF LOVE (1624) says Farewell, 
babions! Also bavian, in which form the 
word appeared in Dutch. The bavian was 
a frequent comic figure in the old morris 
dance, where his long tail and tumbling 
antics added much to the jollity. 

baccare. See backare. 
bacchanal. See bacchatwn. 

bacchation. Revelry; drunkenness. From 
the Bacchantes, revelers at the festival of 
Bacchus, Roman god of wine (and father 
of Hymenaeus, god of marriage) . There is 
also a verb, to bacchanalize (accent on the 
first syllable), as well as the adjective 
bacchant. Thus Thomas Moore in his 
translation (1800) of the ODES of An- 
acreon: Many a roselipped bacchant maid 
Is culling clusters in their shade; and 
Byron in DON JUAN (1821) : Over his 
shoulder, with a bacchant air, Presented 
the o'erflowing cup. Many a new bac- 
calaureate has celebrated with a baccha- 
tion. The word bacchanal, still used of the 
revel (bacchanalia) was earlier used of 
the reveling person; by extension, one 
whose emotions are out of control. Thus 
Nashe in NASHES LENTEN STUFFE, OR THE 

PRAYSE OF THE RED HERRING (1599) tells 

jestingly the story of Hero and Leander, 

70 



which Musaeus (500 A.D.) and Marlowe 
(1598) had more seriously told. Nashe 
ends, when the tide carries the corpse of 
Leander away: At that Hero became a 
franticke bacchanal outright, and made no 
more bones but sprang after him, and so 
resigned up her priesthood, and left worke 
for Musaeus and Kit Marlowe. 

baccivorous. Berry-eating; like me in 
old-fashioned strawberry shortcake time; 
living mainly on berries. Latin bacca, 
berry. The accent is on the siv. Also bac- 
ciferous, berry-bearing; bacciform, shaped 
like a berry. 

bace. A blow, a drubbing. In the 16th 
century. So O. E. D. Bace was also a vari- 
ant of base, as the name of an old game, 
later called prisoners' bars, prisoners' base. 
By act of Parliament during the reign of 
Edward III, playing bace was prohibited 
in the avenues of Westminster palace 
while Parliament was in session. Spenser 
in THE FAERIE QUEENE (1596) says: So ran 
they all as they had been at bace, They 
being chased that did the others chase. 

bacharach. See backrag. 

backare. Stand backl The origin is un- 
known; "Back therel"? At times spelt 
bacare, baccare and pronounced in three 
syllables, like a yokel pretending to Latin, 
Shakespeare, in THE TAMING OF THE SHREW 
(1596) : Bacare, you are mervaylous for- 
ward. The word appeared in a proverbial 



backberend 



badeen 



saying, Backare, quoth Mortimer to his 
sow. 

backberend. Carrying on the back. A 
10th to 15th century term for a thief 
caught carrying off stolen property, es- 
pecially venison in the forests. Sir Walter 
Scott revived the word, in THE FAIR MAID 
OF PERTH (1828) . The term is sometimes 
modernized, to backb earing, whence the 
verb, to backb ear., used in 16th and 17th 
century English forest laws, of carrying 
illegally killed deer. 

backfriend. A pretended, a false, friend; 
an enemy masked as a friend. From the 
15th century. / have had backfriends, said 
Sou they (LIFE; 1827) , as well as enemies. 
By a few in the 16th century, and Scott in 
QUENTIN DURWARD (1823) backfriend was 
used in the opposite sense, of a backer, a 
friend standing firmly at one's back. 

backrag. A wine from Bacharach, a town 
on the Rhine; the flavor was much ap- 
preciated in the 17th century. Hence also 
bacharach, backrak, bachrag, bachrach. 
Fletcher and Massinger's THE BEGGAR'S 
BUSH (1620) has: My fireworks and flap- 
dragons and good backrack. 

bacon. (1) A rustic, a clown. Perhaps a 
shortening of chaw-bacon. In early Eng- 
land, the meat most eaten in the country 
was swine's flesh. Shakespeare in HENRY 
iv, PART ONE (1596) has Falstaff cry, when 
waylaying the travelers: On, bacons, on! 
What, ye knaves! Young men must live, 
bacon-brains, a 'fathead', a fool, bacon- 
picker, a glutton, baconer, a pig that will 
make good bacon, baconize; to make into 
bacon; also figurative, as when Burritt in 

A WALK FROM LONDON TO LAND'S END 

(1865) said that magnipotent chimneys 
. . . puff their black breathings into the . . . 
sky above, baconising its countenance. (2) 
A variant form of baked, past tense of to 

_ 71 



bake. Thus in Wyatt's poem of THE MEANE 
AND SURE ESTATE (1536) the country mouse 
envies her sister, the town mouse: She 
fedeth on boyled, bacon meet, and roost 
. . . And when she list, the licor of the 
grape Doeth glad her hert till that her 
belly swell. 

baculine. The line of the flagellant. Re- 
lating to the rod, or to punishment by 
flogging. Thackeray in THE VIRGINIANS 
(1858) states that the baculine method 
was a common mode of argument. Bacul 
was used in the 15th century for a religious 
staff or crosier. From Latin baculus, a rod, 
the symbol of power, also used in English. 
Hence baculiferous, bearing a cane, like 
the dandy of yore. The common bacillus 
was named from its shape: Latin bacillus, 
little rod; diminutive of baculus. Baculo- 
metry, says Bailey in his DICTIONARY 
(1751), is the art of measuring accessible 
or inaccessible distances or lines, by one 
or more staves. The baculine schoolmaster 
is a fading phenomenon. 

bad. See badling. 

badeen. Frivolous, jesting. Via French 
badine, silly, from Late Latin badare, to 
gape. Its only literary use is in F. Spence's 
translation (1685) of THE SECRET HISTORY 
OF THE HOUSE OF MEDicis: a dialog com- 
pletely bouffon, waggish, and badeen, be- 
tween the head and the cap. The noun 
from the same source remains in use, as 
in Disraeli's ENDYMION (1880), which 
warns: Men destined to the highest places 
should beware of badinage. We have used 
other forms: the verb to badiner a char- 
acter in Vanbrugh's THE RELAPSE (1697) 
wishes that Loveless were here to badiner 
a little; badinerie Shenstone, in his 
WORKS AND LETTERS (1712) laments that 
the fund of sensible discourse is limited; 
that of jest and badinerie is infinite; badi- 



badger 

neur Pope wrote to Swift, on December 
19, 1734: Rebuke him for it ... as a 
badineur, if you think that more effectual 
Many a badeen badger (q.v.) has built 
a reputation on a caustic tongue, as in 
the play THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER; 
the more insulting he is, the more his 
sycophants and the audience laugh. 

badger. Two wholly different words, 
from origins unknown, ended in this form. 
(1) From the 16th through the 18th cen- 
tury, a badger was a peddler of victuals, 
buying especially corn and butter and 
cheese, later other provisions as well, from 
the farmers to sell at the market towns. 
In the 16th and 17th century there were 
many laws regulating (and trying to tax) 
their trade. There is also a verb, to badge, 
to hawk for sale. (2) The common fight- 
ing animal, between a weasel and a bear. 
This use is of course still common; but 
from it rose two by-products now less 
familiar, (a) badger-drawing, badger-bait- 
ing. The badger was a fierce fighter. It 
became a game in England to put a badger 
into a hole (usually a barrel) and set 
dogs to draw it out the better 'sports' 
set one dog at a time against the doomed 
but valiant creature. Hence, to badger 
came to mean to constantly pester and 
persecute one who cannot escape. THE 
SATURDAY REVIEW of February 8, 1862, 
speaks of The coarse expedients by which 
the Old Bailey advocate badgers and con- 
fuses a nervous witness. Thomas Fuller, in 

THE HOLY AND THE PROFANE STATE (1642) 

anticipates this sense when he observes: 
Erasmus was a badger in his jeers; where 
he did bite he would make his teeth meet. 
The verb, however, refers to the actions 
of dogs and their masters, (b) The bad- 
ger-game. In the 1920's there came to 
public attention a practice that goes at 
least as far back as Elizabethan days, con- 



baffle 

sisting of a woman's luring a man to her 
chamber, whereupon her accomplice 
breaks in, plays the role of an outraged 
husband, then spares the man's life for 
as large a sum as can be extorted. Herbert 
Asbury in THE GEM OF THE PRAIRIE (1941) 
states that John Hill and his wife Mary 
. . . are said to have been the first persons 
in Chicago to -work the badger game. 
(The spirit of the pioneer!) The woman 
partner was called the badger-worker; the 
man, the badger though sometimes, 
loosely, the decoy was also called the 
badger. The whole game arose from living 
loosely. If the peddler badger is derived 
from Latin bladium f blade (of wheat) the 
two senses of the word approach one an- 
other in this game that may be played on 
a sower of wild oats. 

battling. An effeminate man. The word 
was used from the 10th through the 17th 
century; it dropped out of use because 
the word bad had come to mean evil, and 
badling was consequently misunderstood. 
Bad, Old English badde (two syllables) 
originally meant homosexual; the change 
to its present meaning came in the 13th 
century. 

badminton. See bailer. 

baetyl. Directly from Greek baitylos, this 
rare word means a meteoric stone held 
sacred. Such a stone, either because it was 
seen falling from another world, or be- 
cause its structure is manifestly different 
from local terrene rocks, became the ob- 
ject of awe and adoration. 

baffle. To disgrace; especially, of a re- 
creant knight, to disgrace publicly; the 
punishment usually included hanging by 
the heels. A common Romance term; Pro- 
venc,al bafar, to mock, from baf, an ex- 
clamation of disdain (English bah!) 
Spenser in THE FAERIE QJQEENE (1596 tells; 
72 



bagge ^^ 

And after all for greater infamie He by 
the heels him hung upon a tree, And 
bafful'd so, that all which passed by The 
picture of his punishment might see. Also 
to cheat, hoodwink, and then (17th cen- 
tury) the current sense, bewilder, con- 
found, foil. Shakespeare in HENRY iv, PART 
ONE (1597) cries: An I do not, call me 
villain, and baffle me! 

bagge. To leer; to look at sidewise; to 
glance aside. (Bailey in 1751 gives the 
meaning to swell, and bagged was used 
from the 15th through the 17th century 
to mean pregnant.) The origin of bagge, 
to leer, is not known, but the word was 
used in that sense by Wyclif (1380) and 
by Chaucer in THE BOKE OF THE DUCHESSE 
(1369) : The traiteresse false and full of 
guile . . . That baggeth joule and looketh 
faire. The practice continues. 

bagnio. Originally, a bath-house for hot 
and cold baths, sweating, and cupping; 
the 17th century equivalent of the Turkish 
bath. Italian bagno; Latin balneum, bath; 
bagnio was pronounced ban-yo. Also 
banio, bagno, bannia, banniard, bagnard. 
In the 17th century also, the word was 
used of an oriental prison or slave-pen. 
From the beginning, however, the bagnios 
were places of assignation and licentious- 
ness; as early as 1624 bagnio was used to 
mean brothel. The same fate overcame the 
hummum (hammam, hammaum) or 
Turkish bath proper; Arabic hammam, 
hot bath, hummum, coal. The Hummums 
opened in Coven t Garden in 1631; when 
the baths were suppressed for immorality, 
the place became a hotel. Hoadley in THE 
SUSPICIOUS HUSBAND (1747) bids: Carry 
her to a bagnio, and there you may lodge 
with her. 

bagpudding. (1) A pudding boiled in a 
bag; in early use, with two ends. POOR 



baignoire 

ROBIN said in 1709: True love is not like 
to a bag-pudding; a bag-pudding hath 
two ends, but true love hath never an end. 
It was made with flour, with suet and 
plums, and was popular from Jack Hor- 
ner's days at least to the Christmastides 
of my childhood. (2) A clown, a merry- 
andrew perhaps from the inflated blad- 
der that was his characteristic equipment. 
Cp. fackpudding. 

baignoire. A box at the theatre at the 
level of the orchestra seats (English 
'stalls') . Baignoire is a French word mean- 
ing a place or a vessel to bathe in, from 
baigner, to bathe. Browning, in RED COT- 
TON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY (1873) , queries: 
Should one display One's robe a trifle o'er 
the baignoire edge. Bain was also used 
from the 13th through the 17th century, 
as a noun, bath, or as a verb, to bathe. It 
comes via the French from Latin balneum, 
bath. Twyne in his 1573 translation of 
THE AENEID says: The launce . . . in 
virgins blood doth bayne. Surrey (1557) 
uses the word metaphorically: Salt tears 
do bayne my breast. 

There is another bain, of different origin 
(Old Norse beinn, straight, direct) that 
into the 19th century was used to mean 
ready, willing, supple, handy. Douglas in 
his 1513 translation of THE AENEID says: 
To seek your old mother make you bane. 
This in turn must not be confused with 
the word bane, a common Teuton word, 
which first meant murderer, then, as in 
Chaucer and in Henry More's PLATONICAL 
SONG OF THE SOUL (1647) : Brimstone thick 
and clouds of fiery bain, meant anything 
deadly, and now is used to mean poison 
or (poetically) any great harm but 
chiefly survives in the names of plants, as 
dogbane, henbane, wolfs bane and the 
like. 



73 



bain 



balaam 



bain. See baignoire. Barnaby Googe tells, 
in his EGLOGS (1563): Princely nymphs 
accompanied Diana in her baynes. See 
also balneum. 

bairman. Pauper. A variant spelling of 
bare man; not in the O. E. D. (1933) but 
often in the early law courts. Defined by 
Bailey (1751) as a poor insolvent debtor, 
left bare and naked, who was obliged to 
swear in court that he was not worth more 
than five shillings and five pence. 

baisement. A kissing of the hands. Also 
baisemain; French baiser, to kiss + main, 
hand. In the plural, baisemains, respects. 
Spenser in THE FAERIE QUEENE (1596) uses 
the Italian form basciomani; and in the 
15th century (Caxton) baisier, a kiss. 
Farquhar in THE BEAUX' STRATAGEM 
(1707) has: Do my baisemains to the 
gentleman, and tell him I will . . . wait 
on him immediately. 

bajardour. See bajulate. 

bajulate. To carry (a burden). From 
Latin bajulus, porter; but see badger. 
Fuller, in his HISTORY OF THE WORTHIES OF 
ENGLAND (1662) speaks of bajulating pro- 
visions to London. Bailey in his DICTION- 
ARY (1751) lists bajardour, a carrier of 
burdens. 

bakemeat. A pastry, a pie. Also baken 
meat, baked meat. Used by Chaucer 
(1386) , by Shakespeare in HAMLET (1602) , 
and in THE WHITE DEVIL (1700) : As if a 
man Should know what fowl is coffin' d in 
a bak'd meat Afore it is cut up. It might 
be four and twenty blackbirds. 

baker's dozen. Thirteen. In the 16th 
century, when there were special pillories 
for cheating bakers (Heywood in his 
PROVERBS, 1562, includes: / feare we parte 
not yeet, Quoth the baker to the pylorie) , 
a huckster was entitled by law to receive 



thirteen batches and pay for twelve, the 
extra batch (baking) providing his profit 
on resale. Nares (GLOSSARY; 1882) confuses 
the term: It was originally called a devil's 
dozen, and was the number of witches 
supposed to sit down at table together in 
their great meetings or sabbaths. Hence 
the superstition relating to the number 
thirteen at table. The baker, who was a 
very unpopular character in former times, 
seems to have been substituted on this 
account for the devil. Nares has found a 
mare's nest with this explanation. The 
unlucky thirteen is of course traceable to 
the Last Supper of Christ and the twelve 
apostles, but it goes farther back. In Norse 
mythology, Loki once intruded and made 
thirteen at a feast in Valhalla; Balder was 
slain. The baker's dozen was entirely com- 
mercial, there being a time within my 
memory when the local baker gave an 
extra roll or bun with every dozen, much 
as the neighborhood Chinese laundryman 
gave children come for the family's wash 
their first taste of lichee nuts. Cp. himp- 



nes. 

balaam. This word draws its meanings 
from the story of Balaam in the BIBLE: 
NUMBERS, 22-24. Balak, the King of Moab, 
summons Balaam to curse the children of 
Israel, new-come from Egypt. Balaam ap- 
proaches on his ass; three times, when the 
ass holds back, Balaam beats it, until the 
ass finds words, and reproaches Balaam. 
Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, 
and he saw the angel of the Lord standing 
in the way. And instead of the curse Balak 
desired, the Lord gave Balaam blessings 
to pour forth upon the children of Israel. 
Hence (1) directly, as in Milton's OBSERVA- 
TIONS ON THE ARTICLES OF PEACE (1648) : 

God has so disposed the mouth -of these 
Balaams, that comming to curse, they have 
stumbled into a kind of blessing. (2) 
74 



balas 

Balaamite, one that follows religion for 
the sake of gain; hence balaamitical. At 
each of the three places to which Balak 
brought him, Balaam demanded seven 
altars, seven bullocks and seven rams. 
(8) balaam. An article, or news items, of 
freak events, saved to fill odd spaces in 
a newspaper or magazine. From the phe- 
nomenon of the talking ass. Hence balaam- 
box, balaam-basket; a receptacle for such 
material. 

balas. A delicate rose colored ruby. Via 
the French from Marco Polo's Latin 
balascusj from the Arabic balakhsh, from 
Badakhshan, a district near Samarcand, 
whence come the choice ones. Holinshed's 
CHRONICALES (1577) : a great bauderike 
(see baldric) about his necke of great 
balasses. The word, revived by Scott THE 
FORTUNES OF NIGEL (1822) : a carcanet 
(q.v.) of large balas rubies is now used 
by jewelers in the combination balas ruby. 

balatron. A babbler; jester; buffoon; 
booby. Also balatroon. Latin balatro, with 
the same meaning; b later are, blateratum, 
to babble; whence also to blate, blaterate, 
to babble, talk vainly; blateration; blat- 
eroon all in the 17th century. Aphra 
Behn in SIR PETER FANCY (1678) wrote: 
The affront this balatroon has offered me. 

THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS of 10 

November, 1883 mentioned an interleaved 
copy of the Slang Dictionary for students 
of the balatronic dialect. 

balbutiate. To stammer, stutter. Latin 
balbutire; hence also balbutient, stammer- 
ing, stuttering. The noun balbuties (four 
syllables) is still used in medicine. 

baldachin. See baudekin. 

baldrib. A thin person. Originally, a cut 
of pork nearer the rump than the spare- 
rib. Middleton, in THE MAYOR OF QUIN- 



bale 

BOROUGH (1621) exclaims: Thou art such 
a spiny baldrib. 

baldric. A belt, usually richly orna- 
mented, worn over one shoulder and 
under the opposite arm, to support a 
sword, a bugle, or the like. The origin of 
the word is unknown, though it comes 
from Medieval Latin baldringus, perhaps 
related to Latin balteus, Old High Ger- 
man bah, English belt. A very frequent 
word in references to swords, it is also 
used figuratively, as in Frederic W. Far- 
rar's LIFE AND WORK OF ST. PAUL (1879) : 
Let spiritual truth be their baldric. The 
word is found in many spellings, as 
baudrick, bawdrik. It has been used, 
loosely, to mean a necklace, and meta- 
phorically of the gem-studded belt in the 
sky, the zodiac as in Spenser's THE FAERIE 
QUEENE (1596) : Those twelve signes which 
nightly we do see The heavens bright- 
shining baudricke to enchace. Spenser 
liked the image; his PROTHALAMION speaks 
of the twins of Jove Which deck the bald- 
ric of the heavens bright. 

balductum. Curdled milk, buttermilk. 
Also, hot milk curdled with ale or wine. 
Used in the 15th century; also balducta, 
balducktum, balduckstome. By extension, 
in the 16th century, trashy writing, a far- 
rago of words; a paltry, affected writer. 
Harington in 1596 speaks of a balductum 
play. POLIMANTEIA (1595) stated: Because 
every balductum makes divine poetry to 
be but base rime, I leave thee (sacred 
eloquence) to be defended by the Muses 
ornaments, and such (despised) to live 
tormented with endless povertte. 

bale. This form belongs to three words, 
one obsolete, one poetic, and one practical 
and current. (1) bale, a great conflagra- 
tion; hence, specifically, a funeral pyre. 
Old English bael, a blazing fire, cognate 

75 



baleu 

with Sanskrit bhalas, lustre. Used through 
the 16th century, and briefly revived by 

Scott in THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL 

(1805) : On Penchryst glows a ba 1 of fire, 
And three are kindling on Priesthaughs- 
wire. Spenser in THE FAERIE QUEENE 
(1596: He strove to cloak his inward bale, 
and hide the smoke that did his fire dis- 
play) uses it to mean fire of wrath, and 
thus fuses it with the second use. (2) bale, 
active evil; great torment. This is common 
Teuton, Old English bealu, Old Norse 
bol. The word was often paired, as its 
opposite, with bote, relief, q.v. It was 
marked obsolete in 17th century diction- 
aries, but was revived, as a vague but 
powerful word for destructive forces of 
evil, by 19th century poets. Thus Southey 
in THE DOCTOR (1834) says: Death . . . 
calls up a soul from bale and Bryant in 
Homer's ODYSSEY (1870) says: Tidings 
of bale she brought. (3) bale, a large 
bundle or package, as a bale of hay. This 
word is from Old High German balla, 
palla, or Greek palla, meaning a ball, 
then a round bundle. This sense, too, has 
"an obsolete meaning (15th through 17th 
century) of a set of dice for a game in 
those days, usually three. Scott tried to 
revive this meaning also in THE FORTUNES 
OF NIGEL (1822) : The Captain, taking a 
bale of dice from the sleeve of his coat . . . 
This kind of bale has often brought the 
other. Cp. hext. 

baleu. Ruby. A variant form of balas, 
q.v. Urquhart, in his translation of Rabe- 
lais, speaks of a perfect baleu. 

balk. A ridge, as between two furrows 
or fields. From the 9th century. Also, a 
piece of ground carelessly unploughed; 
hence, a balk, a disappointment; to make 
a balk, to waste, to miss an opportunity. 
Also baulk, bale, bawk; in Old English 
it meant a division, either a ridge or a 



ballock 

bar; hence also, a beam of wood (from 
the 13th century) . This is the same word 
as baulk in billiards. Breton in THE PAS- 
SIONATE SHEPHERD (1604) inquired: Who 
can live in heart so glad As the merrie 
countrie lad? Who upon a faire greene 
balke May at pleasure sit and walke . . . 
Or to see the sub till foxe, How the villaine 
plies the box . . . N. McClure, in a note 

in 16TH CENTURY ENGLISH POETRY (1954) 

explains plies the box as 'plays a trick'; 
it seems rather to mean 'strikes the blow' 
that knocks out the victim, as when Green 
in his SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH 
PEOPLE (1874) tells us that Queen Eliza- 
beth I met the insolence of Essex with 
a box on the ear. 

balker. A man on a high point ashore, 
who signals to fishing-boats the direction 
taken by the schools of herring or other 
fish. From the 17th through the 19th 
century; 20th century devices make him 
unnecessary. 

ballard. (1) A bald-headed person. Used 
by Wyclif (1382) in the BIBLE: KINGS 2 
and Caxton (1485) . (2) A musical in- 
strument, described in Purchas' PILGRIMES 
(1625) : Their ballards are a foot above 
ground, hollow under, with some seven- 
teen keyes on the top, on which the player 
strikes . . . *with two strikes a foot long, 
with balls fastned on the end. Evidently 
an early sort of xylophone. 

ballista. An ancient weapon, shaped like 
a large bow stretched with thongs, for 
hurling stones. Also balista. The usual 
plural was the Latin form, ballistae; the 
word is from Greek ballein, to throw. The 
word was sometimes used for arbalest, q.v. 

ballock. Once (politely) used in various 
compounds. Also bealluc, ballok, balluk, 
balok, and the like. Thus bollock-cod, the 
scrotum; cp. cod. ballock-hafted, with a 
76 



balneum 

handle shaped like a ball, ballock-knife, a 
knife worn hanging from the girdle, bal- 
lock-broth seems unrelated, being thus 
described in THE FORME OF CURY (1390) : 
Take eelys, and hilde hem, and kerve hem 
to pecys, and do hem to seeth in water and 
wyne, so that it be a litel over-stepid. Do 
thereto sage an oothir erbis, with -few 
oynons yminced. Whan the eelis buth 
so den ynough, do hem in a vessel; take a 
pyke, and kerve it to gobettes, and seeth 
hym in the same broth; do thereto powdor 
gynger, galyngale, canel, and peper; salt 
it, and cast the eelys thereto, and messe 
it forth. Hence also ballop, ballup, the 
front or flap of smallclothes. 

balneum. A bath; bathing. This word is 
taken directly from the Latin; several 
other forms were also used, mainly from 
the 15th through the 18th century: balne; 
bawne; balneo. The usual implication was 
of a warm bath; balneary was used for a 
medicinal spring. Balneal and balneatory 
are adjectives; compounds include bal- 
neography, a treatise on baths; balneology, 
study of (medicinal) baths; balnea- 
therapy, treatment by baths. Hence bal- 
neation, bathing. The balneum Mariae 
or bain-Marie is a chemical or culinary 
dishwarmer: a pan of hot (not boiling) 
water into which saucepans, etc. were put 
to keep them warm (supposedly so called 
from the mildness of the bath) . Cp. 
baignoire. 

bam. To hoax, deceive, impose upon, 
bamboozle, of which it is either the origin 
or a shortening. Both words arose in the 
early 18th century. Also a noun, a bam, 
a story or device intended as a hoax. Swift 
in his POLITE CONVERSATION (1738) ob- 
served: Her ladyship was plaguily bamb'd. 



bandog 

working with fire; baunos, forge. George 
Grote, in FRAGMENTS ON ETHICAL SUBJECTS 
(1871) joined a controversy: that the 
teaching music as a manual art was 
banausic and degrading. 

bancalia. Equipment, such as covers and 
cushions, for benches and chairs. Bank, 
bane, is a common Teutonic word for 
bench whence mountebank and bank- 
rupt. Cp. bankrout. Bancalia, however, 
seems to occur only in the 17th and 18th 
century dictionaries Bailey (1751) if not 
Barnum. 

banderol. This word, in a dozen spell- 
ings, came through the French from the 
Italian banderuola, a diminutive of bandi- 
era, banner. It meant the long narrow 
flag a ship flies from the mast-head, a 
streamer on a lance, or the like. Shortly 
after Spenser's use in THE FAERIE QUEENE 

(1596) the word was forgotten, until re- 
vived by Sir Walter Scott in MARMION 

(1808) : Scroll, pennon, pensil, bandrol 
there O'er the pavilions flew. After Scott, 
Washington Irving and others used the 
word. Pensil (spelled as though related to 
pensile, hanging, pendent, from Latin 
pendere, pens-, to hang, as in suspense) 
is a variant of pencel, a streamer. Pencel 
is a shortening of penoncel, a French 
diminutive of penon, English pennon. 
Pencel was frequently used from the 13th 
to the end of the 16th century, then it 
lapsed until revived by Scott, first in THE 

LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL (1805) : Pensils 

and pennons wide were flung. Chaucer 
and Malory also used the word pencel 
to mean a lady's token borne by her knight, 
e.g., Chaucer, TROYLUS AND CRYSEYDE 
(1374) : She made him wear a pencel of 
her sleeve. 



banausic. Mechanical (with implied bandog. A dog tied up, as a guard or be- 
scorn) . From Greek banausos, mechanical, cause it is fierce; hence, generally, a fierce 

77 



bandon 

dog; a mastiff, a bloodhound. Also bonde- 
dogge, bandogge, and more. Etheredge in 
LOVE IN A TUB (1669) wrote: As fierce as 
a bandog that has newly broke his chain. 
To speak bandog and bedlam, to talk 
furiously and madly. The word was also 
used figuratively, as in Ussher's A Body of 
Divinitie (1645) : Letting loose Satan, his 
bandog, to . , . molest the godly. Scott, 
who revived the word in the 19th century, 
used it sixteen times. 

bandon. Jurisdiction; authority; control. 
The plural, bandons, orders, commands. 
In (at) one's bandon, under one's control, 
at one's pleasure. Late Latin bandum, 
edict, a form of bannum, whence the 
marriage banns. An edict might often 
work to interdict; hence to ban came to 
mean to forbid; hence banish, bandit. 
Latin bannum, authority, was also used 
for the symbol of authority (under one's 
bannum might mean either); hence, ban- 
ner. 

bandore. Two words have been cor- 
rupted, into this form. (1) The Greek 
musical instrument, pandoura, q.v. The 
name was given to a 16th, 17th, and 18th 
century wire-stringed instrument, used as 
a bass to the cittern, q.v. Shadwell, in 
BURY-FAIR (1689) hails the best music in 
England . . . shawm and bandore. The 
word easily became figurative, as in Hey- 

WOOd's THE FAYRE MAYDE OF THE EXCHANGE 

(1607) : Whafs her hairf Faith two 
bandora wires. It has been further cor- 
rupted, into the forms mandoline and 
banjo. (2) From French bandeau, and 
with the same meaning, came bandore, 
a widow's head-dress. Thomas D'Urfey, in 

PILLS TO PURGE MELANCHOLY (1719) , pic- 

tures the buxom widow, with bandore and 
peak. The musical bandore had three, 
four, or six wire strings. 



bantling 



bandrol. See banderol. 
bane. See baignoire. 

bankrout. An early form of bankrupt, 
perhaps with the idea of putting to rout. 
After Tarquin's violation, in Shakespeare's 

THE RAPE OF LUCRECE (1594) , the pOCt 

declares: Feeble Desire all recreant, poor, 
and meek, Like to a bankrout beggar 
wails his case. The word bankrupt is via 
French banqueroute from Italian banca 
rotta, broken bench the end being later 
refashioned after Latin ruptus, broken. 
The original money-changers (later 
bankers) worked in the open, on a bench. 
Cp. scaldabanco; bancalia. 

banner. See bandon. 

banneret. An old title, lower than baron, 
superior to bachelor and knight: a knight 
entitled to bring a company of vassals 
into the field under his own banner. From 
Old French baneret, bannered; cp. 
bandon. Later the title was awarded on 
the battlefield, for valiant deeds in the 
king's presence. Sometimes, when this 
occurred, the knight's pennon was cut to 
the shape of a banner (square) whence 
the suggestion in Sir William Segar's 

HONOR, MILITARY AND CIVIL (1602) : / 

suppose the Scots do call a knight of this 
creation a Bannerent, for having his ban- 
ner rent. The official English heralds have 
not allowed the title since 1612, the year 
after the rank of baronet was created. 

bannerol. See banderol. 

bantling. A brat; a young child. Drayton 
in his ECLOGUES (1593) pictures lovely 
Venus . . . Smiling to see her wanton 
bantlings game. More often the word is 
a term of scorn; originally it meant 
bastard, probably a corruption of German 
bankling, begotten on a bench. Thus, in 
Father KNICKERBOCKER'S HISTORY OF NEW 
78 



baragouin 

YORK (1809) Washington Irving mentions 
a tender virgin, accidentally and un- 
accountably enriched with a bantling. The 
word is also used figuratively, as when 
Byron wrote, in a letter of 1808: The 
interest you have taken in me and my 
poetical bantlings . . . These, who has 
not had? 

baragouin. Unintelligible speech; jargon; 
double-talk. Breton bara, bread + gwenn, 
white because of the astonishment of 
Breton soldiers at seeing white bread. The 
word baragouin was French, taken di- 
rectly into English in the 17th century. 
Overbury in his CHARACTERS (1613; THE 
LAWYER) declared: He thinks no language 
worth knowing but his barragouin. From 
the Welsh bara pyglyd, pitchy bread, came 
a 17th century term for dark bread, bara- 
pickle t, barrapyclid, which did not grow 
into figurative use, like baragouin. 

barathrum. A pit; especially, a deep pit 
at Athens, whereinto were hurled crimi- 
nals condemned to die. In early English 
use, the pit of hell. By extension (a pit 
that cannot be filled) an insatiable ex- 
tortioner or glutton. Massinger in A NEW 
WAY TO PAY OLD DEBTS (1633) exclaims: 
You barathrum of the shambles! 

barato. A small amount of a gambler's 
winnings, given to the bystanders, for 
luck. From the Spanish. Mabbe in his 
translation (1622) of Aleman's GUZMAN 
DE ALFARACHE said And, though I were no 
gamester, yet I might receive barato as 
a stander by. A pleasant practice, recently 
foregone. 

barber. Used figuratively for one that 
cuts things short, a curtailer. Jonson in 
THE SILENT WOMAN (1609) speaks of an ex- 
cellent barber of prayers. Also in com- 
binations: barber-monger, a frequenter of 
the barber, a fop. Shakespeare in KING 



barbican 

LEAR (1605) has: You whoreson cullyenly 
barber-monger, draw! barber's music, dis- 
cordant music in scornful reference to 
the music made by waiting customers in 
a barber-shop, where a cittern was com- 
monly left, in the 16th and 17th centuries, 
for such entertainment. Thus Pepys in his 
DIARY (5 June, 1660) records: My Lord 
called -for the lieutenant's cittern, and 
with two candlesticks with money in them 
for symbols, we made barber's music. 
Dekker in THE HONEST WHORE (1604) has 
a woman called a barber's citterne, -for 
every serving man to play upon; thus, a 
strumpet. Cp. cithern. Also, barber's chair, 
one in which all comers sit. Shakespeare 
in ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL (1601) has: 
Like a barber's chair that fits all buttocks; 
hence also, a strumpet. Motteux in his 
translation (1708) of Rabelais spoke of 
bonarobaes, barbers chairs, hedge-whores. 

barbery. A barber's shop; the art of the 
barber, shaving. French barberie, from 
Latin barb a, beard. About 1690 laws were 
passed in England, seeking to separate the 
barber from the doctor: Neither shall any 
chirurgeon there use barbery. See bar- 
bigerous. A bar bet is a small beard; the 
word is also applied to "bearded" crea- 
tures, as (1) a sort of poodle; (2) a 
hairy worm that feeds on the aphis; (3) 
a bird with tufts of bristles at the base 
of the bill. 

barbican. An outer fortification to a 
castle or city wall; especially, a double 
tower over a gate or bridge. It was often 
made high enough to serve as a watch- 
tower. Also barbycon, berbikan, barb a- 
kane, barbygan, and the like. Hence bar- 
bicanage, a tax paid for the building and 
maintenance of a barbican. In the 16th 
and 17th centuries, barbican was also used 
for a loophole in a wall, through which 
one might fire missiles. Spenser in THE 
79 



barbigerous 

FAERIE QUEENE (1596) has: Within the 
barbican a porter sate. After the 17th cen- 
tury, Scott renewed the word in KENIL- 
WORTH (1821), and figuratively in THE 
FAIR MAID OF PERTH (1828): Dawn seemed 
to abstain longer than usual from occupy- 
ing her eastern barbican. In all, Scott used 
barbican 31 times. 

barbigerous. Bearded. The word indi- 
cates pomposity or a most imposing 
beard. From Latin barba, beard + ger-, 
bearing. See abarcy. 

barbiton. A musical instrument, many 
stringed, a sort of large lyre. Also barbitos. 
For a use of the word, see sambuca. 

barbula. A small beard; directly from 
the Latin, barbula being the diminutive 
of barba, beard. Randle Holme, in THE 
ACADEMY OF ARMORY (1688) sets it in its 
place: The barbula or pick-a-divant, or 
the little tuft of hair just under the middle 
of the lower lip. Pick-a-divant is French 
pic a devant, point in front. The last 
Republican alderman of New York City 
insisted (in the lingo of his native Mon- 
tana) that my barbula is a sonofabitch; 
politer persons today prefer to call it an 
imperial. 

barcelona. A kerchief of twilled silk, 
commonly worn about the neck in the 
early 19th century. Usually of bright color. 
From the Catalan city of Barcelona, 
whence also as goodly a couple as recent 
vicissitudes have brought to our shores. 

bardash. See bur dash. 

bar'd cater-tra. False dice, so constructed 
that the four and the three very seldom 
come on top. Also bard eater-tray, bar'd 
cater trea, barfd quatre trois. Dekker in 
THE HONEST WHORE (1604) says: / have 
suffered your tongue, like a bar'd cater 
tra, to run all this while and have not 



barleybreak 

stopt it. Such dice (in a pair) make it 
very hard to cast a five or a nine; they 
were used in the game of dice called 
novum (novem), in which a toss of nine 
won. Cp. fullam, langret. 

bardlet. A petty poet, a tyro at the 
versifying art. Also bardling. Both are 
19th century coinages; Bailey in THE AGE 
(1858) cried: So woe to you young bard- 
lings scant of brains! 

bardocucullus. A crude woollen cloak, 
with a hood, worn by peasants (in France) 
and monks. Hence bardocucullated, wear- 
ing a cowled cloak. Motteux in his trans- 
lation (1694) of Rabelais scorns these 
monkhawks whom you see bardocucullated 
with a bag. 

bardolf. One of the dishes made when 
the English joyed to cook: Bardolf. Take 
almond mylk, and draw hit up thik with 
vernage [a strong, sweet white wine] and 
let hit boyle, and braune of capons 
braied, and put therto; and cast therto 
sugre, cloves, maces, pynes, and ginger, 
mynced; and take chekyns parboyled, and 
chopped, and pul of the skyn, and boyle al 
ensemble, and in the settynge doune from 
the fire put therto a lytel vynegur alaied 
with pouder of ginger, and a lytel water 
of everose [rose water], and make the 
potage hanginge [clinging, i.e., thick] and 
serve hit forthe. And if you do, invite me. 

barleybreak. A game originally played 
by three couples, something like prisoners' 
base. Sidney described the game in ARCADIA 
(1580) : Then couples three be straight 
allotted there, They of both ends the 
middle two do flie; The two that in mid 
place. Hell called, were Must strive with 
waiting foot and watching eye To catch 
of them, and them to Hell to beare That 
they, as well as they, Hell may supply. 
There you may see that, as the middle 



80 



barleyhood 

two Do coupled towards either couple 
make, They, -false and fearful, do their 
hands undo. The game went on; when 
a couple was caught, it replaced the 
chasers; the last couple in Hell (sup- 
posedly staying there) ended the game. 
It was named because first played in a 
field, and the chased couple, if in danger, 
could break separate amid the barley. 
Also barlebreyke, barlibreak f barleybrake. 
Mackyn in his DIARY (1557) noted that 
Master par sun . . . entry d into helle, and 
ther ded at the barlebrayke with alle wyffe 
of the sam parryche. The game, played in 
Scotland into the 19th century, naturally 
developed many variations. Herrick, 
among others, played on the name o the 
central station, of the couple that was 
"it" and showed the forfeit on being 
caught in an epigram of 1648: We two 
are last in hell: what may we feare To be 
tormented or kept prisoners here? Alas, 
if kissing be of plagues the worst, We'll 
wish in hell we had been last and first. 

barleyhood. A spell of bad temper in- 
duced by drink. Barley is used to mean 
malt liquor, which is made therefrom. 
Skelton said in THE TUNNYNG OF ELYNOUR 
RUMMYNG (1529) And as she was 
drynkynge, she fyll in a wynkynge With 
a barlyhood. Also, to wear a barleycap, 
to be tipsy; a barleycap, a tippler. Thus, 
and still, John Barleycorn. 

barm. Bosom, lap. Used 9th through 
15th centuries, from a Teutonic form re- 
lated (berm) to beran, to bear. Also in 
combination, as in Chaucer's THE MILLER'S 
TALE (1386) : A barmcloth eek as white 
as morning milk. There is also a barm 
that means the froth on poured beer or 
fermenting malt liquors; yeast sometimes 
used figuratively, as when Landor, in 
IMAGINARY CONVERSATIONS (1828) declares: 



barth 

Milton's dough . . . is never the lighter 
for the barm he kneeds up with it. 

Barmecide. See stillicide. 

barnard. A lurking sharper; the decoy 
of the 16th century sharpers' gang. Also 
bernard; probably a variant of berner, 
originally the feeder of the hounds; bran 
-h ard, a derogatory suffix as in coward. 
The berner, during a hunt, waited with 
extra hounds along the way the animal 
was expected to take. Dekker in THE BEL- 
MAN OF LONDON (1608) describes the work 
of the barnard, also Greene in A DISCOVERY 
OF COZENAGE (1591) , which lists the usual 
team: the taker up, the verser, the barnard, 
and the rutter . . . Comes in the barnard 
stumbling into your company, like some 
aged farmer of the countrey . . . and is 
so carelesse of his money, that out he 
throweth some fortie angels on the boards 
end. 

barrat. Fraud; distress; quarreling. A 
common Romanic word, accent on the 
first syllable, of doubtful origin, the first 
meaning of which was commerce, trade. 
Also baret (THE OWL AND THE NIGHTINGALE, 
13th century) , barette. One can see what 
the middle ages thought of business! A 
barrator was a cheater; in the 15th and 
16th centuries, especially an ecclesiastic 
who buys or sells preferment, or a dis- 
hqnest judge. From the 16th to the 18th 
century, the word was used mainly of 
rowdies, brawlers; hence barratress, a fe- 
male brawler, virago; amazon. In law, it 
meant one who incites to discord or to 
law-suits; and barratry means such incite- 
ment. Barratry is also used, in law, of 
fraud at sea, especially of the captain 
against the owners such as sinking or 
running away with the ship or its cargo. 

barth. A warm, sheltered pasture for 
calves, lambs, and the like. Possibly from 

81 



bartholomew-pig 



barton 



Old English beorgan, to protect. From 
this source come also the verb bergh, to 
shelter, protect, save; bergh as a noun, 
protection; berghless, unprotected; bergh- 
er, a protector, saviour. All these are 
words of the 10th through the 13th cen- 
tury. Bergher was in those years used of 
the Lord. 

bartholomew-pig. Prominently displayed 
roasted pigs were among the chief attrac- 
tions at Bartholomew Fair, held annually 
on St. Bartholomew's Day (24 August) 
from 1133 to 1855 at West Smithfield, 
London. As Jonson pictures in his BAR- 
THOLOMEW FAIR (1614) pregnant women 
were most fond of the flesh or pretended 
a yearning to get to the fair. Davenant 
mentions the Bartlemew pig That gaping 
lies on every stall Till female with great 
belly call Perhaps because on St. Bar- 
tholomew's Day (1572) Protestants were 
massacred in France and (1662) the Eng- 
lish Uniformity Act (Bartholomew Act) 
was passed, the Protestants resented the 
day. They certainly resented the revelry 
of the Fair; there Is little excess of satire 
in Jonson's Puritan's cry: For the very 
calling it a Bartholomew pig, and to eat 
it SO; is a spice of idolatry. Shakespeare 
in HENRY iv, PART TWO (1597) applies the 
term to Falstaff: Thou whorson little 
tydie Bartholmew bore-pigge. Also Bar- 
tholomew-baby, a gawdy doll; a puppet. 
POOR ROBIN (1740) speaks of telling farm- 
ers what manner of wife they should 
chuse, not one trickt up with ribband 
and knots, like a Bartholomew-baby; for 
such a one will prove a holiday wife, all 
play and no work. Also Bartholomew 
ware, cheap and showy goods; used figura- 
tively, as in a 1645 letter of Ho well: 
Freighted with mere Bartholomew ware, 
with trite and trivial phrases. Bartholo- 



mew-gentleman, a man not to be trusted; 
a pickpocket (as often at the Fair). 
bartizan. A battlemented parapet; a tur- 
ret overhanging the top of a tower. Scott 
in THE EVE OF ST. JOHN (1801) has He 
mounted the narrow stair, To the barbizan 
seat. Scott uses the word also in MARMION 
and WAVERLEY, and in THE HEART OF 
MIDLOTHIAN (1818) he speaks of a half- 
circular turret, battlemented or, to use 
the appropriate phrase, bartizan' d on the 
top. The "appropriate phrase/' however, 
rose from an error; the word was created 
by Scott. The early term used by Wyclif 
in 1395 and into the 17th century, was 
bretticing, bratticing, a temporary wooden 
parapet. Bratticing or brattice-work is still 
used, of supports of wood in a mine. But 
later historians accepted Scott's word as 
genuine. 

bartolist. A skilled attorney. From a 
noted Italian lawyer, Bartolo, of the 14th 
century. Samuel Daniel, in a letter of 
1602, wrote of these great Italian Bartolists 
Called in of purpose to explain the law. 
Portia, in THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, vol- 
unteered for the task. 

barton. Originally, this was a threshing 
floor, Old English bere~tun, barley en- 
closure. Then it was used of a farm yard; 
especially, of the farm a lord kept for 
his own use. It was also applied to a 
chicken coop or larger pen, but the lord 
kept claim (1783) to the eggs of the 
bartons of his demesne. A book on 
HUSBANDRY by George Winter (1787) de- 
clares that stale urine and barton draining 
are greatly preferable to dung. In con- 
trast, we are told of a fine grove of Scotch 
and silver fir on the barton of Bridestow. 
And Southey in THE POET'S PILGRIMAGE TO 
WATERLOO (1816) speaks of Spacious 
bartons clean, well-wall'd around, Where 
all the wealth of rural life was found. 



barytone 

barytone. A deep-sounding musical in- 
strument. Applied to a bass viol invented 
by Joachim Fielke in 1687; in the 19th 
century, to a bass saxhorn (invented by 
the Belgian C. J. Sax, died 1865; his son 
is to be blamed for the saxophone) . Greek 
barys, deep + tonos, pitch. Also baritone, 
in which spelling it is still applied to a 
singer between tenor and bass; barritone, 
bariton, baryton. In Greek grammar, bary- 
tone was used of a word not having the 
acute accent on the last syllable. Hence 
bary ionize, to make a deep sound, as in 
Urquhart's translation (1653) of Rabelais, 
in which we are told Gargantua would loll 
and rock himself in the cradle . . . mono- 
cordising with his fingers and barytonising 
with his tail. (The O.E.D. defines this 
word-play as though Gargantua were a 
dog. Cp. Mono-.) 

bas. A kiss. A variant of bass, q.v. Also 
cp. basiate. 

base. Short for prisoner's base, the game. 
Cp. barleybreak. Spenser uses it in THE 
FAERIE QUEENE (1596) ; Shakespeare in 
CYMBELINE (1611) speaks of lads more 
like to run the country base, then to 
commit such slaughter. Hence, to bid 
base, to challenge someone to chase one 
(as in the game) ; by extension, to chal- 
lenge. Used by Shakespeare (VENUS AND 
ADONIS) and by Milton in ANIMADVERSIONS 
(1641) : / shall not intend this hot season 
to bid you the base through the wide and 
dusty champaine of the Councels. 

baselard. A dagger, usually worn at the 
belt. Used from the 14th through the 18th 
century, as in THE NEW LONDON MAGAZINE 
of 1788: The Mayor, drawing his baselard, 
grievously wounded Wat (Tyler) in the 
neck. 



basery. See basiate. 



basilicon 

bashaw. An early form of the Turkish 
title pasha, associated with haughty ty- 
ranny; whence bashawism, imperiousness. 
From Turkist bash, head. In the 16th cen- 
tury the word was also spelled bassa, bassi, 
basha, and the like. Fielding has, in 
JONATHAN WILD (1743) : He addressed 
me with all the insolence of a basha to a 
Circassian slave. A bashaw of three tails 
was of high rank, with three horse-tails 
hung on his standard. 

basiate. To kiss in the 17th century. 
Latin basium, kiss; whence also basial; 
basiation; see bass; deosculate. Note also 
basifugal (q.v.), turning away from a kiss; 
but also, tending away from the base: 
Latin and Greek basis, a stepping, a pedes- 
tal; something to step or stand on; Greek 
ba-, to walk, go. The adjective base (Latin 
bassus, low) developed in the 17th cen- 
tury the noun basery >, dishonorable deal- 
ing; Thomas Brian in THE PISSE PROPHET 
(1637) wrote: They will hardly acknowl- 
edge their errours, and relinquish this 
basery. Meredith in THE EGOIST (1879) 
spoke of love that . . . seems to the scoffing 
world to go slinking into basiation' s ob- 
scurity. A basifuge is one who or that 
which drives away kisses, as a two day's 
growth of beard, or bad taste. 

basifugal. Fleeing its base; tending to 
fly from its base. Accent on the sif. It 
might be said that psychoanalysis attempts 
to basify the basifugal. But see basiate. 

basil. See basilicon. 

basilicon. An ointment of 'sovereign' vir- 
tue, from Greek basilicos, royal. The herb 
basil, used in royal bath or unguent, drew 
its name from this source; but the basilisk 
(q.v.) was drawn into the notion. A 
basilica, originally a royal palace, then a 
hall of justice granted by Roman emperors 



83 



basilisk 



bass 



for religious use, is now a church, es- 
pecially an early church, e.g., one of the 
seven principal churches of Constantine. 
There is an adjective basilic, royal; the 
basilic vein is the large vein from elbow 
to armpit. 

basilisk. A fabulous serpent, whose very 
glance was mortal. It was marked by a 
crown-like spot on its head, hence the 
name basilisk (little king; see basilicon.) 
It was hatched by a serpent from a cock's 
egg, hence also called basilicock (as in 
Chaucer's THE PARSON'S TALE, 1386) and 
cockatrice (in Wyclif's BIBLE,, 1382, and 
King James', 1611; in Spenser's SONNETS 
of 1595 and Shakespeare's ROMEO AND 
JULIET of 1592: the death-darting eye of 
cockatrice) and cokadrill. The word, es- 
pecially in adjective forms, is also used 
figuratively. Shakespeare in TIMON OF 
ATHENS (1600) cries: With my basiliscan 
eyes May I kill all I see. J. Wilson in 
BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE of 1828 speaks of 
the fascinating and basiliskian glare of 
gorgeous and rhetorical embellishment. 
Kingsley in WESTWARD HO (1855) uses a 
third form, speaking of Our fair Oriana, 
and the slaughter which her basiliscine 
eyes have caused. Basilisk was also used, 
beginning in the 16th century, as the 
name of a large cannon. Culverin, another 
cannon, comes via French couleuvre from 
Latin coluber, snake. There is also a 
shorter cannon called battard (from 
French bitard, bastard) , contracted from 
culverin battard or battard-falcon. 

basin. See basnet. 

basnet. A small, light helmet; smaller 
than a basin. Medieval Latin basinetum, 
diminutive of bacin, English basin. Also 
basinet, bacinet, basynet, bassenet, and 
more. When worn in battle without an 
aventayle (q.v.), the basnet was often cov- 



ered by the great helm, which rested on 
the shoulders. Such a stroke, Lord Berners 
admires in his translation (1523) of 
Froissart, that their basenettes were cloven. 
DIVES ET PAUPER (1496) spoke figuratively 
of the basynet of helthe, that is hope of 
the lyfe that is to come. Scott, using 
basnet six times, brought it back into the 
vocabulary in the 19th century. 

bass. A kiss. Common on all Roman 
tongues; Latin basium, kiss; cp. basiate. 
Also used as a verb, thus one of J. Hey- 
wood's PROVERBS (1562) : He must needs 
basse her. Still known uses of bass include: 
(1) a fish of the perch species, earlier 
barse; (2) the inner bark of the lime or 
linden tree, earlier bast; (3) the deepest 
male voice; Greek basis, base. This deep- 
toned bass is pronounced base, but Pope 
rhymed it with ass. The word buss, which 
in one sense meant a two- or three-masted 
ship, a fly-boat; is also a corrupt form of 
bass, kiss, especially common since the 
16th century, as a hearty word for a 
smacking kiss. Shakespeare also used the 
verb figuratively, as in TROILUS AND CRES- 
SIDA (1606) : Yond towers, whose wanton 
tops do busse the clouds . . . Tennyson 
refrains, in THE PRINCESS (1847) : Nor 
burnt the grange, nor buss'd the milking- 
maid. Meredith, in VITTORIA (1866) , 
urges: Up with your red lips, and buss 
me a Napoleon salute. Children in their 
teens, word-conscious and coy, used to 
play a game with this variation e.g., 
blunderbus, to kiss the wrong party; 
omnibus, to kiss all the girls in the room. 
When Shakespeare in CYMBELINE (1609) 
says that Imogen must Forget that rarest 
treasure of your cheek, exposing it . . . to 
the greedy touch Of common-kissing titan, 
he meant the sun, which 'kisses' all alike, 
the good and the bad, the fair and the 



bast 

foul, the young and the old, the ascetic 
and the erotic. Quite an omnibuster! 

bast. In addition to its scientific use, 
as the inner bark of certain trees (lime, 
linden) , which is sold for matting; bast 
has meant (1) the fish, the bass. (2) 
bastardy. (3) a bastard. This sense is from 
Old French bast, a pack-saddle which 
muleteers used for a bed; originally there 
was a phrase fils de bast, son of a pack- 
saddle. (4) to boast. Note that bastard 
was applied to many things of mixed 
genesis: a kind of cannon (16th century) ; 
a kind of cloth (15th and 16th centuries) ; 
a kind of galley used as a war-ship; a sweet 
wine Shakespeare in HENRY iv, PART ONE 
(1596) says: Anon, anon sir, Score a pint 
of bastard in the Halfe Moone. 

bastard. See bast 
bastinado. See baston. 

baston. To thrash with a stick. The stick 
itself was also a baston, other forms for 
this were batten, batoon, and the current 
baton. To bastinade, bastonate (17th cen- 
tury) , to beat. Also to baste; occasionally 
referred to as a dry basting (Shakespeare, 
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, 1590: Lest it make 
you chollericke, and purchase me another 
drie basting) in contradistinction to the 
'wet* basting given roasting flesh or fowl. 
Hence also a bastinado, bastinade, bas- 
tonade, as every schoolboy used to know. 
Shakespeare, in KING JOHN (1595) uses 
this figuratively: He gives the bastinado 
with his tongue: our ears are cudgell'd. 
In cards, since the 17th century, the ace 
of clubs (club, to beat with) was called 
basto. In Spanish, the whole suit of clubs 
is basto; the ace, el basto. And in the 14th 
century (translating staff, stave) a baston 
was a stanza of poetry. 

bat. (1) A pack-saddle; used in combi- 
nations, as bat-horse, one that carries the 



bathykolpian 

baggage of military officers. Cp. bast. (2) 
To flutter, as the wings of a hawk, or the 
phrase to bat an eye; a variant of bate, 
q.v. The stick and the bird are both Old 
English; the former, perhaps associated 
through French battre with Latin batuere, 
to beat; the latter, replacing older forms 
such as bakke, blaka, in Scandinavian 
countries, where bats might be in any 
belfry. 

bate. (1) To fight, to contend with 
blows or arguments. In the latter mood, 
replaced by debate. Also, to beat the 
wings (as a falcon or hawk) and flutter 
away from the perch. Hence, to be restless 
or impatient. Shakespeare in ROMEO AND 
JULIET (1592) bids night Hood my un- 
mann'd blood, bayting in my cheekes. (2) 
To beat or flutter down; to end. In R. 
Brunne's CHRONICLE (1330) we read: 
Bated was the strife. Also, to cast down; 
hence, to humble, depress; to be dejected; 
to lower, reduce, lessen. In these senses, 
a shortening of abate. At bate, at odds, 
contending. The word is frequent in 
Shakespeare, in various senses. Hence 
bated breath, subdued breathing, bateless, 
that cannot be blunted; Shakespeare in 
THE RAPE OF LUCRECE (1593) has: Haply 
that name of chaste unhappily set This 
bateless edge on his keen appetite, bateful, 
quarrelsome, batement, lessening, abate- 
ment, bate-breeding, quarrel making, in- 
citing to strife; Shakespeare in VENUS AND 
ADONIS speaks of This sour informer, this 
bate-breeding spy. 

bathykolpian. Deep-bosomed. Also bathy- 
kolpic; Greek bathos, deep 4- kolpos, 
breast. Both forms have been used spelled 
with uk, yc, uc. The word bathos, descent 
from the sublime to the ridiculous, springs 
from Pope's satire BATHOS, THE ART OF 
SINKING IN RHETORIC (1728) , a travesty 
of Longinus' essay ON THE SUBLIME. Hence 
85 



batler 

bathetic, fashioned after pathetic; also 
bathotic. While a plain and direct road is 
paved to their hypsos, or sublime, said 
Pope, no track has been yet chalked out 
to arrive at our bathos, or profund. Other 
words formed with bathy-, deep, include: 
bathyal, of the deeper regions of the sea; 
bathybic, dwelling in the deeps, also 
bathypelagic. bathylimnetic, living at the 
bottom of a marsh or lake, like the 
ondines. 

batler. A flat-sided stick with a handle, 
for beating clothes. Shakespeare in AS 
YOU LIKE IT (1600) has: / remember the 
kissing of her batler. Later editions say 
batlet, as though a diminutive of bat. The 
battledore was originally a batler or beetle, 
sometimes cylindrical for mangling, but 
usually flat. Hence, other instruments of 
that shape: a paddle, a wood for putting 
loaves into an oven; especially, a small 
bat for hitting the shuttlecock in the game 
also called battledore. Other forms of this 
word, common from the 15th century, 
were batylledore, batyndore, batteldoor, 
and the like. The word was also used 
figuratively, as by Lowell in 1879: So they 
two played at wordy battledore. The game, 
once vigorously enjoyed, has been re- 
placed by tennis, ping-pong (table tennis) 
and, especially badminton. Badminton, 
from the country seat of the Duke of 
Beaufort, was also in the 19th century the 
name of a drink, a 'grateful compound* 
of claret, sugar, and soda-water. The 
shuttlecock (also shittlecock, shoottlecock, 
and more) was a piece of cork tufted with 
feathers, used as far back as the 15th 
century, and is used frequently (literally 
and figuratively) by poets and playwrights 
of the 16th and 17th centuries who, as 
Sears said later (1858) in ATHANASIA, 
were only playing at shuttlecock with 
words. 



battologist 



batlet. See batler. 



balling. See battle. 

Batrachomyomachia. See cynarctomachy. 
battalia (pie). See beatilles. 
battard. See basilisk. 

battle. In addition to the too well known 
activity named by this word, to battle 
meant to furnish with battlements, and 
also quite apart to nourish, supply with 
rich pasture or food; also, to make soil 
fertile; hence, to grow fat, to thrive. In 
this sense the word was also spelled batle, 
battel, and is related to batten. The ad- 
jective battle meant nourishing; fertile, 
fruitful. Douglas in his AENEIS (1513) 
spoke of battill gras, fresche erbis and 
grene suardis. Hence also bailing pastures 
(battling, batteling) , nourishing, fertiliz- 
ing; growing fat; Fuller in A PISGAH-SIGHT 
OF PALESTINE (1650) exclaimed: A jolly 
dame, no doubt, as appears by the well- 
battling of the plump boy. 

battledore. See batler. Also: a battledore 
(short for battledore-book) was a horn 
book, a single sheet, with the alphabet 
thereon, covered with horn and fastened 
to a flat piece of wood with a handle. 
The shape of the wood gave it the name. 
Hence battledore boy, one learning his 
a b c's. Thus the old saying He doesn't 
know a bee from a battledore (sometimes 
He doesn't know A B . . .) 

battologist. One that endlessly and use- 
lessly repeats the same thing. Greek bat- 
talogos; Battos -h logos, speaking. The 
form battos may be echoic of the sound of 
stuttering, but is supposedly derived from 
a Lacedaemonian named Battus, who in 
630 B.C. founded the city of Gyrene, and 
is mentioned in Herodotus as the stutter- 
ing king. Hence battological; battology; 
86 



baude 

battologize. Southey in the QUARTERLY 
REVIEW of 1818 cried: Away then with . . . 
the battology of statistics. 

baude. Joyous; forward; gay. Old French. 
baud, gay; Old Low German bald, bold, 
lively. The adjective was used in THE 
ROMANCE OF THE ROSE (1400) ; the noun 
baudery (q.v.), jollity, was more frequent. 
There is also a verb bawdefy, to bedeck, 
to make gay. Somehow, in the transfer 
from French to English, bawd perhaps 
compounded with bawd, earlier bad, a cat, 
a pussy, a rabbit, used in slang senses 
came to be applied to a pander. Shake- 
speare in ROMEO AND JULIET (1592) CTICS 

A baud, a baud! meaning a hare; but in 
AS YOU LIKE IT (1600) he has Touchstone 
tell Audrey We must be married, or we 
must live in baudrey. The earliest form of 
bawd in the sense of pander (male or 
female) is bawdstrot; this became baw- 
strop and, especially in the plays of Mid- 
dleton, bronstrops, as in A FAIR QUARREL 
(1617) : I say thy sister is a bronstrops. 
Much better to be baude. 

baudekin. An embroidered cloth, the 
warp of gold thread, the woof of silk; 
later, any rich brocade or heavy silk. The 
word, from Baldacco, the Italian name for 
Bagdad, has many spellings: baldachin 
(which was also applied to a canopy made 
of such cloth) , baldaquin, baudkin, bawd- 
iky n, bodkin, and more. Bulwer-Lytton in 
THE LAST OF THE BARONS (1843) says: The 
baudekin stripes (blue and gold) of her 
tunic attested her royalty. 

baudery. (1) A variant of bawdry. (2) 
Gaiety, mirth. Chaucer in THE KNIGHT'S 
TALE (1386) speaks of Beautee and youthe, 
bauderie, richesse a happy trainl See 
baude. 

baudrick. See baldric. 



bawdreaminy 

bauson. A badger, q.v. Also b aw son; 
bawsym, baucyne, boreson. Hence bauson- 
faced, with a white mark on its face, like 
the badger, bausond, spotted; with white 
spots on a black or bay ground. From the 
qualities of the animal, applied in scorn 
to (1) a stupidly persistent man, (2) a 
clumsy fat man. Chatter ton (1765) used 
bawsyn several times, to mean large. In 
LINGUA (1607) we read: Peace, you fat 
b aw son, peace! 

bavardage. Gay, jolly talk; teasing ex- 
change; chatter. The word has softened: 
French bavarder, to prate, chatter; bavard, 
talkative; bave, saliva. Used in the 19th 
century; now both the word and the art 
are neglected. 

bavian. See babion. 

bavin. Brushwood; especially, a bundle 
of light wood (as for bakers' ovens) tied 
with one withe or band; a fagot is tied 
with two. The word was used figuratively, 
of slight things, as in Chapman's EASTWARD 
HOE (1605) : // he outlast not a hundred 
such crackling bavins as thou art; and 
Shakespeare's HENRY iv, PART ONE (1596) : 
Shallow jesters, and rash bavin wits, Soon 
kindled and soon burnt. 

bawcock. Fine fellow. A jocular term of 
endearment, from French beau coq, fine 
cock, used in the same way. Shakespeare 
uses the word in TWELFTH NIGHT, and twice 
in HENRY v (1599) e.g.: The King's a 
bawcock, and a heart of gold. 

bawdreaminy. Bawdy misbehavior. Used 
by Dampit, in Middleton's A TRICK TO 
CATCH THE OLD ONE (1608) . Like Urquhart 
in his translation (1653) of Rabelais, 
Middleton liked to invent resounding 
words. Dampit, an unscrupulous: usurer 
and a drunkard, when his serving maid 
well, wench Audrey tries to get Mm 

87 



bawdrik 

from his cups to his bed, favors her with 
fine examples: Thou quean of bawdream- 
iny! . . . Out, you gernative quean! the 
mullipood of villainy, the spinner of con- 
cupiscencyl . . . Out, you babliaminy, you 
unfeathered cremitoried quean, you cul- 
lisance of scabiosity! 

bawdrik. See baldric. 

bawdstrot. See baude. Probably from 
baude (q.v.) , lively + strutt, strut: one 
with an inviting walk. Also baudetrot, 
baldestrot, baldystrot, bawstrop, bron- 
strops. In Langland's PIERS PLOWMAN 
(1362) one manuscript has bawdstrot; 
another, bawd. 

bawdy. See baude. 

bawn. A fortified enclosure. From Irish 
babhun, of unknown origin. Spenser, in 

A VIEW OF THE PRESENT STATE OF IRELAND 

(1596) speaks of the square bawns which 
you see so strongly trenched and thrown 
up. The word is still used in Ireland, but 
now referring to the yard where the cows 
are milked, the cattlefold. 

bawson. A frequent variant of bauson., 
q.v., as applied to a person. 

baxter. Baker. Originally feminine; from 
10th through 15th century used of both 
sexes; thereafter masculine. In the 16th 
century, a new feminine form was fash- 
ioned: backstress. Sir Walter Scott used the 
word in THE HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN (1818) : 
One in appearance a baxter, i.e. a baker's 
lad, handed her out of her chair. After 
about 1400, however, baxter was rarely 
used save in Scotland. 

bayard. One that is self-confident through 
ignorance; one firmly equipped with blind 
assurance. Originally, bayard, a bay horse. 
Then, the name of the magic (bay-colored) 
steed King Charlemagne gave to Rinaldo. 



be- 

From some now forgotten story with a 
leap before you look/ Bayard became a 
type or symbol of blind recklessness. Also, 
bayard's bun, a kind of cake for horses. 
To ride the bayard of ten toes, to walk; 
similarly, to go on shanks' mare. Hence, 
bayardly, in blind self-confidence; bay- 
ardism, ignorant presumption. According 
to some versions of the story, Bayard was 
given not to Rinaldo alone but to him 
and his three brothers, sons of Agmon. 
The horse changed size according to how 
many of the brothers mounted him. He 
may still be heard neighing, we are told, 
in the Ardennes on Midsummer Day. 
There was also a man, Bayard, Pierre du 
Terrail, Chevalier de Bayard (1475-1524) 
distinguished under three kings, and 
called le chevalier sans peur et sans 
reproche.' 

be-. As a prefix, be- is used to add force, 
or to make an active verb, in many Old 
English words. Chaucer is fond of the 
form. Among these may be listed: bebay, 
to bay about, hem in, surround; beblast, 
to blast completely, wither; bebleed, to 
make bloody; beblind; beblister; beblot 
(Chaucer, TROYLUS AND CRISEYDE, 1374: 
Biblotte it with thy tears); bebroyde, 
embroider; beclip, embrace; be close, im- 
prison; beclout, to dress up ( as in a loin- 
cloth; usually a term of scorn) ; becudgel; 
becurl; bedaff, to make a fool of; bedog, 
be daggle, to trail in the mire, befoul; 
be daggle, to deceive; bedight, to equip, 
bedeck (Poe, EL DORADO, 1849: Gaily 
bedight, a gallant knight) ; bedilt, hidden; 
bedoubt, bedoute, to dread; bedove, be- 
doven, plunged, immersed; bedwynge, to 
restrain; befong (Old English fon, to 
grasp), to seize; begab, to fool with words, 
impose upon; beghost, to make a ghost 
of; begin (pronounced bejin: gin, a trap, 
13th and 14th centuries), to ensnare; 
88 



be- 



beadle 



be go, to go about, to encompass, to over- 
run, to beset survives in the participle 
begone, as in woe-begone; begod, to deify; 
begrede, to weep for; behest, to promise 
(land of behest was a common term for 
land of promise; then the noun took on 
the sense of bidding, command: at his 
behest}', behight, to promise, to hold out 
hope, to warrant; used (archaically, and 
improperly) by Spenser to mean to de- 
liver, to command, to name, as in THE 
SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR: DECEMBER (1579) 
Love they him called . . . But better 
might they have behote him Hate; be- 
h ounce, to adorn, deck out; be jape, to 
trick; bekend, known; bekiss, to cover 
with kisses; belace, to adorn with lace, to 
stripe, to beat until one's back is striped; 
belack, to find fault with; belate, to detain, 
delay survives in belated; belaud, to 
load with praise; belay, to set things 
around, as ornamentation, to set armed 
men around, to besiege, to forestall, to 
waylay survives in the nautical sense, to 
set a rope around a cleat, etc. so as to 
fasten it securely, hence, in sailor's slang, 
belay there! stop! (Tie youself up!); 
belirt, to deceive, to cheat; belive, to re- 
main, also (confused with beleave) to go; 
belouke, to shut, to shut in or out, to 
encompass; bemark, to make the sign of 
the cross; bemete, to measure, measure 
out (Shakespeare, THE TAMING OF THE 
SHREW, 1596: I shall so bemete thee with 
thy yard); beneaped, left ashore by the 
neap tide, hence beyond reach of ordinary 
high water; benight, to darken, literally 
or figuratively, as of those whom error 
doth benight; beray, to dirty, befoul, cover 
with abuse; berede, to advise, to plan, to 
deliberate; beseem, to appear, to suit in 
appearance, befit, be fitting; beshrew, to 
make or wish evil, to invoke evil upon 
later, mainly an exclamation (Shake- 
speare, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, 1599: 



Marry beshrew my hand, if it should give 
your age such cause of fear; Sir Walter 

Scott, THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH, 1828: Be- 

shrew me if thou passe st this door with 
dry lips!) ; bespall, bespaul, bespawl, to 
spatter with saliva, as some persons when 
they talk, also figuratively, as in Jonson's 
THE POETASTER (1602) : Bespawls The con- 
scious time with humours, foam, and 
brawls; bespreng, to sprinkle (Words- 
worth, AT VALLOMBROSA, 1837: The flower- 
besprent meadows); besprink, besprinkle; 
bespurt, bespurtle, to sully, to smear with 
abuse; bestead, to assist, relieve, be of 
service to (Arthur H. Clough, in MAC- 
MILLAN'S MAGAZINE of August, 1862: Thou 
vain Philosophy! Little hast thou bestead, 
Save to perplex the head; beswink, to 
work hard for; beteem, to think proper, to 
grant, to allow (Shakespeare, A MIDSUM- 
MER NIGHT'S DREAM, 1590: Rain, which I 
could well Beteeme them, from the tem- 
pest of mine eyes; betine (from tine, a 
late form of tind, tinder) , to set on fire; 
bewhapped, utterly amazed, confounded; 
bewray, to speak evil of, to expose (es- 
pecially to reveal bad things, or what one 
wanted to keep hidden) as in Shake- 
speare's CORIOLANUS (1607) : Our raiment 
And state of bodies would bewray what 
life We have led since thy exile. And there 
are many more that buzzed in the Middle 
Ages. 

beadle. A herald; a town-crier; a mace- 
bearer before authority; one that delivers 
or carries out the orders of officials. Used 
from the 10th century; also by del, beadel, 
bedell; still bedel at Oxford and Cam- 
bridge Universities. The word was used 
figuratively, especially with allusion to the 
beadle as bringing punishment; thus in 
Shakespeare's KING JOHN (1595) : Her in- 
jurie the beadle to her sinne. The dignity 
of a beadle was beadlehood; his jurisdic- 



89 



beatilles 



bel- 



tion, beadlery; his office, beadleship; his 
qualities as a class i.e., stupid officious- 
ness as in Dickens* Oliver Twist (1838) 
beadleism, or beadledom. Cousin to 
Tweedledum. Guilpin in SKIALETHEIA 
("Shadow of Truth"; 1598) prefers the 
satire to the amorous ode; even the strict- 
est Plato, he avers, Will of the two affoord 
the satyr e grace, Before the whyning love- 
song shall have place: And by so much his 
night-cap's overawde As a beadle's better 
statesman than a bawde. 

beatilles. Literally little blessed things/ 
from a diminutive of Latin beatus, blessed. 
Also beatilia, beatilla. Originally applied 
to pieces of needlework by nuns, pin- 
cushions, samplers with pious mottos, and 
other knick-knacks. Hence, trinkets, trifles, 
odds and ends finally, odds and ends 
baked in a pie: cocks' combs, sweetbreads, 
giblets in merry mixture. A good cook can 
make such a dish tasty indeed; Disraeli in 
VENETIA (1837) speaks of that masterpiece 
of the culinary art, a grand battalia pie. 

beaver, See bever. 

bebled. The past of bebleed, to cover or 
stain with blood, used almost always in 
the past tense. Used through the 15th cen- 
tury (CaXtOn, CHARLES THE GREAT, 1485.* 

The place was alle by bled) and revived 
in the 19th by Kingsley. Cp. be-. 

bedight. See dight; be-. 

bedstraw (1) The straw, covered by a 
sheet, that formerly constituted the bed- 
ding of a second-best bed and lesser sleep- 
spots. (2) The straw within a mattress; 
hence, a mattress. Chaucer knew the 
danger; he cries in THE MERCHANT'S TALE 
(1386) : O perilous fyr that in the bed- 
straw bredeth! 

bedswerver. A person unfaithful to the 
marriage bed. Shakespeare in THE WINTER'S 



TALE (1611) has Leontes say of Hermione: 
She's a bed-swerver, even as bad as those 
That vulgars give bold'st titles. 

beelc. To bask in the sun, or before a 
fire. The word is probably a mild form of 
bake. Hence beehing, exposure to genial 
warmth. Cockeram (1623) defines apri- 
cation (q.v.) as a beaking in the Sunne. 

beesom. See besom. 
beetle. See bottle. 

begarred. See rochet. Scotch begary (ac- 
cent on the gare) was also a noun, used 
in the 16th century to mean variegated 
facings on a dress. 

behoveful. Useful; expedient; fit; neces- 
sary; due. Also behooveful; byhooful, be- 
hofuly and more. Very common from 1380 
to the 18th century. Shakespeare in ROMEO 
AND JULIET (1595) has: We have culled 
such necessaries As are behooveful for our 
state tomorrow. 

bel-. Also bell-; but see bell-. This prefix, 
via French bel, beautiful, from Latin 
bellus, has entered into many English 
words. Some of those that have slipped 
out of common use are: bellaria, delight- 
ful foods, desserts; bellaview, a fair pros- 
pect; bellibone, a fair maiden (Spenser, 
in THE SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR, 1579, uses 
both this form and its reverse, bonibel) ; 
bellify, to beautify, also hellish, short for 
embellish; bellitude. The word belle was 
once good English, meaning pretty, and 
was employed in various phrases, as in 
Chaucer's THE WIFE OF BATH'S TALE 
(1386) : He that wolde han my bele chose 
[my pretty thing] . . . Congreve in the 

Epilogue to THE WAY OF THE WORLD 

(1698) speaks of Whole belles as- 
semblees of coquettes and beaux; Lady 
Montague in a letter of 1716 refers to the 
belles passions. But spare me a bellicose 



90 



belaccoil 



beme 



belle! Note that the bellarmine, a drink- 
ing-mug of capacious belly and narrow 
neck, took its name (and shape) as a 
Netherlands Protestant satire on Cardinal 
Bellarmine (1542-1621; beatified 1924). 
D'Urfey in PILLS TO PURGE MELANCHOLY 
(1719) listed jugs, mugs, and pitchers, and 
bellarmines of state. 



belaccoil. Friendly greeting. Also bel- 
accoyle. Cp. bel-. Spenser, in THE FAERIE 
QUEENE (1596) her salewed with seemly 
belaccoil,, Joyous to see her safe after long 
toil 

belamour. A loved one, a sweetheart; a 
lover, a mistress. Cp. bel-. Spenser, in THE 
FAERIE QUEENE (1596), said: But as he 
nearer drew, he easily Might scerne that 
it was not his sweetheart sweet, Ne yet his 
belamour, the partner of his sheet. 

belamy. Good friend. Often used (13th 
to 18th century) as a form of address. 
French bel, fair + ami, friend. Also bele 
amys, bellamy. Cp. bel-. Thus in a Towne- 
ley Mystery (1460) we read: Welcom be 
thou, belamy! 

belgard. A kind look, a loving look. 
Italian bel guardo. Spenser uses the word 
in THE FAERIE QUEENE and in his HYMNE 
IN HONOUR OF BEAUTIE (1596): 
Sometimes within her eyelids they unfold 
Ten thousand sweet belgards, which to 
their sight Doe seem like twinckling 
starres in frostie night. 

belive. Speedily, eagerly; at once. As 
blive ^ as quickly as possible. Middle Eng- 
lish bi life, be live, with life (liveliness) . 
The ballad of ROBIN HOOD AND GUY OF 
GISBORNE has: Fast Robin he hied to Little 
John, He thought to loose him blive. 
Surrey (THE AENEID, 1547) : To bring the 
horse to Pallas' temple blive; Spenser (THE 
FAERIE QUEENE, 1596) : And down to 

91 



Pluto's house are come bilive. Later by 
the same process of human procrastina- 
tion as altered presently (which first 
meant at the present moment, immedi- 
ately) belive (in the 17th century) came 
to mean by-and-by. 

bell-. This prefix, from Latin bellum, 
war, has given us a number of English 
words. Bellacity, a spirit of warlikeness, 
is only in the 18th century dictionaries; 
likewise bellatrice, a female warrior, a 
virago. Belliferous, bringing war, is rare; 
and the common belligerent developed a 
dictionary form belli gerate, to wage war. 
Belligerous, full of warlike spirit, is also 
rare; bellicose is more common in the 
same sense; bellatory has dropped out of 
use; bellipotent, mighty in war, is now 
used only to create a pompous effect. Bel- 
Ionian^ warlike, is from Bellona, the Ro- 
man goddess of war; an imposing and 
strong-willed woman might be called a 
Bellona. 

bellarmine. See bel-. 
belle. See bel-. 
belomancy. See aeromancy. 

belswagger. A swaggering bully or gal- 
lant; a pimp. The bel may be from the 
French, but the form bellyswagger also 
appeared. Used from the 16th into the 
18th century. Dryden in THE KIND KEEPER 
(1678) cried: Fifty guineas! Dost thou 
think I'll sell my self f . . . thou impudent 
belswagger. 

belvedere. See gazebo. 

beme. A trumpet. Used from the 8th to 
the 15th century. Figuratively, parade, 
trumpeting; ARTHUR in 1400 spoke of a 
Pater Noster wythout any beeme. Hence, 
as a verb, to trumpet; to trumpet (loudly 
proclaim) a thing; to summon with trum- 
pet-call. 



beneme 



benthal 



beneme. See benim. 

beneurte. Happiness. Beneurous, happy, 
is a 15th century borrowing. French bien- 
heureuK. Used by Caxton, in the GOLDEN 
LEGEND and other 15th century works, as 
the translation (1480) of Ovid's META- 
MORPHOSES: Benewrte and honour laste 
her not longe. 

benevolence. Used since the 15th cen- 
tury for a gift of money, a contribution to 
help the poor. Used by various kings 
first, Edward IV, in 1473 of a forced 
contribution imposed upon their subjects. 
There were, of course, many protests. Lord 
Digby in 1644: so preposterous a name as 
of a benevolence, for that which is a 
malevolence indeed. Pepys in his DIARY, 
31 August, 1661: The benevolence proves 
. . . an occasion of so much discontent 
everywhere, that it had better it had never 
been set up. And in 1775 Chatham 
pointed out in Parliament: The spirit 
which now resists your taxation in America 
is the same which formerly opposed loans, 
benevolences, and shipmoney in England. 

benim. To take away; to rob; to deprive. 
Also beneme; after 1500 usually benum, 
benumb. (Benum, to deprive, added a b 
by analogy with dumb, limb, etc. The 
meaning was gradually limited to depriv- 
ing (a part of the body) of its capacity 
for feeling. Numb is a shortening from 
benumb. Benim was a common word 
from the 10th to the 16th century; Chau- 
cer uses it several times twice in THE 
PARSON'S TALE (1386) : the likeness of the 
devil, and bynymeth man from God . . . 
bynymeth from man his witte. May ours 
be spared! 

benison. Blessing. A shortening of the 
Latin benediction, which is now the usual 
English word. Shakespeare, in KING LEAR 
(1605), refers to the bountie and the 

92 



benizon of heaven. Scott in THE FAIR MAID 
OF PERTH (1828) : / have slept sound 
under such a benison. Back in 1755 Samuel 
Johnson in his DICTIONARY said of benison: 
"not now used, unless luricrously," but 
the word still survives in historical fiction 
and in poetry. Cp. malison. 

benjamin. A short coat worn by men in 
the late 18th and early 19th century. 
Brewer derives it from the name of a 
tailor, but it is more probably a Biblical 
transference, Benjamin being the youngest 
brother of Joseph. An 18th century ladies' 
riding cloak was called a Joseph, from the 
"coat of many colors" in the Bible. Thus 
Goldsmith in THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD 
(1766) pictures Olivia dressed in a green 
Joseph, richly laced with gold, and a whip 
in her hand. Peacock in NIGHTMARE ABBEY 
gives us the younger brother: His heart 
is seen to beat through his upper ben- 
jamin. 

bennet. (1) An old stalk of grass, left 
in late winter and early , spring; eaten 
then by cattle, or the seeds by birds. An 
early form of bent (grass) . (2) An herb 
(often identified as the avens) which the 
middle ages believed drove the devil away; 
hence called (herb) bennet, Old French 
beneite; Latin benedicta, blessed. The 
ORIUS SANITATIS (1486) quotes Platearius: 
'Where the root is in the house the devil 
can do nothing, and flies from it; where- 
fore it is blessed above all other herbs/ 
Urquhart in his translation (1653) of 
Rabelais, ascribes to it another quality: 
Fervency of lust is abated by certain drugs, 
plants, herbs, and roots . . . mandrake, 
Rennet, keckbuglosse. [There is a different 
opinion regarding mandrake; cp. man- 
dr agora.] 

benthal. Relating to (ocean) depths of 
over 1000 fathoms. From Greek benthos, 



benumb 



bested 



deep of the sea; related to bathos, whence 
bathysphere. May also be used figura- 
tively, as when one reveals his benthal 
ignorance. 

benumb. See benim. 

bergamask. A rustic dance. Italian berg- 
amasco, of Bergamo, a province of Venice; 
the dance supposedly mocked its country 
ways. From the same town came the berg- 
amot, a citrus tree and its fruit; also, the 
fragrant oil prepared from the fruit rind. 
There is also a bergamot, an excellent 
variety of pear (Turkish beg-armudi, 
prince pear) . Shakespeare in A MIDSUM- 
MER NIGHT'S DREAM (1590) says Will it 
please you . . . to have a bergomask dance 
. . . Come, your burgomask. Thackeray in 
PENDENNIS (1850) says: A delightful odour 
of musk and bergamot was shaken through 
the house. Among the CRYS OF LONDON 
(BAGFORD BALLADS; 1680) resounded: Do 
you want any damsons or bergume paref 

bergh. See barth. 
berlaken. See byrlakin. 

berne. Before 1400, a warrior; later, a 
poetic word for a man. Sometimes used 
interchangeably with baron. The corre- 
sponding feminine word was burd, lady; 
in poetical use, usually young lady, 
maiden. Frequent in ballads. The term 
burd-alone was used, of either sex, to mean 
all alone. The ballads have Sir Roland 
riding burd-alane, whereas King Henrie 
lay burd-alane. 

berner. See barnard. 

bersatrix. A rocker of cradles; a baby- 
sitter. From French berceau, cradle + trix, 
a feminine ending. Found in Bailey's 
DICTIONARY of 1751, but applicable 200 
years later. 

berwe. A shady place, a grove. Also be- 
rowe. Used from the <Hh to the 15th cen- 



tury; surviving in place-names as bere f 
be ere, bear, ber. 

beshrew. See shrew; be-. 
besmotered. See smotherlich. 

besom. A bundle of rods used for punish- 
ment; a similar bundle used for sweeping, 
a broom; hence, anything used to cleanse 
or purify. A common Teutonic word, with 
variant spellings: besme, besum, beesom, 
bissome, etc. There are references to a 
bessume (1493) of peacock's feathers; to 
a beasome (1697) of laurel; to (1756) a 
birchen beesom. Lyly in EUPHUES (1580) 
says: There is no more difference between 
them, than between a broome and a bee- 
some. Carlyle in THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 
(1837) says: With steel-besom, Rascality 
is brushed back; Tyndall in MOUNTAINEER- 
ING (1862) : Grandly the cloud-besom 
swept the mountains. From its shape, a 
comet has been called (1566) the fyrie 
boosome, (1639) a firie bissome. Which is 
sweeping enough! However, a besom-head 
is a stupid or foolish person. And bee- 
some (though not so listed in O.E.D., 
which gives that form in the quotation 
from Shakespeare here under conspectuity) 
is one form as also bisene, bysome, bisme, 
beasom, bysone of bisson, blind; part 
blind; blinding, as in Shakespeare's HAM- 
LET (1602) with 'the mobled queen' 
threatening the flame With bisson rheume. 

besonio. See bezonian. 

bestad. An old form of the past parti- 
ciple of beset. Also bestadds. Used by 
Spenser in the AUGUST ECLOGUE, THE 
SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR (1579) and in THE 
FAERIE QUEENE: But both attonce on both 
sides him bestad. This is a variant of 
bested, q.v. 

bested. Placed, situated; settled; ar- 
ranged; set with, ornamented. Also, placed 



93 



bestented 



bever 



in a certain situation, hard bested; 
troubled, beset by (earlier, bested with) 
fears, dangers, difficulties. Accent on the 
second syllable; not to be confused with 
bested, accent on the first syllable, past 
participle of best, to overcome, to worst. 
Bested, also bestead, bestad, bestadde, is 
the old past participle of beset. Gower in 
CONFESSIO AMANTIS (1393) : Whan they 
ben glad I shall be glad, And sorry whan 
they ben bestad. Shakespeare in HENRY vi, 
PART TWO (1593) says: / never saw a fellow 
worse bestead. There was also a verb 
(from the 16th century) to bestead, to 
help, to be of service to; to take the place 
of, from be -f- stead, to prop, support, 
whence also steady. At nights, Woodhead 
thought in ST. TERESA (1669) of our 
mantles of thick cloth which many times 
besteaded us. We still say stood us in good 
stead. 

bestented. Distended. In Herrick's HES- 
PERIDES (1648), the poem OBERON'S FEAST 
gives the one literary use of this form (an 
emphatic form of stent, stend, which sur- 
vives in extend and distend] : The sag 
And well bestented bees sweet bag. 

bestiate. To make beastly. Latin bestia, 
beast. Used in the 17th century especially 
of liquor, as by Owen Feltham in RE- 
SOLVES (1628) : Drunkenness . . . bestiates 
even the bravest spirits. The verb was 
sometimes Anglicized to beastiate. Bestiary 
means (1) a fighter of wild beasts in the 
Roman amphitheatre; (2) a moralizing 
treatise, using animals to point lessons, as 
written in the Middle Ages. A bestiarian, 
however, is a friend of the animals, es- 
pecially, in the 19th century, an anti- 
vivisectionist. 

bet. Old form of better, comparative of 
good. For several hundred years both 
forms were used, but by 1600 better had 



supplanted bet. Gower in CONFESSIO AMAN- 
TIS (1393) says: One jousteth well, an- 
other bet. In the frequent expression Go 
bet (Chaucer, THE PARDONER'S TALE, 1386: 
Go bet, quod he, and axe redily what 
cors is this) , bet means quickly. 

betony. A plant, with spiked purple 
flowers, helpful to keep evil spirits from 
the house, but still more efficacious as a 
healer. Hence frequently used in foods. 
Betony is from the Late Latin betonia, 
betonica; Pliny (HISTORIA NATURALIS; 70 
A.D.) called it vettonica, ascribing its dis- 
covery to a Spanish tribe, the Vettones. 
Barbour in ST. BAPTISTA (1375) said: 
Quhare mene makis drink of spycery, Of 
betone thare is gret copy. Cp. copy; 
coltsfoot. 

bevel. Slanty, sloping; hence (figura- 
tively) , away from a straight line or course 
of behavior. Shakespeare in SONNET 121, 
says: / may be straight though they them- 
selves be bevel. 

bever. A drink; time for drinking; a sip 
and a bite between meals, especially in 
the afternoon. In the first sense (from 
Latin bib ere, to drink) the word survives 
in beverage. Marlowe in DOCTOR FAUSTUS 
(1590) speaks of thirty meals a day and 
ten bevers. The word bever was also used 
as a verb, to take a snack; but there was 
another verb of the same form bever, 
from Old English beofian, to tremble, 
meaning to tremble, to quake, and still 
used in north dialects. [Bever was also a 
variant from bavour, baviere, beavoir 
of beaver, originally (in French) a child's 
bib; Old French bave> saliva; but used in 
English for the lower part of a visor, the 
movable face-guard of a helmet. Some- 
times beaver was used for the visor. An 
early movable beaver is pictured on the 
effigy of Thomas, Duke of Clarence, who 
94 



bevue 

was killed in 1421. Shakespeare in HAMLET 
(1602) has Hamlet inquire about the 
ghost: Then saw you not his face? and 
Horatio answer: Oh yes, my lord, he 
wore his beaver up. Hence beaver-sight, 
eye-hole of a helmet. The word beaver is 
sometimes used to imply concealed (down) 
or exposed, revealed (up) as in Hamil- 
ton's query in POPULAR EDUCATION (1845) : 
Why should the author suppress this 
anecdote now that his beaver is upf 
The animal beaver is related to the Old 
Aryan form bhebhou, brown. A visor 
vizor, vysere, vesoure, vysour, etc. was 
originally the upper part of the face 
guard; more frequently, the whole front 
part, so that in use the term was inter- 
changeable with beaver. This word is from 
French vis, face, as in vis-a-vis, face to face; 
but occasionally, as though connected 
with videre, visum, to see (vision), visor 
has been used to mean a hole the visures 
to see through in a beaver. Also visiere, 
vizard; these mainly in other senses: a 
countenance; a mask to conceal the face; 
hence, a false outward show. Spenser in 
THE FAERIE QUEENE (1590) speaks of the 
crafty cunning traine By which deceipt 
doth maske in visour faire.] 

bevue. An error of inadvertence. French 
bes 3 bad + vue, view. Also bevew. Used 
in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Scott 
in his MEMOIRS (Lockhart, 1839) said: 
He will content himself with avoiding 
such bevues in future. Ah, sweet content! 

bezoar. An antidote, a counterpoison. 
Through French, Spanish, and Arabic 
from Persian pad-zahr, counterpoison, 
zahr, poison. The word had many spell- 
ings in English, as besert, bezahar, beazer, 
bazar, bezoard. It was applied particularly 
to a 'stone' (the bezoar-stone) , believed to 
be an antidote, found in the digestive 
organs of ruminant animals, especially the 



bib 

wild goat of Persia, the bezoar-goat. Ed- 
ward Topsell, in THE HISTORIE OF SERPENTS 

(1608) advises: The juice of apples being 
drunk, and endive, are the proper bezoar 
against the venom of a phalangie. The 
Earl of Monmouth, in his translation 

(1637) of Malvezzi's ROMULUS AND TAR- 
QUIN, uses the word figuratively: Valor is 
a kind of besar, which comforts the hearts 
of subjects, that they may the better 
endure a tyrant's venom. In the 17th and 
18th century, the adjective, bezoar die, 
bezoar tic, was sometimes used as a noun 
instead of bezoar. And in 1693 Sir Thomas 
Blount in his NATURAL HISTORY remarked 
that everything good against poysons is 
commonly term'd bezoardical. (Bezoar is 
pronounced in two syllables, with the 
accent on the first.) 

bezonian. A raw recruit. Later, a beggar, 
a rascal. Shakespeare in HENRY vi, PART 
TWO remarks that Great men oft dye by 
vile bezonians. And Massinger, in THE 
MAID OF HONOUR (1632) , speaks of the slut 
who would, for half a mouldy biscuit, sell 
herself to a poor bisognion. The word was 
originally besonio. It is from the Italian 
bisogno, need, want, applied in derision to 
the raw soldiers who came to Italy from 
Spain, in the 15th and 16th centuries, 
without proper equipment or means. 
Robert Johnson, in his translation (1601) 
of Botero's THE WORLD, AN HISTORICALL 
DESCRIPTION, speaks of a base besonio, 
fitter for the spade than the sword. Both 
forms, after a lapse of two centuries, were 
revived in historical novels: Scott in THE 
MONASTERY (1820) : Base and pilfering 
besognios and marauders', Bulwer-Lytton 

in THE LAST OF THE BARONS (1843) : Out 

on ye, cullions and bezonians! 

bib. To drink; to tipple. The word may 
be imitative in origin, or from Latin 
bib ere, to drink probably imitative in 

95 



biblio- 



bifarious 



origin. Also beb. Chaucer says, in THE 
REEVE'S TALE (1386) : This Miller has so 
wisely bebbed ale That as an horse he 
snorteth in his sleep. The word was 
naturally very common, and developed 
many forms: bibitory, relating to drink; 
bibatious, fond of drink: a writer in 
BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE (1834) calls the 
middle class bibacious more than health 
requires; bibacity, bibbery, bibation, bibi- 
tion; a bibber, bibbler, or a biberon; bib- 
bing, also as a compound: ERASER'S MAGA- 
ZINE (1833) speaks of a port-bibbing, gout- 
bemartyred believer in the Tory faith. To 
bibble is to keep on drinking though 
bibble-babble takes its sense from the sec- 
ond part, and means long empty talk. 
Bibesy means a too great desire to drink; 
too many even today are afflicted ith 
bibesy. The verb bib, to drink, survives in 
the form imbibe. Two current nouns were 
formed from it: bib, a fish that distends 
a membrane in its head as though filling 
it with liquid; and bib, the cloth tucked 
under a child's chin when it drinks. This 
bib was also applied to a neck cloth for 
adults, sometimes for protection, some- 
times as adornment. Hence, one's best bib 
and tucker means one's best attire. See 
tucker. There is also a rare form biberage 
(influenced perhaps by beverage; see 
bever) meaning a drink given in payment. 
See bibulate. 

biblio-. See bibliopole. 
bibliomancy. See aeromancy. 

bibliopole. A bookseller. During the 18th 
and 19th centuries many formal or pedan- 
tic terms, from Greek biblion^ book, de- 
veloped in the literary field. Often they 
were used for humorous effect. Among 
these are: bibliodasm, destruction of 
books; bibliodastj destroyer of books; bib- 
liognost, an expert on books; bibliogony, 



96 



production of books; biblioklept, a book 
thief; bibliopegy, the art of book-binding, 
hence bibliopegist; bibliophagist, a de- 
vourer of books, an ardent reader; biblio- 
pyrate, a burner of books; bibliopoly, bib- 
liopolery, bookselling; bibliotaph, one who 
'buries* books by keeping them locked 
away. The still current bibliophile was 
contrasted with the bibliophobe but had 
its excess in the bibliomane. At which I 
(looking at my book-shelves) pause. 

bibulate. To tipple; a humorous diminu- 
tive from Latin bib ere, to drink, whence 
also imbibe; see bib. Used in the 18th and 
19th centuries. BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE 
(1828) tells of persons who bibulate gin 
and water with the housekeeper. ST. 
JAMES'S GAZETTE of April 12, 1882, speaks 
of the extraordinary capacity for bibula- 
tion displayed by the regular soldier. The 
word bibulous was more frequently used; 
it meant both fond of drinking and (tech- 
nically) able to absorb moisture; Cowper 
in his translation (1790) of the ODYSSEY 
speaks of bibulous sponges. 

bicipital. Having two heads. In current 
anatomical use, as of a muscle ( the bi- 
ceps) , but applicable also to a committee 
with co-chairmen or a party with two 
leaders, or Siamese twins. 

bidale. A party (ale-drinking) to which 
all the neighbors were bid, when, as 
Blount explained in 1656, "an honest man 
decayed in his estate is set up again by 
the liberal benevolence and contribution 
of friends at a feast." Bidales were for- 
bidden in Wales by a law (1534) of King 
Henry VIII, and later in England by the 
Puritans. The practice, nevertheless if 
not the word survives. 

bifarious. Ambiguous, capable of being 
interpreted in two ways; taking a dual 
stand, so as to be accepted according to 



bigama 

the liking of each listener. The even more 
plural multifarious has survived. E. Ward 
in HUDIBRAS REDIVIVUS (1707) spoke of 
Some strange, mysterious verity In old 
bifarious prophesy. Sir Roger de Coverley 
frequently observed: "There is much to 
be said on both sides." 

bigama. A woman living in bigamy. Also 
bigame, applied to a bigamous man or 
woman. A 15th and 16th century term, 
apparently no longer needed. 

Big-endian. See cynarctomachy. 

bigenerous. Hybrid; with characteristics 
of two genera. Nature has been generous. 
Guillim in his book on HERALDRY (1610) 
wrote of a bigenerous beast of unkindly 
procreation. 

biggen. To recover weight and strength 
after illness; especially, one's strength after 
pregnancy; to grow big; to make big. 
Shakespeare uses the word as a noun, in 
the sense of a cloth wound round the 
head at night, as a comforting night head- 
dress, in HENRY iv, PART TWO (1598) as 
Prince Henry looks upon his father asleep 
with his crown on his pillow: Sleep with it 
now! Yet not so sound and half so deeply 
sweet As he whose brow with homely 
biggen bound Snores out the watch of 
night. (Quite a phenomenon, a snoring 
brow!) 

bigote. The moustache. In Mabbe's trans- 
lation (1623) of Aleman's GUZMAN DE 
ALFARACHE we read: It seeming perhaps 
unto them that . . . the bearing their 
bigotes high, turn'd up with hot yrons 
. . . should be their salvation and bring 
them to heaven. The word is Spanish, ap- 
parently unconnected with bigot. 

bilbo. (1) A sword, of fine temper and 
elastic blade. Used by Shakespeare (THE 
MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, 1598) and other 

97 



billingsgate 

Tudor writers; revived by Sir Walter 
Scott, in WOODSTOCK. (1826) : My tough 
old knight and you were at drawn bilbo. 
Also transferred to the man who wears 
a sword, as by Shakespeare (again in THE 
MERRY WIVES) : / combat challenge of this 
latin bilboe. (2) A long iron bar, with 
shackles for the ankles of prisoners, and 
a lock to fasten one end to the floor or 
ground. Shakespeare uses this sense in 
HAMLET. Both words are supposed to 
come from the city Bilbao (which the 
English called Bilboa) in Spain, a center 
of sword-making. The bars were sup- 
posedly shipped on the Spanish Armada 
(1588) , to fetter the English prisoners; 
but the word, and the instrument, appear 
at least as early as 1557. From bilbo, 
sword, came the expression bilbo-lord, 
a swaggerer, a bully. 

biliment. See billyment. 
bill. See glaive. 

billingsgate. Scurrilous and violent abuse. 
By the 16th century Billings Gate, Lon- 
don, brought inevitably to mind the foul- 
mouthed workers (women as well as men) 
in the fish-market there, and by the mid- 
nth century the name of the gate was 
being used for the language there spoken. 
The Third Earl of Shaf tesbury, in CHARAC- 
TERISTICKS (1710) speaks of philosophers 
and divines who can be contented to . . . 
write in learned billingsgate. The word is 
quiescent, but the practice still is loud. 
Bailey (1751) defines a billingsgate as 
"a scolding impudent slut." THE PRESENT 
STATE OF RUSSIA (1671) stated: // you 
would please a Russian with musick, get 
a consort of billingsgate nightingales, 
which, joyn'd with a flight of screech owls, 
a nest of jackdaws, a pack of hungry 
wolves, seven hogs in a windy day, and 
as many cats with their corrivals . . . 



billyment 

billyment. A variant form of biliment, 
itself short for habiliment , garment. Via 
French habiller, to clothe, make fit, from 
Latin habilis, fit, able, suitable, from the 
root hab, to have. Usually in the plural, 
billyments, garments, clothing. 

bilynne. See blin. 

bimana. Two-handed animals; men. 
From Latin "hi-, two + manus, hand. One 
of the bimanous (or bimanal) tribe is a 
bimane. This is a late 18th and 19th cen- 
tury pedantic way (used first by Buffon 
and Cuvier, in their natural histories) of 
referring to the highest order of mam- 
malia, of which man is the only known 
species. 

birdsnie. My sweet one; a term of en- 
dearment. Used in 17th century plays. 
The nie (also birdsnye) means eye; old 
myn eye became my nye. R. Davenport in 
THE CITY NIGHT-CAP (1661) cried Oh, my 
sweet birds-nie! What a wench have I of 
thee! 

birthdom. Inheritance, birthright. So in 
the O.E.D. In his notes to Shakespeare's 
MACBETH (1605), however, G. B. Harri- 
son defines the word as meaning native 
land. Macduff is speaking, fled to Eng- 
land from Scotland and Macbeth's sav- 
agery: Let us rather Hold fast the mortal 
sword, and like good men Bestride our 
downfall'n birthdome. 

biscot. Three words have taken this form. 
(1) A fine exacted in the 16th and 17th 
centuries, from landowners who failed to 
repair ditches, marsh banks, etc. The first 
syllable may be Old English by, borough, 
which survives in by-law and such names 
as Derby, The second is Old English scot, 
contribution, payment, which survives in 
the expression scot free. The sc was also 
pronounced like sh, whence to pay one's 

98 



bissextile 

shot and (slang) the whole shoot, some- 
times expanded, in mistake of its origin, 
to the whole shooting-match. Also, to pay 
scot and lot (shot and lot) , to pay 
thoroughly, to settle with; Shakespeare 
puns on this in HENRY iv, PART ONE 
(1597) : Or that hot termagant Scot had 
paid me scot and lot too. (2) To caress. 
From French biscoter, this is used in Ur- 
quhart's translation (1653) of Rabelais: 
Wheresoever they should biscot and thrum 
their wenches. (3) Biscuit. Also, a small 
one, bis co tin. From the 16th to the 18th 
century the preferred spelling was bisket; 
then in imitation of modern French the 
spelling was changed to biscuit but the 
sound was kept the same. The Latin form 
would be biscoctum panem, twice-cooked 
bread. 

bismer. Shame; mockery, scorn. Old High 
German bismer, ridicule, from bi, by + 
smier, smile. Also bismer e, bysmer, bismor, 
busmar, busmeyr, and the like. Bismer is 
also a verb, to mock; and from 1300 to 
1550 was applied to a person worthy of 
scorn. From the time of King Alfred 
(about 890) to the mid-1 6th century, the 
word was used, e.g. Chaucer, THE REEVE'S 
TALE (1386) As ful of hokir and of bis- 
semare. (Hokir, contempt, abuse.) 

bismotered. See smotherlich. 

bissextile. Leap year, the year contain- 
ing the bissext. Also bisext, bisex, bysext. 
Latin bis, twice + sextus, sixth. The cal- 
endar as improved under Julius Caesar 
created 'leap year/ by adding a day in 
February. This was inserted after Feb- 
ruary 24, the sixth day before the calends 
of March which day was counted twice, 
making it bissextile (in English, both ad- 
jective and noun) . Tomlinson (1854) 
pointed out a refinement of the Julian 
calendar: Thus 1600 was bissextile, 1700 
and 1800 were not so. Mrs. Somerville 



bisson 



blaze 



had observed, a score of years earlier, that 
if in addition to this, a bissextile be sup- 
pressed every 4000 years, the length of the 
year will be nearly equal to that given by 
observation. That is one act of suppression 
we must remember and be ready to 
perform. 

bisson. See besom. Perhaps from bi- 
seonde; bi, by, near at hand 4- seonde, 
seeing. 

black acre. A name used in court, to dis- 
tinguish one plot of ground from another: 
black acre; white acre; green acre some- 
what like "party of the first part" etc. The 
colors were perhaps originally chosen from 
various crops. After a time, to black-acre 
meant to litigate over land; in Wycherley's 
THE PLAIN DEALER (1677) the litigious 
widow is Mrs. Blackacre; her son Jerry 
Blackacre is so well trained by her in court 
procedure that he wins all of her land. 

bladarius. A dealer in grain. Found only 
in the dictionaries (Bailey, 1751) . Blaed 
was Old English, from a common Teuton 
form, for blade (of grass, as opposed to 
leaf) though influenced by Latin bla- 
dum, Old French bled> corn, wheat. By 
the llth century blade was transferred 
from plants to the broad flat part of an 
oar, a spade and the like; and by the 
14th, to the blade of a knife and a sword. 

blake. Pale. As a verb, to make or to 
become pale. This is from a common 
Teuton word blikan, shine, but in Old 
English it lost the sense of white from 
shining light, and came to mean white 
from lack of color pale. Hence it was 
often confused, in form then in meaning, 
with that other word for absence of color, 
black. Figuratively (as listed by Bailey, 
1751) blake also meant skin-white, i.e., 
naked. In various parts of England, the 
word took different hues, as ash-colored, 

99 



pale yellow ("as blake as butter") , whence 
also blakes came to mean cow dung dried 
for fuel. 

bias. (1) A blast, breath. A common 
Teuton term; Old Norse blasa, to blow. 
Used 10th through 14th centuries. (2) 
The supposed twofold motion of the stars, 
producing changes in terrestrial weather. 
The term bias was invented for this by 
Van Helmont (about 1640) ; he also in- 
vented the longer-lived word gas. 

blate. (1) Pale; bashful; backward. Used 
from Old English through the 17th cen- 
tury, surviving in dialect. Scott tried to 
revive the word in QUENTIN DURWARD 

(1823) : You are not blate you will 
never lose fair lady for faint heart. (2) 
To babble, to prate. Pepys in his DIARY 

(1666) entered: He blates to me what 
has passed between other people and him. 
Loud talk and empty chatter being what 
they are, other words developed: blater- 
ate t to babble; blateration; blateroon, a 
foolish talker. Also blather; blether; 
bletherskate; blatherskite, a noisy talker 
of nonsense. This word became common 
in the United States from the lines Jog 
on your gaitj ye bletherskate in MAGGIE 
LAUDER (1650) , which was a favorite song 
in the American Revolution. Burns, in 
TAM o' SHANTER (1790) speaks of A bleth- 
erin, blusterinj drunken blellum. Even 
Coleridge (1834) was annoyed by blether- 
ing, though he did not go so far (Ameri- 
can-wise) as to call the offender a bleth- 
ering idiot! 

blaze. A variant form of blazon, to pub- 
lish forth. Spenser begins his song to 
Queen Elizabeth, in the April Eclogue of 
THE SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR (1579) : Ye 
dayntye nymphes, that in this blessed 
brooke Do bathe your brest, Forsake your 
watry bowresj and hether looke, At my 



bleb 



blonk 



request: And eke you virgins that on 
Parnasse dwell, Whence floweth Helicon 
the learned well, Helpe me to blaze Her 
worthy praise, Which in her sexe doth all 
excell. 

bleb. A bubble of air, as in water or 
glass. Also blebb. An imitative word, mak- 
ing a bubble with the lips, like bubble, 
blob, blubber, blobber, etc. Also used as 
a verb, as in Clare's THE VILLAGE MINSTREL 
(1821) : While big drops . . . bleb the 
withering hay with pearly gems. 

blee. Color, hue; complexion. Also blio, 
bleo, bio, ble, bleye. (Note that this word 
is not related to Anglo Saxon blae, blue.) 
Used only poetically in Middle English; 
obsolete before Shakespeare, but frequent 
in early ballads and metrical romances, 
whence it was revived by 19th century- 
poets, as Elizabeth Barrett Browning 
(1850) : The captain, young Lord Leigh, 
With his eyes so grey of blee. 

bleo. See blee. 

blete. Naked, bare. Also bleat. From the 
10th to the 14th century. 

blethe. Timid, lacking in spirit. Also 
bleath. From the 10th to the 14th cen- 
tury. 

blether. See blate. 

bletonism. Divining; indicating "by sen- 
sation" the location of subterraneous 
springs. Derived from a Mr. Bleton who, 
according to the MONTHLY MAGAZINE of 
1821 "for some years past has excited uni- 
versal attention by his possessing the above 
faculty." A bletonist, bletonite, a prac- 
titioner with the divining-rod whose most 
effective instrument was (naturally) of 
witch-hazel. 

blin. From the prefix be, off and the 
common Teutonic linnam, to cease; used 



in English in the senses to stop, to stay, 
and to stay silent. Used by Chaucer and 
Spenser, who in THE FAERIE QUEENE says 
Nathemore . . . Did th f other two their 
cruel vengeance blin. It also appeared as 
bilynne, etc. It was a frequent word from 
about 950 to about 1600, and would make 
a better exclamation than, say, "Cut it 
out!" Blin! 

blissom. In heat. As a verb, to couple; 
used 16th through 18th century of a ram 
and a ewe. Hence, to be lustful, to go 
ablissoming. 

blithemeat. A party or feast at the birth 
of a child. From blithe, merry. A term of 
the 17th and 18th centuries, blithemeat 
lingers in Scotland. In China, the feast is 
held at the next new moon. In the United 
States, the happy father hands out cigars. 

blive. See belive. 

bio. See blue (blueman) . 

Woman. A black man, Negro. See blue 
(blueman) . Wright's DICTIONARY OF OB- 
SOLETE ENGLISH (1849) lists bloman: a 
trumpeter. There are no instances of this 
use. 

blomanger. An early English dish. It 
can be made with capon, or other fowl. 
Let us note, from Warner's ANTIQUITATES 
CULINARIAE (1791) the recipe for a bio- 
manger of fish: Tak a pound of rys, les 
hem wel and wasch, and seth tyl they 
breste; and let hem kele; and do thereto 
mylk of to pound of almandys; nym the 
perche, or the lopuster, and boyle yt, and 
kest sugur and salt also thereto, and serve 
yt forth. 

blonk. A steed, a war-horse. Also blanka, 
blank, blonke; Old High German blanch, 
white. Used from Beowulf to the 16th 
century; a poetic term. 



100 



blore 



blue 



blore. A violent blowing or blast. A 
favorite word of Chapman's; in his transla- 
tion (1598) of THE ILIAD: The west wind 
and the north . . . join in a sudden blore. 
Sometimes used to mean the air: Chap- 
man's THE ODYSSEY (1614) : Vanish* d again 
into the open blore. Johnson's DICTIONARY 
(1775) calls it "an expressive word, but 
not used"; it has, however, lingered in 
poetry. There is also a verb blore, surviv- 
ing in dialects, meaning to cry, to bellow. 
Both are probably imitative o sounds. 

blowen. A wench; a prostitute. Also 
blowing. The O.E.D. gives all its examples 
in the 19th century; but Shad well in THE 
SQUIRE OF ALSATIA (1688) has Cheatly 
remark to the booby country fellow he 
is trying to gull: What ogling there will 
be between thee and the blowings! Old 
staring at thy equipage! And every but- 
tock shall fall down before thee! 

blowess. A variant of blowze, q.v. Bishop 
Hall in his first SATIRE (1597) wrote: Nor 
ladies wanton love, nor wandring knight, 
Legend I out in rymes all richly dight . . . 
Nor list I sonnet of my mistresse face, To 
paint some blowesse with a borrowed 
grace . . . Nor can I crouch, and writhe 
my fauning tayle To some great patron, 
for my best availe. Such hunger-staruen 
trencher-poetry, Or let it never live, or 
timely die. 

blowze. A beggar's wench, a trull. Bur- 
ton in THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY 

(1621) says: / had rather marry a fair 
one, and put it to the hazard, than be 
troubled with a blowze. Bailey (1751) 
defines a blowze as "a fat, red-fac'd, bio ted 
wench, or one whose head is dressed like 
a slattern." Shakespeare declares, in TITUS 
ANDRONICUS (1588) : Sweet blowse, you are 
a beautious blossome sure. Hence also 
blowze d, blowzing, blowzy. Occasionally 



the word has a pleasant savour, as when 
Tennyson in THE PRINCESS (1847) speaks 
of Huge women blowzed with health and 
wind and rain And labour. 

blue. This color word was very popular 
in compounds and phrases. Thus blue 
apron, a tradesman; hence, blue-apron 
statesman, a tradesman who interferes in 
politics, blue beans, bullets (of lead) ; 
blue-beat, to beat black and blue, blue 
blanket, the sky. blue blood, (one of) 
aristocratic heritage, from the Spanish idea 
that the veins of aristocratic families show 
through the skin a 'truer blue' than those 
of commoners, blue bonnet, also blue cap, 
a Scotsman. To burn blue, of a candle, to 
burn without red or yellow light: an omen 
of death, or sign of the presence of ghosts 
or the Devil. Shakespeare in RICHARD m 
(1594) says: The lights burne blew! blue 
bottle, a beadle; also a policeman. Shake- 
speare in HENRY iv, PART TWO says to a 
beadle: / will have you as soundly swindg'd 
for this, you blue-bottle rogue. Also blue 
coat, as in the American boy's taunt: 
Brass button, blue coat, Couldn't catch a 
nanny-goat! But blue coat likewise (Shake- 
speare, Dekker) , being then the garb of 
lower servants and charity folk, was used 
to mean a beggar, an almsman, blue- 
dahlia, a rarity or most unlikely thing. 
blue devil, an evil demon; in the plural, 
blue devils, despondency, also the blues. 
Byron in DON JUAN (1823) declares: 
Though six days smoothly run, The sev- 
enth will bring blue devils or a dun. Also, 
the horrid sights in delirium tremens. 
blue fire, a stage light for eerie effects; 
hence (19th century) sensational, as; 
blue-fire melodrama, blue funk, a spell of 
fright, nervous dread, blue gown; in Scot- 
land, a licensed beggar; in England (17th 
century) a harlot; especially one in prison 
(where a blue gown marked her shame) . 



101 



blushet 



bobance 



blueman, also bloman, blamon, a Negro. 
From the 13th to the 17th century, bio 
was used for blue, bluish black, lead 
colored, blue hen, in the expression Your 
mother must have been a blue hen, a 
reproof given to a braggart, from the say- 
ing, No cock is game unless its mother 
was a blue hen. To shout blue murder, 
to cry out more from fear than because 
of actual danger, blue ruin, a bad quality 
of gin; gin. blue story, an obscene or 
pornographic story, [In French, conte bleu 
is an old wives' tale; a lascivious or ob- 
scene story is conte gras.] Other blue com- 
pounds, like bluebeard, blue stocking, 
blue ribbon, remain well known. Cp. red. 

blushet. A shy maiden; a modest girl 
(literally, little blusher). Jonson in THE 
STAPLE OF NEWS (1625) Though mistress 
Band would speak, or little blushet Wax 
be ne'er so easy, Jonson, who likes the 
word (and why not?) seems to be the 
only one that has used it. 

bly. Likeness; aspect; character. Sur- 
vives in dialects: I see a bly of your father 
about you. 

boanerges. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. 
MARK tells us that "Simon he surnamed 
Peter"; James and John, he surnamed 
them Boanerges, which is, The sons of 
thunder. As they became preachers, the 
word boanerges (four syllables; used as a 
singular noun) was applied to a loud or 
fiery preacher. It was also used figuratively; 
R. S. Hawker, in CORNISH BALLADS (1869) 
has: Loud laughed the listening surges . . . 
You might call them Boanerges From the 
thunder of their wave. Hence also boan- 
ergism, boanergy, for loud oratory or 
vehement denunciation. 

boanthropy. "Man into ox": a madness 
in which a man imagines himself an ox, 



as was prophesied and fulfilled of Nebu- 
chadnezzar in the BOOK OF DANIEL in the 
BIBLE. Also figuratively, as when a man 
becomes obstinate, stolid, stupid, or de- 
velops other unpleasant ways we can foist 
upon the patient ox. 

bob. Among the forgotten meanings of 
bob are: a bunch of flowers; an orna- 
mental pendant; an ear-drop; Goldsmith 
in SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER (1773) : My 
cousin Con's necklaces, bobs and all. In 
the 17th century, bobbed hair, a bob, 
meant hair drawn into a bunch in the 
back, or with a bunched or tassel-like 
curl; also, a man's wig so made. Thus, 
bob-wig, bob-peruke. The refrain of a 
song: to bear the bob, join in the chorus; 
Lestrange in his FABLES (1692) : To bed, 
to bed, will be the bob of the song. A 
trick, befoolment; to give the bob, to fool, 
mock, impose upon. A blow with the fist; 
a sharp rap; hence, a rap with the tongue, 
a rebuke this sense combined with the 
one before, to develop the meaning, a 
taunt, scoff, bitter jibe; thus Shakespeare 
in AS YOU LIKE IT (1600) : He that a foole 
doth very wisely hit, Doth very foolishly, 
although he smart, Seeme senselesse of 
the bob. Hence also the verb, as in Shake- 
speare's OTHELLO: Gold, and Jewels, that 
I bob'd from him. To bob off, to get rid 
of fraudulently. Also blind-bob, an early 
name for the game of blind-man's buff. 

bobadil. A blustering braggart, a swag- 
gering pretender to prowess. From the 
character Bobadil, in Jonson's EVERY MAN 
IN HIS HUMOUR (1598) . Hence also bobadi- 
lian, bobadilish; bobadilism. Carlyle in 

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1837) Speaks of 

that bobadilian method of contest. 

bobance. Pride; pomp; boasting. Also 
boban, bobanh In the plural, bobances, 
"pomps and vanities." Chaucer in THE 



102 



bodement 

WIFE OF BATH'S PROLOGUE (1386) has: 
Certeinly I sey -for no bobance Yet was 
I never e withouten purueiance Of manage. 

bodement. An omen; a presentiment; an 
announcement; from the 16th century. 
From the 14th century bode was used in 
the same sense; Chaucer in THE PARLEMENT 
OF FOULES (1374) mentions The owl 
eke, that of death the bode bringeth. Old 
English bod, related to bid; the earliest 
meaning of bode (10th century) was 
command; then message, tidings. But 
note also bide, abode; in the 14th, 15th, 
and 16th centuries, bode was used to mean 
a tarrying, waiting, delay. But bode, with- 
out delay. The first sense of the verb to 
bode was to announce, to teach; then, to 
proclaim; to command; to announce be- 
forehand; to foretell, to portend. In 
Shakespeare's MACBETH (1605) when Mac- 
beth is told that he is safe until Birnam 
forest come to Dunsinane, he exclaims: 
Sweet boadments, good! 

bodkin. Originally, a short pointed dag- 
ger. So in Chaucer, and in Hamlet's 
soliloquy: He himself might his quietus 
make with a bare bodkin. Then used of 
similarly shaped instruments, for piercing 
holes in cloth, for fastening up or friz- 
zling ladies' hair, etc. A bodkinbeard is 
one dagger-shaped. A bodkin is also a 
person squeezed between two others with- 
out proper room; hence, to ride bodkin, 
to sit bodkin; Thackeray in VANITY FAIR 
(1848) protests: He's too big to travel 
bodkin between you and me. The verb 
bodkin thence meant to squeeze in. The 
exclamation Ods bodkins!, however, is a 
corruption of God's bodikin, little body. 

boeotian. A stupid fellow, blockhead, 
Gothamite. See Gotham. Boeotia was a 
region of ancient Greece proverbial for 
the stupidity of the natives. Hence boeo- 



bonabace 

tize, to behave like a fool; boeotic. 
Boeotian is also used as an adjective, 
stupid; it is pronounced Bee-ocean. Lock- 
hart in VALERIUS (1821) spoke of an op- 
portunity which I should have been a 
boeotian indeed had I neglected. Byron, 

in ENGLISH BARDS AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS 

(1809) : To be misled By Jeffrey's heart, 
or Lambe's boeotian head. 

boggard. A jakes, privy. Also boghouse, 
bogshop. From bog (never in literary use), 
'to exonerate the bowels,' says the O.E.D.; 
to defile with excrement. "Martinus Scrib- 
lerus" in 1714 said: He cast them all into 
a bog-house near St. James'. 

boist. A box, especially for ointment; a 
cupping-glass. Hence, to boist, to cup. Via 
Old French boiste, box (modern boite) 
from Greek pyxis, box. Also, later (like 
the French word) , used in slang to mean a 
rude hut, a "joint." 

boistous. Rough, rude; coarse; vigorous; 
roughly violent. From the 13th century; 
a common word, appearing in many 
forms, such as boysteous, buystaus, buste- 
ous, bustwys, boisteous, boystuous, which 
by the 16th century were mainly gathered 
into boisterous. Hence also boistousness, 
boistness, and (a rare 17th century form) 
boisture. Surrey in a song of 1538 said: 
/ call to minde the navie great That the 
Grekes brought to Troye town: And how 
the boysteous windes did beate Their 
ships, and rent their sayles adown, Till 
Agammemnons daughters blood Appeasde 
the goddes that them withstood. Euripides 
tells the story of the daughter's sacrifice 

in IPHIGENIA AT AULIS. 

bombace. Raw cotton; cotton wadding; 
hence stuffing, padding. Also bombage, 
bombase, bumbasie, bombasie, bombasine, 
bombazeen, bombazine. The verb bom- 
base^ to stuff with cotton-wool, to pad 



103 



bombard 



bonaroba 



Gascoigne in A VOYAGE TO HOLLAND (1572); 
They march bumbast with buttered beer 
(originally accented on the second syl- 
lable; so in Byron; later, on the first) 
developed in the late 16th century the 
still current sense of the noun bombast, 
inflated language. It has been (errone- 
ously) suggested that this later use of the 
word sprang from the name and manner 
of Paracelsus (1493-1541), whose full 
name was Philippus Aureolus Theo- 
phrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim. 
Which is bombastic enough! 

bombard. The earliest type of cannon. 
Also bumbard, boumbard. It was intro- 
duced in the late 14th century, but did 
not prove effective. It was usually loaded 
with a stone, weighing sometimes 200 
pounds. Also, from the shape, a leather 
jug for liquor; hence, a heavy drinker 
(1 7th century) . Also, from the sound, a 
deep-toned wooden musical instrument, 
like a bassoon; bombardo. A bombard- 
man was a pot-boy, bartender; a bombard- 
phrase was a loud-sounding utterance, in- 
flated language. Shakespeare mentions the 
drinking jug in THE TEMPEST and in HENRY 
iv, PART ONE (1596) : that huge bombard 
of sacke. Thomas Heywood in PHILOCO- 

THONISTA, OR THE DRUNKARD OPENED, DIS- 
SECTED AND ANATOMIZED (1635) Spoke of 

the great black jacks and bombards at the 
Court, which, when the Frenchmen first 
saw, they reported . . . that the English- 
men used to drink out of their bootes. 
(Champagne from milady's slipper?) 
Jonson in his translation (1640) of 
Horace's THE ART OF POETRY said: They 
. . . must throw by Their bombard phrase, 
and foot and half-foot words. Also cp. 
sesquipedalian. 

bombast. See bombace. 



bombazine. See bombace. 



bombilate. To hum, to buzz. Derived 
by error from Latin bombitatio, bombila- 
tion. Also bombinate, bombination, as in 
Rabelais' riddle of the bombinating chi- 
maera. (Rabelais, ridiculing the over-re- 
fined subtleties of the Schoolmen, posed 
"the most subtle question, whether a 
chimaera bombinating in a vacuum could 
eat up second intentions.") 

bombycinous. Silken; pale yellow. Greek 
bombyx, silk-worm. 

bomination. Short for abomination; used 
as an adjective, execrable, abominable. 
Nashe in HAY [Have Ye] ANY WORK FOR 
COOPER (1589) , the title playing on the 
name of Thomas Cooper, Bishop of Win- 
chester, whom he was attacking in the 
Martin Marprelate controversy, protests 
that he was misunderstood: Non would be 
so groshead as to gather, because my rever- 
ence telleth Dean John that he shall have 
twenty fists about his eares more then his 
owne (whereby I meant in deede that 
manye would write against him by reason 
of his bomination learning, which other- 
wise never ment to take pen hand) that 
I threatned him with blowes and to deale 
by Stafford law. [Stafford law is a play on 
English place names; law of the staff, i.e., 
the use of force; as they might say / am 
going to Bedfordshire, meaning to bed.] 

bombylious. Buzzing, humming. Greek 
bombylios, a buzzing insect. Cp. bombilate. 

bonaroba. A showy wanton. From Italian 
buona, good + roba, gown, stuff. Shake- 
speare has, in HENRY iv, PART TWO (1597) : 
We knew where the bonarobas were, and 
had the best of them all at commandment. 
Scott revived the word, in THE FORTUNES 
OF NIGEL (1822) : Your lordship is for a 
frolic into Alsatia? . . . There are bona- 
robas to be found there. [Alsatia was the 



104 



bongrace 

cant name of the section of London under 
the White Friars; hence, a sanctuary for 
debtors and law-breakers; thence, a haunt 
of prostitutes and criminals.] 

bongrace. A protection. From the French: 
bonne,, good + grace, grace. Specifically, 
a shade hanging from a woman's bonnet 
to protect her face from the sun and, 
later, a broad-brimmed hat for the same 
purpose. A commentator of 1617 speaks of 
bonegraces, now altogether out of use with 
us. The word was also used figuratively, 
as by Thomas Heywood in TROIA BRITAN- 
ICA (1609) : A grove through which the 
lake doth run, Making his boughs a bon- 
grace from the sun. Sir Walter Scott re- 
vived the word in GUY MANNERING (1815) . 
On the sea, a frame of old rope etc. hung 
over a ship to protect it "from damage of 
great flakes of ice" (Bailey, 1751) and 
other encounterings was also called a 
bongrace. 

bonibel. See bel-. 

bonism. See malism. This 'best of all 
possible' worlds. 

bookholder. A prompter in a theatre. 
Used in the 16th and 17th centuries. 
Nothing like the current bookkeeper or 
bookmaker. 

boot. See bote. 

boots-and-shoes. See pattens-and-clogs. 

booze. See bouse. 

bopeeper. A mask. Behind it, one plays 
bo-peep. Bo-peep is often used figura- 
tively: to play bo-peep with one's credi- 
tors, with one's fancies, with the Al- 
mighty. 

bora. See borasco. 

borable. That may be bored (physically 
or mentally) . Also boreable. Listed by 



borborygmite 

Johnson (1755), who ought to have 
known. Hence, sophisticate. 

borachio. A large leather bottle for wine, 
especially as used in Spain. From Spanish 
borracha, wine bag; borracho, drunkard. 
Also used in English for a man who is a 
'wine bag'; in Shakespeare's MUCH ADO 
ABOUT NOTHING (1599) there is a character 
named Borachio. Greene's MAMILLIA, A 

LOOKING GLASSE FOR THE LADIES OF ENG- 
LAND (1594) uses the word figuratively: 
a borachio of kisses. Bailey's DICTIONARY 
(1751) reminds us that borachios are the 
bottles we are warned against in the SCRIP- 
TURES, MARK: "And no man putteth new 
wine into old bottles: else the new wine 
doth burst the bottles." 

boraginaceous. See bu gloss. Borage was 
used in cookery; see eowte. 

borametz. "A strange plant in Scythia, 
like a lamb, which consumes the grass 
round about it." So says Bailey's DICTION- 
ARY (1751) . When all the grass is gone, 
the plant dies. There are many barren 
stretches in Scythia. 

borasco. A violent squall. Via French 
from Catalan borrasca, Italian burasca, the 
intensive of bora, a severe north wind in 
the Upper Adriatic, from Latin Boreas, 
god of the winds. Both bora and borasco 
(also borasque, burrasca) were taken into 
English in the 17th century and used into 
the 19th. 

borborygmite. A filthy fellow, especially 
in talk. Borborygm, from Greek borboryg- 
mos, rumbling in the bowels, is still a 
medical term. A borborite (Greek borbo- 
ros, filth) was a nickname of some early 
heretics; used in the 16th and 17th cen- 
turies meaning one who holds filthy or 
immoral doctrines (applied, e.g., to the 
Mennonites) . Borborology is filthy talk; 



105 



bordar 

Shun obscene borborology and filthy 
speeches, said John Trapp in a COM- 
MENTARY ON THE EPISTLES (1649) . 

bordar. A peasant (villein) of the lowest 
rank in the feudal system. He held a cot- 
tage, for which he did menial work (see 
b or diode] at his lord's pleasure. THE 
DOMESDAY BOOK (1087) used the Latin 
plural form bordarii. Land such a person 
was permitted to till was called bordland; 
he held it in bordage. The word bordage 
also meant the services he owed, which 
might include, besides drawing wood, 
drawing water, threshing, grinding corn 
and the like. 

bordel. A house of prostitution; also, the 
act there perpetrated. Toone's GLOSSARY 
of 1834 suggests bordel may be from 
French bord, edge + d'eau, of the water, 
as the river shore was the most convenient 
place for such a house, witness "the stews 
at the bankside," and Dekker in THE 
GULL'S HORNBOOK. (1609) suggests that the 
gallant take a house along the Thames, to 
ship his cockatrice away betimes in the 
morning. But bordel in Saxon and Old 
French meant a cottage, "which growing 
out of repute by being made common ale- 
houses and harbours for lewd women," 
Toone admits, gave their name to the 
brothel. Brothel originally meant a good- 
for-nothing, a wretch, then a prostitute; 
a brothel's house was shortened to brothel; 
confused with bordel, it lost its meaning of 
wretch, and came to be used instead of 
bordel. Brothel is a variant of earlier 
brethel, wretch; the verb, brethe, to go 
to ruin. They are from Old English 
brerthan, to go to ruin, brothen, ruined. 
Sometimes the Italian form bordello was 
used (Jonson, 1598; Milton, 1642). Also 
bordeler, a keeper or frequenter of a 
bordel\ bordelry. Chaucer, in THE PER- 
SONES TALE (1386) speaks of harlottis, 



botargo 

that haunten bordels; Carlyle, in LATTER- 
DAY PAMPHLETS (1850) said that this 
universe . . . was a cookery-shop and 
bordel. 

bordlode. A service required of the 
bordar (q.v.) by the feudal lord: carrying 
timber out of the lord's wood to the 
lord's house. 

borreL See bur el 

boscage. Woodland; sylvan scenery; es- 
pecially, a picture of wooded land; a 
decorative design representing leaves or 
foliage. Also boskage. Late Latin boscum, 
wood. Sylvan paintings were de rigueur in 
the 17th century. Sir Henry Wotton, in 

THE ELEMENTS OF ARCHITECTURE Called for 

chearful paintings in feasting and ban- 
queuing rooms . . . landskips and boscage 
and such wild works in open terraces; and 
a poem, THE CONFINEMENT, of 1679 states 
that Boscage within each chamber must be 
shown, Or the mean pile no architect will 
own. Rousseau in French, and North (in 
LIVES, 1734) in English used the word 
boscaresque. Hence bosky, wooded, as 
when Shakespeare in THE TEMPEST (1610) 
speaks of My bosky acres, and my un- 
shrubd downe. In the 18th and early 19th 
century, bosky was also a common term 
for tipsy ('overshadowed') , as when BLACK- 
WOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE in 1824 re- 
marked that a gentleman may be tipsy, 
bosky, cut, or anything but drunk. Many 
a man's grown bosky in the boscage. 

boswellize. To note a person's actions 
minutely; to write in the style of Bos- 
well's LIFE OF JOHNSON (1791) . Macaulay, 
in an essay of 1825, first spoke of Bos- 
wellism. Hence also Boswellian. 

botargo. A relish of the roe of the mullet 
or tunny fish. Via Italian from Arabic 
butarkhah; Coptic outarakhon, from 



106 



bote 

Coptic ou (the article) + Greek parixion, 
pickle. Captain John Smith, in the new 
world (1616) , called it puttargo. Hood, in 

MISS KILMANSEGG AND HER SILVER LEG (1840) 

speaks o that huge repast With its loads 
and cargoes Of drink and botargoes At 
the birth of the babe in Rabelais. In 
1598 the recipe is given simply: "fish 
spawn salted." By 1751 it had grown more 
complicated; Bailey's DICTIONARY gives it: 
"a sausage made of eggs and of the blood 
of a sea mullet." In 1813 it is described as 
Boutaraga, the roes of fish, salted and 
pressed into rolls like sausages. It might 
be worth trying. 

bote. Remedy; advantage; health. The 
verb bo ten, botne } to heal, lasted through 
the 14th century; but bote was replaced 
much earlier by boot, which survives in 
the phrase to boot, to the good, into the 
bargain. Often used in contrast to bale, 
q.v. Thus Chaucer in THE CANON'S YEO- 
MAN'S PROLOGUE AND TALE (1386) prays: 
God send every true man boote of his 
bale. The word was extended to mean 
amends, compensation for injury, as in 
Stephen's LAW OF ENGLAND (1845) : // the 
great toe be struck off, let twenty shillings 
be paid him as bot. From the phrase to 
make boot of (make advantage, profit) 
the word was confused with booty, 
plunder; thus Shakespeare in HENRY v 
(1599) speaks of bees that, like soldiers, 
Make boote upon the Summers velvet 
buddes: Which pillage they . . . bring 
home. To boot may sometimes be used as 
an intensifies meaning futhermore, in ad- 
dition; there is always the fellow, as the 
punster remarked, who is a scoundrel and 
a good one to boot. And we hope that one 
that deserves reward will not go bootless. 
Cp. hext. 

bottle. (1) A dwelling, building. Used 
up to the 13th century. This sense sur- 



bounce-Jane 

vives in place names, such as Harbottle. 
(2) a bundle, especially of hay or straw. 
The remark about a needle in a haystack 
was originally to look for a needle in a 
bottle of hay. Chaucer in THE MAUNCIPLE'S 
PROLOGUE (1386) says: Although it be 
not worth a botel hey. Several combina- 
tions of bottle, container, have lapsed 
from use: bottle-boot, a leather case for a 
bottle; especially, one to hold the bottle 
firm while corking, bottle-coaster, a tray 
or stand for passing around a decanter; 
also bottle-slide, bottle-slider, bottle-track, 
the path in the ocean of a bottle thrown 
overboard; from such was made a bottle- 
chart, a chart of surface currents, bottle- 
jack, a jack for roasting meat, shaped like 
a bottle, bottle-screw, a corkscrew. To pass 
the bottle of smoke, used by Dickens to 
mean to join in a falsehood, to carry on 
a deceit. Also a three-bottle man, etc., one 
that drinks three (etc.) bottles of wine 
at a sitting; Leigh Hunt in THE EXAMINER 
(11 May, 1812) spoke of six-bottle mini- 
sters and plenitudinous aldermen. A bot- 
tle-head, a fool, is an alteration of beetle- 
head. A beetle is a sdrt of hand pile-driver, 
with a heavy weight for a 'head' and a 
handle sometimes three men used together. 
Hence, dumb as a beetle; beetle-brain; 
beetle-head, blockhead, bottlehead. bottle- 
holder, a backer; a second; in 18th century 
prizefights, the pugilists' attendants had a 
bottle ready, as they still do; Carlyle in 
FREDERICK THE GREAT (1858) referred to 
someone as His Majesty's bottle-holder in 
that battle with the finance nightmares 
and imbroglios. 

bounce- Jane. A delicious dish, in 15th 
century cookery. Take gode cowe my Ik, 
and put hit in a pot, and sethe hit, and 
take sage, parsel, ysope, and savory, and 
other gode herbes, and sethe horn and 
hew horn smalle, and do horn in the pot; 



107 



bouch 

then take henries, or capons, or chekyns; 
when thai byn half rosted, take horn of 
the spit, and smyte horn on peces, and do 
thereto, and put therto pynes and ray- 
synges of corance, and let hit boyle, and 
serve hit forthe. Minced fowl boiled in 
milk with currants and herbs would be 
a delicious dish in the 20th century. 

bouch. An allowance of food granted by 
a king or noble to his household or at- 
tendants on an expedition. Also bouge, 
bowge, bouche, and especially in the 
phrase to have bouche in court. French 
bouche, mouth; avoir bouche en cour. 
Hence, to have bouch of court, to eat and 
drink at the lord's expense. 

bouchee. A small baked confection; a 
patty. French bouchee, mouthful; bouche, 
mouth. 

boucon. Veal-steak rolled in bacon and 
gammon. From French boucon, a mouth- 
ful which it seems succulently to be. See 
gammon. 

bouffage. A satisfying meal. Old French 
bouffage, a meat that puffs the cheeks. 

bouge. (1) A bag, a wallet; a skin-bottle; 
also bowge, q.v.; bulge, bulch. Latin bulga, 
a leather bag; the womb. Also, a bulge, 
a swelling; hence, bowgework, raised work. 
(2) Court rations; provisions. A variant 
of bouche, mouthful. To have a budge-a- 
court, to be given free food and drink. 

bouillans. "Little pies of the breast of 
roasted capons minced with udders, etc." 
So in the 1751 DICTIONARY of Bailey, who 
seems to have been an 18th century 
gourmet. 

bouksome. Corpulent. Bouk was an old 
word for belly; then for the trunk, then 
the body, of a man. After the 14th cen- 
tury bouk was used only in Scotland; 



bourdon 

bouksome was influenced by buxom and 
by bulk. The result of too many a 
bouffage. 

boun. To prepare, make ready; to dress; 
to betake oneself. Also bown, bune, bowen, 
bowyn. Used from the 13th to the 17th 
century; revived by Scott, in MARMION 
(1808) : Each ordering that his band 
Should bowne them with the rising day. 

bourd. Mockery. So in the early 14th 
century. Soon, however, the sense softened, 
to jesting, merriment, fun; a merry tale; 
a game, play. Also as a verb, to make 
game, to say things in jest; to play. R. 
Brunne in HANBLYNG SYNNE (1303) tells 
how a bonde man bourdede wyth a knyght. 
Also burde, borde, boward, bowrde, 
bourde. Hence bourder, a jester; a buf- 
foon; a mocker. Bourdful, sportive. There 
was another verb, to bourde, to burdis, 
to joust; bourdis, tilting, fencing with 
lances; Old French behourt, lance. Caxton 

in GEOFFROI DE LA TOUR I/ANDRI (1483) 

said: He is but a bourdour and a deceyver 
of ladyes. 

bourdon. (1) A pilgrim's staff; a club or 
cudgel; a spear-shaft. Apparently from 
Latin burdonem, mule; shifted from the 
pilgrim's mount to his staff. A bourdonasse 

(16th century) , a light lance, with a hol- 
low shaft; a similar javelin. Used from 
the 13th century; Urquhart in THE JEWEL 

(1652) pictured a man with a palmer's 
coat upon him, a bourdon in his hand, 
and some few cockle shels stuck to his 
hat. (2) A low undersong, while the lead- 
ing voice sang the melody. Used from the 
14th century; Late Latin bur do, drone, 
perhaps an echoic word. Chaucer used 
this rather common word, in the Prologue 

tO THE CANTERBURY TALES (1386) : This 

somonour bar to hym a stiff burdoun, Was 
never trompe of half so greet a soun. This 



108 



bouse 



bower-maiden 



sense grew into the form burden; indeed, 
bourdon is (3) an early variant of bur- 
den, q.v., in all its meanings. 

bouse. Liquor; a drinking-bout. Also a 
verb; Herrick says, in the HESPERIDES 
(1648) : But before the day comes Still 
I be bousing. In nautical parlance of the 
19th century, to bowse up the jib was to 
get drunk. Bouse, related to early Dutch 
busen, was usually pronounced buz, 
whence the still current b ooze. Sometime 
booze was used to imply drinking for good 
fellowship, as when Colman says, in his 

EPILOGUE FOR THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL 

(1777) : While good Sir Peter boozes with 
the Squire. But, warns BLACKWOOD'S EDIN- 
BURGH MAGAZINE (1824) : Never boozify a 
second time with the man whom you have 
seen misbehave himself in his cups. Some 
would cut off the last fifteen words. 

bousy. See semibousy. 

boutade. A sudden outburst; a sally. Also 
boutado. From French bouter, to thrust, 
to put, of Teutonic origin. Used in the 
17th century; Swift in A TALE OF A TUB 
(1702) said: His first boutade was to kick 
both their wives . . . out of doors. 

boutefeu. A firebrand, incendiary; an in- 
citer to dissention and strife. French 
bonier, to put 4- feu, fire. Also beautifew, 
boutfeu, boutefeau, botefeu, bowtifeu, and 
more. A common 17th century word. 
North in THE EXAMINER in 1734 com- 
plained of factious boutefews, bawlers for 
property and against popery; Richardson 
in a letter to Mrs. Barbauld, in 1754, 
spoke of a boutefeu editor. 

bouteselle. A call to arms: boot and sad- 
dle, the trumpet signal to put saddle on 
and mount horse. French bouter, to put 
+ selle, saddle. The sprightly chanticlere, 



said Cleveland (POEMS, 1658) , Sounds 
boutesel to Cupid's knight. 

boutgate. A going about; by extension, 
circumlocution; equivocation, quibble. 
About + gate (gait), going. R. Bruce in 
a sermon of 1591 said: The boutgates and 
deceites of the heart of man are infinite. 

bouts-rimes. A popular game of the late 
17th and the 18th century, in which a set 
of rhymes is given a person, who must 
then compose the verses. Games of the 
sort are still played. French bouts, ends + 
rimes, rhymed. Past, last; roam, home; 
deal, seal; old, manifold for an instance. 

bove. An early form of above. Also be- 
ufan, bufan, buven, buve, boven. A com- 
pound of three forms: by beside 4- w/, 
up + ana, a suffix indicating motion 
from. The a in above also meant down 
from, as in the old adown, q.v., which has 
permanently lost the a. Used through the 
15th century, after which (in Spenser, 
Shakespeare THE TEMPEST, 1610; 'Bove 
the contentious waves and later poets) it 
is thought of as a contraction of above. 

bovicide. See stillicide. The term bovi- 
cide has been applied, humorously, to a 
butcher whom it literally fits. 

bovoli See fagioli. 

bower-maiden. A lady in waiting; a 
chambermaid. Also bowermaid, bower- 
woman. From bower, a cottage, an abode 
later used by poets as a vague term for an 
idealized dwelling, as in Goldsmith's THE 
DESERTED VILLAGE (1770) : Dear lovely 
bowers of innocence and ease! Also bur- 
maiden, bourmaiden. Wyclif (1380) : This 
gospel tellith not how Marie took a bour- 
woman, but went mekeli in hast to salute 
her cosyn. Also in Scott; Tennyson in his 
play BECKET (1884) says: My best bower- 
maiden died of late. 



109 



bowge 

bowge. A variant of bouge, q.v. In sense 
(1) also bowger, a purser, treasurer. In 
sense (2) , used in the title of a satiric 
poem by Skelton, The Bowge of Court 
(1498) . 

bowssen. To immerse (suddenly, in a 
holy well, especially as a cure for mad- 
ness) . Also boossen, bousen, bowsen. It 
was apparently a treatment especially 
favored in Cornwall; the Cornish-Breton 
beuzi meant to drown. Carew in his THE 
SURVEY OF CORNWALL (1602) referred to 
the practice: There were many bowssening 
places, -for curing of mad men . . . if there 
appeared small amendment he was bows- 
sened again and againe. (The final e is 
presumably to emphasize his gain.) 

bowyer. One that makes, or deals in 
bows. Also, a bowman. Cp. ftetcher. 
Formed as was lawyer, save that archery 
is now seldom practiced. 

box. See balk. 

boy. Be with you. Also boye. Used in 
16th and 17th century plays; superseded 
by bye, by, especially in good-by, God be 
with you. 

boysteous. See boistous. 

brabble. See prabble. It has been sug- 
gested that the word is a corruption of 
Medieval Latin parabolare, to harangue, 
Greek para, beside + ballein, to throw 
(whence also parabola and parable) ; but 
it is more probably echoic, like babble, 
but stronger, meaning a noisy quarrel, a 
petty discordant brawl. Shakespeare, in 
TWELFTH NIGHT (1601) has: Heere in the 
streets . . . In private brabble did we ap- 
prehend him. 

bracery. Corruption. Short for embracery, 
q.v. A law of Henry VIII (Act 32, 1540) 



bra g 

was entitled: The bill of bracery and buy- 
ing of titles. 

brache. A hound that hunts by scent; 
later, any kind of bitch hound (always 
feminine) . A common medieval form, 
later usually brack (also bracke, brasche, 
bratche) . The word was sometimes (as in 
Jorison's THE ALCHEMIST, 1610) used as a 
term of abuse, like bitch and her offspring 
today. For a list of dogs in Shakespeare, 
see lyam. 

bradypeptic. Slow to digest. Meredith in 
THE EGOIST (1879) says: For -facts, we are 
bradypeptics to a man, sir. Greek bradys, 
slow + pepsis, cooking, digestion. Hence 
also bradypepsy, bradiopepsy, bradypepsia. 
A bradypod, bradypus, a slowfoot. 

bradypus. See bradypeptic. Greek pous, 
podis, foot. In zoology, used of the family 
of quadrupeds that includes the sloth. 

brag. As a noun. In the current sense 
of boastful language, one might remem- 
ber the words of Johnson's mother 
which he recorded in THE RAMBLER (1752; 
No. 197) when he envied a neighbor's 
finery: Brag was a good dog, but Holdfast 
was a better. Among less remembered 
uses of brag are: (1) a loud noise, as the 
blare of a trumpet. (2) Pomp, display; 
pompous behavior. Udall in RALPH ROY- 
STER I>OYSTER (1553) said: Ye must have a 
portely bragge, after your estate . . . Up 
man with your head and chin. (3) When 
the YORK MYSTERY (1440) said: Here are 
bragges that will not faile, it meant by 
brag a large nail. (4) An 18th and early 
19th century card game, later called 
poker. It was named from the brag or 
challenge of one player to the others, to 
match the value of his cards. As an ad- 
jective, from the 14th century, brag meant 
boastful, also spirited, mettlesome, lively. 
Spenser in THE SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR (1579; 



110 



bragance 

FEBRUARY) used it as an adverb: Seest 

how brag yond bullock beares . . . his 
pricked eares? Also see bragly. 

bragance. See bragly. 

bragget. A drink of honey and ale fer- 
mented together. Chaucer in THE MILLER'S 
TALE (1386) says: Her mouth was sweet 
as bragot. Also braket, brogat, and the like. 
Bailey, in 1751, omits the ale, saying 
"of honey and spice"; the O.E.D. in 1933 
says that "latterly the honey has been 
replaced by sugar and spice." Hardwick in 

TRADITIONS OF LANCASHIRE (1872) States 

that Mid Lent Sunday is likewise called 
Braggat or Braggot Sunday, from the cus- 
tom of drinking mulled or spiced ale on 
that day. 

bragly. Briskly; with pleasant show. 
Formed from the verb to brag, to sound 
loudly; to boast; to show off; whence also 
bragance (15th century) , braggade (18th 
century) , boasting, supplanted by brag- 
ging. Spenser in THE SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR 
(1579; MARCH) has: Seest not thilke same 
hawthorne studde, How bragly it begins 
to buddef 

brahminicide. See stillicide. Also brah- 
manicide. 

brand. See brandle. 

brandewine. An early form of what is 
now called brandy. Also brandwine; Dutch 
brandewijn, burnt [distilled] wine. 

brandish. See brandle. 

brandle. To shake (both transitive and 
intransitive) . From French branler, with 
the same meaning. Hence also in English, 
though rare, branle, to agitate, to toss 
about. Pepys in his DIARY for 1662 says: 
They danced the brantle. The dance, and 
the music for it, also appear as branle; 



branks 

and a 1581 translation of Tacitus says 
that the first legion was put in branle 
(agitation, confusion) . The verb is also 
used of onanism. A more vigorous form 
of the same word is br angle, to shake 
vehemently, to brandish; to make uncer- 
tain; in THE MERRY DEVIL OF EDMONTON 

(1608) , a man's title to a piece of property 
is, he is reminded, brangled with thy 
debts. Another French form of the same 
root word is brandir, brandiss , from 
which comes English brandish. The words 
are related to the common Teuton brand, 
a sword, which in turn comes from Teu- 
ton bran,, brinnan, to burn. The gleaming 
or waving of the sword, the flickering or 
brightness of the flames. Note also the 
rare branskate (brand + German schatz, 
treasure, tribute) , a ransom paid so that 
a place will not be burned. 

brandreth. A three-legged fire-grate; a 
gridiron. By extension, various other 
frameworks, as for a hay-rick; a rail 
around the opening of a well. Also 
branrith, branlet, brandelette, etc. Old 
Norse brand, burning -I- reith, carriage. 

brandy-cowe. The washings of brandy 
casks, used in making inferior drinks. 

brandy-pawnee. Brandy and water. Hin- 
dustani pani, water. Used by Thackeray in 

VANITY FAIR (1848) . 

brangle. See brandle. 

branks. A bit and bridle for a scold: an 
iron framework to enclose the head, with 
a metal gag for the mouth. 16th and 17th 
centuries, especially in Scotland. The New- 
castle Municipal Accounts of 1595 list: 
Paid for carrying a woman through the 
town for scolding, with branks, 4 d. Per- 
haps by humorous extension from this, 
branks was used in the 18th and 19th cen- 
turies for that mouth-closing disease, the 



Ill 



branle 



breech 



mumps. T. N. Brushfield in OBSOLETE 
PUNISHMENTS (1858) gave various names: 
a brank, the branks, a pair of branks, the 
scold's bridle, gossip's bridle and . . . 'a 
brydle for a curste queane.' 

branle. See brandle. 
branskate. See brandle. 

brant. Steep, sheer, straight. In 1544 
Ascham, in TOXOPHILUS, wrote that 
Hawarde . . . slew King Jamie even brant 
against Flodden Hill. The word was also 
applied to a straight, unwrinkled fore- 
head. The Scotch form is brent; Burns in 
his song JOHN ANDERSON MY jo (1789) 
says Your bonny brow was brent. 

brantle. See brandle. 
bratticing. See bartizan. 

bravery. Swaggering; behaving like a 
bravo or reckless swaggerer. For (in, upon) 
a bravery, in defiance; in display of reck- 
less daring, as a brag. Also, an adorn- 
ment; finery; ostentatious show, pretense; 
flamboyance. Sometimes used to mean a 
person, or gallants as a class; Jonson in 
THE SILENT WOMAN (1609) says: Hee is 
one ,of the braveries, though he be none 
o' the wits. Lodge in AN ALARUM AGAINST 
USURERS (1584) declared: Thy modest at- 
tire is become immodest braverie; thy 
shame-fast seemelynes is shamelesse im- 
pudencie; thy desire of lerning to loitering 
love. 

bray. To beat small; crush to powder. 
In Coverdale's BIBLE: PROVERBS (1535) we 
read: Though thou shuldest bray a foole 
with a pestell in a morter like otemeel, yet 
wil not his foolishnesse go from him. 

braythe. To rush up, to start up. Also 
breythe, breathe, breat. Old English braeg- 
dan, whence also braid. The earliest 



meaning of braid was to pull quickly, to 
make a jerky movement, move to and 
f ro hence also broid, broider, embroider; 
brawde, browde, browder. In EARLY 

ENGLISH ALLITERATIVE POETRY (14th CCn- 

tury) we read that wine warmed his hert 
and breythed uppe in to his brayn. How 
often since! 

breadberry. See aleberry. 

brede. This word has many forms 
breed, bread, breid, etc. and three dis- 
tinct meanings. It appears about the year 
1000 in the sense of roast meat: Swines 
brade is well sweet which sense lingers 
in the word sweetbread. About the same 
time it was used to mean width, or a 
measure of width; a will of 1554 leaves 
one pair of fine sheets of two bredes and 
a half; by 1600 this sense was taken over 
by the form breadth. In the 17th century 
brede, as a variant of braid, was used of 
tresses or threads or colors intertwined. 
This use lingered with the poets, as in 
Keats' ODE ON A GRECIAN URN: with brede 
Of marble men and maidens overwrought. 
Lowell pictures the three fates (the Par- 
cae: Clotho, who held the distaff; Lachesis, 
who spun the events of our life; and the 
eldest sister, Atropos, who cut the thread) ; 
the ancient Three . . . Still crooning, as 
they weave their endless brede. The form 
meaning to burn, or heat, is related to 
the words breath and brood. In all senses 
the word was also used as a verb; in THE 
PARLIAMENT OF DEVILS (1509) one of the 
fiends exclaims: I will . . . in hell his 
soule brede. 

breech. A garment covering the loins 
and thighs; originally a breech-cloth, a 
loin-cloth; later reaching to the knees; 
after the 15th century and still current, in 
the plural and pronounced britches, com- 
ing below the knees and used as a dialect, 



112 



breme 

humorous, or scornful word for trousers. 
The Geneva BIBLE translation of 1560 is 
called the breeches Bible because of Gene- 
sis 3: They sewed figge tree leaves to- 
gether, and made themselves breeches. To 
wear the breech (later, breeches) , to be 
boss of the household, usually said of the 
wife; Shakespeare in HENRY vi, PART THREE 
(1593) has: You might still have worne 
the petticoat, And ne'er have stolne the 
breech from Lancaster. 

breme. Also breem, brim, etc. Originally, 
in Old English, this word meant famous, 
glorious. The sense was extended to any- 
thing great in its kind: brilliant color; 
loud sound; violent, raging storm. Hence 
it was often used by the poets of a fierce 
winter, or a fierce beast. Thus in 1400 we 
read of beastes breme; in 1526 of the 
breme light of grace. Lydgate in 1430 and 
Spenser in 1579 speak of breme winter; 
other poets follow them, as Thomson 
(1748) in THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE: Glad 
summer or the winter breme. Bremely is 
also used in this manner a song of 1500 
says That brymly beast but is usually 
the adverb, meaning brightly, loudly, or 
fiercely; Stanyhurst in his AENEIS (1583) 
says At the windoors . . . moonshyne 
brimly did enter. 

The original English name for sulphur 
was bernstone, the burnstone. This was 
shifted to brenstone; then association with 
brim, fierce, may have changed it to 
brimstone. Similarly, in the 1250 poem of 
GENESIS and EXODUS, we read of the 
"stinken smoke" of the brinfire. 

bren. An old form of burn, used by 
Chaucer. Also brenne. 

brendice. A cup in which a person's 
health is drunk. From the Italian brindisi, 
but perhaps a corruption of the German 
Ich bringe dir's zu. A nonce-word: Dryden 



breviloquence 

begins his AMBOYNA, 1673: / go to fill a 
brendice to my noble Captain's health. 
The verb brince, or brinch, meaning to 
drink or to give to drink, was fairly com- 
mon in the 16th and 17th centuries; a 
Psalter of 1556 says: The good at brink 
the clear doth drink, God brinche them 
gently so. 

brent. See brant. 

breviate. To shorten; to abridge, to ab- 
stract. Used in the 16th and 17th cen- 
turies; Latin brevis, short cp. motto on 
the New England gravestone of Henry 
Longbottom, age 13: Ars longa, vita 
brevis. The current form, of course, is 
abbreviate. Skelton, in MAGNYFYCENCE 
(1526) says: By myschefe to breviate and 
shorten his dayes. Breviate was also used 
as an adjective, meaning shortened, and 
as a noun, meaning a brief statement, a 
note, or a lawyer's brief. How often, says 
a poem of 1594 (ZEPHERIA) hath my pen 
(my hearts solicitor!) Instructed thee in 
breviat of my easel Hence also breviately; 
breviation; breviator; breviature. A brevi- 
ger was, first, one who carries briefs; by 
extension, a begging friar. 

breviloquence. Brevity in speech. Latin 
brevis, short; whence brief + loquens, 
loquentem, speaking. Hence breviloquent, 
as were the Spartans, hence laconic 
from Laconia, the country of which 
Sparta (or Lacedaemon) was the capital. 
Lacedaemon was a son of Jupiter and 
Taygeta (daughter of Atlas) ; he married 
Sparta the daughter of Eurotas. [The 
Spartans never set out on an expedition 
or opened a battle save at the full moon, 
which shows they were lunatic as well as 
laconic. In the 15th and 16th centuries 
lunatic, in addition to meaning from 
the 13th century moonstruck, crazy, was 
used to mean influenced by the moon . . . 



113 



breythe 

borne, said Greene in MAMILLIA (1583) 
under the influence of Luna, and there- 
fore as firme . . . as melting waxe.] The 
proverbial brevity of Spartan speech is 
illustrated in their reply to Philip of 
Macedon's threat: // / enter Laconia, I 
-will level Lacedaemon to the ground. 
The Spartans responded: //. Pope in a 
letter to Swift (17 August, 1736) said: 
/ grow laconic beyond laconicism; brevi- 
loquence changed this to laconism, though 
Jeremy Collier (1697) noted that no 
laconism can match the language of the 
face. Cp. chilonian. 

breythe. See bray the. 

bricole. Indirectly, on the rebound. Orig- 
inally the word was applied to a sort of 
catapult for hurling stones, and may be 
derived from a name, as gun, Big Bertha, 
etc. In the 16th century, when tennis was 
popular, the term was applied to a stroke 
(or to the rebound) when a ball was 
driven to hit the side wall, then bounce 
in the opponent's court. In the 19th cen- 
tury, the term was applied to a cushion- 
shot in billiards. In the 17th century, 
bricole was used figuratively; as late as 
1798 Walpole speaks of a play's introduc- 
ing two courtiers to acquaint one another, 
and by bricole the audience, with events 
offstage. The walls of the tennis courts 
were of brick, hence by error bricole 
sometimes became brick-wall, as some today 
say net ball for let (hindered) ball. Thus 
Sidney in ARCADIA (1580) speaks of music 
. . . which tho' Anaxias might conceive 
was for his honour, yet indeed he was but 
the brickwall to convey it to the ears of 
the beloved Philoclea. Schoolboys copy- 
ing their assignments must be careful lest, 
as F. Greville said in 1628, they brickwall 
errors from one to another. 



brinfire 



bridal. See givale. 



bridelope. This is the oldest English 
word for a wedding, meaning the run 
(lope] of the man bearing his choice to 
her new home, a ritual probably symboliz- 
ing the earlier actual carrying off of the 
woman. (We still use the term elope.) 
Many combinations of bride have been 
forgotten, e.g.: bridebush, a bush hung 
out at the local tavern in honor of the 
wedding; bridecake; bridecup, a cup of 
spicy drink offered the bride-couple before 
the bridebed; brideknot, bridelace, a wed- 
ding favor, or the band on the sprigs of 
rosemary worn at weddings; bridestake, a 
pole set up to dance around at the wed- 
ding, similar to the Maypole; bridelock, 
a word for wedlock until about 1250; 
bridewain, a wagon bearing the "hope 
chest" (topped by the spinning wheel 
adorned with blue ribbons) to the bride's 
new home. Brideale is a deliberate spell- 
ing, used by Cranmer in the Preface to his 
BIBLE of 1540, and for 300 years after, to 
remind readers that a bridal is really an 
ale-drinking, a party, for the bride. Bride- 
well, meaning a prison, is from St. Bride's 
well in London; near this holy well King 
Henry VIII had a house, which Edward 
VI donated as a hospital, later a house 
of correction. The word bride originally 
meant not a woman on the brink of mar- 
riage, but a daughter-in-law; the French 
word for daughter-in-law is bru. It is 
related to the root bru, meaning to brew 
broth, to cook which in the primitive 
family was a task of the daughter-in-law. 

brides-laces. See Hymen's torch. 
brimstone. See breme. 
brince. See brendice. Also brinch. 
brinfire. See breme. 



114 



britzka 



broom 



britzka. A fashionable carriage of the 
19th century (from Polish bryczka) , open, 
with room for reclining. Often mentioned 
in the current fiction, as Disraeli's CON- 
INGSBY (1844) and Thackeray's VANITY 
FAIR (1848). 

briviatic. Pertaining to a beggar. From 
Old Spanish brivion, a wandering beggar. 
In 1623, references to the briviatick art. 

broadside. A sheet of paper printed on 
one side; usually large. Broadsides were 
the forerunners of newspapers; they might 
contain a decree, but more often a ballad 
or other verse based on a current happen- 
ing. In the 18th century, also broadsheet. 
Many of the fabliaux and comic poems, 
said Wright (ESSAYS; 1861) were issued as 
broadside ballads. 

broch. A prehistoric structure in Scot- 
land (many remain on the Orkney and 
Shetland Islands) : a round tower with 
inner and outer stone walls, between 
which the humans lived, while the central 
space was used to keep their cattle secure. 
Also brough. Old Norse borg, castle; Old 
English burh, surviving in burgh and 
borough. 

brock. This common Celtic word de- 
veloped many senses. (1) a badger. So 
used by Ben Jonson (1637) and Burns 
(1786) . Hence brock-faced, with a face 
streaked like a badger's. (2) A dirty or 
stinking fellow. So in Shakespeare's 
TWELFTH NIGHT (1601) : Marry, hang thee, 
brocke. (3) An inferior horse; so used by 
Chaucer (1386). (4) The larva of the 
frog-hopper, that froths upon leaves, leav- 
ing what is called "cuckoo-spit." (5) A 
three-year-old deer, a brocket. (6) As a 
verb, to brock is to talk complainingly, or 
in broken speech again in Chaucer. 
Brockish means beastly, dirty. 



brodekin. A boot reaching halfway up 
the calves; a buskin. French brodequin, 
Italian borzacchino, buskin. Used from the 
15th through the 17th century; Urquhart 
in his translation of Rabelais (1653) has 
brodkin blowes for kicks. Revived in 19th 
century historical novels, as Thackeray's 
PENDENNIS (1850) : From their bonnets to 
their br ode quins. 

broil. As a noun; tumult, turmoil, a dis- 
orderly quarrel. To set in broil, to create 
a disturbance; broiler, one that takes part 
in or instigates quarrels; broilery, dis- 
sension, disorder. Shakespeare has in 
HENRY vi, PART ONE (1591) : Prosper this 
realme, keepe it from civill broyles; in 
SONNET 55: And broils root out the work 
of masonry. The senses overlap with broil, 
a state of great heat (from to broil? cur- 
rent today), as in Badington's A VERY 

FRUITFULL EXPOSITION OF THE COMMAND- 
MENTS (1583) : What broyles of scorching 
lust soever the minde abideth. 

broke. See gerning. 

bronstrops. A procuress, bawd; see baude; 
bawdstrot. Used in the 17th century, es- 
pecially by Middleton; Webster alludes 
to Middleton when he remarks, in A CURE 
FOR A CUCKOLD (1661) : A tweak or bron- 
strops: I learned that name in a play. 

brontomancy. See aeromancy. 

broom. A shrub, with large yellow or 
white flowers. Old English brom; Middle 
High German brame, whence also bram- 
ble. The petals of the broom were used to 
dye hard boiled eggs green, at Eastertide; 
they were thus doubly symbolic of fertility, 
so that the eating of them portended large 
families. Now folks use other colors. 
Wordsworth in TO JOANNA (1800) says: 
'Twas that delightful season when the 



115 



browet 



buccellation 



broom, Full-flowered . . . Along the copses 
runs in veins of gold. 

browet. Soup of the juice of boiled meat, 
thickened with other savory substances. 
Enjoyed in the 14th and 15th centuries. 
Also brewet, bruet; Medieval Latin brod- 
ium; Old High German brod; akin to and 
supplanted by broth. A COOKERY of 1440 
gives a recipe for white almond soup, 
blaunche bruet of almayn; a Towneley 
MYSTERY (1460) : broght me bruet of deer. 

brumal. Wintry; relating to the time of 
short days. Latin brumalis, relating to 
winter; bruma, short for brevima, shortest 
(day) . Hence brume, fog, mist. Hail, with 
its glassy globes, said J. Barlow in THE 
COLUMBIAD (1808) , and brume congealed. 
Lowell in MY STUDY WINDOWS (1871) 
wrote: What cheerfulness there was in 
brumal verse was that of Horace's. 

brummagem. A counterfeit coin (especi- 
ally, counterfeit groats coined at Birming- 
ham in the 17th century) ; a sham, showy 
imitation. Also brummagemize, brum- 
magemism, brummagemish. The word is a 
corruption of Birmingham, a manufac- 
turing town. A half-way stage of the forma- 
tion is quoted at shab. A. K. H. Boyd, in 

RECREATIONS OF A COUNTRY PARSON (1861) 

watched the vulgar dandy , strutting along, 
with his brummagem jewelry. 

bnisole. "Stakes of veal well seasoned, 
laid in a stewpan between slices of bacon, 
and baked between two fires." The DIC- 
TIONARY (1751) of Bailey the epicure 
again gives a revivable recipe. 

brustle. (1) To make a crackling or rus- 
tling noise; to move swiftly with such a 
noise; to rustle, to bustle. (2) An early 
form of bristle, as hair, or the mane of a 
beast, or the feathers of a bird; hence (as 
the peacock), to show off, to bluster. 



Fletcher in THE SPANISH CURATE (1622) : 
See where the sea comes, how it foams 
and brussels. 

brut. A chronicle. From the many medi- 
eval chronicles of Brutus, Brut, and his 
descendants in Britain, by Wace, Laya- 
mon, etc. There is also a 16th and 17th 
century verb to brut, to browse, as in 
Evelyn's ACETARIA, OR A DISCOURSE OF 
SALLETS (1699) : marking what the goats 
so greedily bruited upon . . . 

brygge. An early variant of bridge. Not 
so listed in O.E.D. Apparently used in the 
sense of wharf or pier, by Cavendish in 

THE LYFFE AND DEATHE OF CARDYNAL 

WOOLSEY (1557) : It semed to them that 
there shold be some noble men and 
strangers arryved at his brygge [at the 
Thames' bank] as ambassitors frome some 
forrayn prynce. (Cavendish is telling of 
the coming of Henry VIII, masked, with 
companions dressed as shepherds, to a 
party at the Cardinal's.) 

brynnyng. A variant form of burning. 
Skelton (WORKES; 1529; cp. shyderyd) de- 
clared: Oure days be datyd To be chek 
matyd With drauttys [moves] of deth Stop- 
ping cure breth, Oure eyen synkyng, Oure 
bodys stynkyng, Oure gummys grynnyng, 
Our soulys brynnyng. 

bubble-bow An 18th century fashionable 
case for a lady's tweezers and the like. 
Used by Pope; explained by Arbuthnot 
in JOHN BULL (1712) as from to bubble a 
beau, to dazzle or fool a gallant. Also 
spelled bubble-boy; explained (in THE 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE of 1807) as probably 
a misspelling for bauble-buoy, a support 
for baubles. They now dangle from jingly 
bracelets or lie concealed in a purse. 

buccellation. Division into tiny pieces. 
A 17th and 18th century dictionary word, 



116 



buccinate 

from Late Latin buccella, morsel, from 
bucca, cheek. 

buccinate. To blow a trumpet. Latin 
buccina, a crooked trumpet; whence also 
buccinal (pronounced buck' small), shaped 
like or sounding like a trumpet. But note 
that Latin bucca means cheek. The buc- 
cinator muscle is the muscle that forms 
the wall of the cheek, so called, says the 
O.E.D. (1933), "because it is the chief 
muscle employed in the act of blowing." 
It is at least as likely, however, that the 
reverse process is correct: that the trum- 
pet was called buccina from the charac- 
teristic puffing of the bucca, cheek, to blow 
it, to buccinate. Sterne in TRISTRAM SHANDY 
(1760) says: Directing the bussinatory 
muscles along his cheeks . . . to do their 
duty, he whistled Lillabullero. A buccu- 
lent fellow is one agape, "blub-cheeked," 
as beholding a succulent morsel. 

bucentaur. A large ship; a gaily deco- 
rated barge. Especially, the ship (Bucen- 
toro] in which the Doge of Venice, on 
Ascension Day, went to wed the Adriatic 
by dropping a ring in it. From Greek 
bous, ox + centauros, the figure-head of 
the Doge's galley. Byron in CHILDE HAROLD 
(1818) states: The Bucentaur lies rotting 
unrestored. A 1658 account of Queen 
Christina of "Swedland" says that Her 
Majesty sailed towards Bruxells in a buc- 
entoro most richly adorned, and guilded 
within and without. 

bucksome. An old variant of buxom. 
Also buhsum, bocsum, bowsome, and 
more. The word first meant easily bowed, 
pliant; submissive; flexible hence, good- 
natured, lively, gay whence its current 
meaning. 

bude-light. A light obtained by directing 
a stream of oxy-hydrogen gas over crushed 
egg shells. Invented (and named in 



bum 

1 835) by Sir Goldsworthy Gurney of Bude, 
Cornwall. Also bude-burner, of three con- 
centric perforated rings. 

bugloss. One of various boraginaceous 
plants; especially the prickly ox-tongue. 
Greek bous, ox -h glossa, tongue; from 
the shape and roughness of the leaves. 
Used in cookery and medicine; Jonson in 
VOLPONE (1605) lists a little muske, dri'd 
mints, buglosse } and barley-meale. The 
boraginaceous plants belong to the genus 
borage (burrage, burridge; Latin burra, 
a shaggy garment) , used in making claret 
cup and as a cordial. Steele in THE TATLER 
(1709; No. 31) speaks of burridge in the 
glass when a man is drinking. 

bum. The buttocks. A very common 
word from the 14th to the 17th century; 
replaced by bottom. Used of a person, in 
contempt; sometimes bum, short for bum- 
bailiff, q.v.; used in combinations; see 
bumrowl. Harvey in his attack on Nashe 

in PIERCES SUPEREROGATION,, OR A NEW 

PRAYSE OF THE OLD ASSE (1593; for Nashe's 
fling, see gallimaufry) cried upon value 
Nash, railing Nash, craking Nash, bibbing 
Nash, baggage Nash, swaddish Nash, 
rogish Nash, Nash the bellweather of the 
scribling flock, the swish-swash of the 
presse, the bumm of impudency, the 
shambles of beastliness, the poulkat 
[skunk] of Fouls-churchyard, the shriek- 
owle of London, the toade-stoole of the 
realme, the scorning-stocke of the world. 
Nashe had earlier (1591) as Adam Foule- 
weather, Student in Asse-tronomy, paro- 
died a poor astrological prediction of 
Gabriel Harvey's brother Richard, and 
returned to the attack the next year in 

PIERCE PENILESSE HIS SUPPLICATION TO THE 

DIVELL, in which Nashe boasts: Have I not 
an indifferent prittye vayne in spurgalling 
an asse? Spurgall means to gall, injure, 
with the spur. It was also used figuratively, 



117 



bumbailiff 

as when the Water Poet (WORKS; 1630) 
said: Like to a post lie runne through 
thicke and thin To scourge iniquity and 
spurgall sinne. Many that run on that 
errand find themselves fallen on their 
bum. 

bumbailiff. A bailiff; one that makes ar- 
rests. The term is one of contempt (bum, 
buttocks; cp. bumrowl) , implying that the 
bailiff is close upon the debtor's back. The 
similar French word is pousse-cul. Shake- 
speare in TWELFTH NIGHT (1601) says: 
Scout mee for him at the corner of the 
orchard like a bum-baylie. The word was 
used by Washington Irving and Thack- 
eray (1859) . A similar word of scorn was 
bumtrap; The noble bumtrap, observes 
Fielding in TOM JONES (1749) into the 
hands of the jailer resolves to deliver his 
miserable prey. Tucker in THE LIGHT OF 
NATURE PURSUED (1768) spoke of the two 
necessary ministers of justice, a bumbailiff 
and Jack Ketch. 

bumboat. A scavenger's boat for remov- 
ing filth from ships on the Thames. Ap- 
parently from bum, buttocks + boat; a 
bumbay on a farm was a pool formed by 
draining dung, etc. Bumboats were made 
requisite for London harbor, by a law 
of 1685. They often carried robbers to the 
ships. As they also carried provisions to 
sell on the ships, the word bumboat 
(after the earlier practice ended) came 
to mean a boat carrying things to sell to 
ships anchored offshore. This 19th cen- 
tury use, frequent in the nautical novels 
of Frederick Marryat, is kept alive in 
Gilbert's H.M.S. PINAFORE (1878) : Little 
Buttercup is a bumboat woman. 

btunrowl. A bustle, or other protuberant 
part of the feminine skirts; especially, 
stuffed cushions or padding worn about 
the hips. Cp. dress-improver. Also bum- 



burdash 

roll} bum-barrel. From bum, the buttocks. 
Bum was frequently combined, especially 
by 17th century playwrights. Thus bum- 
blade, bum-dagger, a wide one, for strik- 
ing with the flat, bumfodder (Latin anit- 
ergium; anus, bum + tergere f to wipe) , 
worthless literature; French torchecul, 
used in Urquhart's translation (1653) of 
Rabelais. A bumbrusher (18th century) 
a flagellant or flogger; a schoolmaster; 
hence (Peter Pindar, ODE, 1786) bumproof 
to all the flogging of the schools. In Jon- 
son's THE POETASTER (1601) the lady 
Chloe, married to a plain citizen, com- 
plains: Nor you nor your house were so 
much as spoken of, before I disbased my- 
self, from my hood and my farthingal, to 
these bumrowls and your whale-bone 
bodice. The next year, Warner in ALBION'S 
ENGLAND pictured another woman: Sup- 
porters, poolers, fardingales above the 
loynes to waire, That be she near so 
bombe-thin yet she cross-like seems foure- 
squaire. 

burd. See berne. 

burdash. A foppish adornment to a 
man's costume, in the reigns of Queen 
Anne and George I: a fringed sash, or a 
kind of cravat. Steele in THE GUARDIAN 
(1713) says: / have prepared a treatise 
against the cravat and berdash. Sometimes 
spelled bardash, and influenced by that 
word (meaning catamite, effeminate, 
from Arabic bardaj, slave) . Butler in 
HUDIBRAS (1678) speaks of Raptures of 
Platonick lashing And chast contempla- 
tive bar dashing. There is double play in 
Mrs. Centlivre's words of 1721 of an 
effeminate man with your false calves, 
burdash, and favorites. The last word 
meant curls dangling at the temples; but 
which meaning of burdash had she in 
mind? 



118 



burden 

burden. The bass, or accompaniment, 
of a song; see bourdon. By extension and 
more commonly, the refrain or chorus of 
a song or stanza. Figuratively, the main 
idea or tenor, or chief sentiment. Cp. 
dildo; for an instance of its use, see 
whist. 

burel. A coarse woolen cloth; a garment 
made thereof; hence, plain clothing. Used 
from the 13th into the 17th century. The 
original color was probably reddish-brown, 
from Latin burrus, red. Other forms were 
borel, barrel, burrell. The French form 
bureau, from the fact that this coarse 
cloth (baize) was used for the top of 
a writingdesk, came to be used for the 
desk, and gave us the current bureau. 
The form borrel, borel (because the clergy 
never used such coarse cloth) came in 
the 14th century to be applied as an 
adjective, meaning belonging to the laity. 
Hence, by the 16th century, borrel (also 
b or owe, borou) , unlearned, rude, rough. 
Gascoigne in A HUNDRETH SUNDRIE FLOWERS 
(1572) said: My borrell braine is all too 
blunt To give a gesse. Spenser in THE 
SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR (1579) uses borrell 
to mean a plain fellow. 

bum. Besides the current sense of a 
burn, the result of contact with excessive 
heat, burn as a noun was (1) a short 
form of burden; since the 14th century. 
(2) a spring, fountain; a brook. It was 
also used of water from a well since 
the 9th century and, poetically, of the 
sea. Hence also burngate, a water course; 
burnside, burnhead, burnmouth; now 
preserved in place names. Burn, as a 
brook, is still current in dialects. Note that 
the idea is related to burning, as a torrent 
is from Latin torrere, to scorch, whence 
also the torrid zone. 



burridge. See bugloss. 



by-and-by 

burthen. A variant of burden (16th-18th 
century) . See dildo. 

buskin. A half-boot, reaching to the calf, 
sometimes to the knee. Especially, the 
high, thick-soled cothurnus worn by the 
tragic actors of ancient Greece, as op- 
posed to the comic sock (soccus) or low 
shoe. Hence, buskin is used to signify 
tragic style or matter, as in the phrase 
to put on the buskin. In Spenser; Dryden 
(TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, 1679, Preface) : I 
doubt to smell a little too strongly of the 
buskin. A buskinade is a kick with a 
buskin; see brodekin. Many writers use 
buskined, meaning shod with, buskins; 
thus Shakespeare in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S 
DREAM (1590) : The bouncing Amazon 
Your buskin' d mistresse and Pope in 
WINDSOR FOREST (1704) : Her buskin' d 
virgins without suggestion of tragedy. 
Marlowe in HERO AND LEANDER (finished 
by Chapman; 1598) pictures artificial 
birds singing on Hero's legs: Buskins of 
shels all silvered used she, and brancht 
with blushing corall to the knee, Where 
sparrowes pearcht, of hollow pearle and 
gold, Such as the world would woonder to 
behold: Those with sweet water oft her 
handmaid ftls, Which as shee went would 
cherupe through the bils. 

buss. See bass. Shakespeare in KING LEAR 
(1605) declares: You have heard of the 
news . . . I mean the whispered ones, for 
they are yet but ear-bussing arguments. 

buxom. See bucksome. 

by-and-by. Immediately. Thus presently 
originally meant at the present moment, 
at once. The dilatory tendency of human 
nature drew both terms to their current 
protraction. Merygreeke says of the title 
figure in UdalFs RALPH ROISTER DOISTER 
(1558) : // any woman smyle, or cast on 



119 



by-blow 

hym an eye } Up is he to the harde eares 
in love by-and-by. 

by-blow. A side stroke. Hence other 
meanings grew: (1) a calamity as a side 
effect of the main action, as in the state- 
ment that inequality is a by-blow of 
man's fall; (2) a blow that misses its 
aim, as in Bunyan's PILGRIM'S PROGRESS 

(1684) : Now also with their by-blows 
they did split the very stones in pieces; 

(3) an illegitimate child an unintended 
side-effect; thus Motteux in his transla- 
tion (1708) of Rabelais remarks that 
Kind Venus cured her beloved by-blow 
Aeneas-, and Browning in THE RING AND 
THE BOOK (1868) refers to A drab's brat, 
a beggar's bye-blow. 

bycorne. See chichevache. 

byental. An 18th century term for "the 
yard or privy member of a horse." 



byrlakin 

bynempt. Named; called. Old past par- 
ticiple of bename. Used in THE SHEPHERD'S 
CALENDAR (1579; JUNE) by Spenser. 

byrespect. Attention paid to something 
other than the apparent purpose; a side 
aim; an ulterior motive. Used 16th to 
18th century; Burkitt ON THE NEW TESTA- 
MENT (1703) exclaimed: How natural it 
is for men to seek Christ for sinister ends 
and byrespects! 

byrlakin. A contraction of By Our Lady- 
kin, by our darling lady referring to 
the Virgin Mary, and used as a mild oath. 
Also the simpler byrlady berlady, bur- 
lady, birlady, byleddy; bylakin, belakin, 
berlakin, and more. Shakespeare swears 
Berlady thirtie yeares in ROMEO AND JULIET 
(1592) and Berlaken, a parlous feare in 

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 



120 



cabbage. See caboche. 

cablish. Brushwood. Its disposition was 
covered by law. Originally the word meant 
trees or branches blown down by the 
wind. 

caboche. To cut off the head (of a deer) 
close behind the horns. Via French from 
Italian capocchia, big head, from capo, 
head. It is sometimes spelled cabage, 
through confusion with the early verb 
to cabbage, to grow or come to a head 
(like the horns of a deer) . As the head 
of the vegetable is removed when it has 
"cabbaged," so was the head of the deer. 

cacafuego. A braggart; a spitfire (etymo- 
logically, the second letter of spitfire 
should be h: Latin cacare, Spanish cagar, 
to void excrement -f Spanish fuego, fire) . 
The word came into English as a term of 
contempt because it was the name of the 
Spanish galleon Drake captured in 1577. 
Bailey explains it, in 1731, as the name 
of a Spanish fly that by night darts fire 
from its tail. Fletcher in THE FAIR MAID 
OF THE INN (1625) cries: She will be 
ravished before our faces by rascals and 
cacafugos, wife, cacafugoes! 

cachespeU. Tennis. The 16th and 17th 
century term, from Flemish caestespeel, 
from French chasse, chase + speel, play. 
Also the Dutch kaats, place where the ball 
hits the ground. There were many spell- 
ings cachepule, kaichspell, cachespale, 
etc. in the 16th century, before the 



French name for the game, tennis, took 
its place. 

cachexy. A depraved condition: of a per- 
son body or mind or of a state, as 
MACMILLAN'S MAGAZINE of November 1883 
said that Ireland lies fretful and wrathful 
under a grim social cachexy of distress- 
ful centuries. From Greek kakos, bad + 
exia, exis, habit, state, exein, to have, to 
be in a condition. Hence also cachectic, 
cachectical, cacexicate, cachexicate* 

Other English words come from Greek 
kakos, bad. Cack, to void excrement (see 
cacafuego) ; Cranmer in 1549 tells of a 
man who cached out the Devil. The fish 
cackerel was a small Mediterranean fish, 
eaten only by the poor, so-called in scorn; 
others, as Johnson records in 1755, say 
that eating it is laxative, cacodaemon, an 
evil spirit, a nightmare; caco demoniac, 
one possessed; cacodemonic, bringing mis- 
fortune, cacochyme, cacochymic, full of 
evil humors, cacodorous. cacodox, hold- 
ing evil opinions: cacodoxy. cacoethes (4 
syllables) , an evil habit, an 'itch' to do, 
as the insanabile cacoethes scribendi (in- 
curable itch to write) Addison (1713) 
quotes from Juvenal, saying it is as epi- 
demical as the small pox. cacolike was a 
16th and 17th century scornful perversion 
of Catholic, cacology, ill report; bad 
speaking, cacomagician, sorcerer. There 
are others, in medicine and prosody (caco- 
phonous, cacorhythmic, etc) . Jeremy 
Bentham, countering More's Utopia, sup- 



121 



cachinnate 



caddis 



poses a Cacotopla or worst possible gov- 
ernment. The O.E.D. (1933) probably 
errs in calling Bentham mistaken. Eras- 
mus, when he wrote IN PRAISE OF FOLLY, 
was living with More, and the Latin title 
is a pun on More's name (as though IN 
PRAISE OF MORE: ENCOMIUM MORIAE) . 
More punned in his title UTOPIA: the 
beautiful (eu-) place that is no (ou-) 
place. The world must be ever vigilant, 
to avoid Cacotopia. cacozelia (perverse 
imitation, like "copying the cough of 
genius" or the manners and tactics of a 
Hitler) is quite pervasive, easily caught. 
It is sometimes spelled cacozeal, which is, 
more properly, misdirected zeal; whence 
cacozealot; cacozealous. cacozelia (the 
term) was used especially in the 16th and 
17th centuries, as by Spenser and Putten- 
ham; Bulwer (1644) warns lest imitation 
degenerate into cacozeale, developing a 
left-handed Cicero. 

cachinnate. To laugh loud and long, im- 
moderately. From the 15th century, 
through Browning (THE RING AND THE 
BOOK, 1868) ; the practice extends farther. 
Scott, in GUY MANNERING (1815) mentions 
the hideous grimaces which attended this 
unusual cachinnation. Also cachinnator; 
cachinnatory. Sometimes in the theatre 
one can sympathize with Hawthorne, who 

in MOSSES FROM AN OLD MANSE (1846) 

threatened instant death on the slightest 
cachinnatory indulgence. 

caco-. A combining form meaning bad 
or evil, from Greek kakos, bad. See 
cachexy. 

cacodemon. See cachexy; eudemon. 

cacography. (1) Bad handwriting. The 
opposite of calligraphy. (2) Bad spelling. 
The opposite of orthography. Also a bad 
system of spelling, such as says O.E.D., 
abandoning historical perspective "that 



of current English". Also cacographic; 
cacographer. Used from the 16th century. 

Cp. cachexy. 

cacuminous. Pointed; of a tree, pyrami- 
dal in shape. Latin cacuminem } point, 
peak, top. Hence cacuminate, to sharpen, 
especially at the top, as with a stake; to 
shape like a pyramid; also cacumination. 
M. Collins in PEN SKETCHES (1879) wrote 
of Luminous books (not voluminous) To 
read under beech-trees cacuminous. 

cad. See cadcatcher. 

cadcatcher. A cheap article for sale, es- 
pecially prepared to ensnare the undis- 
criminating. A 19th century term from 
cad . Before its current meaning of a vulgar 
person, cad grew through several senses. 
In the 17th century, it meant a goblin, a 
familiar spirit, as when Bishop King wrote 
in his POEMS (1657) : Rebellion wants no 
cad nor elfe But is a perfect witchcraft of 
itself. In the 18th century, it was used for 
an unbooked passenger in a coach, whose 
fare was pocketed by the driver; in the 
19th, for an assistant or helper; a cheap 
laborer; an omnibus conductor (Hood; 
Dickens, PICKWICK PAPERS; Thackeray, THE 
BOOK OF SNOBS) ; then as a school term 
(Eton, Oxford; in Scotland, caddie) for 
a fellow that did odd jobs, as around the 
sporting fields, then contemptuously, for 
a townsman (as opposed to a gownsman) . 
Hence, the current use. 

caddis. A yarn; a worsted tape, used for 
garters and the like; hence, short for cad- 
dis ribbon or caddis garter. Shakespeare 
uses it in THE WINTER'S TALE (1610) : He 
hath ribbons of all the colors i* the rain- 
bow, points more than all the lawyers in 
Bohemia can learnedly handle, though 
they come to him by the gross inkles, 
caddises, cambrics, lawns; and in HENRY 

IV, PART ONE. 



122 



cade 

cade. (1) a barrel, from Latin cadus, a 
large earthenware vessel. From the 14th 
through the 18th century, especially a 
barrel of herrings holding six great hun- 
dreds (6 score in a great hundred) ; later 
the cade held 500. (2) A pet; a lamb or a 
foal raised by hand; hence, a spoiled or 
petted child. See cosset. (3) A kind of 
juniper bush, yielding cade oil, used by 
veterinarians. To cade may mean, from 
(1) , to put into a keg or, from (2) , to 
pamper. 

cadent. Falling. Latin cadentem, falling; 
cadere, to fall. Shakespeare in KING LEAR 
(1605) : With cadent tears fret channels 
in her cheeks. 

Cadmean. Related to the Phoenician 
Cadmus, brother of Europa, founder of 
Thebes, who brought the alphabet to 
Greece. He killed a dragon and sowed its 
teeth, whereupon armed men sprang from 
the ground; he threw a stone amongst 
them and they at once attacked one an- 
other; all perished save five, who helped 
Cadmus build his. city. From his legend 
come two uses of Cadmean, Cadmian: 

(1) Tennyson in a poem of 1868 speaks of 
Dragon warriors from Cadmean teeth; 

(2) a Cadmean victory, a victory involv- 
ing the winner's ruin like that of World 
War II and thereafter. 

caducous. Fleeting, transitory; liable to 
fall; infirm, feeble. Also (15th through 
17th century) caduce, caduke. Latin cadu- 
cus; cadere, to fall. In biology, caducous 
is used of parts that fall off naturally 
when they have served their purpose. Cax- 
ton in the translation (1484) of THE 

CURIAL MADE BY MAYSTRE ALAIN CHARRETIER 

wrote: Our lyf . . . ne hath glory mon- 
dayne ne pompe caduque wythoute ad- 
versyte. And Biggs in THE NEW DISPENSA- 
TION (1651) noted that caduce, specious 
and seductive chameleon, reason. 



calamist 

caffa. A cloth, of rich silk, popular in the 
16th century. Also capha. The Wardrobe 
Accounts of King Henry VIII (for 18 
May, 1531) list white caffa for the Kinges 
grace. Cavendish in THE LYFFE AND DEATHE 

OF CARD YN ALL WOOLSEY ( (1557) Spoke of 

Woolsey's habytt, which was other of 
fynne skarlett or elles of crymmosyn sat- 
ten, taffeta, dammaske, or caffa, the best 
that he could gett for money. 

cagastric. Sent by an evil star; used by 
Paracelsus of certain diseases, fevers, or 
the plague. Also, under the baneful in- 
fluence of a star. Thus cagastrical; from 
(?) cacos-, evil + aster, star; cp. cachexy. 

caitiff. A captive; later, a poor wretch; 
a despicable wretch, a villain. In many 
spellings, including caytive, chaytif, via 
French from Latin captivus, captive. A 
very common word from the 13th through 
the 17th century. Also caitifhede, wretch- 
edness; wickedness; caitifly; caitifty, cap- 
tivity; wretchedness; villainy. Wyclif and 
Chaucer use the verb caitive, caytifue, to 
imprison. Caitisned, chained, listed in 
Bailey's DICTIONARY (1751) and elsewhere 
as used by Chaucer, is a 1560 misprint for 
caytifued, in Chaucer's TESTAMENT OF 
LOVE (1400). 

calamist. A piper. From Latin calamus, 
reed, which is used in English as the name 
of various reeds and rushes, especially the 
sweet flag. In Whitman's LEAVES OF GRASS, 
the section of 45 poems first published in 
1860 is called CALAMUS. Possibly from the 
curling leaves of rushes came Latin cal- 
amistrum, curling-iron, whence 17th cen- 
tury English (Burton, ANATOMY OF MEL- 
ANCHOLY; 1621) calamistrate (accent on 
the mis) , to curl or frizzle the hair. Also 
in the 17th century: calamize, to pipe or 
sing. 



123 



calash 



calewise 



calash. A light carriage with low wheels 
and a removable top. Hence also, the 
folding hood of a carriage, a perambula- 
tor, etc. In the 18th and 19th centuries, 
a woman's hood, supported by whalebone 
or cane hoops, projecting beyond the face, 
as in Mrs. Gaskell's CRANFORD (1867) ; 
Three or -four ladies in calashes met at 
Miss Barker's door. From French caleche, 
from the Slavonic, kolasa, wheel-carriage, 
kolo, wheel. A small two-wheeled carriage 
in Canada, usually without a cover, is 
still called a caleche. 

calcate. To trample or stamp upon. From 
Latin calcare, from calx, heel. BLACKWOOD'S 
EDINBURGH MAGAZINE of 1822 remarks that 
even a few supernumerary calcations 
would have been overlooked. A calcatory 
was a 15th century term for a winepress, 
where the grapes are stamped upon. Com- 
binations formed with calcar, such as 
calcarine, calcariferous, spur-like, bearing 
spurs, are from Latin calcar, spur, from 
calx, calcis, heel. Calceate is a 17th and 
18th century term for shod, from Latin 
calceus, shoe. The Fathers Calceate were 
the moderate Carmelites, "of the rule re- 
laxed," who did not go barefoot. Hence 
also calced and discalced, shod and un- 
shod. Calceolate means shaped like a slip- 
per, used in botany today, the genus 
calceolaria. Calcimine, however, calcium 
and its many compounds and related 
words, are from the Latin calx, colds, 
meaning lime. The change of heat-rays 
from non-luminous to luminous, which 
Tyndall (1872) called calorescence, was 
earlier called calcescence, because it hap- 
pened in the lime-light. I suppose cal- 
cescence is the main process in the crea- 
tion of a Hollywood star. 

calcey. Causeway. Also calcetum. Listed 
as old by Bailey, 1751. 

calcium. See calcate. 



124 



caldese. See chaldese. 

calendar. In addition to its still current 
senses (in use since the 14th century) 
calendar was used to mean a guide, a 
model Chaucer (LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN; 
1385); Shakespeare (HAMLET; 1602): He 
is the card or calendar of gentry. Also, a 
list, as of canonized saints (17th century) 
or of prisoners awaiting trial (16th cen- 
tury) ; a record; Shakespeare (ALL'S WELL 
THAT ENDS WELL) : The kalender of my 
past en devours. Also, a record in the sense 
of a sign; Lodge (EUPHUES GOLDEN LEGEND; 
1590) : Nor are the dimples in the face 
the calendars of truth. 

calenture. A tropical disease afflicting 
sailors, who in delirium fancy the ocean 
to be a green field and wish to leap into 
it and play. It is also used figuratively, of 
a burning passion or zeal, as in a poem 
(1631) of Donne: Knowledge kindles cal- 
entures in some. Pure chastity, Bishop 
Thomas Ken piously observed in 1711, 
excels in gust The calentures of baneful 
lust Congreve in LOVE FOR LOVE (1695) 
uses the word to mean the victims of the 
disease, as Ben exclaims: / believe all the 
calentures of the sea are come ashore. 

calepin. A dictionary, especially a poly- 
glot. Figuratively, a note-book; to bring 
one to one's calepin, to the limits of one's 
information, one's wit's end. From Am- 
brosio Calepino, of Calepio, Italy, an Aug- 
ustine friar who in 1502 published a Latin 
DICTIONARY that was the standard for the 
century; an edition in eight languages 
was issued in 1609. Taxations, monopolies, 
tolls, protested Drummond of Hawthorn- 
den in 1649, such impositions as would 
trouble many calepines to give names 
unto. 

calewise. Warmly. Latin calere, to be 
warm. In 18th century dictionaries. 



calibogus 

calibogus. A mixture of rum and spruce 
beer, imbibed by misguided Americans in 
the 18th and 19th centuries; as L. de 
Boileau described it in his RECOLLECTIONS 
OF LABRADOR LIFE (1861) , "more of (he 
former and less of the latter." 

calicrat. An ant. A 16th century term, 
apparently from Calibrates, a Greek artist, 
mentioned by Pliny, who specialized in 
sculptures minute ivory carvings of ants 
and other tiny creatures. 

caligate. Wearing military boots. From 
Latin caliga, half-boot, worn by the 
Roman soldiers, A caligate knight , in the 
16th century, was one that fought on foot. 

caliginous. Obscure; dark. Latin caligi- 
nem, obscurity, mistiness. Caliginosity, 
dimness of sight. Used mainly in the 16th 
and 17th century, but Mrs. Piozzi is not 
the only one who commented (1794) on 
the caliginous atmosphere of London', and 
Bulwer-Lytton in THE CAXTONS (1849) 
has: Her lone little room, full of cali- 
ginous corners and nooks. 

calino. A rascal. French calin, *a beg- 
garly rogue or lazie vagabond that coun- 
terfeits disease/ Nashe in LENTEN STUFFE 

(1599) spoke of our English harmonious 
calinos. The word may be corrupted from 
an Irish song, calino custure me, popular 
about 1600. Shakespeare in HENRY v 

(1599) makes Pistol, when his prisoner 
speaks French, respond in meaningless 
English: Qualtitie calmie custure me. 

callet. A lewd woman, a strumpet. Also 
calat, kallat, calot, etc. Shakespeare in 
OTHELLO (1604) : A beggar in his drink 
Could not have laid such terms upon his 
callet', Burns* THE JOLLY BEGGARS (1785) : 
I'm as happy with my wallet, my bottle 
and my callet. As a verb callet means to 
scold, to rail, and sometimes the noun is 



callipygean 

used as a general term of abuse, meaning 
no more than 'a scold' thus used in GAM- 
MER GURTON'S NEEDLE (1575) , by Skelton, 
by Stanyhurst, by Shakespeare (THE WIN- 
TER'S TALE, 1611): A callat of boundless 
tongue, who late hath beat her husband, 
and now baits me. 

calliblephary. A coloring for the eye-lids. 
Greek kallos, beauty + blepharon, eye-lid. 
Accent on the bleph. Robert Lovell, in A 

COMPLEAT HISTORY OF ANIMALS AND MINER- 
ALS (1661) recommends: the marrow of 
the right fore legge with soot . . . serveth 
for a calliblephary. Modern maids have 
other modes. 

callidity. Cunning, craftiness. From Latin 
callidus, skilful, crafty (in good or bad 
sense) . Used in 16th, 17th and 18th cen- 
turies, but ERASER'S MAGAZINE in 1833 
spoke of persons that suspect their own 
intimate friends of callidity. The formality 
of the term seems somewhat to lessen the 
offence. 

callipygean. "Largely composed behind," 
as Sir Thomas Browne put it in 1646. 
From Greek kalos, kallos, beauty -f pyge, 
buttocks. Also callipygian, callipygous; cp. 
aischrology. The word kalos was also used 
of moral values; the Greeks set in opposi- 
tion to kalon kai to aischron; the Romans, 
honestum et turpe; the English, virtue and 
vice. And also callipygy, beauty behind. 
Lyly in EUPHUES (1580) tells, of the 
ancient artists: Zeuxis having before him 
fiftie faire virgins of Sparta whereby to 
draw one amiable Venus, said, that fiftie 
more fayrer than those coulde not minister 
sufficient beautie to shewe the godesse of 
beautie, therefore being in dispaire either 
by art to shadow hir, or by imagination to 
comprehend hir, he drew in a table a 
faire temple, the gates open, and Venus 
going in, so as nothing coulde be per- 



125 



caltrop 

ceived but her backe, wherein he used 
such cunning that Appelles himselfe, see- 
ing this worke, wished that Venus would 
turn hir face, saying that if it were in all 
paries agreeable to the backe, he would 
become apprentice to Zeuxis, and slave to 
Venus. It may not be impious to note that 
another god himself said (BIBLE: EXODUS 
33) : And it shall come to pass, while my 
glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a 
clift of the rock, and will cover thee with 
my hand as I pass by: And I will take 
away mine hand, and thou shalt see my 
back parts: but my face shall not be seen. 
This takes us on philosophical roundings. 
As might be expected of the Victorian 
era, THE ATHENAEUM of 17 October, 1885, 
speaks of the callipygian luxuriance he so 
deplores. 

caltrop. A snare. Originally a trap to 
catch the feet of men or horses in war, 
and of hunted beasts; probably from Latin 
calx, heel -h Old High German trapo 
(Latin trappd) , trap. Spelled in many 
ways: coltetraeppe, calteroope } calthrap, 
galtrop, etc. In the 16th and 17th cen- 
turies, an iron ball with four prongs so 
arranged that one always pointed up, flung 
on the ground to hinder charging cavalry. 
Also used figuratively as by Dekker in THE 
WHORE OF BABYLON (1607) : // ever I come 
back I'll be a calthrop to prick my coun- 
tries feet that tread on me. 

cam. See kam. 

camarane. A fetid marsh or swamp. From 
Camarina, a town in Sicily beside a pesti- 
lential marsh. Thomas Newton in 1576 
speaks of a man who can wade into the 
very gulph and camarine of man's ap- 
parant wzlfulnesse. Paul Rycant, in his 
translation (1681) of Gracian's THE 
CRITICK, speaks of camarines of customs, 
which use to envenome and infect the 
soule. 



camlet 

cambium. (1) Exchange; a place of ex- 
change. Late Latin cambium, exchange. 
A cambist was a dealer in bills of ex- 
change; by extension, a manual of meas- 
ures, weights, etc. Hence also cambistry. 
(2) One of the ' 'alimentary humours" 
supposed to nourish the body; in 1708 
Kersey's DICTIONARY lists three, the other 
two "being called gluten and ros." (3) 
The cellular tissue in which the annual 
growth of wood and bark takes place. By 
extension from (2) and still used in 
botany. 

cambrel. A bent piece of wood or iron, 
on which butchers hung meat. J. Jackson 
in 1641 pictured a man crucified head 
downward, like a sheep upon the cambrel. 
Also cambren, perhaps the original form, 
Welsh cam, crooked (surviving in arms 
akimbo) + pren, wood. 

camis. A light loose silk or linen dress; 
a shirt. Via Spanish camisa from Late 
Latin camisia, tunic, shirt. The French 
form is the familiar chemise; the English 
has many: camus; camise (from Arabic 
gamic, which occurs in the KORAN but is 
probably borrowed from Latin) ; camisole., 
a negligee jacket; also, a strait jacket. 
Spenser in THE FAERIE QUEENE (1596) tells 
of a woman who was yclad, for heat of 
scorching aire } All in a silken camus lily 
white. 

camisado. A night attack. The word, fre- 
quent in the 16th and 17th centuries, is 
liteially (Spanish) "shirted"; see camis. 
The attackers wore a white shirt over their 
armor so as to be recognized by one an- 
other in the dark. 

camlet. Originally a beautiful and costly 
eastern fabric, made especially in the 
16th and 17th centuries of the hair of 
the angora goat. Also (and in French) 
camelot, from Arabic kernel, angora 



126 



campes trial 

sometimes confused with camel, though 
the cloth was never made of camel's hair. 
There was also a "watered" camlet, with 
a wavy surface, and as a verb to camlet 
came to mean to mark with wavy lines; 
Edmund Bolton in his translation (1618) 

Of THE ROMAN HISTORIES OF LUCIUS JULIUS 

FLORUS speaks of cassocks chambleted with 
figures of palms. The word was also used 
of a garment made of the material. Later 
camlet was made of mohair, then spun of 
wool and silk, then wool and linen or 
cotton. By 1815 tents were made of it, of 
a kind of black blanket, or rather of 
coarse camlet. Then it dropped out of use. 

campestrial. Also campestral. See champ- 
estrial. 

campion. An earlier (later, a Scotch) 
form of champion. The Late Latin was 
campionem, a fighter on the campus, a 
field for pugilistic contests as the campus 
may still be. See champestrial. 

canary. (1) A lively dance, or the music 
thereto. Also to canary, to dance. Shake- 
speare in ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL 
(1601) has a medicine Thafs able to 
breath life into a stone, Quicken a rock, 
and make you dance canari; in LOVE'S 
LABOUR'S LOST, jig off a tune, at the 
tongue's end, canary to it with your feet. 
Other writers of the time usually employed 
the plural; Nashe (1592) ; Dekker in THE 

SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF LONDON (1606) : 

They would make all the hogges-heads 
that use to come to the house, to dance the 
cannaries till they reeld againe. (2) A 
light sweet wine. Both of these come from 
the Canary Islands, which also gave their 
name to the yellow songster but took it 
(Latin canaria insula, island o the dogs; 
cants, dog) from the dogs that used to 
roam there. Also (3) a quandary; an 
anticipatory malapropism by Mistress 
Quickly in THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR: 



canicular 

You have brought her into such a ca- 
naries; the best courtier of them all could 
never have brought her to such a canarie. 

candicant. Waxing white, like the morn- 
ing; whitish. To candicate is to turn 
(something) white; to grow white. Rare 
words both, ultimately from Latin candi- 
dus, white whence also candidate, be- 
cause aspirants to office in Rome wore a 
white toga. Dictionaries of the 18th cen- 
tury include canitude, hoariness, white- 
ness probably in error from this source. 

candlewaster. One that 'wastes candles' 
by study late at night. Applied in scorn 
to fruitless elucubration. Jonson in CYN- 
THIA'S REVELS (1599) speaks of a whoreson 
bookworm, a candle-waster. Shakespeare 

in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (1599) bids 

Patch griefe with proverbs, make misfor- 
tune drunke With candlew asters. 

canephor. One that bears a basket on 
her head. Also canephora, canephorus; 
Greek caneon, basket + phoros, carrying. 
Applied in ancient Greece to a maiden 
bearing the sacred items for the feasts of 
Demeter, Bacchus, and Athena. FRASER'S 
MAGAZINE of 1849 said: To be chosen 
canephor was as if 'Beautiful* were 
stamped on the lintel of a woman's door. 

canescent. See canons. 

canicular. Relating to a dog. Latin cani- 
cula, diminutive of canis, dog. In Latin 
the diminutive was used to name the dog- 
star; thus usually also in English. The 
canicular days, the dog-days, around the 
rising of the dog-star (Sirius or Procyon), 
about 1 1 August. Caniculars has also been 
used to mean doggerel verses. Harvey in 
his FOURE LETTERS (1592) declared: // 
Mother Hubbard . . . happen to tel one 
canicular tale, father Elderton and his 
sonne Greene will counterfeit an hundred 



127 



canion 

dogged fables, libles, calumnies, slaunders, 
lies -for the whetstone, what not, and most 
currishly snarle and bite where they should 
most kindly fawne and licke. 

canion. Used in the plural, of rolls of 
cloth 'laid like sausages" round the bot- 
tom of breeches-legs. A style for men in 
the 16th and 17th centuries. Pepys in his 
DIARY of 2,4 May, 1660, says: Made myself 
as fine as I could, with the linning stock- 
ings on and wide canons. (The word was 
also spelled cannons and cannions.) Por- 
traits of Henry III of France and his 
Court show costumes with cannions. 

canitude. See candicant. 

cankedort. A critical situation; "a woful 
case" (Bailey, 1751). Chaucer in TROYLUS 
AND CRISEYDE (1374) inquires: Was Troy- 
lus nought in a kankedortf Also (Med- 
wall, 1500) : That were a shrewd crank- 
dort. The etymology is unknown. 

canorus. Melodious; singing; resonant. 
Latin canorem, song; canere, to sing. De 
Quincey in his CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH 
OPIUM-EATER (1822) breaks into a long, 
loud, and canorous peal of laughter. Lo- 
well remarks in AMONG MY BOOKS (1870) : 
He chooses his language for its rich can- 
orousness rather than /or intensity of 
meaning. 

canous. Hoary; grey. Used in the 16th 
century; also canois, canus; Latin canus, 
hoary. Thus canescent, growing gray; 
rather hoary; dull white. Also canescence} 
R, Burton in EL MEDINAH (1855) wrote: 
All colour melts away with the canescence 
from above. The sky is of a dead milk- 
white. 

cantankerous. See conteck. 



capelclawer 

blister-fly.) Also cantharids, cantarides. 
Used figuratively, as by Jonson in THE 
POETASTER (1601) : I, you whoreson can- 
tharides! was it If Burke in THE FRENCH 
REVOLUTION (1790) : cantharides to our 
love of liberty. Guilpin in SKIALETHEIA 
("SHADOW OF TRUTH"; 1598) said of satires 
and epigrams: They are philosophicke true 
cantharides To vanities dead flesh. An epi- 
grame Is popish displing [discipline], re- 
bell flesh to tame: A plain dealing lad, that 
is not afraid To speak the truth, but calls a 
jade a jade. And Mounsieur Guulard [Big- 
gullet] was not much to blame When he for 
meat mistook an epigrame, For though it 
be no cates, sharpe sauce it is To lickerous 
vanitie, youths sweet amisse. We no longer 
use amiss (q.v.) as a noun; and, for the 
most part, we no longer use cantharides 
as an aphrodisiac. 

cantle. A nook or corner; especially, a 
projecting corner of land. Hence, a corner 
sliced off; by extension, a slice of bread, 
a section of anything (especially, a seg- 
ment of a circle or sphere) , a separate 
part or portion. Also the bump at the 
back of a horse's saddle, the bar at the 
back of a earners. Figuratively (Scotch) , 
the crown of the head, as in /'// crack his 
cantle for him. Chaucer in THE KNIGHT'S 
TALE (1386) : For Nature has not taken 
his beginning Of no par tie ne cantel of 
a thing. Shakespeare uses the word in 
HENRY iv PART ONE (but see scantle); also 
in ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA (1606) : The 
greater cantle of the world is lost With 
very ignorance a remark not of an age 
but for our time. 

capel. See caple. In alchemy capel, cap- 
pell was also the name for a large crucible 
or furnace. 



cantharides. The dried beetle or Spanish capelclawer. A groom, a horse-scrubber, 
fly; formerly used as an aphrodisiac. (Four Hence, a scurvy fellow. So used in PO- 
syllables; plural of Greek kantharis, LITICAL SONGS of the time of Henry III 

128 



capha 

and Edward I, collected by Thomas 
Wright, 1839. Cp. caple. 

capha. See caffa. 

capilotade. A meat dish; in the 17th and 
18th centuries, usually capirotade: of 
stewed veal, capon, chicken, or partridge 
minced, spiced, and laid upon several 
beds of cheese. Rabelais uses the form 
cabirotade; perhaps the word is from capi- 
rote, hood: a covered dish. Another old 
recipe worth re-trying. The word was 
applied figuratively to "a cooked-up story": 
Vanbrugh in THE CONFEDERACY (1705) 
has: What a capilotade of a story's here! 

capistrate. To muzzle. A rare word of 
the 17th and 18th centuries, from Latin 
capistrum, halter, Latin caput, head. 

caple. A horse. Also cab all (not to be 
confused with cabal 3 cabbala, from the 
Hebrew) , cap el, capul, capil, capylle and 
the like (Drayton uses cauple) round- 
about from Latin caballus, horse, which 
by French routes gives us chevalier and 
cavalier. Chaucer in THE FRERES TALE 

(1386) says: Bothe hey and cart and elk 
his caples three. Drayton (1603) pictures 
the course of the sun: Phoebus took his 
lab'ring teame . . . To wash his cauples 
in the ocean streame. Scott in IVANHOE 

(1819) revived the word, borrowing my 
neighbour 3uthan's good capul. 

capnomancy. See aeromancy. 

capocchia. Simpleton, blockhead. Italian 
capocchio, from capo, head. The word in 
English is a suggestion by Theobald 

(1726; SHAKESPEARE RESTORED, which CTlti- 

cized Pope's edition of Shakespeare, after 
which Theobald was made the chief butt 
in Pope's DUNCIAD) . Theobald suggests 
capocchia as the correct reading, in TRO 
ILUS AND CRESSIDA (1606) : Alas poore 
wretch: a poor chipochia. 



capul 

capot. To win all the tricks in the game 
(of piquet) . The player who fails to make 
a single trick is capot. The game was in- 
troduced into England from France in the 
17th century. Capot is also a variant spell- 
ing of capote (augmentative form of 
French cape, cape) , a long mantle for 
women or cloak for men. Capote (Latin 
caput } head) is also used for a close- 
fitting hat, which fits the head almost like 
a skull-cap; Scott in KENILWORTH (1821) 
has this in the form capotaine. There is 
also a 16th and 17th century head-dress 
called capuchon (from the French aug- 
mentative of capuche, hood; Latin caput, 
head) ; this was sometimes simple as a 
cowl, but often twisted and piled upon 
the head as an adornment. 

capotaine. See copataine. 
capripede. A satyr. Capriped, goat-foot- 
ed; Latin caper, capri, caprem } goat 
(whence the island and the taxi: short for 
taxicabriolet) + pedem, foot. Among 
words formed from caprem are cap- 
rice (still current) , in the form capriccio 
used by Shakespeare (ALL'S WELL THAT 
ENDS WELL; 1601: Will this caprichio hold 
in thee, art suref) and revived by Scott 
(REDGAUNTLET; 1824) . Capricorn, capri- 
cornify, to equip with horns; to cuckold: 
in 1665 A wily wench there was . . . Who 
used to Capricorn her husband's head, 
caprid, caprine, relating to a goat, capri- 
zate, to leap like a goat; used in medicine 
of an irregular pulse. The caprifig is the 
goat-fig, the wild fig; caprification; to 
caprijy, to ripen artificially; specifically, to 
ripen figs by means of the puncture of 
insects, or of a small feather. Noted by 
Pliny in ancient times, extensive on the 
island of Malta, caprification is now con- 
sidered both unnecessary and injurious. 

capuchon. See capot. 
capul. See caple. 



129 



caput mortuum 



carline 



caput mortuum. (1) A death's head 
(this is the literal translation of the Latin 
words) , a skull. (2) In alchemy (and 
chemistry) the residuum after distillation 
or sublimation of a substance, the useless 
remains, 'good for nothing' (said Willis 
in 1681) 'but to be flung away, all vertue 
being extracted.' Hence (3) worthless resi- 
due. Cp. terra damnata. Bishop Thomas 
Ken, in his epic poem EDMUND (1700) , 
speaking of a person that turns to re- 
ligion late in life, observed: His youthful 
heat and strength -for sin engage; God has 
the caput mortuum of his age. 

carbonado. A steak (says Bailey, 1751) 
broiled on the coals. A piece of fish, flesh, 
or fowl (says the O.E.D.) scored across 
and grilled or broiled upon the coals. 
The idea of "flesh scored across" appealed 
to many writers including Shakespeare: 
CORIOLANUS (1607) : He scotcht him and 
notcht him like a carbinado; THE WINTER'S 
TALE (1611): How she longd to eate 
adders heads, and toads carbonadoed. 
Hence to carbonado came to mean to 
slash, to hack as again in Shakespeare, 
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL (1601) : Your 
carbinado' d face. Washington Irving in 
THE ALHAMBRA (1832) speaks of a man 
so cut up and carbonadoed that he is a 
kind of walking monument of the troubles 
of Spain. 

carcan, (1) An iron collar used for 
punishment, in the 13th through 16th 
centuries. (2) An ornamental collar or 
neckline, later called a carcaneL In the 
PROGRESS of Queen Elizabeth I, of 1572, 
we read that she received one riche car- 
kanet or collar of golde, having in it two 
emeralds. Stanyhurst's AENEIS (1583) 
speaks of a garganet heavy. Carcanet was 
sometimes used for a circlet for the head; 
it might be, as in Herrick's HESFERIDES 



(1648), a carkanet of maidenflowers, or 
even (1876) a carcanet of smiles. 

cark. A load, a burden; hence, trouble, 
troubled state of mind. Also carke, kark. 
Via old French carkier and Late Latin 
carcare from Latin carricare, to load, 
whence also carriage-, the same Latin by 
another route gave Old French cargier, 
chargier, English charge, which also first 
meant a load. Used from the 14th cen- 
tury, frequent in the alliterative phrase 
cark and care. Spenser makes other pattern 
in THE FAERIE QUEENE (1590) : Downe did 
lay his heavie head, devoid of careful 
carke. Cark was also used as a verb, to 
load; to burden with trouble; to be 
worried, to toil anxiously. Thus Berkeley 
in ALCIPHRON (1732) wrote: Old Bubalion 
in the city is carking, starving, and cheat- 
ing, that his son may drink, game, and 
keep mistresses. 

carkanet. See carcan. Shakespeare said, 
in THE COMEDY OF ERRORS (1592) : Say 
that I lingered with you at your shop, To 
see the making of her carkanet; Massinger, 
in THE CITY MADAM (1632) : Curled 
haires, hung full of sparkling carcanets, 
Are not the true adornments of a wife 
though many wives prefer them. 

carkes. See sloth. 

carline. Several words shaped into this 
form (always with a short i) . (1) An 
olden coin of Naples and Sicily, worth 
less than a dime. Also carlin; from a ruler 
Carlo, perhaps Carlo I, 1266. (2) A 
woman; especially a scornful term for an 
old woman; Arbuthnot in JOHN BULL 
(1712) has Peg exclaim There's no living 
with that old carline his mother! Hence, a 
witch; in Burns' TAM O'SHANTER (1790) : 
The carlin caught her by the rump. From 
Middle English kerling, feminine of karl. 
(3) A kind of plant, the carline thistle. 



130 



carlot 



carri wit diet 



also Caroline, supposedly named after King 
Carolus Magnus, Charlemagne. (4) The 
yellow ball in carline billiards, played 
with two white, one red, one blue, and 
the carline ball, which holed in a center 
pocket scores six (Hoyle, 1820) . (5) One 
of the pieces of timber supporting the 
deck-planks of a ship. Also carling. (6) 
Parched peas. Probably so-called because 
eaten on Carling Sunday, the fifth Sunday 
in Lent. This is, more properly, Care 
Sunday, with care in its early meaning, 
sorrow. 

carlot. A fellow, peasant. A variant of 
carl, churl. Churl has come down from 
earliest English times; carl at that period 
was used in combinations, as housecarl. 
Both are common Norse and Teuton, 
from the same root, and survive in the 
names Carl and Charles. Both carl and 
churl went through the same shift of 
meanings. Churl first meant a male, then 
a husband (correlative to wife) ; to churl 
(10th and llth centuries), to take a hus- 
band. Then it meant a plain man, a 
member of the lowest (third) rank of 
freemen. At this point carl also came into 
separate use, mainly as a countryman. 
Then after the Norman Conquest the 
Saxon ceorlas (churls, carls) came to be 
serfs. By extension, a boor, a rude ill- 
bred fellow. Hence carlish, churlish, the 
latter of which survives. Wyclif uses churl- 
hood; Chaucer, churldom. Shakespeare, in 
AS YOU LIKE IT (1600) says: He hath 
bought the cottage and the bounds That 
the old carlot once was master o/. 

carminate. To card wool; to expel wind. 
From Latin carminare, from carmen, a 
card for wool. This original sense, though 
in 17th century dictionaries, was appar- 
ently never used in English. But in Renais- 
sance medicine, certain substances were 
supposed to dilute the gross humours in 



the stomach and bowels that give rise to 
wind, and to comb them out like the 
knots in wool. Such medicines were there- 
fore called carminative-, their purpose was 
to expel flatulence. Note however that 
carmination is a rare word for incanta- 
tion, charm, from Latin carmen, song. 

carnation. Flesh-color. Latin carnem t 
flesh. Especially, in the plural, the flesh 
tints in a painting, the parts of a body 
drawn naked. Goldsmith in A CITIZEN OF 
THE WORLD (1760) exclaims: What atti- 
tudes, carnations, and draperies! The car- 
nation is also a variety of cherry. The 
flower carnation was originally corona- 
tion, as in Spenser's SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR 
(1579) : Bring coronations and sops-in- 
wine, Worn of paramours. 

camifex. See excarnation. Also cp. carna- 
tion. 

carrack. A large ship, such as was used 
by the Portuguese in East Indian trade, 
also equipped for fighting. Chaucer, in 
THE SOMPNER'S TALE (1386) says: Broader 
than of a carryk is the sail. (Also in vari- 
ous manuscripts, carrik, carike, caryke.) 
Shakespeare has still another spelling, in 
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS (1590) : Spain, who 
sent whole armadoes of carrects. 

carranto. See coranto. 

carriwitchet. A pun, a hoaxing question, 
a quibble. Ben Jonson has, in BARTHOLO- 
MEW FAIR (1614) : All the fowle i' the 
Fayre, I mean, all the dirt in Smithfield 
(that's one of Master Littlewifs carwitch- 
ets now). The word occurs (corwhichet, 
carry-which-it, etc.) in Dryden, Butler, 
Arbuthnot, and was revived by Scott in 
THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL (1822) : mortally 
wounded with a quibble or a carwitchet 
at the Mermaid. A SLANG DICTIONARY of 
1874 defines carriwitchet: a hoaxing, puz- 



carrucage 

zling question . , . as. How far is it from 
the first of July to London Bridge? 

carrucage. A tax levied on each car- 
rucate of ground. From medieval Latin 
carrucagium, from carruca, plough. (All 
these words are also spelled with one r.) 
Also, caruage. A carrucate was as much 
land as could be tilled with one plough 
in one year. A plough had a team of eight 
oxen. The size of a carrucate varied with 
the nature of the soil. The terms caruck 
and carue (in error, carve; see caruage) 
were occasionally used in old law; they 
are shortened forms of carrucate. 

caruage. See carrucage. Caruage was used 
in the 17th century to mean ploughing. 
It was sometimes spelled caruage; in early 
English v was printed as u, and some 
errors were made when v was first em- 
ployed. 

carus. Profound sleep or insensibility, 
From Greek karos, torpor. Phillips (1678) 
defines it as "a disease in the head which 
is caused by an overfull stomach and want 
of concoction"; Bailey (1751) describes 
it as "a sleep wherein the person affected 
being pulled, pinched, and called, scarce 
shows any sign of either hearing or feel- 
ing/' The four degrees of insensibility are 
sopor, coma, lethargy, and carus. Sopor 
is also used in English, of a deep sleep, 
especially of a mentally or morally be- 
numbed condition. It is direct from Latin 
sopor, deep sleep. Hence also soporate, 
to put to sleep, to stupefy; soporation; 
soporiferous; soporose, soporous, and the 
still current soporific. 

cashier. See cass. Cashier, to dismiss, is 
a verb; the noun for one who dismisses 
is cashier er. 

cashmarie. A fish-peddler; especially, one 
who brings fish from the seacoast to sell 

132 



castellan 

inland. A 16th and 17th century word: 
Old Northern French cacher, to hurry, to 
drive fast + maree, tide. 

cass. To annul; to dismiss. From Latin 
quasar e, to dash to pieces, which took on 
the meanings of Latin cassare f to bring to 
naught, from cassus, empty, void. After 
1700 cass was gradually supplanted by 
quash and cashier. Rarely cass, to dismiss, 
was spelled cash. [The original meaning 
of cash, money, was money-box, French 
casse from Latin capsa, case, coffer. Only 
in English did it come, by transfer from 
the container to the thing contained 
noticed also in the expression "He's fond 
of the bottle" to mean money.] From 
cass also came cassate, to annul; cassation, 
cancellation. 

cassan. See pedlers French. 
cassolette. See caxon. 
cassoon. See caxon. 

castellan. The governor of a castle. Also 
chastelain; chatelain (feminine chatelaine, 
mistress of a castle; by extension, an orna- 
ment worn hanging at a lady's waist, as 
it were the keys of the castle usually a 
series of loops or short chains attached 
to the girdle, with scissors, thimble-case 
and other such objects. Later applied to 
a bunch of such articles on a watch-chain 
or bracelet. CASSELL'S FAMILY MAGAZINE 
of October 1883 reported that chatelaine 
bags are much worn again) . Other forms 
are castellin, castelane, castelyn, castelain; 
ultimately from Latin castellum, castle. 
Hence also castellanship, castellany, the 
lordship of a castle; the district under its 
control. Also castellated, built like a castle 
(e.g., with battlements) ; enclosed as in a 
castle, as were the 18th century cisterns 
and fountains of London; shaped like a 
castle, as Washington Irving in CHRONI- 
CLES OF WOLFERT'S ROOST (1840) described 



casting 

stately dames, with castellated locks and 
towering plumes. 

casting. This word was used as a com- 
pound, in several terms. A casting-box, 
a box for shaking dice, then throwing 
them. Castingcounters, counters used in 
calculating, in casting an account. Casting- 
bottle, casting-glass, a container from 
which perfume was sprinkled: an Eliz- 
abethan dainty device, mentioned by 
Jonson in CYNTHIA'S REVELS (bottle; 1600) 
and EVERY MAN OUT OF HIS HUMOUR: Faith, 
ay: his civet and his casting-glass Have 
helpt him to a place among the rest. 

castorides. See lycisk. 

castrametation. The act, art, or science 
of laying out a camp; the pattern or out- 
line of a camp set down. Latin castra, 
camp + metari, to measure. Cp. Chester. 
Also castral, pertaining to a camp. The 
Romans, when they occupied Britain (55 
B.C. to the 6th century) , laid out many 
camps, as can be seen from such place 
names as Lancaster, Westchester, Leices- 
ter. In Worcestershire the early British, 
the Roman, and the Saxon combine to 
give us the name of a sauce. 

cata-. A Greek combining form (also 
cat-, cath-) meaning down, reflected back, 
used up, etc. In many current words. Also 
in some less known: cataballatwe, tending 
to throw down; Peacock in HEADLONG 
HALL (1815) mentions a machine con- 
taining a peculiar cataballative quality, 
catabaptist, a 16th and 17th century term 
for one opposed to the sacrament of 
baptism; catachthonian (Greek chthon f 
earth) , underground: Pluto was a cata- 
chthonian Zeus; catadupe (Greek doupos, 
thud, sound of a heavy fall) , a cataract; 
originally, of the River Nile, used figura- 
tively by Lodge in WITS MISERIE AND 
WORLDS MADNESS (1596) : In the catadupe 



cata- 

of my knowledge I nourish the crocodile 
of thy conceit. The Catadupes are (17th 
century) the dwellers by the cataracts of 
the Nile. A catafalque is a platform to 
hold a coffin, in church or movable, used 
in elaborate funeral ceremonies. Cata- 
glottism is a scornful dictionary word for 
"a lascivious kiss," a tongue-kiss. Catal- 
lactic means in exchange; Ruskin in UNTO 
THIS LAST (1862) warns: You may grow 
for your neighbor . . . grapes, or grape- 
shot; he will also catallactically grow 
grapes or grapeshot for you, and you will 
each reap what you have sown; in 1831 
Whately suggested the name catallactics 
for "the science of exchange." Catamidiate 
is a rare (17th century) term for to de- 
fame, to hold up to open shame. A cata- 
mite is not formed from cata-, but is a 
corruption of Ganymedes, the name of 
the cup-bearer of Zeus. Cataphor, a coma 
(in 17th century medicine; see cartes) . 
Cataphysical, contrary to nature; DeQuin- 
cey in his AUTOBIOGRAPHIC SKETCHES 
(1839) says he has seen portraits of Scott 
with a cataphy steal pile of forehead. 
Catoptric, relating to a mirror, or to re- 
flection. It is good to pause for reflection. 
Then continue: cataskeuastic (17th cen- 
tury) , constructive, catasophistry, quib- 
bling, deception, catasta, a platform on 
which slaves were exhibited for sale; a 
torture-bed; the stocks (pedantic) ; Kings- 
ley in HYPATIA (1853) : Standing an hour 
on the catasta to be handled from head to 
foot in the minimum of clothing, cata- 
staltic, restraining, cutting short, cataster- 
ism, a constellation; a collection of legends 
of the stars; Greek katasterismoi was the 
title of such a collection attributed to 
Eratosthenes (3d century B.C.). cata- 
thleba, a fabulous monster of 14th cen- 
tury England; catawampus, a fierce and 
fabulous monster of 19th century United 
States; catawampous, fierce, destructive. 



133 



catafalque 

Bulwer-Lytton in MY NOVEL (1853) did 
not like to be catawampously chawed up 
by a mercenary selfish cormorant of a 
capitalist. 

catafalque. See cata-. Old French cha- 
fault, chafauld, whence also English scaf- 
fold. The origin of the word is unknown; 
the first part may not be the Greek cata~. 
Also catafalco, catafalc, catafalk. The 
forms were used since the 17th century; 
by Evelyn in his DIARY (1641) , Landor 
(1831) , Browning; by Francis Thompson 
figuratively in A CORYMBUS FOR AUTUMN 
(1888) : Heaven's death-lights kindle, yel- 
low spark by spark, Beneath the dreadful 
catafalque of the dark. 

cataglottism. See cata-* The humour of 
lovers. 

cataplasm. A poultice, plaster in the 
17th century made with herbs and flour, 
or (1612) of bread crumbs, milk, and a 
little saffron. In the 19th century (1866) , 
the well known mustard plaster or cata- 
plasm. Shakespeare knew it too; in HAM- 
LET (1602) , Laertes puts a poison on his 
sword So mortal that but dip a knife in 
itj Where it draws blood no cataplasm so 
rare. Collected from all simples that have 
virtue Under the moon, can save the 
thing from death That is but scratched 
withal 

catastrophe. When Falstaff, in HENRY iv, 
PART TWO (1597) , cries euphemistically to 
Mistress Quickly: Away, you scullion! you 
rampallion! you fustilarian! Til tickle 
your catastrophe, the meaning of the last 
word centers in the second syllable: 111 
give you a drubbing, and you'll deem it 
a disaster. 

catchpenny* Designed to lure purchasers; 
also, an item or article of little value, 
concocted merely to sell. Thus Wesley 



catercap 

(WORKS; 1785) said: The late pretty tale 
of her being the Emperor's daughter is 
doubtless a mere catchpenny. Other terms 
of the same significance are: (first, in the 
theatre) claptrap, a device to ensnare ap- 
plause; potboiler, something whose sole 
function is to earn money to 'keep the pot 
aboiling.' Hence, a shoddy work. 

cate. Usually in the plural. See acate. 

catekumeling. A young catechumen, a 
convert being instructed before baptism. 
Thus catechesis (accent on the kee) , oral 
instruction to a beginner; catechism, an 
elementary treatise, especially in the form 
of question and answer. Greek kata, 
thoroughly 4- echein, to sound, ring; eche, 
sound; English echo. In Shakespeare's 
HENRY iv, PART ONE (1596) , Falstaff asks 
(and answers) a series of questions about 
honour, concluding: Honour is a meere 
scutcheon, and so ends my catechisme. 
Langland in THE VISION OF PIERS PLOWMAN 
(1377) has: To baptise barnes that ben 
catekumelynges, 

catel. An old form of cattle. 

cateran. A troop or band of fighting 
men, especially Scotch Highlanders. Irish 
ceithern (the th became silent, hence 
English kern, a peasant, a rustic, an Irish 
foot-soldier) . Hence also, one of the band, 
a fighting man, a marauder. Used from 
the 14th century, renewed by Scott, who 
used it some BO times. Lowell in MY STUDY 
WINDOWS (1870) speaks scornfully of a 
man with the statecraft of an Ithacan 
cateran. 

catercap. The 'mortar board/ the four- 
cornered hat once worn by presbyters and 
now by academics. Also, the wearer there- 
of. Cater, four. Hence, catercapt. In THE 

PROTESTACYON OF MARTIN MARPRELAT 

(1589) , in the face of imminent arrest, 
the author declares that, notwithstanding 



134 



cater-cousin 



catso 



the surprizing of the printer, he maketh 
it known unto the world that he feareth 
neither proud priest, Antichristian pope, 
tiranous prelate, nor godlesse catercap: 
but defieth all the race of them by these 
presents. 

cater-cousin. A close friend. In Tudor 
times, cousin was used by close friends, 
without blood relationship; in AS YOU LIKE 
IT Shakespeare has Rosalind and Celia say, 
Sweet my coz. Jonson suggests that cater- 
cousin meant quarter-cousin, "from the 
ridiculousness of calling cousin or rela- 
tion to so remote a degree," but there is 
no ridicule intended, in the use of the 
word. It may be from cater, to care for, 
to feed, cater-cousins being those that 
have eaten together, as companions 
means those that have broken bread to- 
gether. Shakespeare used the expression 
in THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (1596) : His 
maister and he (saving your worships 
reverence) are scarce catercosins; and 
writers since have followed him. 

caterpillar. See complice. 
catha. See queth. 

catharan. One that admits his superior 
purity; a puritan. Also catharian, cathare, 
catharist, catharite. Applied to various 
religious sects. While O.E. (Matthew Sut- 
cliffe) in A BRIEFE REPLIE TO A CERTAINE 
. . . LIBEL (1600) said: The catharistes do 
boast much of their merits, Donne in a 
sermon of 1616 turned the other way and 
declared: The catharists thought no cre- 
ature of God pure. The word is from 
Greek katharizein, to make clean, to puri- 
fy, purge; katharos, clean, whence also 
cathartic. Hence also catharize, to purify 
(usually, by a ceremony) ; catharm, a 
purging, purgation. 

catholicon. A universal remedy. Greek 
catholicon, universal, whence also catholi- 



city and the Catholic faith. The word 
catholicon, in the sense of a universal or 
comprehensive treatise, was applied by 
Johannes de Balbis de Janua in 1286 to 
his noted Latin grammar and dictionary, 
whereafter the name catholicon has been 
applied to other dictionaries. The word 
has been used, figuratively, to mean faith, 
inspiration, wit and as by Baker in a 
translation (1638) of Balzac's UETTERS: A 
good wife is a catholicon, or universal 
remedy for all the evils that happen in 
life. More literally Sir Thomas Browne in 
RELIGIO MEDICI (1642) declared: Death is 
the cure of all diseases. There is no catho- 
licon ... I know but this. 

cat-o'-nine-tails. A whip with a short 
handle and nine lashes; in early use the 
lashes were knotted for the inflicting of 
greater pain. Until 1881 the use of the 
cat-o'-nine-tails was allowed in the British 
army and navy; Gilbert uses the short- 
ened form, the cat, in a pun in H.M.S. PIN- 
AFORE (1878), when Deadeye Dick re- 
assures the startled sailors by telling them 
"It was the cat" they heard. 

catoptric. Relating to a mirror, or to re- 
flection. Also, the science of reflection 
for an instance of this use, see alchemusy; 
in this sense, now used in the plural, 
catoptrics. Also tricks of reflection; an ap- 
paratus or device for producing such 
effects. With Dutch patience, said Evelyn 
in his DIARY (1644) , he shew'd us his per- 
petual motions, catoptrics, magnetical ex- 
periments; and Burton declared in THE 

ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY (1621) : 'TlS 

ordinarie to see strange uncouth figures 
by catop tricks. Such tricks of vision still 
amuse at fairgrounds and play places. 

catoptromancy. See aeromancy. 

catso. A rogue; a fraudulent beggar. Also 
catzo. Also used an exclamation 



_ 135 



caudle 

Italian cazzo, the male generative organ. 
Ben Jonson in EVERY MAN OUT OF HIS 
HUMOUR (1602) speaks of nimble-spirited 
catsos. Both Urquhart (1653) and Mot- 
teux (1708) use the word in their versions 
of Rabelais, as might be expected (Mot- 
teux): Catso! Let us drink! The noun 
naming the activity of a catso, catzery, 
is used in Marlowe's THE JEW OF MALTA: 
Who when he speaks, grunts like a hog, 
and looks Like one that is employed in 
catzerie. 

caudle. A warm, soothing drink. From 
Latin calidum, warm. Bailey (1751) says 
it is made of ale or wine with sugar and 
spices; earlier writers (Woodall, 1612) 
add the yolk of an egg; the CXE.D. (1933) 
says these are mixed with a thin gruel. 
All agree the drink was served mainly to 
women in childbed (and to their visitors) . 
Pepys (1660) used to drink a caudle 
when he went to bed. Fuller in THE HOLY 

AND THE PROFANE STATE (1642) Speaks of 

a ship that cast out much sugar, and 
packs of spices, making a caudle of the 
sea round about From the idea of its 
comforting, a caudle of hemp-seed was 
used, ironically, to mean hanging (rope 
being made from hemp) ; thus Shake- 
speare in HENRY vi, PART TWO (1593) : Ye 
shall have a hempen caudle then. 

cautel. A crafty device or trick; trickery; 
a precaution. Cautela, in Roman law, was 
an exception made as a precaution, from 
caut~, the past stem of cavere, to take 
heed (cp. caveat] ; this also gives us Eng- 
lish caution, but the two forms developed 
different meanings. Cautelous means 
wary, heedful (cautious) , but more com- 
monly deceitful, wily, as in Shakespeare's 
CORIOLANUS (1607) : Your son . . . caught 
With cautelous baits and practice. 

caveary. An early variant of caviar. Shake- 
speare used caviarie; Swift, caveer. Also 

136 



caxon 

gaveare, kavia, cavery, cavialy, chaviale. 
Enjoyed in England since the 16th cen- 
tury, always as a luxury. Thus Hamlet 
(in Shakespeare's play; 1601) said: For 
the play, I remember, pleased not the 
million; 'twas caviarie to the general. And 
E. Blount in his OBSERVATIONS (1620) re- 
marked: A pasty of venison makes him 
sweat, and then swear that the only deli- 
cacies be mushrooms, caveare, or snails. 

caveat. A warning. Latin caveat, let him 
beware; caver e, cautum, to beware, whence 
also caution; cavus, wary. Cp. cautel. 
The root cav, watch, ware, via cavira, cura, 
also gave us cure, secure and endless 
curiosity. It survives in the (Latin) warn- 
ing Caveat emptor, let the buyer beware, 
which is a principle of common law. It 
was often used in titles, as in Harman's 

A CAVEAT OR WARENING FOR COMMON 
CURSETORS, VULGARELY CALLED VAGABONDES 

(1567) . Budgell in THE SPECTATOR (1712; 
No. 365) said: I design this paper as a 
caveat to the fair sex. Perhaps it is the 
other sex that needs it. 

cavel. See javel. 

cavenard. A villain. Probably a corrup- 
tion of, or error for, caynard, q.v. It oc- 
curs in HAVELOCK. THE DANE (1300) : Hede 
cavenard! Wat dos thu here at this pathef 

caxon. (1) An 18th century style of wig. 
James Cawthorn, in some verses of 1756, 
has: Though that trim artist, barber Jack- 
son, Spent a whole hour about your 
caxon. The word is probably drawn from 
someone's name. (2) A chest of ore ready 
to be refined. From Old Spanish caxon, 
augmentative of caxa, case, chest. The 
French form gives us English caisson; the 
Italian, cassoon (18th century; in the 
17th, casson) . A cassolette was a small box 
or vessel, usually with a perforated cover, 
in which perfumes were burned or sav- 



caynard 

orous essences allowed to spread their 
perfume. A larger box (in which, for in- 
stance, a broken leg in plaster might be 
set to rest) was in the 16th and 17th 
centuries a cassole. 

caynard. A sluggard; a scoundrel. French 
cagnard, Italian cagna, bitch, feminine of 
cane, dog. Thus the word is tantamount 
to the current slang bitch, though its use 
seems to have been milder, as in the Pro- 
logue to Chaucer's THE WIFE OF BATH'S 
TALE (1386) : See, olde caynard, is this 
thine array? 

caytive. See caitiff. 

ceaze. A variant form of seize. Rowlands 
in his satire LOOKE TO IT: FOR ILE STABBE 
YE (1604; cp. Vulcan's brow) attacked the 
glutton, that hast a nose to smell out any 
feast, a brazen face to ceaze on every 
messe, That undertakest nothing with 
good will Unlesse it be thy puddinghouse 
to fill. lie stabbe thee. 

cecils. A mixture of minced meat, onions, 
anchovies, crumbs of bread, chopped pars- 
ley, and seasoning; make them into balls, 
with an egg; sprinkle them with fine 
crumbs, and fry them of a yellow brown. 
An early 19th century savory sort of meat- 
ball. 

cecity. Blindness. From Latin caecus, 
blind. A cecograph, developed in the 19th 
century, was a writing-instrument for the 
blind. A tendency to blindness, or partial 
blindness, is cecutiency; Sir Thomas 
Browne (1646) said that in moles there is 
no cecity, yet more than a cecutiency. 
Degrees of blindness are not exact; from 
stone blind, blind as a stone, completely 
blind, Shakespeare developed gravel blind 
and sandblind. Sandblind, however, is 
really samblind, sam (related to semi-) , 
half + blind. Cecity may also be used 



celeusma 

figuratively, as by Disraeli in THE AMENI- 
TIES OF LITERATURE (1841) : the cecity of 
superstition. 

ceduous. Suitable for felling, as a straight 
tree or a battered prizefighter. Latin 
caeduus; caedere, to fell. Used in the 17th 
century. Cp. caducous. 

ceint. See seynt. 

celation. Concealment. From Latin celare, 
to conceal. In 19th century English law, 
especially concealment of pregnancy or 
birth. 

celature. Embossing; an embossed figure. 
From Latin caelare, to emboss, engrave. 
Jeremy Taylor in THE GREAT EXEMPLAR OF 
SANCTITY (1649) says: They admitted even 
in the utensils of the Church some cela- 
ture s and engravings, 

celebrious. Crowded (of an assembly 
hall) ; hence, festive. From Latin cele- 
brem, honored by an assembly. Hence, 
renowned, famous in this sense also cele- 
brous. From this source we have the well- 
known celebration and forms akin. A rare 
(humorous) form for 'most noted' (from 
the Latin superlative) is celeb errimous. 

celestinette. An 18th century musical in- 
strument. Walpole described it in a letter 
to Sir W. Hamilton, 19 June, 1774: 7 
heard a new instrument yesterday . . . It 
is a copulation of a harpsichord and a 
violin; one hand strikes the keys and the 
other draws the bow . . . The instrument 
is so small it stands on a table, and is 
called a celestinette. 

celeusma. A battle-cry or watchword; 
specifically, the call that gives the time to 
rowers. From Greek keleuein, to order. 
Often the rowers in large vessels propelled 
by oars would sing hymns and psalms by 
way of celeusma. 



137 



celostomy 

celostomy. Hollowness of sound; speak- 
ing with the mouth hollow. Accent on the 
second syllable. From Greek koilos, hollow 
+ stoma, mouth. Used in the 16th and 
17th centuries, when actors needed Ham- 
let's advice. 

celsitude. High rank, eminence; dignity; 
exalted character; height. Also used as a 
title of respect: His Celsitude (Late Latin 
and in English, 17th century) . From Latin 
celsus, lofty; seen also in excel, excelsior. 
In the sense of height the word may still 
be used humorously, as by Scott in RED- 
GAUNTLET (1824) : Peter Peebles, in his 
usual plenitude of wig and celsitude of 
hat. The form, celsity, with the same 
meaning, appears in 17th century dic- 
tionaries. 

cenacle. See cenation. 

cenation. Dining. From Latin cenare, to 
dine. Latin cena was the mid-day or after- 
noon meal, eaten in the cenacle. Cenacle, 
dining room, is used especially of the 
upper chamber where Christ and his 
disciples ate the Last Supper. Cenation 
and cenatory (as in cenatory garments) 
are 17th century words, used e.g. by Sir 
Thomas Browne (1676) . Cp. coenaculous. 

ceneromancy. See aeromancy. 
cenobite. See eremite. 
centure. See seynt. 
cephalotomy. See kephalotomy. 

cepivorous. Feeding on onions. Latin 
cepa, onion; hence also cepous, like an 
onion. 

cerastes. A horned serpent. Greek keras, 
horn. Actually a poisonous viper of Africa 
and Asia, with a projecting scale over each 
eye; loosely used to suggest a horrid 
snake. Thus Gary in his translation (1814) 



Cerberean 

of Dante's INFERNO: Adders and cerastes 
crept Instead of hair, and their fierce 
temples bound. For its use by Milton, 
see ellops. 

ceratine. Sophistical and intricate (of 
an argument) . Greek keratinos, horny, 
her as, horn. Given in 17th and 18th cen- 
tury dictionaries, taking its meaning from 
"the fallacy of the horns" (the horns of 
a dilemma) , in Diogenes Laertius (3d 
century A.D.) : "If you have not cast a 
thing away, you have it: but you have 
not cast horns; therefore you have horns." 
The ceratine perplexity is more com- 
monly created by such questions as "Do 
you still beat your wife?" 

ceration. Covering with wax; softening 
a substance that will not liquefy. A term 
in alchemy. Via French ceration from 
Latin cerare, to smear with wax, from 
cera, wax. Johnson in THE ALCHEMIST 
(1610) : Name the vexations and the 
martyrizations of metals in the work . . . 
Putrefaction, solution, ablution . . . calci- 
nation, ceration and fixation. Also, from 
Greek keros, wax, comes ceruse, white 
lead, especially as a cosmetic; also a verb 
ceruse, to paint the face. Used in plays 
of Massinger and Jonson (SE JANUS, 1603): 
very common in the 17th and 18th cen- 
turies; Macaulay in his life of Samuel 
Johnson (1849) remarked that the old 
bumbleton's eyesight was too weak to dis- 
tinguish ceruse from natural bloom. 

ceraunite. Thunderstone. Greek kerau- 
nos, thunderbolt. A piece of meteoric 
iron, or an arrow-head of prehistoric 
times (formerly thought to be a thunder- 
bolt) . A ceraunoscope was a machine used 
in the Greek theatre to imitate thunder. 

Cerberean. Related to Cerberus, the 
three-headed watchdog at the entrance to 
the infernal regions, in Greek and Roman 



138 



cerebrosity 

mythology. According to Hesiod, Cerberus 
had fifty heads. Hence used of the fierce- 
ness of the beast, or the keenness of his 
guard, or the noise of his barking. Milton 
in PARADISE LOST (1669) has: A cry of 
Hell Hounds never ceasing bark f d With 
wide Cerberean mouths; Coleridge in 

BIOGRAPHIA LITTERARIA (1817) Speaks of 

the Cerberean whelps of feud and slander. 
Orpheus quieted Cerberus with his lyre; 
Hercules fought him; but Aeneas stopped 
each mouth with a cake. Hence a sop to 
Cerberus is a gift to appease a fierce or 
angry person in authority (guardian, head- 
waiter, etc.) . 

cerebrosity. Wilfulness; a state of brain- 
storm. Used by Sidney (1586) and other 
euphuistic extravaganzists as Anthony 
Wood, in his LIFE (1647) : To admit . . . 
a meer frog of Helicon to croak the 
cataracts of his plumbeous cerebrosity be- 
fore your sagacious ingenuities. The 
plumbeous cerebrosities comes right out 
of Sidney. A cerebrose person is 'mad- 
brained/ 

ceromancy. See aeromancy. 

cerule. An early form of cerulean. Also 
ceruleal, ceruleous. In early use (Spenser 
and others) as in Latin caeruleus, the 
word meant the dark blue of the sky or 
the dark green of the sea, and was oc- 
casionally applied to leaves and fields. 
After the 17th century it was tinted only 
of the sky. Byron, in DON JUAN (1821) , 
uses the word humorously, to mean a 
blue-stocking: O ye who make the fortunes 
of all books! Benign ceruleans of the 
second sex! 

ceruse. See ceration. 

cervelat. (i) A short thick sausage, "eaten 
cold in slices/' says Bailey (1751) . He 
does not give the recipe, but on his recom- 



chad 

mendation you may serve a lot. (2) From 
the shape, a short reed musical instru- 
ment. Also cervalet. 

cervicide. See stillicide. Latin cervus, 
stag. If it was the King's deer, the offence 
as Robin Hood knew was regarded 
gravely. 

cessant. See couth. Cessant was used in 
the 17th and 18th centuries, meaning in- 
termittently, at intervals; a scientific ob- 
server of 1746 recorded: / personally knew 
a Gentleman . . . who cessantly winked 
with one eye. 

cestus. (1) A belt; especially a marriage 
girdle, unloosed by the bridegroom on the 
wedding night. From Greek kestos, 
stitched. In particular, the love-belt of 
Aphrodite, which made her irresistible. 
Yet Addison in THE SPECTATOR (1712) 
seems to prefer Venus without any orna- 
ment but her own beauties, not so much 
as her own cestus. Also used figuratively; 
there is a pathetic tone, today, in Garlyle's 
words (in FREDERICK THE GREAT, 1865) : 
The brightest jewel in the cestus of Polish 
liberty is this right of confederating. (2) 
An ancient boxer's glove: a band made 
of thongs of bull-hide, with strips of iron 
and lead. Latin caestus, perhaps from 
caedere, to strike, more probably the same 
word as (1) , cestus^ girdle, band. In our 
degenerate times the cestus has dwindled 
to the brass knuckles, and it is no longer 
the boxer that wears them. 

chad. I had. Old English Ich, I + had. 
Many verbs, especially the auxiliaries, 
through the 17th century in dialects, were 
combined with ch. Thus cham, I am; 
chave, I have; chard, I heard; chill, I will; 
chold, chud, I would; etc. Many in Sir 
Thomas More (1510-1540); RALPH ROY- 

STER DOYSTER (1553) ,' GAMMER GURTON's 

NEEDLE (1575) , and later plays including 



139 



chaeltophorous 



chamfrain 



Shakespeare's KING LEAR (1605) : Chill not 
let go zir . . . and 'chud a bin zw agger d 
out of my life. 

chaetophorous. Bristle - bearing; hence 
(pedantically humorous) , in need of a 
shave. Pronounced kye; accent on the toff. 
Greek chaite, hair -f- phoros, bearing. 

chafe. To warm, to heat. Hence, to in- 
flame the feelings, to excite. Used in both 
senses since the 14th century. The current 
sense, to rub (so as to warm) developed 
in the mid 15th century. Also chauffe, 
chaufe, chaff, and more; via Old French 
from Latin calefacere; calere, to be warm 

(whence the calories) 4- facere, to make. 

(In many English words gauge; Ralph; 
safe au became long a.) A chafer 

(chaver, chaufer) from the 14th century, 
was a chafing-dish., a portable stove or 
warming-pan; the 18th and 19th centuries 
revived the forms chauffer, chauffet. 
Spenser in THE FAERIE QUEENE (MUTA- 
BILITY; 1596) pictures Spring wearing a 
garland on his head, from which as he 
had chauffed been The sweat did drop. 

chaffron. See chamfrain. 

chaldese. To trick; to play a mean turn. 
Perhaps from Chaldees, the idea being 
that astrologers are cheats. Butler in HUDI- 
BRAS (1664) : He stole your cloak and 
picked your pocket, Chews'd and caldes*d 
you like a blockhead. For chews'd, see 
chouse. 

chalon. A blanket or other bed-cover. 
Perhaps from Chalons-sur-Marne, a town 
in France where the material was made. 
Chaucer in THE REEVE'S TALE (1386) pic- 
tures a bed With schetys and with cha- 
louns fair i-spred. The manufacturer of 
chalons was a chaloner, quite busy in the 
14th and 15th centuries. 

chamade. A beat of drums or peal of 
trumpet, calling to a parley. Portuguese 



chamada, chamar, from Latin clamare, 
to call whence also the current clamor 
and exclamatory impulse of our time. 

chamber (a verb). (1) To confine, en- 
close. Shakespeare in KING RICHARD n 

(159S) : The best blood chamber'd in his 
bosom. (2) To restrain. (3) To provide 
with a chamber, as the chambered nauti- 
lus. (4) To lodge in a chamber, or as 
though in one. Hey wood in THE GOLDEN 
AGE (1611) : You shall no more . . . cham- 
ber underneath the spreading oaks. (5) 
To indulge in lewdness, to seek a chamber 
for wanton ends. Scott in WOODSTOCK 

(1826) : What chambering and wanton- 
ing in our very presence! 

chamberdekin. A poor (impoverished) 
scholar from Ireland, who attended Ox- 
ford, especially in the 15th century, but 
did not belong to any college. Often he 
acted as a servant for noblemen at the 
university; hence chamber-deacon. Bailey, 
in 1751, defines chamber-dekins as Irish 
beggars, in the habit of poor scholars of 
Oxford, who often committed robberies 
etc. and were banished the kingdom by 
Henry V. The modern counterpart sells 
magazines from door to door "to pay his 
way through college." 

chamberer. (1) A lady's maid; a cham- 
bermaid. (2) A concubine. In earlier use, 
these two forms usually had the feminine 
final e; thus chamber ere, chambriere, 
chambryere. (3) A chamberlain; a valet. 

(4) A frequenter of ladies' chambers; a 
gallant; a wanton. Shakespeare in OTHELLO 

(1604) says: / . . . have not those soft 
parts of conversation That chamberers 
have. 

chamfrain. The frontlet of an armed 
horse, for a knight in feudal times. Also 
chamfr-on, chaufrayne; (15th and 16th 
centuries) cheveronne, chieffront; chafron, 



140 



champerty 

chaffron, shaffron, shaferne; shamfron, 
shawfron, and more. Scott revived the 
word in IVANHOE (1820; chamfrori) . ^fhe 
frontlet was often ornamented with en- 
graved designs; ST. JAMES'S GAZETTE of 20 
June, 1884 mentioned a chamfrein chased 
with a combat of two horsemen. 

champerty. (1) Division of lordship; 
partnership in power. From French cham- 
part, originally a division of the field, or 
a part of the produce going to the over- 
lord, Latin campi pars, part of the field. 
Chaucer in THE KNIGHT'S TALE (1386) is 
emphatic: Wisdom ne richesse, Beautee 
ne sleighte, strength, hardynesse, Ne may 
with Venus holde champartie. Lydgate, 
misinterpreting this passage, used the word 
as though it meant rivalry; a few others, 
especially in the 16th century, followed 
him. (2) a combination or partnership 
for an evil purpose; especially, in law, a 
conspiracy to help a litigant in return for 
a share of the disputed property. Some- 
thing of this sort, however, is common 
practice in accident suits. 

champery. Contending in the lists. Old 
French champier, to fight in a field; 
whence also champion etc. 

chanipestrial. A variant of campestrial, 
campestral, pertaining to the fields. Also 
champestre. The ch forms are from the 
French; fete champetre, a rural festival 
or party. Many English words, from camp 
to champignon, come ultimately from 
Latin campus, field. 

chancemedley. Inadvertency; largely ac- 
cidental. Used in law, from the 15th cen- 
tury, especially in the phrase man- 
slaughter by chance-medley, homicide by 
misadventure. The word is sometimes used 
to mean pure chance, but more precisely 
means a mixture of intention and chance. 
Thus Brimley in an essay of 1855 inquires: 

141 



chantepleure 

Why does . . . Hamlet after murdering 
Polonius die by chancemedley? 

chandler. See chandry, 

chandry. A short form (especially used 
in the 17th century) of chandlery, a place 
where candles are kept; candles and other 
provisions sold by a retail dealer. By the 
19th century, chandler, as a retail dealer, 
was somewhat contemptuous; Dickens in 
SKETCHES BY Boz (1836) says: The neigh- 
bors stigmatized him as a chandler. Fal- 
staff says to Bardolph, in Shakespeare's 
HENRY iv, PART ONE (1596) : Thou hast 
saved me a thousand marks in links and 
torches, walking with thee in the night 
betwixt tavern and tavern; but the sack 
that thou hast drunk me would have 
bought me lights as good cheap at the 
dearest chandler's in Europe. Chandler 
also meant the officer who supervised the 
candles in a household; also, a support 
for candles, a chandelier. 

changeling. (1) A fickle person; a wav- 
erer; a turncoat. (2) A person or thing 
secretly substituted for another. Especi- 
ally, of a child particularly, of an ugly 
or stupid child supposedly left in in- 
fancy, by the fairies, in exchange for the 
real (and of course beautiful and bright) 
child stolen. Hence, a half-wit (as in 
Pepys' DIARY, 28 December, 1667) . Shake- 
speare in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM 

(1590) has the King of the Fairies say: 
/ do but beg a little changeling boy, to 
be my henchman. [Note that Oberon re- 
fers to the child taken; the word usually 
refers to the child left amongst us hu- 
mans.] 

chantepleure. Title of a 13th century 
French poem, to those that sing (chanter) 
in this world but will weep (pleurer) in 
the next. By extension, a mixture or 
alternation of joy and sorrow. Chaucer in 



chaogenous 

ANELIDA AND ARCiTE (1374) has: I fare as 
doth the song of Ghantepleure, for now I 
pleyne and now I play. 

chaogenous. Born out of chaos. Like the 
cosmos, and the chaogenous hero-gods of 
Hesiod. 

chaomancy. See aeromancy. 

chapbook. A pamphlet containing tales, 
ballads, or other examples of the popular 
literature of the 15th to 18th centuries. 
The name was not contemporary, but 
created (in the 19th century) by collec- 
tors, from chapman (q.v.) + book. 

chape. A metal plating, used as a cover 
or ornament. Especially, the extra cover- 
ing on the point of a scabbard; by ex- 
tension, the tip of a fox's tail, which re- 
sembles this also by extension, the sheath 
or scabbard itself. Also chaip, schape, 
cheap. Hence as a verb, to chape, to fur- 
nish with a chape; Chaucer in the Pro- 
logue tO THE CANTERBURY TALES (1386) 

pictures five well-to-do merchants (An 
haberdassher and a carpenter, A webbe y 
a dyere f and a tapicer) , each fit to be an 
alderman: hir [their] knyves were chaped 
noght with bras But al with silver wroght 
ful dene and weeL There was also a chape 
(14th to 16th century) short for achape 
(Old French achaper, eschaper) , escape. 
In Shakespeare's ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS 
WELL (1601) a French lord speaks of the 
prisoner Monsieur Parolles, the gallant 
militarist [military expert] that was his 
own phrase that had the whole theoricke 
of wane in the knot of his scarfe, and the 
practise in the chape of his dagger. 

chapman. A dealer. From Old English 
ceap f barter + man. Later (16th century 
on) an itinerant dealer, a peddler; more 
rarely, a broker, or a customer. Hence also 
chapmanable, marketable; chapmanry; 
chapmanshipj in which "the children of 



chare 

the east" excelled. Chap-money (chap- 
manry is also used in this sense) , a small 
surfr returned to the purchaser when pay- 
ment is made, an old way of allowing a 
discount. Thomas Freeman in RUBBE, AND 
A GREAT CAST (1614; cp. sute) puns in his 
praise of George Chapman, who commeth 
near'st the ancient commicke vaine, Thou 
hast beguilde us all of that sweet grace: 
and were Thalia to be sold and bought, 
no chapman but thyselfe were to be 
sought. From George to John, still dealing 
in good plays. 

char. See chare. In addition to its cur- 
rent senses, char was an early form of both 
chair and car; it meant a cart; by ex- 
tension, a cart-load. Also, a chariot, as in 
Hobbes' Homer (1677) : For all his flam- 
ing horses and his charre. 

charactery. Writing; expressing thought 
by symbols. Shakespeare in THE MERRY 
WIVES OF WINDSOR (1598) says that Fairies 
use flowers for their characterie. 

charbon. A charbon (French charbon, 
charcoal, pustule) is used in English for 
the disease anthrax (19th century) . In 
Shakespeare's ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL 
(1603) , however, the Clown refers to 
young Charbon the puritan and old Poy- 
sam the papist, the names are labels and 
probably from the French chair bon, good 
flesh, and poisson, fish, alluding to the 
diet of the two faiths on 'fast* days. 

chare, (i) The return of a time, day, or 
season; hence, time, occasion. Also char, 
cherre, cyrr, chewre, chore. Hence, a turn- 
ing back; againchar, gainchar, repentance. 
On char, on the turn, in the act of shut- 
ting; this survives in the form ajar: "When 
is a door not a door?" By extension, a 
turn or stroke of work; this sense survives 
in English charwoman and American 
chore (s). Also char folk, chairfolk (17th 



142 



charet 



chaud-mell 



century) , temporary servants. Hence 
(from the sense of turning) a name for a 
narrow lane or wynd, in parts of England, 
since the 13th century, chare is also a 
verb, indicating the actions named above. 
(2) An old form of chary, careful. (3) 
In names of dishes from France, flesh, 
meat (French chair, Latin carnem, flesh) . 
Also the flesh (pulp) of certain fruit, as 
in: chardecoynes, chardeqweyns, charde- 
quynce (15th and 16th centuries) , a 
quince preserve; chare de war don, a pre- 
serve of Warden pears; a COOKERY BOOK 
of 1425 states: Charwardon. Take pere 
Wardonys, seethe hem in wyne . . . Good 
for any perel 

charet. An earlier form of chariot, until 
the mid- 17th century. Used widely in the 
King James BIBLE (1611). In France a 
charette was two-wheeled; a chariot, four- 
wheeled. Hence chareter, early for chari- 
oteer. Spenser in THE FAERIE QUEENE 
(1596) has She bad her charett to be 
brought. 

charientism. A species of irony, couching 
a disagreeable sense in pleasant terms. 
Later called euphemism, like saying "He 
stretches the truth" instead of "He lies." 

chark. See jar. 

charlet. A sort of omelet. The recipe is 
in THE FORME OF CURY (1390) : Take pork, 
and seeth it wel. Hewe it smale. Cast it 
in a panne. Breke ayrenn [eggs], and do 
therto, and swyng it wel togyder. Put 
therto cowe mylke and safroun, and boile 
it togyder. Salt it, and messe it forth. 

charneco. A kind of wine, drunk in the 
16th and 17th centuries. Also charnico, 
charnaco. Shakespeare in HENRY vi, PART 
TWO (1593) proffers it: Here's a cuppe 
of charneco, but we have lost its savour. 
It may be named from a village near 



Lisbon. The term degenerated, so that in 
1775 Ash defined it: charneco (a cant 
word) , any kind of strong liquor which 
is like to bring drunken fellows to the 
stocks. 

chasmophile. A lover of crannies and 
crevices; a haunter of holes. Hence 
chasmophilous. In botany, a chasmophyte 
is such a plant as Tennyson apostrophized: 
Flower in the crannied wall, I pluck you 
out of the crannies, I hold you here, root 
and all, in my hand, Little flower but 
if I could understand What you are, root 
and all, and all in all, I should know 
what God and man is. 

chassis. An early form (also shashes, 
shasses) of sash, a window-frame; especi- 
ally one fitted with paper or linen (before 
the widespread use of glass) . Thus Urqu- 
hart in his translation (1693) of Rabelais 
speaks of chassis or paper-windows. 

chatelaine. See castellan. 

chaterestre. A female chatterer. Femi- 
nine of chat er ere, which was the early 
form of chatterer. THE OWL AND THE NIGHT- 
INGALE (13th century) exclaims: Site nu 
stille, chaterestre! A less pleasant word 
than chatmate, q.v. 

chatmate. A companion in conversation. 
Nashe in LENTEN STUFFE (1599) , speaking 
of the fair Hero, mentions the toothlesse 
trotte her nurse, who was her onely chat- 
mate and chamber maide. 

chaud-melle. A sudden flare of fighting, 
out of the heat of roused passion; hence, 
a killing without premeditation. French; 
literally, hot broil; melee. Also chaud- 
mella (15th and 16th centuries) ; by some 
17th century writers altered to chance- 
medley, q.v.', thus Blackstone in his COM- 
MENTARIES (1769) : Chance-medley, or (as 



143 



chauffe 



cheese 



some rather chuse to write it) chaud- 
medley. 

chauffe. See chafe. 

chaundrye. A variant of chandlery, the 
place where candles were kept. In Tudor 
times, this was an important room; Cardi- 
nal Wolsey had three servants in his 
chaundrye. As Cavendish tells, in THE 

LYFFE AND DEATHE OF CARDYNALL WOOLSEY 

(1557) , in addition to a score of men in 
his hall kytchen: In his privy kytchen he 
had a master cooke who went dayly hi 
dammaske, fatten, or velvett with a chayne 
of gold abought his nekke; and ii gromes, 
with vi laborers and children to serve in 
that place. In the larder there a yoman 
and a grome; in the schaldyng house a 
yoman and ii gromes. In the scollery there 
ii persons. In the buttery ii yomen and ii 
gromes, with ii other pages. In the pantrie 
ii yomen; ii gromes and ii pages, and in 
the ewrie lykewyse; in the seller Hi yomen, 
ii gromes and ii pages, besides a gentil- 
man for the monthe. In the chaundrye 
Hi persons. In the wafery ii. For food and 
drink alone, 67 servants. The ewrie 
(ewery, ewry, y ewrie) was the room where 
table linen, towels, and water ewers 
(pitchers with a wide spout, to bring 
water for washing the hands) were kept. 
The wafery was the kitchen for biscuits 
(flat cakes) . It is little wonder that one 
of the charges in the arrest of Cardinal 
Wolsey for high treason (1530) was that 
he sought to be grander than the king. 

chawdron. A sauce, made with chopped 
entrails and spices; hence, entrails, especi- 
ally as used for food. Also chawdon, 
chalderne, chaldron, chawdre, akin to 
chowder; ultimately (by long popular 
mouthing) from Latin calidus, hot. It is 
interesting to note that, in the early 
chowder (from Breton fishermen to New- 



foundland to New England) there was 
often a goodly dash of cider or cham- 
pagne. Soups, said THE LITERARY WORLD 
(Boston, U.S.A.; 15 November 1884), are 
divisible into four groups: viz. clear, thick, 
purees or bisques, and chowders. 

cheap. As a noun: Bargaining; buying 
and selling. So used from the 8th century. 
Hence, a market. This sense is preserved 
in names, such as Cheap side, Eastcheap. 
Hence also, price, value. Good cheap, a 
bargain; Chaucer in the Prologue to THE 
WIFE OF BATH'S TALE (1386) says To great 
cheap is holden at litel price. Dear cheap, 
high prices, scarcity. Niggard cheap, close 
economy, niggardliness. (At) good cheap, 
on advantageous terms; this phrase, short- 
ened, gave us the still known adjective 
cheap, which is not often appropriate 
today. Other forms included: cheapable 
(16th century), valuable. To cheapen, to 
bargain for; a cheapener, cheaper, a bid- 
der, cheaping, marketing, buying and sell- 
ing; cheapild, a marketwoman. 'Sir George 
Wheler, in A JOURNEY INTO GREECE (1682) 
wrote: Here is very good bread and wine, 
and good cheap I believe. 

cheer. Face; countenance; aspect, mien; 
hence, disposition, mood (as shown in the 
face) . Also chere, chire, cheyr, cheare, 
chaire, and the like. To make a cheer, to 
put on a (pleased, angry, etc.) expres- 
sion. What cheer? (with you? make you?) , 
How are you? Used from the 13th cen- 
tury to the 17th, lingering in poetry. 
Sackville, in A MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES 
(1563) : With ruful chere, and vapored 
eyes upcast. Shakespeare, in A MIDSUMMER 
NIGHT'S DREAM (1590) : All fancy sicke 
she is, and pale of cheere. Blake, in SONGS 
OF INNOCENCE (1783) : So I piped, with 
merry cheer. 

cheese. Used in several combinations 
now lapsed: cheeseparing, a thing of little 



144 



chemise 



chevaline 



value; the concern of a niggard. Shake- 
speare in HENRY iv, PART TWO (1597) says: 
/ doe remember him at Clements Inne, 
like a man made after supper, of a cheese- 
paring, cheese and cheese, two ladies kiss- 
ing, or riding on one horse. To make 
cheeses (o school-girls) , to spin around 
and suddenly sink, so that petticoats and 
skirt spread all around, inflated vaguely 
resembling a cheese; hence, a deep 
curtsey. Used by Thackeray in THE VIR- 
GINIANS, and throughout the 19th cen- 
tury. Other combinations whet the ap- 
petite. 

chemise. See camis. 



by Chaucer. Sometimes used in the sense 
of cheerfulness, as though related to cheer, 
Chertes, says Bailey (1751, attributing the 
use to Chaucer) , are merry people. [In 
geology there is a kind of quartz called 
chert, whence also cherty, like hornstone, 
chert.} A frequent 14th and 15th century 
expression was to have (or hold) some- 
one in chertee. 

chese. A variant form of choose. Wisely 

in THE PARLEMENT OF THE THREE AGES 

(1350; in the old 4-beat alliterative verse): 
And chese me to the chesse that chefe is 
of gamnes: And this es life for to lede 
while I shalle lyfe here. 



cherisaunce. Comfort, support. French chessner. A player at chess. Middleton 



cherir, to cherish; chere, cheer. So 
Toone's GLOSSARY (1834) . Chaucer's RO 
MAUNT OF THE ROSE (1370) has: For I ne 
know no cherisaunce That fell into my 
remembrance. It is likely that Bailey *s 
cherisaunie (#.t/.) is a misprint for cheri- 
saunce. But cherisaunce itself is a mis- 
print, listed as a 'spurious word' in O.E.D. 
See chevisance. 

cherisaunie. A pleasant word in diction- 
aries, which Bailey (1751) lists as 'old/ 
and defines as 'comfort/ With glass and 
book on a wintry night, before a fireside 
I seek my cherisaunie. But see cheri- 
saunce. 

cherry-pit, A hole into which children 
try to throw cherry-stones; the game of 
throwing them. Shakespeare in TWELFTH 
NIGHT (1601) says 'Tis not for gravity to 
play at cherry-pit with Satan; Randolph 
in THE JEALOUS LOVERS (1632) has: Jour 
cheeks were sunk So low and hollow they 
might serve the boys For cherripits. 

chertee. Fondness, affection; dearness (in 
price) . Latin caritatem, from carus, dear. 
An early form of charity, which first 
meant love. Spelled chiertee, cherte, chierte 

145 



uses the term in his play, A GAME AT CHESS 
(1624; for which he was censured because 
it satirized court policy in regard to the 
Spanish marriage) : Yonder's my game, 
which, like a politic chessner, I must not 
seeme to see. My good friend Motty is an 
ardent chessner, keeping me on the qui 
vive. 

Chester. A city or walled town; origi- 
nally, the site of a Roman camp. Latin 
castra, camp. The Latin word survives in 
English in place names, taking three 
forms, as in Lancaster, Worcester, West- 
Chester. Used from the 9th to the 13th 
century, thereafter historically. Cp. cast- 
ametation. 

chete. See pedlers French. 

chevachance. Chivalry; the spirit of the 
true gentleman. Used in the 16th cen- 
tury. See chevisance. 

chevachee. See chyvachie. Old French 
chebauchie. cavalcata, riding; Medieval 
Latin caballicare, caballicatum, to ride; 
caballus, horse. 

chevaline. Pertaining to the horse; es- 
pecially, of its flesh as food. The LONDON 



clievance 



chichevache 



TIMES of 5 October, 1864, speaks of cold 
horse pie, and other chevaline delicacies, 
not appreciated in the western hemi- 
sphere. 

chevance. Fortune; acquired wealth. 
Hence, achievement in other fields. To 
make chevance is to raise money, borrow. 
Also chievance, chevaunce; from Old 
French chever, to finish, to accomplish, 
chef (chev-} , head. Hence also achieve. 
But see chevisance. 

cheverel. Kid leather. Old French chev- 
relle, diminutive of chevre, she-goat; Latin 
capra, whence caper, capricious, cabriolet] 
cp. capripede. Also cheveriL Kid leather 
was noted for its pliancy and capability 
of stretching, whence various figurative 
uses. Thus Shakespeare, in ROMEO AND 
JULIET (1592) : Here's a wit of cheverell, 
that stretches from an inch to an ell 
broad] in TWELFTH NIGHT (1601) : A sen- 
tence is but a chev'rill glove to a good 
witte, how quickly the wrong side may be 
turn'd outward; in HENRY vni (1613) : the 
capacity of your soft chiverell conscience. 
Cheverel conscience was a frequent phrase 
still too widely applicable. 

chevese. Mistress, concubine. A common 
Teuton term. Ghevese-born was euphemis- 
tic for bastard. 

chevetaine. Early form of chieftain, until 
the mid-1 7th century. 

cheville. Originally a peg, a plug; then, 
a meaningless or unnecessary word used 
to complete a verse or round off a sen- 
tence. 

chevisance. Bringing to a head; comfort; 
help; hence an expedient, a device; shift- 
iness; ability to shift; provision, supply; 
booty. To make a chevisaunce was to 
arrange a loan; hence (in a bad sense) , 
a shift to get money; to make chevisaunce 
of was to convert to one's profit (with bad 



implications) . From Old French chevir, 
chevissant, to finish, succeed with, etc.; 
see chevance. The word chevisance was 
widely used (14th and 15th centuries) in 
these many senses. Spenser, in the Gloss 
to the SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR (1579) mis- 
understood the word, confusing it with 
chevance and chivalry, as in THE FAERIE 
QUEENE (1590) : Shameful thing It were 
t' abandon noble chevisaunce For show 
of peril, without venturing. This error 
was repeated, as late as 1849 by Bulwer- 
Lytton in KING ARTHUR: Frank were those 
times of trustful chevisaunce, and 1880 
by Shorthouse in JOHN INGLESANT: When 
the northern gods . . . rode on their 
chevisance, they went down into the deep 
valleys singing magic songs. More pro- 
saically, a chevisancer was (a rare word 
for) a money-lender, usurer. Also chevi- 
sance, a flower, possibly the wallflower 
(not the lorn maiden) ; cp. pawnee. 

chevise. The verb form of chevisance, 
q.v., meaning to accomplish; to provide 
for, help; to raise money, etc. 

chibol. See ramolade. 

chichevache. There was an Old French 
bogy, to scare children into good behavior, 
an imaginary monster called chinceface, 
thin-face, ugly-face. This was changed, in 
English, to chichevache, ugly cow, and 
used of a monster that fed only on pa- 
tient wives, hence was always starving. 
Chaucer, in THE CLERK'S TALE (1386) 
ironically warns women to avoid humility, 
lest chichevache you swallow in her en- 
trail. Lydgate in 1430 wrote a poem 
Chichevache and Bycorne. Cp. palmer. 
This bycorne, as the poem tells, is a fabu- 
lous monster that fed on patient husbands, 
hence was always fat. The name bicorn, 
which means two-horned, may be an al- 
lusion to the traditional horns of the 
cuckold. In the 15th century, the term 



146 



chickweed 

bicorne was applied to a two-pronged 
pitchfork. 

chickweed. A small plant, earlier called 
chickenweed. It was formerly used for 
feeding caged birds (linnets; goldfinches) . 
The Elizabethans enjoyed it in salads. 

THE SHEPHERDS KALENDER (1503) advised: 

Take chickweed, clythers, ale, and oat- 
mealy and make pottage there with. 

chideress. A female scold or brawler. 
Also chidester. Manuscripts of Chaucer's 
THE MERCHANT'S TALE (1386) spell this 
chidestere, chidystere, chydester: A chid- 
ester and waster of thy good. 

childwit. "A power to take a fine of a 
bondwoman who has been gotten with 
child without her owner's consent": Bailey, 
1751. Paid to the woman's lord, by Eng- 
lish law, 10th to 16th century. Also child- 
wite; Old English wite, penalty, satisfac- 
tion. 

chiliad. (Pronounce the ch as k.) A col- 
lection or group of 1,000 things; the mil- 
lennium. From Greek chiliados, from 
chilioi, thousand. In the 17th and 18th 
centuries, tables of logarithms were called 
chiliads. A chiliast is one that believes 
Christ will reign on earth, in person, for 
a thousand years. 

chilindre. A cylindrical, portable sun- 
dial, carried before there were watches. 
Greek kylindros, cylinder; in Medieval 
Latin chilindrus and in Italian cilindro 
meant this kind of dial. Chaucer in THE 
SHIPMANNES TALE (1386) says: And let us 
dine as soon as that ye may for by my 
chilyndre it is pryme of day. Also chy- 
lendre, chilandre, chilyndre, chylawndur. 
They could not agree on the spelling, but 
it gave them the time. 

chilonian. Succinct. In 17th and 18th 
century dictionaries; also chilonic. From 



chirocracy 

Chilon, one of the seven wise men of 
ancient Greece, whose utterances were 
brief and to the point. Not so abrupt as 
laconic, q.v. 

chimer. See cymar. 

chiminage. A toll paid for passage 
through a forest. Usually collected in be- 
half of the lord who had had the way 
cleared, sometimes also by the local Robin 
Hood. Chimin was a 17th century legal 
term for road; Law Latin chiminus, 
French chemin; camino real is Spanish for 
royal way, highway and the title of an 
American play (1953) by Tennessee Wil- 
liams. Latin caminus, however, means 
furnace; English chimney. 

chinch. Niggardly. Originally chiche, a 
Middle English word meaning parsimoni- 
ous; thin; see chichevache. Hence also 
chincherd, niggard; chinchery, chincery 
(in Chaucer chyncherie) , miserliness. (In 
the United States, chinch is still a name 
for the bed-bug.) 

chine. The spine, or part of the back 
along the vertebral column. French 
echine; Latin spina. To b-ow the chine 

(often back and chine) , to pay homage. 
By extension, of meat: the cut left of a 
hog when the sides are cut for bacon; a 
saddle of mutton; ribs or sirloin of beef. 
By transference (19th century) a crest or 
ridge of land. Kingsley, in TWO YEARS AGO 

(1857) : Crawling on hands and knees 
along the sharp chines of the rocks. 
Cooper in THE PIONEERS (1823) served a 
prodigious chine of roasted bear's meat. 

chipochia. See capocchia. 

chirocracy. Government with a strong 
hand; by physical force. Greek cheir, hand 
4- kratia, rule; accent on the rock. Hence 
also: chirocosmetics, the art of adorning 
the hands, chiroponal (Greek ponos, toil), 



147 



chiromancy 

relating to or involving manual labor. 
chironomy, the art of gesticulation, chi- 
romachy, a fist-fight; a hand-to-hand bat- 
tle, chirosopher, one learned as to the 
hand, chirosophist, one that practices 
sleight of hand; one that reads palms, a 
chiromancer, a chiroscopist. chiroscopy, 
palmistry, chirotony (accent on the rot) , 
voting by show of hands; also chirotonia; 
to chirotonize, to vote by show of hands. 

chiromancy. See aeromancy. 

chirurgeon. An early form of surgeon. 
Also chirurge (in the 16th century) , Ulti- 
mately from Greek cheiro, /zand + ergos, 
working. Hence also chirurgeonly, chirur- 
gery, chirurgical, chirurgy. Cp. chyurgerie. 

chis. Fastidious, dainty in eating; choice, 
exquisite. From the 7th through the 15th 
century. Also chise, chys, chyse. 

chisan. An inviting early dish; also chy- 
sanne. One recipe runs: Take hole roches 
and enchys, or plays [or other fish] but 
choppe horn on peces, and frie horn in 
oyle; and take crustes of bredde, and 
draw horn with wyn and vynegur, and 
bray fygges, and draw horn therewith; 
and mynce onyons, and frie horn, and do 
therto, and blaunched almondes fried, and 
raisinges of corances [raisin'd, i.e., dried, 
currants], and powder of clowes and of 
ginger and of canelle, and let hit boile, 
and then do thi fissh in a faire vesselle, 
and poure thi sewe above, and serve it 
for the colde. 

chitarrone. A 17th century musical in- 
strument, used for basso continuo. Like 
the cithern or cittern, gittern, zither, it 
was developed from the Greek cithara, 
q.v., which was triangular, with from seven 
to eleven strings. There is one in the New 
York Metropolitan Museum of Art col- 
lection. 



chouse 

chlamys. A short mantle worn by men 
in ancient Greece. Used historically and 
poetically (also, in botany, for the floral 
envelope) . 

chopin. A liquid measure. From the 
French chopine, half a chope. It seems 
to have varied; the French measure was 
about an English pint. In Scotland, about 
a half-pint, which was almost a quart by 
English wine measure. Also choppin, 
choppyne, schopin but see chopine. The 
word was used from the 13th into the 19th 
century; Smollett in HUMPHREY CLINKER 
(1771) mentions a call for a chopine of 
two-penny. Hence, as a verb, to tipple; 
Urquhart in his translation (1653) of 
Rabelais speaks of chopining and plying 
the pot. 

chopine. A shoe raised above ground by 
a cork sole. Apparently from Spanish 
chapa, plate of metal, then a thin cork 
sole. English writers in the late 16th and 
17th century associated the word with 
Italy, especially Venice, spelling it ciop- 
pino, but it is not in the Italian diction- 
aries. The soles; apparently, were made 
thicker and thicker; we hear in 1577 of 
choppines a foot hygh from the ground. 
Jonson in CYNTHIA'S REVELS (1599) says: 
/ do wish myself one of my mistresses 
chopping In Shakespeare's HAMLET (1602) 
we hear: Your Ladyship is nearer heaven 
than when I saw you last, by the altitude 
of a choppine. Also chopin, chapiney, 
chipeener, cheopine, etc. They were little 
worn in England, except onstage, but the 
19th century historical novelists (Scott, 

THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL, 1822,* Reade, THE 
CLOISTER AND THE HEARTH, 1861) WTOte 

as though the chopine were a normal part 
of a 17th century English costume. 

chouse. A cheat, a trick; a swindler; also, 
a gull, a cheat's victim. Johnson (1755) 



148 



chout 

defines chouse as "a man fit to be cheated." 
Originally choush, chiaus, a Turkish mes- 
senger. There is a 1609 story of an agent 
from Turkey who "chiaused" the Turkish 
merchants of 4,000. Jonson plays on the 
two senses in THE ALCHEMIST (1610) : D. 
What do you think of me, that I am a 
chiausef F. Whaifs that? D. The Turk 
was here As one would say f Do you think 
I am a Turk? . . . This is the gentleman, 
and he is no chiause. Also chowse, chews 
(see chaldese) . Also as a verb, to dupe, 
to defraud; a Law Report of 1886 queries: 
Is it to be said that they are to be 
choused of their remedy? 

chout. The sum of one-fourth of the 
revenue of a province in India, exacted 
by neighboring Mahrattas in payment for 
immunity from plunder. Also, payment 
to the judge of one-fourth the value of 
property in litigation. Abolished by the 
19th century. 

chowder. See chawdron. 
chowse. See chouse. 

chrematist. A student of the science of 
wealth; a political economist. Chremati- 
stics was suggested by Gladstone (1858) as 
a better name than 'political economy/ 
Greek chrematizein meant to consult (or 
to respond as) an oracle; thence (from the 
main purpose of consulting one) , to make 
money; chrema, chremat-, thing required; 
money. From the first meaning came the 
(rare) English word chrematistical, oracu- 
lar. 

chreotechnics. The applied or useful arts 
(commerce, manufacture, agriculture) . 
Greek chreia, use + techne, an art. 

chrestomathy. A collection of choice 
passages, especially as used to learn a 
language. Greek chrestos, useful + ma- 
theia, learning, as also in mathematics. 



chromatocracy 

Chrestomathics is a rare word for the field 
of useful learning. Chrestomathy (accent 
on the torn) has been largely replaced by 
anthology (Greek anthos, flower + legein, 
gather) . 

chrisom. (1) Oil and balm, for sacra- 
mental use; hence, any unguent. In these 
senses, it was a popular pronunciation and 
spelling of chrism (as folk say prisum for 
prism, etc.) ; Greek chrisma, anointing, 
whence also to christen and the Christ. 
In Romanic, chrisma became cresma, 
French crime, English cream. (2) A head 
cloth, to keep the chrism from being 
rubbed off before the anointed new-born 
is baptized. If the child died within a 
month of baptism, the chrism was used as 
the shroud; if it lived, the cloth or its 
value in money was given to the church 
at the mother's purification ceremony. 
(Because of the high rate of infant mor- 
tality in China, the celebration of a son's 
birth is held after a month, at the first 
full moon.) (3) Also chrysom, a child 
dying before baptism, chrisom child, 
christom child, an infant still in its chri- 
som; hence, an innocent babe. The 
Hostess in Shakespeare's HENRY v (1599) 
says, in her picture of Falstaff's dying: 
A' made a finer end and went away an it 
had been any christom child. (4) Hence, 
in general, an infant, an innocent; later, 
especially in dialects, a fool. 

chroma. Bailey (1751) gives three mean- 
ings for this word (from Greek chroma, 
color) ; it is not in the O.E.D. proper, 
but appears in the Supplement, as mean- 
ing "purity or intensity as a colour 
quality.'* Bailey: (1) "color, gracefulness'*; 
(2) "in music, the graceful way of sing- 
ing, with quavers and trilloes"; (3) "in 
rhetoric, a color [figure], set-off, or fair 
pretence." 

chromatocracy. A ruling class of a par- 



149 



chronogram 

ticular color; government by a group of 
a particular color. 

chronogram. Writing, certain letters of 
which form a date. THE ATHENAEUM (No. 
2868) related: "Thus, in 1666, when a day 
of national humiliation was appointed in 
the expectation of an engagement between 
the English and Dutch navies, a pamphlet 
issued in reference to the fast day, instead 
of bearing the imprint of the year after 
the usual fashion, had this seasonable 
sentence at the bottom of the title-page: 
LorD haVe MerCIe Vpon Vs. It will be 
seen that the total sum of the figures rep- 
resented by the numeral letters (printed 
in capitals) gives the requisite date 1666." 
Hence chronogrammatic, chronogrammic, 
chrono grammatical; chronogrammatist. A 
single line of verse that contains a chrono- 
gram is a chronostichon (accent on the 
nos) . 

chryselephantine. Of gold and ivory. 
Greek chrysos, gold + elephantinos, of 
ivory; elephas, elephant-, elephant, ivory. 
The word was especially applied, in the 
19th century, to ancient Greek statues 
(often of wood) overlaid with ivory and 
gold, including the Olympian Zeus and 
the Athene Parthenos of Phidias. 

chrysom. See chrisom. 

chrysostomic. G o 1 d e n-mouthed. THE 
MONTHLY REVIEW of 1816 says: By the 
majestic of his chrysostomic -eloquence. 
From Greek chrysos, gold -f- stomat-, 
mouth. Also chrysostomatical. Applied to 
various ancient orators, it became the sur- 
name of (Saint) John Ghrysostom (545?- 
407), priest at Antioch, bishop of Con- 
stantinople, banished (404) to Armenia 
despite (or because of) his popularity 
with the people. Even the golden-mouthed 
control his tongue. 



ci curate 



chuff. See cuffin. 



chyurgerie. An early form of surgery 
usually fatal. Also chiurgery; likewise chi- 
rurgeon, q.v. The English word for a 
measure of work (energy) is erg. 

chyvachie. A horseback expedition; a 
raid; a campaign. Also chevachee, q.v.; 
chivachee, chyvauche, and more. Chaucer 
in the Prologue to THE CANTERBURY TALES 
(1386) says: He hadde ben somtyme in 
chyvachie In Flaundres, in Artoys } and 
Picardie. 

cibaries. Victuals, provisions. Plural; 
Latin cibaria, things used for food; cibus, 
food. See pote. 

cicisbeo. A cavalier servente; a recog- 
nized gallant of a married woman. In 
Italy, 15th through 18th century. Pro- 
nounced chi-chis-bay-o. Mentioned by 
Sheridan in THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL 
(1777), but the pious Wesley exclaimed 
(1782) : English ladies are not attended by 
their cicisbys yet; nor would any English 
husband suffer it. The practice was a 
growth from the troubadour days of medi- 
eval southern France. 

cidatoun. Scarlet cloth; later, cloth of 
gold. A precious stuff through the Middle 
Ages. The word was obsolete by 1400; 
Spenser guesses at what Chaucer meant 
by it. Chaucer (SIR THOPAS, 1386) : His 
robe was of Syklatoun That coste many a 
]ane y Cidatoun , also sikelatoun, sycla- 
towne, shecklaton, etc., is from Arabic 
siqilatun, from Persian saqirlat, sakarlat, 
whence also English scarlet. 

cicurate. To tame; to render mild or 
harmless. Latin cicur, tame. Sir Thomas 
Browne in PSEUDODOXIA EPIDEMICA (1646) 
tells of poisons so refracted, cicurated, and 
subdued, as not to make good their . . . 
destructive malignities. Cotton Mather, in 



150 



cid 



circumquaque 



THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF NEW ENG- 
LAND (1702) : Nor did he only try to 
cicurate the Indians. The verb was some- 
times shortened to cicure. Hence circura- 
tion, domestication. 

cid. A valiant man, a great captain 
(Bailey, 1751). A title (Arabic, es Sayd, 
my lord) given to Ruy Diaz, Count of 
Bivar, champion of Christianity against 
the Moors in Spain, llth century. Title 
also (LE CID, 1637) of the greatest play 
by Corneille, which Cardinal Richelieu 
disliked and the newly formed French 
Academy condemned. 

cillibub. See sillabub. 

cinct. Girt, girdled; surrounded. Latin 
cingere, cinctum, to gird. Hence cincture, 
a belt; an encompassing; an embrace; the 
environment. The cincture of sword was 
the ceremony of girding on a sword when 
made a duke or an earl. To cincture, to 
girdle, encircle as the head of the Indian 
when Gray in THE PROGRESS OF POESY 
(1757) speaks of their feather-cinctur'd 
chief. Shakespeare uses cincture to mean 
belt in KING JOHN (1595) : Now happy he 
whose cloak and cincture can Hold out 
this tempest. 

cinereous. Ash-colored. Also cinereal, 
cineritious. Latin cinerem, ashes. Thus 
cinerescent, inclining to ash-color, grayish; 
cinerulent, full of ashes; of the texture of 
ashes. Cinereous crows, Morse recorded in 
his AMERICAN GEOGRAPHY (1796) brave 
the severest winter. Another instance of 
the use appears at vinaceous. 

circum-. Around. Used in many English 
words, some familiar, some forgotten. 
Thus circumaggerate, to heap around; 
circumcursation, running around, ram- 
bling in discourse; circumambages, ways 
of getting around (someone) : women are 

151 



the circumambagious sex; drcumdolate f 
to cut around, to deceive; circumfulgent, 
shining all around, circumcellion, a 4th 
century fanatic who roamed from monas- 
tery to monastery, especially in Africa 
where Burton reports in THE ANATOMY 
OF MELANCHOLY (1621) they preached 
and practiced suicide; later, a vagabond, 
a tavern hunter a type far from extinct. 
Circumdate, to surround; circumforane -al, 
-an, -ous, vagrant, wandering from market 
to market, fair to fair, like the medieval 
jugglers and the strolling players: Addi- 
son in THE SPECTATOR (1711) says / mean 
those circumforaneous wits, whom every 
nation calls by the name of that dish of 
meat which it likes best . . . in Italy, 
maccaronies; and in Great Britain, Jack 
Puddings. Circumgyral, in circling wreaths 
or whirls, as circumgyral smoke, circumpli- 
cation, a wrapping or folding around; 
circumspicwus, seeing all around; circum- 
spicuous, easily seen all around; circum- 
terraneous, circumterrestrial (like the 
stratosphere and the moon) ; circumvoisin, 
neighboring on all sides. 

circumbendibus. See recumbentibus. 
circumbilivagination. See circumquaque. 

circumcellion. A vagabond monk; origi- 
nally, one of the 4th century Donatist 
fanatics in Africa, who roved from house 
to house. Latin circum, about + cella, 
cell. Cotton Mather in MAGNALIA CHRISTI 
AMERICANA (1702) remarked: There was 
the phrensie of the old circumcellions in 
those Quakers. Hence, in general, a vaga- 
bond, a haunter of public houses. Cp. 
circum-. 

circumquaque. Circumlocution; a coined 
word, like circumbendibus, circumbilivagi- 
nation, circumbilivigation. To circumbi- 
livaginate, to speak in a roundabout way; 
to talk in circles. Cp. circum-. These are 



at 



civet 



mainly 17th century pedantically humor- 
ous terms. Goldsmith, in SHE STOOPS TO 
CONQUER (1773) says With a circumbendi- 
bus, I fairly lodged them in the horse- 
pond. (This is the most lasting of these 
coinages.) Urquhart in his translation 
(1693) of Rabelais says: That is spoke 
gallantly, without circumbilivaginating 
about and about. J. Heywood in THE 

SPIDER AND THE FLIE (1556) WTOte.* What 

(quoth the flte) meaneth this circumqua- 
quief and in his PROVERBS (1562) said: 
Ye set circumquaques to make me believe 
. . . that the moone is made of greene 
cheese, [Note that green, in the expres- 
sion green cheese, means unripe hence 
not golden like a ripe cheese, but pale 
yellow. In the same way, blackberries are 
red when they are green.] 

cit. Short for citizen. Also citt. Feminine 
(used by Dry den, 1685) , citess; Johnson 
(1751) used cit as a feminine. Cit was 
used in the 17th and 18th centuries, 
usually with some measure of scorn, for 
a townsman as opposed to a squire, or a 
tradesman as opposed to a gentleman. 
Pope in a SATIRE of 1735 asks Why turn- 
pikes rose, and now no cit or clown Can 
gratis see the country or the town. The 
Prologue to Hannah Cowley's THE RUN- 
AWAY (1776) pictured the Londoner, still 
seeking the countryside, scorned by the 
actor: Let cits point out green paddocks 
to their spouses; To me, no prospect like 
your crowded houses. 

citbtara. An ancient Greek and Roman 
musical instrument. It has had many 
medieval and modern variants; see citole; 
cithern. 

cithern. A guitar-like instrument, strung 
with wire. Popular in the 16th and I7th 
centuries. Latin cithara. Also gittern, cit- 
tern; see bandore. Bacon in SYLVA (1626) 



states that an Irish harp maketh a more 
resounding sound than a bandora, orpha- 
rion, or cittern, which have likewise wire 
strings. The head of the cittern was often 
grotesquely carved; hence cittern-head was 
used as a term of scorn, as in Shakespeare's 
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST (1588) : Holof ernes: 
I will not be put out of countenance. 
Berowne: Because thou hast no face. 
Holofernes: What is this? Boyet: A cit- 
terne head. Sometimes called cither; a 
Tyrolese form of the instrument is called 
zither. The cithern had eight strings di- 
vided into four pairs (courses) . It was 
commonly kept in barber shops for the 
use of the waiting customers. Also see 
orpharion. 

citole. A stringed instrument, perhaps at 
first like the ancient cithara which was 
triangular, with from seven to eleven 
strings but probably later with fewer 
strings, and sometimes box-shaped. The 
strings were strummed with the fingers 
(the cithern, bandore, and other wire- 
stringed instruments were struck with a 
plectrum. See cithern.) The citole was 
very popular in the 13th, 14th, and 15th 
centuries; Chaucer in THE KNIGHT'S TALE 
(1386) says: A citole in her right hand 
hadde she. 

cittern. See cithern; also for cittern-head. 

civet. (1) a carnivorous animal, in ap- 
pearance between a fox and a weasel. 
Hence, the musky, oily secretion in the 
anal pouch of this animal; especially the 
African civet-cat; used in making per- 
fumes. Thus Shakespeare, in AS YOU LIKE 
IT (1600) : Civet is of a baser birth than 
tar, the very uncleanly flux of a cat. 
Hence, a perfume. The term civet-cat was 
applied (in ridicule) to a person highly 
perfumed. (2) An old word for chive. 
(3) a way of preparing chicken or hare: 



152 



clack-dish 



clem 



first frying it brown in lard, then stew- 
ing it in broth. Served with bread toasted, 
soaked for an hour in wine, then strained 
and spiced. This civet sounds a succulent 
dish. 

clack-dish. A beggar's cup: a wooden 
dish with a cover the beggar would clack 
down as an appeal. Also clapdish. Shake- 
speare knew the device; MEASURE FOR 
MEASURE (1603) : and his use was, to put 
a ducat in her clack-dish. "The last of her 
race," sitting on a door-step, is pictured in 
1861; now the beggar rattles coins in a 
tin cup. 

clam. See clem. 

clancular. Secret; clandestine, underhand. 
In the 17th and 18th centuries; the com- 
moner form in the 16th century was 
clanculary. From Latin clanculum, dimi- 
nutive of clam, secretly. 

clapperclaw. To strike and scratch. From 
two uses of the hand. Figuratively, to 
revile. The Epistle to the First Quarto of 
Shakespeare's TROILUS AND CRESSIDA (1609) 
recommends it as a new play, never stal'd 
with the stage, never clapper clawd with 
the palms of the vulgar. 

clapperdudgeon. A beggar; a rapscallion. 
The word is probably from the beggar's 
rapping on his clapdish (see clack-dish) 
with the handle of his dudgeon, q.v. The 
16th century play GEORGE A GREEN said: 
It is but the part of a clappedugeon To 
strike a man on the street. 

claptrap. See catchpenny. 
darry. See piment. 

claudicate. To limp, to be lame. Latin 
claudus, lame. Also figuratively, as claudi- 
cant arguments. Rare after 17th century. 



clavicymbal. See clavis. 



clavicytherium. Also, clavichord. See 
clavis. 

clavis. A key; especially, to a cipher. A 
17th and 18th century term, directly from 
Latin clavis, key. Hence also clavicular, 
pertaining to a key (also to the clavicle, 
'little key," the collar-bone) . The clavi- 
cymbal, a 15th to 17th century name for 
the early harpsichord; clavicytherium, a 
sort of harpsichord, an upright spinet, of 
the same period. A daviger, a key-keeper; 
one that carries a key but also (Latin 
clava, club) one that carries a club; also 
daviger ous. Clavis, key, from the sense, 
key to a cipher came also to mean a 
glossary (key to a language) . 

claymore. See morglay. 
cleam. See clem. 
cleap. See clepe. 

cleave. See avaunt. Cleave, to hew 
asunder, to split, had early English forms 
clofen, clufan, akin to Greek gluf-, to 
carve. In the 14th century it became fused 
with cleave, earlier clive, to stick, a com- 
mon Teuton term related to climb and 
clay. Wyclif in 1382 said that the husband 
should cleave to (not cleave) his wife. 

cleeves. An old form of cliffs, plural of 
cliff. 

clem. To pinch as with hunger, to starve. 
From a Teuton form clammy the early 
English noun clam meant the act of 
squeezing together, then anything that 
holds tight (such as a clamp and the shell- 
fish clam, whence the current slang to 
clam up, to refuse to talk, shut the lips 
tight) . But the verb clam, to clutch, hold 
tight, lost that meaning in favor of the 
sense to smear, from Old English clasman, 
to anoint, daub, smear, whence current 
clammy. There was also (12th to 19th 



153 



clench clepsydra 

century, now dialectic) a verb cleam, in its mouth that sees its image in the 
cleme, to smear. Thus the original sense water. 



of pinching, squeezing, was lost in all the 
verbs, though surviving in the noun forms. 
Jonson in THE POETASTER (1601) exclaims: 
I cannot eat stones and turfs . . . What, 
will he clem me and my followers? Ask 
him an he will clem me. 

clench (noun). A play on words. Used in 
the 17th and 18th centuries. Dryden in his 

ESSAY ON DRAMATIC POESY (1668) Says of 

Shakespeare: He is many times fiat, in- 
sipid; his comic wit degenerating into 
clenches, his serious swelling into bombast. 
Pope says scornfully, in THE DUNCIAD 
(1728) : One poor word a hundred 
clenches makes. 

Clench has a major meaning, that which 
clenches or grasps; it is a variant of clinch, 
as in a prize fight. It is a causal form of 
cling; to clinch is to make cling. In a pun 
or other play on words, two unconnected 
ideas are made to stick together. Usually 
the auditor (if he has paid to listen) is 
also stuck. A clincher, in the sense of 
something that settles an argument, comes 
from the verb to clinch, to bend the point 
of a nail back into what it's been driven 
through, as in the old story of the two 
boasters (cp. palmer) . Said the first: "I 
drove a nail through the moon last Thurs- 
day night.'* "I can vouch for that," said 
the second, " 'cause I went around to the 
back and clinched it." 

cleombrotan. Characterized by the aban- 
donment of one's present goods for the 
sake of an unknown, perhaps imaginary, 
but it is hoped better future. From Cle- 
ombrotus, a young man of Ambracia in 
Epirus, who after reading in Plato's 
PHAEDO the discourse on the immortality 
of the soul, leapt into the sea to go at 
once to that better after-life. Aesop tells 
a cleombrotan story of a dog with a bone 



cleopatrical. Extravagantly luxurious. 
After the ways of Cleopatra, Queen of 
Egypt, wife of Ptolemy Dionysius, mother 
of a child of Julius Caesar, mistress of 
Marc Antony. Cleopatra's nose came to 
mean the essential element from the re- 
mark by Blaise Pascal (died 1662) : // the 
nose of Cleopatra had been shorter, the 
whole face of the earth would have been 
changed. Bishop Hall in his SATIRES 
(1597) exclaimed: Oh, cleopatrical! what 
wanteth there For curious cost, and 
wondrous choice of cheeref 

clepe. To call; to call on, appeal to; to 
summon; to call to witness; to speak to; to 
name. A very common word with a range 
of meanings, used in many forms from the 
8th through the 18th century: clipian, 
clep, cleap, clip. Especially frequent in 
the 16th century was the form yclept, 
named; as in Shakespeare's LOVE'S LABOUR'S 
LOST (1588) : Judas I am, ycliped Macha- 
beus; this has survived as an archaism, as 
in Byron's DON JUAN (1823) : Microcosm 
on stilts, yclept the Great World. The 
forms occur throughout early literature, 
frequent in Chaucer, in Spenser VISIONS, 
1591: / saw the fish (if fish I may it 
cleepe) . . . the huge leviathan and in 
Shakespeare HAMLET, 1604: other nations 
. . . clepe us drunkards. Hence cleper, one 
who calls; cleping, a name; a vocation; 
Wyclif in 1382 urged that ye walk worthily 
in the cleping in which ye ben clepid. 

clepsydra. An instrument anciently used 
(Bailey, 1751, says by the Egyptians) to 
measure time by the running of water 
out of one vessel into another; a water- 
clock. Similarly, the instrument using the 
fall of grains of sand to tell time was a 
clepsammia. Clepsydra is from Greek 



154 



clerk 

kleps, from kleptein, to steal (whence also 
kleptomaniac) + hydor, water. 

clerk. Originally in English (10th cen- 
tury) , an ordained officer of the church. 
Hence, a person of book learning; one 
able to read and write; a scholar; a pupil. 
Greek kleros meant piece of land, estate, 
heritage; klerikos, relating to an inheri- 
tance; by the 2d century this came to be 
applied to those that carried on the Chris- 
tian inheritance; i.e., the clergy, the clerics. 
Caxton in his Prologue to ENEYDOS (THE 
AENEID; 1490) spoke of that noble poete 
and grete clerke Vyrgyle; elsewhere he 
mentioned Plato the sage . . . and his 
clerke named Aristotle. 

cleromancy. See aeromancy. 

clicket. The latch of a gate or door; any 
lid, valve, or other catch that shuts with 
a click. Also, a latch-key, as in Chaucer's 
THE MERCHANT'S TALE (1386) . Also, rat- 
tling bones as an accompaniment to music 
(usually plural) ; a device for making a 
clicking sound, carried by beggars in 
France, as the clack-dish, q.v., in England. 
Hence, a chattering tongue, a woman 
(1611) whose clicket is ever wagging. 

clinch. See clench. 

cline. To bow, to incline. Used in the 
15th century, perhaps shortened from ac- 
cline, incline, and in the 16th century, 
perhaps from the Greek klinein, to cause 
to slope, recline; Greek kline, a bed, kli- 
nikos, pertaining to a bed, whence Eng- 
lish clinic. Carew, in his translations from 
Tasso (1594) has: shamefast and downe 
clyned eyes. 

clinic. See cline. In early use (17th to 
mid 19th century) , a clinic was a person 
confined to bed; especially, one who de- 
ferred baptism to the death-bed, "a wash 
for all our sins" said a commentator of 



clodpate 

1666, "when we cannot possibly commit 
any more." Hence clinic baptism. A clinic 
convert, one converted when sick or dying: 
"When the devil was ill, the devil a monk 
would be; When the devil was well, the 
devil a monk was hel" 

clinquant. Glittering, as with gold; tin- 
selled; showy. Also clinkant, clincant, 
clinquent. Shakespeare speaks of The 
French, all clinquant in HENRY vm (1613); 
Fletcher and Rowley in THE MAIDE IN THE 
MILL (1623) mentioned a clinquant petti- 
coat of some rich stuff, To catch the eye. 
The word was also used as a noun, and 
figuratively (false glitter) , as in FRASER'S 
MAGAZINE for 1839: the worst portion of 
the silly bits of clinquant strung together, 
and called gems of beauty. 

dip. (I) To embrace. Shakespeare in 
CORIOLANUS (1607) has: Let me clip ye 
In armes as sound, as when I woo'd in 
heart. (2) To cut short (still used) ; slang 
from this was the meaning to cheat, to 
cozen. Many a wanton has dipt a man 
(sense 1) to clip him (sense 2) . Shake- 
speare in LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST (1588) 
puns: Judas I am, ycliped \ycleped, called] 
Machabeus. Judas Machabeus dipt, is 
plaine Judas. 

clipse. Old form of eclipse. Also clips, 
clypse, clippis, and the like. Phaer, in his 
translation (1558) of the AENEUX, tells us 
that Coribantes beat their brasse the 
moone pom clips to cure. Hence clipsi, 
clipsy, dark, obscure; in the ROMAUNT OF 
THE ROSE (1400) we read that love is now 
bright, now clipsi of manere. 

cloacinean. See ajax. 

clipsome. Fit to be embraced. A light- 
some word for a winsome lass. 

clodpate. A blockhead. Also clodpoll, 
clodpole. A 17th century favorite Shake- 



155 



close-stool 



coacervate 



speare, in TWELFTH NIGHT (1601) : This 
letter being so excellently ignorant . . . he 
will find it comes from a doddepole and 
surviving (as in Thackeray, 1840, and 
Browning, 1878) well into the 19th. 

dose-stool. A covered chamber-pot set in 
a stool. Used from the 15th century. Cp. 
ajax. Shakespeare in ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS 
WELL (1601) presents a paper from For- 
tune's dose-stool to give to a nobleman. 
Milton in THE READ IE AND EASIE WAY TO 

ESTABLISH A FREE COMMONWEALTH (1659) 

girded at chamberlains, ushers, grooms, 
even of the dose-stool. 

cloud-kissing. A most pleasant adjective 
for what we more crudely call a sky- 
scraper. Shakespeare in THE RAPE OF 
LUCRECE (1594) speaks of cloud-kissing 
Ilion. Other such combinations include 
cloud-gloom, cloud-glory, cloud-serpent; 
cloud-cleaver; cloud-coifed, -compacted, 
-courtiered, -girt. Also various terms for 
those whose thoughts are 'in the clouds': 
cloud-castle, cloud-world, cloud cuckoo- 
land (Aristophanes, THE BIRDS). The 
cloud-assembler, cloud-compeller was Zeus, 
but these terms were used in the 19th cen- 
tury, with pedantically humorous appli- 
cation to a heavy smoker. Also cloud- 
headed, confused. 

cloud-monger. One that foretells by ob- 
servation of the clouds. Used by Scott in 
DEMONOLOGY (1830) ; cp. aeromancy. 

dough. A steep-sided ravine or valley, 
usually with a swift stream coursing 
through. Sometimes applied to the steep 
sides, as though it were a form of the 
word cliff. Pronounced duff or clau; com- 
mon from the 14th to the 17th century; 
later in dialects, as a rocky glen. 

dow. A mill-dam; more often, a sluice 
or floodgate that controls the flow of 



water, as into a mill-wheel or a tidal river. 
Also clowys, clew, dough. Originally 
clowes, clowis, mistaken (like pease, 
whence pea) in the 15th and 16th cen- 
turies for a plural. It is ultimately from 
Latin clausa, a closed way. 

clumperton. A silly fellow, a clown. From 
dump, dumper, to tread heavily, clumsily. 

clumse. Benumbed with cold; hence 
stupid, stolid, awkward; later, in dialects, 
surly, 'an awkward customer.' Also clomps, 
clumps. Bailey (1751) defines dumps as 
'a numpskull.' The word has been replaced 
by the later form clumsy. 

dyster. "A fluid medicine of different 
qualities/' says Bailey (1751), "to be in- 
jected into the bowels by the fundament." 
From Greek klyster, from klyzein, to wash, 
drench. Sometimes for nutrition, usually 
as an enema the common word for 
enema, 14th through 17th century. Also 
clister, or beginning with g. Also used 
figuratively, as by Greene in GREENES 
MOURNING GARMENT (1590) : My purse 
began with so many purging glisters to 
waxe not only laxative, but quite emptie. 
In the interlude of THE FOUR P'S (see 
palmer) the 'pothecary's lie is a story of 
a man with an eight days' constipation; 
when a clyster is administered the result 
is so violent that a stone wall miles away 
is knocked down and the stones tumble 
into a stream so that one can walk over 
dry-shod. 

co. In Tudor cant, short for cove. See 
pedlers French. 

coacervate. To heap up, to accumulate. 
Also coacerve. From Latin co~, together 
-f aceruare, to heap. Used 14th through 
19th century; items may be coacerved but 
not commixed. 



156 



coal 



cockatrice 



coal. In various phrases: black coal 
(charcoal, as opposed to white coal, wood; 
used to make a black mark) , a mark or 
sign of censure. In PASQUILS RETURN (1589) 
we read: He gives the English a dash over 
the face with a blacke coale, and saith: 
Traistre Angloi [Perfidious Albion]. Pre- 
cious coals! was a 16th. and 17th century 
exclamation, for emphasis or surprise. To 
blow the coals, to rouse the flames of pas- 
sion. To blow hot coals, to rage fiercely. 
To blow cold coals, to strive in vain; a 
cold coal to blow at, & hopeless task. To 
carry coals, to perform menial tasks; 
hence, to submit to insults or degradation. 
Shakespeare uses this phrase in the open- 
ing of ROMEO AND JULIET (1592) and plays 
on it to indicate cowardice in HENRY v: 
Nym and Bardolph are sworn brothers in 
filching, and in Calais they stole a fire- 
shovel: I knew, by that piece of service, 
the men would carry coals. This phrase 
has been obscured by the now obsolescent 
expression to carry coals to Newcastle, to 
do something absurdly superfluous. Also 
coal-blower, a scornful term for an al- 
chemist, a quack scientist; also, a blow- 
coal, coal-kindler, one that stirs up strife. 

coax. See cokes. 

cob. Used in many senses, some (as 
corncob) surviving. The general notion is 
of something stout, or roundish, like a 
head (cop, Latin caput, head) . Among 
the less familiar meanings are: (1) a lead- 
ing man in a group; (2) a wealthy man, 
especially a miserly one; (3) a big, lumpish 
man; (4) a male swan (q.v., also cobswan; 
the female is a pen) . In plural (5) tes- 
ticles; (6) "small balls or pellets with 
which fowls are usually crammed" an 
18th century trick to fill them out for 
market. (7) A small lump of anything, 
as bread, or coal; (8) the head of a red 
herring: Jonson in EVERY MAN IN HIS 



HUMOR (1598) has: The first red herring 
that was broil' d in Adam and Eves kitchiw 
do I fetch my pedigree from . . . his cob 
was my great-great-mighty-great grand- 
father. Cob-knights were those "dubbed 
in clusters.'* A cobloaf is a bun made with 
a round head used figuratively as a term 
of abuse in Shakespeare's TROILUS AND 
CRESSIDA (1606) , where Thersites is pro- 
voking Ajax, who calls him cobloaf! and 
whoreson cur!, then strikes him. Also see 
spincop. 

cock. This word has had many meanings, 
figuratively or by extension from the 
domestic fowl. Applied to men, it meant 
a night watchman; especially, one that 
arouses slumberers. Chaucer in the Pro- 
logue tO THE CANTERBURY TALES (1386) 

says: Amorwe whan that day gan for to 
sprynge Up roos owe hoost and was oure 
aller cok. The spout for letting liquor out 
of a cask had a stopper like a cock's comb; 
hence (15th to 18th century) it was called 
a cock; Shakespeare in TTMON OF ATHENS 
(1607) says: / have retyr'd me to a waste- 
ful cocke, and set mine eyes at flow. It is 
probably from this sense that the meaning 
penis developed. From the 13th century 
gock and then cock were used, as a 
euphemistic perversion of God, in mild 
oaths. Chaucer speaks of cokkes bones; 
for another reference, see gis. 

cockatrice. See basilisk. Occasionally cock- 
atrice is used in error for crocodile. In 
the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, it was 
applied to men as a term of scorn 
Bacon (1622) : this little cockatrice of a 
king and, especially by the dramatists, 
to women in the sense of strumpet, whore. 
Thus Dekker, in THE GULL'S HORN-BOOK 
(1609) , advises a gallant to secure a lodg- 
ing by the waterside, for its convenience 
to avoid shoulder-clapping (summons for 
debt) and to ship away your cockatrice 



157 



cocket 

betimes in the morning. The glance of 
the (serpent) cockatrice was fatal it 
could, by looking in a mirror, kill itself 
to everybody save one that had eaten 
rue. For another instance of the word, 
see coney. 

cocket. A document from the customs- 
house or the seal on it, that validates it 
certifying that duty has been paid. From 
13th to mid 19th century. Also, the cus- 
toms-house; the duty to be paid. Sup- 
posedly from Latin quo quietus est, by 
which he is quit: the words with which 
the receipt ended. There was also (16th 
and 17th centuries) an adjective cocket, 
from cock, rooster, equivalent to the cur- 
rent cocky. 

cockquean. Variant of cuckquean, q.v. 
cockshoot. See cockshuL 

cockshut. Twilight. Perhaps from the 
time when poultry are shut up for the 
night. It was often spelled cockshoot, how- 
ever, and may be a shortening of cock- 
shoot time. A cockshoot was a glade or 
clearing in a wood, through which the 
woodcock and other birds might dart or 
'shoot/ to be caught by nets at the edge 
of the clearing. This was used figuratively 
by Ogilby in his version (1651) of Aesop: 
When loud winds make cockshoots thro' 
the wood } Bending down mighty oaks, I 
firm have stood. Florio (1598) defines 
cockshut as the time 'when a man cannot 
discern a dog from a wolfe.' Shakespeare 
in RICHARD in (1594) tells that Thomas, 
the Earl of Surrey, and himself, Much 
about cockshut time, from troop to troop. 
Went through the army, cheering up the 
souldiers. 

cod. See codpiece. 
codding. See codpiece. 



codpiece 

codling. A variety of apple, somewhat 
tapering; especially, a variety that could 
be cooked while still unripe. Hence, a 
raw youth, as when in THE ALCHEMIST 
(1610) Jonson hails the arrival of a fine 
young quodling. Also codlin, querdlyng, 
codlyng, quadling, and more. Shakespeare 
in TWELFTH NIGHT (1601) similifies: As a 
squash is before tis a pescod, or a codling 
when tis almost an apple. Hot codlings 
were roasted apples, sold in the London 
streets from the 17th century. A folk song 
of 1825 ran: A little old -woman, her living 
she got, By selling hot codlings, hot, hot, 
hot. By 23 February, 1881, THE DAILY 
TELEGRAPH lamented: Hot codlings may 
now be sought for in vain. The word cod- 
ling may have come from coddle, one 
meaning of which was to cook (we still 
have coddled eggs, cooked gently; but 
coddled pease were roasted; and hot cod- 
lings may also have meant roasted peas) . 
Codling also may mean a small cod (fish) ; 
also, the scrotum; cp. codpiece. Sylvester, 
in his translation (1605) of Du Bartas, 
wrote of The wise beaver who, pursued 
by foes, Tears off his codlings, and among 
them throwes. 

codpiece. A bagged appendage in the 
front of the tight-fitting hose or breeches 
worn by men (15th to 17th century) , often 
ornamented. Herrick in HESPERIDES (1648): 
// the servants search, they may descry, In 
his wide codpeece, dinner being done, 
Two napkins cramm'd up, and a silver 
spoone. Codpiece-point, the lace with 
which the codpiece was fastened. The 
word was often used for the organs it 
covered but did not conceal, as in Shake- 
speare's MEASURE FOR MEASURE (1603) ! 
Why, what a ruthless thing is this in him, 
for the rebellion of a codpiece to take 
away the life of a man! In LOVE'S LABOR'S 
LOST, Gupid is called king of 



158 



coemption 

God, Old English codd, was a common 
word for a bag; by extension, the codfish, 
bag fish; a purse; the belly; and most 
commonly 14th through 17th century 
the scrotum; by extension, the cods, the 
testicles. Cp. bollock. In TITUS ANDRONICUS 
That codding spirit they had from their 
mother plays on two senses: jesting, and 
lecherous. 

coemption. Cornering the market; buy- 
ing up the available supplies. Literally 
(Latin co-, com, together 4- emere, emp- 
tum, to buy: caveat emptor, let the buyer 
beware; cp. caveat) the word means joint 
purchasing; Chaucer in his translation 
(1374) of Bothius thus understood the 
word: coemptioun that is to seyn comune 
achat or hying to-gidere. And in ancient 
Rome, one type of marriage ceremony 
consisted of the husband's buying the wife 
and the wife's buying the husband; this 
too was called coemption. Bacon in his 
ESSAYS (1625, ON RICHES) said that monop- 
olies, and coemption of wares for resale, 
where they are not restrained, are great 
means to enrich. 

coenaculous. Fond of suppers, as one 
that enjoys a midnight snack. Should pref- 
erably be cenaculous: Latin cenaculum, 
supper-room, dining room; cp. cenation. 
Leigh Hunt in BACCHUS IN TUSCANY (1825) 
spoke of people grossly coenaculous. 

coenobite. See eremite. 

cogitabund. Deep in thought. Accent on 
the first syllable; it slips to the fourth in 
the alternate form cogitabundous. Used 
in the 17th and 18th centuries; later, to 
give a ponderously humorous effect. Also 
cogitabundation, cogitabundity, cogibund- 
ity, deep meditation. Carey in his POEMS 
(1734) pressed the humor: His cogitative 
faculties immersed In cogibundity of cogi- 
tation. Cog within cogl 



coign 

cohonestation. Honoring with one's com- 
pany. A word out of the formal 17th and 
18th centuries. "I deeply appreciate your 
cohonestation": any author, to his read- 
ers. 

coif. A close-fitting cap, covering top, 
back, and sides of the head, tied under 
the chin, worn outdoors by both sexes. 
Later, a sort of night-cap, but worn in 
the day by women, indoors or under the 
bonnet. Hence, also, a close-fitting skull- 
cap (iron, steel, later leather) worn under 
the helmet. Also, the white cap worn by 
lawyers as a sign of their profession, es- 
pecially, by a serjeant-at-law; hence, the 
position of serjeant-at-law; in these uses 
from the 14th century. In Scotland, from 
the 17th century, the headgear of a mar- 
ried woman; as Scott explains, in a note 

to THE LADY OF THE LAKE (1810) : The 

snood was exchanged for the curch, toy, 
or coif, when a Scottish lass passed, by 
marriage, into the matron state. Thus 
The lassie has lost her silken snood was 
used to mean she was no longer a virgin, 
yet not a wife. 

coign. A corner. Also coigne. Older 
spelling of coin, quoin via French from 
Latin cuneus, wedge, corner. [The verb 
meant to strike hard or press in with a 
wedge, hence our money, the value, etc., 
impressed upon the coin.] Shakespeare in 
MACBETH (1605) says: No jutty frieze, 
buttrice, nor coigne of vantage, but this 
bird Hath made his pendant bed. Scott in 
THE HART OF MIDLOTHIAN (1818) repeated: 
As if the traders had occupied with nests 
. . . every buttress and coign of vantage, 
as the marlett did in Macbeth's castle. 
Scott used coign of vantage again in MAR- 
MION and in QUENTIN DURWARD; thereafter, 
George Eliot, Browning, and others took 
up the phrase. 



159 



comt 



colibus 



colnt. This is an old form of quaint, 
which (in many spellings) came from the 
Latin cognitum, known, from cognoscere, 
to find out, as in recognize. The English 
coint, cwointe, quhaynte, quaint, etc., at 
first meant wise, then skilful. It was then 
applied to things skilfully made, so as to 
look beautiful; then to persons of beauti- 
ful dress or refined speech. Gradually it 
was applied to those too particularly 
dressed, foppish, and to those that adorned 
their speech with affectations and con- 
ceits, especially as with an old-fashioned 
elegance. By this gradual course, coint in 
1225 became quaint in its present sense 
by 1795, in Southey's JOAN OF ARC: many 
a merry ballad and quaint tale. In the 
sense of skilled in speech, Shakespeare in 
HENRY vi, PART TWO (1590) says Show 
how queint an Orator you are, and Dry- 
den in his JENEID (1697) says Talk on ye 
quaint Haranguers of the Crowd. 

coistreL In origin a variant of custrel, 
q.v., and ranging through the same senses: 
a groom; a lad; a rascal. Also coystrel, 
coisterel, etc. More emphatic in sound, 
this form was the more common, espe- 
cially in chronicles and plays, 16th through 
the 18th .century, as in Shakespeare's 
TWELFTH NIGHT (1601) : He's a coward 
and a coystrill that will not drink to my 
niece. For another instance, see lib. 

cokes, A fool, a simpleton. A frequent 
term in the 16th and 1 7th centuries. Also 
coaks, coax, coxe. The origin is unknown, 
though the creature is still familiar. The 
word survives in the verb to coax, which 
originally meant to make a cokes of, to 
fool. Jonson In THE DEVIL is AN ASS (1616) 
wrote: Why, we will make a cokes of thee, 
wise master; we will, my mistress, an ab- 
solute fine cokes. Samuel Johnson in 1755 
called coax "a low word'*; it has become 
gentler If not more genteel. 



colbertine. A kind of lace, "resembling 
network/' open, with a square ground, 
worn in the 17th and 18th centuries 
"of the fabric of Monsieur Colbert, Su- 
perintendent of the French King's manu- 
factures," says a FOP'S DICTIONARY of 1690. 
Also colverteen. 

colcannon. Potato and cabbage pounded 
together in a mortar and stewed with but- 
ter. An 18th and early 19th century Irish 
dish. From cole, cabbage (as also in cole- 
slaw) + cannon, from the ball with which 
the pounding was done. 

cole. See coleprophet. Also, of course, 
the cole (kail, kale) family of vegetables, 
as in the Scottish kailyard, vegetable gar- 
den. 

coleprophet. A pretender to knowledge 
of the future; a false diviner. Also col- 
prophet, collprophet, these forms in the 
16th century; in the 17th century, also 
coldprophet. From cole, a conjuring trick; 
a deceiver, sharper; used from the 14th 
century. In the 17th and 18th centuries, 
coal, cole were used to mean money; to 
post the cole, to pay down the money. 
General Burgoyne in his play THE LORD OF 
THE MANOR (1781) wrote: Come, my soul, 
post the cole; I must beg or borrow. 

coleron. Doves. An old plural of culver, 
dove. Also culfre, culefre, colvyr, and 
many more, the word being very common 
from the 9th to the 14th century. Hence 
culver-hole, culver-house, a dove-cote. 

ScOtt in THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL 

(1805) Falcon and culver, on each tower, 
Stood prompt their deadly hail to shower 
uses culver for culverin, for which see 
basilisk. 

colibus. "The humming-bird, which 
makes a noise like a whirlwind, though it 
be no bigger than a fly: it feeds on dew, 



160 - 



colin 

has an admirable beauty of feathers, a 
scent as sweet as that of musk or amber- 
grease." So Bailey (1751), following Ker- 
sey (1715) . The O.E.D. (1933) gives the 
name as colibri, from the French after the 
Carib original; but Browning in SORDELLO 
(1840) uses colibri as a plural. Kingsley, 
in WESTWARD HO! (1855) : that's a colibri; 
you've heard of colibris? Frank looked at 
the living gem which hung, loud hum- 
ming, over some fantastic bloom. 

colin. Quail as my friend of that ilk 
never does. From the Mexican word colin, 
for the American quail, a pretty bird un- 
fortunately also tasty; known likewise as 
the bob-white. 

coll. A hug around the neck. Short for 
accole, accoll, with the same meaning, 
from French a, to -f col, neck, Latin 
collum. The word had other meanings: 

(1) a dupe, a simpleton. This sense also 
appears as cull and gull. (2) ale. This is 
an 18th century use, especially at Oxford. 

(3) a bundle (of wood) , a cock of hay. 
There is also a verb coll, to poll, shear; 
Ascham uses it (coul) for paring an arrow- 
feather. This is probably from the Scan- 
dinavian; Icelandic kollr, shaven crown, 
polled beast. 

collabefaction. A wasting away, decay- 
ing. A 17th and 18th century dictionary 
word, from Latin collabefacere, to cause 
to collapse. 

collachrymate. To weep together. Also 
as an adjective, mingled with tears, ac- 
companied by weeping. Rare; 16th and 
17th centuries. 

collactaneous. Suckled together, nursed 
with the same milk. A 17th century dic- 
tionary word: col, together + lact-, milk. 

collation. See decollation. 



collistrigiated 



collice. See cullis. 



colliby. See collybist. 



colligate. To bind together, to connect 
(literally, or logically) . From Latin col-, 
com-, together + ligare, to bind, as in 
ligature. From the 16th to the 19th cen- 
tury; still used in formal writing; Andrew 
Lang in MYTH, RITUAL, AND RELIGION 
(1887) says that The explanation . . . col- 
ligates it with a familiar set of phenomena. 
Hence colligance, attachment together, 
connection; colligation; H. More in AN 

ILLUSTRATION OF THE BOOK OF DANIEL 

(1685) speaks of the admirable union or 
colligation of the Soul of the Messias 
with the eternal Logos. 

collimate. To close an eye so as to aim 
at a target; to adjust a telescope to the 
proper line of sight. Used in Latin by 
Kepler in 1604, hence into modern lan- 
guages by error for collmeate, from Latin 
col-, com-, together + linear e, to make a 
straight line, linea, line. There are also, 
in English, the technical terms collinear, 
collmeate, etc. 

colliquate. To melt or fuse together. 
Used in medieval alchemy and Renais- 
sance medicine, but also figuratively, as 
in Holland's translation (1603) of Plu- 
tarch's PHILOSOPHIE: Who being severed 
apart in body, conjoin and colliquate, as 
it were perforce, their souls together. 
Hence also colliquative; colliquef action; 
colliquescence, readiness to become fluid. 
Colliquament is the melted substance; in 
the 17th century, the thin fluid that is 
the earliest sign of an embryo in the egg, 
the white colliquament out of which the 
young one is formed. 

collistrigiated. Pilloried. Also collistri- 
gium, collistridium, pillory. These two are 
direct from Medieval Latin, from collum, 
neck -f strig-j strigere, to bind (as also in 
English stringent) . Collistrigiated is a rare 



161 



collop 

17th. century word, remaining in 18th cen- 
tury dictionaries. 

collop. Fried egg on bacon; later called 
collops and eggs, collops being used to 
mean the bacon; by transference collop 
was used for any piece of fried meat. 
Bailey (1751) defines it as "a cut or slice 
of flesh meat." Hence, a piece of flesh on 
something, as a fold of flesh, that shows 
good condition; also, a cut from some- 
thing; by extension, an offspring, as in 
Shakespeare's THE WINTER'S TALE (1611) : 
To say this boy were like me ... my 
dearest, my collop. The word was oc- 
casionally used in threats (as to children) : 
"111 cut you into collops!'* The day before 
Shrove Tuesday is still known as Collop 
Monday, it being traditional then to eat 
fried bacon and eggs. 

colluctation. Wrestling; conflict. Also col- 
luctance, colluctancy. Rare 17th century 
words though Lamb in his discussion of 
Marlowe (about 1818) said that Faustus' 
last scene is indeed an agony and a fear- 
ful colluctation. Latin col-, together -f 
luctari, to wrestle. 

collugency. Mutual sorrow. Latin col-, 
together 4- lugere, to mourn. In Urqu- 
hart's translation (1693) of Rabelais: 
This ruthful and deplorable collugency. 

collybist. Money-changer; usurer; miser. 
Also collibist. Greek kollybistes, money- 
changer; kollibos, small coin. From 14th 
through 17th century; Bishop Hall in his 
SATIRES (1598) has: Unless some base 
hedge-creeping collybist Scatters his refuse 
scraps on whom he list. From the same 
source (possibly influenced by Latin col- 
libere, to please; col-, together + libet, 
it pleases), colliby was a 14th and 15th 
century word meaning a small present 

collyridian. One of a sect called heretical, 
of the 4th and 5th centuries, who offered 



colour 

cakes to the Virgin Mary as Queen of 
Heaven. From Greek kollyra, roll of coarse 
bread. From the use of a moist pellet of 
such bread as a poultice, Greek kollyrion, 
poultice, then eye-salve, came with the 
same meaning into Latin and English as 
collyrium. Also (13th to 17th century) 
collyrie, colorye, colirie, etc.; (16th cen- 
tury) collyre. In the 17th century col- 
lyrium grew more general, to mean any 
application (including cosmetics) for the 
eyes; in the 18th century (again from the 
moist pellet) the word was also used for 
a suppository. In its application to the 
eyes, the word was also used figuratively; 
thus Emerson in REPRESENTATIVE MEN 
(1847) says: Great men are thus a col- 
lyrium to clear our eyes from egotism. 

collyriumu See collyridian. 

colmar. (1) a kind of pear, from a town 
in Alsace. (2) a kind of fan, popular in 
the reign of Queen Anne. Pope, in his 

MARTINUS SCRIBLERUS PERI BATHOUS, 
OR THE ART OF SINKING IN POETRY (1757) , 

wrote that the bride . . . with an air divine 
her colmar ply'd. See cosins. 

colon. See commation. 

coloquintida. An early form of colo- 
cynthj the bitter-apple, a kind of gourd, 
from the fruit of which a purgative drug 
was made. Also coloquint, coloquintid, 
coloquinto, coloquinty. Shakespeare in 
OTHELLO (1604) speaks of a food as bitter 
as coloquintida. Cp. acerb. 

colour. Used from the 13th century, color 
from the 15th. Also colure, coulur, collor, 
colowre, cooler, collour, culler, and more. 
Among its senses, we may note: (1) out- 
ward appearance, false show; a pretext or 
cloak over the facts; hence, alleged reason, 
excuse. Used from the 14th century; Ham- 
pole's PSALTER (1340) : That under colour 
of goed counsaile bryngis til syn. Shake- 



~ 162 



colpon 



commacerate 



speare in THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA 
(1591) says: Under the colour of com- 
mending him, I have access my own love 
to prefer [advance]. (2) Nature, kind. 
Shakespeare in AS YOU LIKE IT says of the 
wrestling: Le Beau You have lost much 
good sport. Celia: Sport! of what colour? 
(3) An allegory, a parable, a figure of 
speech. Hawes in THE PASSE TYME OF 
PLEASURE (1509) remarked: For under a 
colour a truthe may aryse, As was the 
guyse in olde antyquyte. 

colpon. See culpon. 
colter. See coulter. 

coltsfoot. A plant, growing low on the 
ground; its yellow flowers appear before 
its leaves. It is named from the shape of 
the leaves; though some suggest the ref- 
erence is to the colt that bore Jesus into 
Jerusalem (BIBLE; MATTHEW 21). The 
root fibres were dried in the sun, then 
dipped in saltpeter and used as tinder to 
light lamps. More significantly, the Greeks 
smoked the plant as a cure for coughs; the 
Romans used it for the same purpose, 
calling it tussilago (still its scientific 
name) from tussis, cough; the Old English 
infused the flowers and drank the liquor 
as a cure. The plant was also called 
filius ante pair em (the son before the 
father) because the flowers appeared be- 
fore the leaves. Steele in THE TATLER (No. 
266; 1710) says: Upon the table lay a 
pipe filled with bettony and coltsfoot. 

colubrine. Snake-like; wily, crafty. Latin 
colubra, snake (feminine) . Coluber is a 
current zoological term for a genus of 
snakes now, but not formerly, limited 
to harmless snakes. In zoology, colubrine 
is still the adjective for snake-like. In 
earlier (16th through 18th century) use, 
it was applied to persons, as in Skelton's 
poems (1528) His county pallantyne Have 



coustome colubryne With code viperyne, 
And secies serpentyne. Colubrine was also 
used, in the early 17th century, as a vari- 
ant name for an early cannon, a culverin. 

columbuck. An aromatic wood. Used, 
said Dunton's LADIES DICTIONARY (1694) 
in their chambers to keep out unwholesom 
aires. 

comb. See compt. 

comeling. A newcomer; anyone not a 
native to a place; by extension, a novice. 
Common in 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, 
used into the 19th, carrying some measure 
of scorn, as Harrison in THE DESCRIPTION 
OF ENGLAND (1587) speaks of the comeling 
Saxons. 

comessation. Eating together; espe- 
cially, riotous feasting. Latin comedere f 
to devour, com-, altogether + edere y to 
eat, whence also English comestible. 
Comessation may also be related to Greek 
komos, revel, hence it is often linked with 
ebrietaSy drunkenness; see ebriety. The 
NEW TESTAMENT of 1582 speaks of fornica- 
tion . . . envies, murders, ebrieties, com- 
messations (which the King James version, 
1611, renders as revellings) . Comestion, 
eating, was also used in the 17th century 
of devouring by fire. 

comicar. A writer of comedies. Used 
(once) by Skelton, 1523: Master Terence, 
the famous comicar. 

comitate. To accompany. Latin comitari, 
comitatus; comes, comitem, companion. 
Used in the 17th century, as in Vicars' 
translation (1632) of the AENEID: Achates 
kinde Aeneas comitated. 

comma. See commation. 

commacerate. To harass, torment. Latin 
com-, altogether 4- macerare, to soften, 
weaken, enervate, hence torment. A rare 



163 



commation 



comminute 



16th century word, as in Nashe's HAVE 

WITH YOU TO SAFFRON-WALDEN (1596) : One 

true point whereof well set downe wil 
more excruciate and commacerate him . . . 

commation. A short lyrical passage in a 
drama. From Greek kommation, diminu- 
tive of komma, comma which in relation 
to Greek writing means *a group of words 
less than a colon*; hence, a short part of 
a sentence, or any short passage or period, 
as in Shakespeare's TIMON OF ATHENS 
(1607) : No leveled malice Infects one 
comma in the course I hold, A colon 
(Greek kolon, member, limb) is a rhythmi- 
cal division of a sentence, a clause or 
group of clauses written as a line, and 
taken as a standard of measure. Comma- 
tion is a word current critics have over- 
looked. CommatiC; however, means like a 
commos, consisting of short measures. A 
commos is a lament sung in alternate 
parts by a character and the chorus in a 
Greek tragedy; it is from Greek kommos, 
beating (one's head and chest in lamenta- 
tion), from koptein, to strike. 

commensal. A messmate, a boarder. From 
Latin com-, together -f mensalis, pertain- 
ing to the table, mensa, table. The eucha- 
rist, commented Bishop Hall (1624) makes 
us commensals of the Lord Jesus, The 
word commensal is still used in biology, 
of a plant or animal that lives attached 
to or as tenant o another, sharing its 
food. The host may also be called a com- 
mensal The commensal is to be dis- 
tinguished from the parasite, which eats 
the body of its host. 

commentitious. Feigned, fictitious; lying. 
Also commentitial A 17th century term, 
as in Bentley's DISSERTATION ON THE EPISTLES 
OF PHALARIS (1699) : as false and com- 
mentitious as our Sibylline Oracles. From 
Latin com-, altogether; comminisci, com- 



ment-, to invent, from the inceptive form 
of mentiri, to lie. There is also the rare 
(nonce-word) commentiter, liar (which 
sounds rather close to commentator, as 
Daniel Featley put it, in THE DIPPERS DIPT, 
1645: No expositors, but impostors; no 
commentators, but commenters, nay rather 
commentiters. And that was before the 
nights of radio!) 

commetics. "Things which give beauties 
not before in being, as paints to the face; 
differing from cosmetics, which are only 
to preserve beauties already in possession." 
Thus Bailey's DICTIONARY, 1751: not in 
the O.E.D. A usable word, save that every 
woman wishes to be thought "in posses- 
sion/' 

comminate. To threaten with (Divine) 
vengeance. Latin com- (with intensive 
force) -f minari, to threaten. One of 
Donne's SERMONS (1625) exclaims: How 
many without any former preparatory 
cross or comminatory or commonitory 
cross . . . fall under some one stone. From 
Latin com + monere, monit-, to warn, 
commonitory means reminding, warning. 
There was a verb commonish (accent on 
the second syllable) , to warn; these forms 
have been supplanted by admonish, ad- 
monitory, admonition, etc. Also commone- 
j "action, warning, reminder; used in the 
17th century. Note that monitory means 
warning; monetary means relating to 
money which is probably from Juno 
moneta, the warning Juno, in whose 
temple grounds the Roman mint was es- 
tablished. Thus while the love of money 
is the root of all evil, money in itself 
bears a warning. 

comminute. To pulverize; to break into 
small portions, as a large estate into build- 
ing lots. Hence, comminuible (accent on 
the mm) , that may be broken into small 



164 



commode 



companage 



particles; Sir Thomas Browne in PSEUDO- 
DOXIA EPIDEMICA (1646) said that a 
diamond steeped in goats bloud, rather 
encreaseth in hardness . . . the best we 
have are comminuible without it. THE 
SATURDAY REVIEW in 1860 spoke of the 
comminuted political condition which is 
just now so noxious to his country. 

commode. As an adjective: convenient, 
suitable. Used in the 17th century. Via 
French from Latin com, together + modus, 
measure. Applied to women in the 18th 
century, meaning accommodating, usually 
with bad implications. Steele in THE CON- 
SCIOUS LOVERS (1722) speaks of one of 
those commode ladies who lend out beauty 
for hire. Hence, as a noun: (1) a pro- 
curess. This sense was also used figura- 
tively, as when Gibber in the Epilogue to 
his version of JULIUS CAESAR (1721) spoke 
of making the tragic muse commode to 
love. (2) A small piece of furniture for 
holding a chamber pot. (3) A tall head- 
dress for women, worn especially in the 
late 17th and early 18th centuries, built 
on a wire framework, often with silk or 
lace streamers hanging over the shoulders. 
The commode, however (as Addison 
pointed out in his essay on LADIES' HEAD- 
DRESS IN THE SPECTATOR, 1711, No. 98), 

never aspired to so great an extravagance 
as in the 14th century, when it was built 
up in a couple of cones or spires, which 
stood so exceedingly high on each side of 
the head, that a woman who was but a 
pigmy without her headdress appeared 
like a colossus upon putting it on. This 
headdress was also called a fontange (from 
French Fontanges, the estate of a mistress 
of King Louis XIV). The olden fon- 
tanges, Addison continued, were pointed 
like steeples, and had long pieces of crape 
fastened to the tops of them, which were 



curiously fringed, and hung down their 
backs like streamers. 

commonef action. See comminate. Accent 
on the mon. 

commonitory. See comminate. 
common-kissing. See bass. 

commorant. Resident. Latin com-, to- 
gether, altogether, 4- morari, to tarry, 
mora, delay. Especially a member of the 
Cambridge Senate resident in the town 
(no longer in a college) until 1856, 
when the requirement of residence was 
abolished. Also commorance, commorancy, 
abiding, residence (all accented on the 
first syllable) . Commoration, dwelling, 
sojourning; a commoratory is (17th cen- 
tury) a dwelling-place. Note however that 
commorient (Latin mori, to die) means 
dying together; commorse (Latin morsus, 
bite, as also in morsel and remorse; see 
agenbite) means compassion, pity. 

commorient. See commorant. Buck in 

THE HISTORY OF ... RICHARD III (1623) 

wrote of the same compatient and com- 
morient fates and times. Compatient 
means either suffering together, or sympa- 
thetic; compatience (14th through 16th 
century) , compassion. 

commorth. A collection to help some- 
one. Welsh cym- 3 together + porth, sup- 
port, help. A commorth (comorth) might 
be made at a wedding, or at the first 
Mass of a new priest, or to redeem a 
murderer or felon. Apparently the prac- 
tice was abused, for laws were passed 
against taking a commorth, under Henry 
IV (1402) and again under Henry VIII 
(1534) . 

cominos. See commation. 

companage. The things eaten (not 
drunk) along with bread, as butter, 



165 



compatient 

cheese, meat. Via Old French from Latin 
companagium, com-, with 4- panis, bread 
whence also companion, originally, one 
who shares bread, bread-fellow. In use 
14th through 17th century. Chaucer, in 
THE SHIPMAN'S TALE (1386) uses compan- 
able, sociable, friendly; this also appeared 
as compinable, cumpynable, compenable, 
compynabil, and the like; these have been 
supplanted by companionable. 

compatient. See commorient. 

compellate. To address (by name), to 
call, call upon, as one may compellate a 
saint. Hence compellation, a calling upon; 
a name or form of greeting, an appellation 
(the current term in this sense) ; a re- 
proach, reproof, calling to account. Bast- 
wick in THE LETANY (1637) wrote: The 
worst things are varnished over with finest 
names and compellations. Note that com- 
petitive means related to address, to a 
word used as a title; compellatory means 
compulsory; compellant, comp client mean 
compelling, constraining; Richard Con- 
greve in ESSAYS (1873) spoke of the com- 
pellent contagion of great examples. 

campenable. See companage, 

comperendinate. To put off from day to 
day. From legal Latin comperendinare, to 
postpone to the third day after; com + 
perendie, day after tomorrow. A 17th and 
18th century dictionary word. Also com- 
perendination (where the end is in the 
middle) . 

compinable. See companage. 

complice. An assistant to another in a 
matter; especially, a confederate in crime. 
From com- t together + plic-, folded. By 
1600 the second sense was dominant; it 
is the only meaning given by Johnson 
(1755) Complice has been supplanted by 
accomplice. In the 15th and 16th cen- 



compossibility 

turies, the word was used frequently in 
connection with politics: a rebel or a 
traitor and his complices. Shakespeare in 
RICHARD ii (1595) lists Bushy> Bagot, and 
their complices, The caterpillars of the 
commonwealth. A caterpillar was one that 
preyed upon society, a rapacious devourer. 
From the 15th to the end of the 17th 
century, it was usually doubled in force 
as a play on words: a caterpillar, as one 
that devours the green leaves and young 
shoots of a healthy state; and a piller, as 
one that pillages. A piller, robber, plun- 
derer, was common English from the 14th 
century. To piller, to pillage; also pillery, 
pillage. 

complosion. Clapping; striking together. 
From Latin complodere, complosus, com-, 
together 4- plaudere, to clap. A 17th and 
18th century word, covering sounds from 
the snapping of the thumb and middle 
finger to the complosion of the air that 
causes thunder. The more violent ex- 
plosion has survived (as we may not 
future explosions) . 

comportance. One's bearing, carriage 
(implying approval) ; agreement, com- 
pliance. Latin comportare, to carry to- 
gether. Spenser in THE FAERIE QUEENE 
(1590) : Goodly comportaunce each to 
other beare, and entertain themselves with 
courtsies meet. 

compossibility. Possibility of two things 
at the same time, or together. Also, com- 
possible, able to be at the same time. The 
idea plagued 17th century thinkers; Sam- 
uel Jackson, in COMMENTARIES UPON THE 
APOSTLES CREED (1630) argued the mutual 
compossibility of actual particular cogita- 
tions with virtual continuance of some 
main purpose-, Ralph Cudworth, in a 

TREATISE CONCERNING ETERNAL AND IM- 
MUTABLE MORALITY (1688) cried out that 



166 



compotation 



concitate 



the compossibility of contradictions de- 
stroys all knowledge. 

compotation. A drinking bout; Latin 
com-, together + polar e, to drink. Usually 
mild; we hear in 1862 of a stately compo- 
tation with the Abbot, which probably 
was little more than a symposium (which 
is Greek for drinking together) . Compo- 
tation may, however, be a humorous 
euphemism for a gay party; compotate 
was a 17th century verb meaning to ca- 
rouse. 

compt. Well combed (Latin co-mere, 
comptus, to comb, to adorn) ; hence, 
spruce, polished. Also applied to style: 
elegant. Hence also comptly; comptness. 
Replaced by the verb forms from kemb, 
to dress the hair, a common Old Teuton 
word now current as comb: kempt, spruce; 
more frequently (alas!) unkempt. Both 
"kemb and com b were used, humorously, 
to mean thrash; thus in Skelton's works 
(1566) : His wife would divers times in 
the week kimbe his head with a three- 
footed stool. See kemb. 

comrogue. A fellow-rascal. Used since the 
17th century, often satirically or humor- 
ously for comrade. Jonson in THE MASQUE 
OF AUGURS (1621) uses it seriously: You 
and the rest of your comrogues shall sit 
disguised in the stocks. 

comse. A short form of commence, used 
in the 13th and 14th centuries. Hence 
comsing, commencing; comsement, com- 
mencement. Langland in PIERS PLOWMAN 
(1377) says Dyinge . . . unknitteth al 
hare and comsynge is of reste. 

comus. A revel; a drinking-bout. Greek 
komos, whence comedy (komos + aoidos, 
singer; aeidein, to sing) ; kome, village, 
may be the source of homos, merrymak- 
ing. In English, after Milton's COMUS 



(1634) , used mainly as a name for the 
god of revelry. 

conable. Suitable; agreeable; convenient. 
A 14th and 15th century contraction of 
covenable, itself an early form of con- 
venable. From Latin convenire, to agree, 
com-, together + venire, to come. These 
forms, along with an intermediate con- 
veniable, gave way by the mid 18th cen- 
tury to convenient. 

conceptions. Ready to conceive; prolific. 
Shakespeare in TIMON OF ATHENS (1607) 
bids: Ensear thy fertile and conceptions 
womb, Let it not more bring out ungrate- 
ful man! 

concinnate. To put together neatly; to 
arrange well; also to concinne. Concinnate 
terms are terms of studied elegance. Con- 
cinnity is skilful putting together; con- 
gruity; beauty of style. In music, a concin- 
nous discord is a discord to be resolved to 
a concord. From the 16th century; Bishop 
Reynolds in 1640 speaks of that knitting 
quality of love to which he elsewhere 
properly ascribeth the building, concin- 
nation, and perfecting of the Saints. 

concion. An assembly; an oration before 
an assembly, a public harangue. Latin 
concionem, contionem, shortened from 
conventionem, convention, com-, together, 
venire, ventum, to come. These forms re- 
tained the literal (physical) sense; for the 
figurative sense, to come together, to agree, 
see conable. Concion was used in the 16th 
and 17th centuries, along with other 
forms: concional, concionary, relating to 
an assembly or a speech; concionate, to 
harangue, to preach; concwnator, orator; 
concionatrix. 

conchomancy. See aeromancy. 
concitate. To provoke, stir up, prick for- 



ward. Also 



, A QQncitatrix was a 



167 



conclave 



conduct! tious 



woman who roused one to an action. 
These are 15th and 16th century words 
(Latin com-, together + citare, to move) ; 
supplanted by incite and excite; a con- 
citatrix (any woman) can do both. 

conclave. A private room or place; es- 
pecially, the room where the cardinals 
meet for the naming of a pope. Latin con, 
together -f clavis, key. Also used figura- 
tively, as in Bacon's THE NEW ATLANTIS 
(1626) : the secret conclave of such a vast 
sea. Hence, the assembly of cardinals for 
the election of a pope; loosely, the body 
of cardinals, as in Shakespeare's HENRY 
vra (1613) :/ thanke the holy conclave for 
their loves. From these, the current sense 
of a private assembly. Hence, conclavical. 
conclavist, one in a conclave (or an at- 
tendant on a cardinal in conclave; each 
cardinal is allowed two) . 

conculcate. To trample upon. From 
Latin com (with intensive force) 4* cal- 
care, calcatum, to tread, calx, heel; see 
calcate. Used in the 16th and 17th cen- 
turies, mainly by religious writers, as 
Bishop Hooper in CHRIST AND HIS OFFICE 
(1547) : the conculcation of His precious 
blood. 

concupiscible. (1) Ardently to be de- 
sired, worthy of rousing lust. Sterne in 
TRISTRAM SHANDY (1762) states: Never did 
thy eyes behold . . . anything in this world 
more concupiscible. (2) Eagerly desirous. 
Shakespeare reports, in MEASURE FOR MEAS- 
URE (1603) : He would not, but by gift of 
my chaste body To his concupiscible in- 
temperate lust Release my brother. Con- 
cupiscence, concupiscency, concupitive and 
concupiscible all take the accent on the 
cue. The forms are from Latin con, with 
intensive force + cupere, to long for. 
Cupid was the god of desire. Our 'irra- 
tional nature' was divided by Platonic 



philosophers into two faculties or ap- 
petites, the irascible and the concupiscible. 

concupy. A variant of concuby, short for 
concubine. Concubine, a mistress, is from 
Latin con, together + cub are, to lie. In 
the form concupy, there is implication of 
the word concupiscence, as when Thersites 
remarks in Shakespeare's TROILUS AND CRES- 
SIDA (1603) , referring overtly to Troilus' 
sword: Heele tickle it for his concupie. 

conditaneous. Appropriate for pickling 
or preserving. A 16th and 17th century 
word. Over a century earlier was condite, 
as a noun, a preserve; an adjective, 
pickled; a verb, to preserve, to pickle. 
Also conditure f pickling, seasoning. From 
Latin condire, conditus, to preserve; earlier 
condere, to put away, preserve, com-, to- 
gether 4- dare, to give, to put. In the 17th 
century condite was (rarely) used in the 
sense of recondite, abstruse. From the 
meaning 'to preserve, pickle' came the 
still current condiment, spice; also used 
figuratively from 1430 Make , it savory 
with the condiment of thy wisdom, until 
today. 

condog. To agree. Accent on the second 
syllable; used since the 16th century. Per- 
haps originally a facetious substitution of 
the more formal dog for cur in the verb 
concur; Lyly's GALLATHEA (1592) makes 
that juxtaposition. In Heywood's THE 
ROYALL KING (1637) the clown says to the 
bawd: Speake, shall you and I condogge 
together? 

conductitious. Hired; employed for 
wages or reward; open to hire. From the 
16th century; also conduction, hiring 
used especially of a venal person. J. Smith 
in OLD AGE (1666) spoke of the rubs and 
petulant endeavours of all conductitious 
detractors; Sydney Smith in his WORKS 



168 



condul 

(1818) , of the conductitious penmen of 
government. 

condul. An old variant of candle. Its 
plural form was condlen. 

coney. A rabbit. Latin cuniculus, rabbit, 
burrow. Long the usual term (whence 
Coney Island, New York) , rabbit being 
the word for the young coney. In many 
spellings: cony, cunin, conynge; cunning 
(to the 16th century) , cunnie, cunny 
(16th to 18th century), rhyming with 
honey. The earliest use of the word, how- 
ever (cunig, cunin, about 1200) was as 
a rabbit-skin. By the 15th century, it was 
a term of endearment for a woman, then 
a nickname for her intimate parts. The 
most common special use, from the 16th 
through the 18th century, was cony, an 
easy mark, a gull the victim of the cony- 
catcher, made popular by Greene's books 
on conny-catching (1591) . Shakespeare in 

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR (1598) Says 

There is no remedy: I must coni catch, I 
must shift; two years earlier, in THE TAM- 
ING OF THE SHREW, he cries: Take heed 
signior Baptista, lest you be coni-cacht in 
this businesse. Thus conyhood, the state 
of a dupe. Also, to cony, to act the rabbit, 
to be fearful, seek to hide. The many 
words for a rabbit warren cony hole, 
conygreene, conygree, conyearth, cony- 
garth, conyger, cunnery, and more were 
also used with sexual implication. Mas- 
singer and Dekker in THE VIRGIN MARTIR 
(1622) punningly and cunningly exclaim: 
A pox on your Christian cockatrices! They 
cry, like poulterer's wives, 'No money, 
no coney'. 

confabulate. To chat; Latin com + fab- 
ula, a tale, whence fable. Used 15th to 
18th century; poets (Cowper, 1785; as 
recently as "Browning, 1873) speak of the 
confabulation of birds. Confabulation is 



conger 

still used, humorously, of a conference, 
shortened at times to confab. In the 15th 
century, the verb was sometimes shortened 
to confable. 

confarreation. (Five syllables.) A wed- 
ding. Especially, the solemn marriage of 
the ancient Romans, usually before the 
Pontifex Maximus and ten witnesses, and 
solemnized with a spelt-cake. Latin con- 
farreationem, from com-, with + farreum, 
a spelt-cake; far, f arris, grain, spelt. Con- 
farreate, confarreated, married in that 
wise. Used in English in the 16th and 
17th centuries; later, historically. See dif- 
farreation. 

conference. See decollation. 

confricate. To rub together. Latin com 
4- fricare, to rub. Hence also confrica- 
tion (14th through 18th century) and 
(from 1 7th century) conviction. Confri- 
catrice, confrictrice (in Bailey, 1753) , a 
Lesbian, tribade (Greek tribad-, from 
tribein, to rub) . 

congee. See congy. 

congeon. A dwarf; hence, a half-wit; 
hence a term of derision (especially ap- 
plied to a child) . Also conjon. Probably 
from Late Latin cambionem, a change- 
ling, cambire, to change. A changeling 
(child of an incubus or demon substituted 
for a human child) grew up to be a 
dwarf, or deformed (that is, so distorted 
a child manifestly was not naturally born 
to such fine parents!) . Mainly used in the 
12th through the 15th century. 

conger. A large salt-water eel, caught for 
food along the coasts of Britain. It at- 
tains a length of ten feet, and may be 
behind some of the sea-snake stories. 
Conger-douce, conger-doust (doust, dust) , 
eel dried and powdered for soup. Also 
hunger, cunger, congre, coonger, congar. 



169 



congree 



consentaneous 



Both conger and conger-head were used 
as terms of abuse for a man; Shakespeare 
uses conger in HENRY rv, PART TWO (1597) ; 
Dekker in THE HONEST WHORE, PART TWO 
(1630) says: She nibbled but wud not 
swallow the hooke, because the cunger- 
head her husband was by. 

congree. To join in agreement. French 
gre, liking. In the 16th century, gree was 
a common shortening of agree. Agree, ad, 
to give accord to; congree, com, to give 
accord together. Shakespeare in HENRY v 
(1623 edition) speaks of government con- 
greeing in a full and natural close. The 
1600 quarto edition, however, has con- 
grueth with a mutual consent, and Shake- 
speare's form may be congrue; Latin con- 
gruus, agreeing, suitable, congruere, to 
meet together, whence also incongruous. 

congy. A dismissal; formal leave to de- 
part; a farewell gift to a beggar; a bow, 
a courtesy on departing (later applied to 
any bow) . Used in English, 15th to 17th 
century; later, felt to be a French word, 
conge. Also congee, conge, coungy; round- 
about from Latin commeatus, leave to 
pass; com, together + meare, meatum, to 
pass. Also as a verb; to give leave, to 
license; to permit to depart; to dismiss; 
to take ceremonious leave. Shakespeare in 
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL (1601) says: 
I have congied with the Duke, done my 
adieu with his neerest. Armin in A NEST OF 
NINNIES (1608) said: Sir William, with a 
low congy, saluted him; the good lady, as 
is the courtly custom, was kist of this 
nobleman. Lamb in ESSAYS OF ELIA (IM- 
PERFECT SYMPATHIES; 1833) said: I do not 
like to see the Church and Synagogue 
kissing and conge eing in awkward pos- 
tures of an affected civility. 

conjugial. Conjugal. From Latin con- 
jugium, connection, marriage, conjugem, 



spouse; from com-, together -f iugo (also 
iungo) , to bind. Conjugial was intro- 
duced in 1794, in the title of Swedenborg's 

DELIGHTS OF WISDOM CONCERNING CONJUGIAL 

LOVE, to distinguish his special concept of 
marriage, "an union of souls, a conjunc- 
tion of minds/' Cp. scortatory. 

connictation. Winking. Latin com-, to- 
gether + nictare, to wink. A 17th and 18th 
century dictionary word, still good for 
humorous use. Nictate and nictitate, and 
their noun forms in -ion, are mainly medi- 
cal terms. 

connudate. To strip naked. Latin com-, 
together + nudus; bare. A 17th and 18th 
century dictionary word, connudation is 
just the term for the practice of 20th 
century nudist colonies. 

connyng. See ammove. 

conquassate. To shake violently. Latin 
com (with intensive force) + quassare, 
frequentative of quatere, shake. Also con- 
quassant, shaking violently (used of a 
woman in travail) ; conquassation. 

conrey. See corrody. 

consarcination. Patching together; hence, 
a heterogeneous gathering; F. Saunders, 
in the Preface to A SALAD FOR THE SOLITARY 
(1853) calls the book a consarcination 
of many good things for the literary 
palate. Also consarcinate, to patch to- 
gether; used mainly in the 17th century. 
The HISTRIOMASTIX (1610) aptly remarks 
that stage plays are consarcinated of sun- 
dry merry, ludicrous officious artificial lies. 

consciunde. A conscience most minutely 
particular. A derisive nonce-word coined 
by Bishop Racket in 1670, still fit for 
Burns' unco guid. 

consentaneous. Agreeing; agreeable (to) ; 
unanimous; also, happening at the same 



170 



conskite 

time in this sense supplanted by simul- 
taneous. From Latin consentaneus, agree- 
ing; consentire: com-, together + sentire, 
to feel. Richardson in CLARISSA HARLOWE 
(1748) speaks of the consentaneousness 
[accord] of corporal and animal -faculties. 

conskite. To befoul with ordure, as when 
one's bowels are loosed with fear. Thus 
Urquhart in his translation (1653) of 
Rabelais said: He had conskited himself 
with meer anguish and perplexity. 

consobrine. A sister's son, as Cockeram 
lists it (1623) ; a cousin. Latin com, to- 
gether + soror, sister. Hence consobrinal 

(accent on the bry) , related as a cousin. 
J. Hannay in SINGLETON FONTENOY, R.N. 

(1850) spoke of two avuncular baronets, 
a consobrinal lord. 

consoude. An herb of healing virtues. 
One, for the Romans; the medieval herb- 
alists found three, which they labeled 
consoude major, media, minor: respec- 
tively, the comfrey, the bugle, and the 
daisy. The word consoude (also consowde, 
consolde) is via Old French from Latin 
consolidare, whence also consolidate*, com 
(with intensive force) + solidare, to make 
firm, to heal. By the 16th century, popular 
confusion with sound, whole, had changed 
the spelling to consound. In both spell- 
ings, the word was also used as a verb, as 
when Gerarde in his HERBAL of 1597 ad- 
vises: Fit consoundmg plaisters upon the 
greeved place. 

consound. See consoude. 

conspectuity. Power of sight. An irregu- 
lar form from Latin conspectus, sight 
(conspectus was used in the 19th century, 
to mean a comprehensive survey; a sum- 
mary but general view). The word was 
coined by Shakespeare in CORIOLANUS 
(1607) : What harme can your beesome 



constult 

conspe etui ties gleane out of this charrac- 
ter? For beesome (bisson, purblind) see 
besom. 

conspersion. Sprinkling. Latin com-, al- 
together 4- spargere, to sprinkle. Lancelot 
Andrewes (1607) and Jeremy Taylor 
(1649) in sermons use the word An- 
drewes: of that conspersion whereof Christ 
is our firstfruits to mean the dough for 
the sacramental wafer. To consperge is to 
besprinkle, to strew all over. For a time, 
this word was a rival of aspersion, which 
meant a sprinkling, a shower; then con- 
spersion faded and aspersion drew to its 
special, figurative use. 

conspissation. Thickening; condensation. 
Latin com (with intensive force) 4- spis- 
Bare, to thicken; spissus, thick, dense. Also 
to conspissate; used 15th through 17th cen- 
tury. 

conspue. See compute. 

conspurcation. Defilement, pollution. 
From Latin com (with intensive force) + 
spurcare, to befoul; spurcus, unclean. Also 
conspurcate, verb and adjective; W. 
Sclater in a Biblical exegesis (1619) de- 
clared: Never saw the Sun a people more 
conspurcate with lust. 

conspute. To spit upon; to despise. Latin 
com (with intensive force) + spuere, 
sputum, to spit. Hence also conspue, and 
the still current sputum. Used from the 
16th century; still found, as when THE 
SATURDAY REVIEW of 27 September, 1890 
vented the statement: The only thing 
criticism has to do with the Shakespeare- 
Bacon craze is to conspue it! Now the 
adherents of Oxford claim the day. 

constult. To play the fool with; to be- 
come as big a fool as those around. Latin 
com, together -f stultus, foolish; whence 
also to stultify. The Water Poet in THE 



171 



constupration 



contentation 



WORLD'S EIGHTH WONDER (1630) said: Some 
English gentlemen with him consulted 
And he is naf rally with them constulted. 

constupration. Ravishing; deflowering. 
Latin com (with intensive force) + stu- 
prare, to ravish; stuprum, violation. Con- 
stupration, and the verb constuprate, were 
favorite words in the 17th century; John 
Bale (1550) : The good ghostly father 
that constuprated two hundred nuns in 
his time; Burton in THE ANATOMY OF 
MELANCHOLY (1621) : Their wives and 
loveliest daughters constuprated by every 
base cullion; Algernon Sidney of Sydney, 

in DISCOURSES CONCERNING GOVERNMENT 

(1683) : Romulus and Remus, the sons of 
a nun, constuprated, as is probable, by a 
lusty soldier. The world has little changed. 

consuetude. Custom; habit; the unwrit- 
ten law of established custom. Also, more 
formally (19th century) consuetitude. 
Latin consuetudo, short for conmetitudo; 
consuescere, consuetum, to accustom, to 
grow accustomed; com, together, alto- 
gether + suescere, suetum f to make one's 
own; suus, one's own whence the more 
lingering desuetude, occasionally innocu- 
ous. Hence consuete (14th to 17th cen- 
tury) , accustomed; consuetudinal, pertain- 
ing to custom; consuetudinary, according 
to custom. A consuetudinary is a book of 
customs; also, a book of the ritual and 
ceremonial usages of a religious body. By 
way of Old French contraction to cous- 
tume, this Latin word also grew into Eng- 
lish custom. Emerson in his ESSAYS (1844; 
PRUDENCE) speaks of the sweetness of those 
affections and consuetudes that grow near 
us. 

contabescence. A wasting away, decay. 
From Latin com (with intensive force) + 
tabescere, to pine, to melt; inceptive of 
tabere, to waste away; tabes f a wasting, 



decay. Used in 17th and 18th centuries; 
still used in botany to mean atrophy of 
anthers, so that no pollen is formed. 

contabulation. Joining of boards to form 
a platform or floor. Latin com-, together 
+ tabula, table, plank. Hence also the 
verb, to contabulate. Used in the 17th and 
18th centuries. 

conteck. Strife; quarrelling; also, to con- 
tend, to quarrel, to dispute. From the Old 
French, perhaps con-, against 4- teche, to 
touch. Common in English (like the ac- 
tion it describes) since the 13th century. 
A contecker is a quarrelsome person; also 
contakkour, contacker, hence contacker- 
ous, which in the 20th century is dialectic 
or slang as cantankerous. Chaucer in THE 
KNIGHT'S TALE (1386) has contek with 
bloody knife and scharp manace. 

contemn. To despise. Used from the 15th 
century; surviving in the noun, contempt. 
Latin con (with intensive force) 4- tem- 
nere, to despise; Greek temnein, to judge. 
In the 16th century the form to con- 
tempne was used. Hence contemner, a 
scorner; contemnible, despicable. The 
sense of this verb fused with, or was lost 
in, that of to condemn. 

contentation. Contentment. Also, satis- 
faction of a claim, or one's conscience. 
Common from the 15th to the 17th cen- 
tury. Occasionally misused for contention, 
strife, from to contend. Contention is 
from Latin contendere f contentum; con, 
against + tendere, to stretch, strain; 
whence also tendency, distend, tentative, 
tempt (temptare, to handle, test, intensive 
of tendere), tendon, tent. Content, con- 
tentation are from contineo, contentum; 
com, together + tenere, to hold, whence 
also tenacious, tenant, continent. King 
James I tried to act (so he said in 1603) 
for the contentation of our subjects. 



172 



con tessera tion 



convail, convale 



contesseration. Close bond of friendship. 
Latin com-, together 4- tessera (hospitalis) 
a square tablet: broken in half, between 
two friends, so that the generations after 
them might know the friendship. In the 
17th century, John Donne (in a Sermon 
of 1620) and others use contesseration 
to apply to baptism into the brotherhood 
of the church, or to the Eucharist. 

contignation. Joining together (of beams); 
the manner or state of being joined. Latin 
com-, together -f tignum, building ma- 
terial, piece of timber. Used by Donne 
(1630), Evelyn (1641), Burke (1796), 
and other 17th and 18th century writers. 
Also figuratively (Burke) : Linked by a 
contignation into the edifice of France. 
The verb is contignate, to join together 
with, or as with, beams. 

continge. To come together; to happen. 
Latin com-, together 4- tangere, to touch. 
The verb seems to be in dictionaries only; 
much more widely used was the noun 
contingence, touching, contact; a happen- 
ing, a thing that happens by chance 
which by the mid- 19th century was sup- 
planted by the still current contingency, 

contingerate. To approach the borders 
of. Latin com, together + tangentem, 
touching; tangere, tactum, to touch; 
whence also tangent, tactile, intangible, 
contact, tactless. A word coined by the 
Water Poet (1630) satirizing learned 
coinages, inkpot terms. Yet I with non- 
sense could contingerate, With catophis- 
coes terragrophicate, And make my selfe 
admifd immediately By such as under- 
stand no more then /. 

contortuplicated. Twisted and entangled. 
Latin contortus, twisted together 4- pli- 
catus, folded. Still used in botany; in the 
17th century also figurative (1648) : the 



snarl' d and contortuplicated affairs of the 
State. 

centrist. To make sad. French contrister; 
Latin com (with intensive force) + tri- 
stare, to sadden; tristis, sad. Contristate 
was used in the 17th century (by Bacon 
and others) with the same meaning. 
Bacon also noted, in THE ADVANCEMENT OF 
LEARNING (1605), that Solomon observed 
that in spacious knowledge there is much 
contristation. The shorter verb, centrist, 
was used into the 19th century, by Urqu- 
hart in his translation (1653) of Rabelais; 
by Sterne in TRISTRAM SHANDY (1761); in 
the 1625 translation of Boccaccio's DE- 
CAMERON: that your contristed spirits 
should be chearfully revived. Many works 
have that purpose today. 

contriturate. To pulverize. Latin com 
(with intensive force) 4- tero, tritus, to 
rub, to grind whence also English de- 
tritus, debris. In Scott's THE FORTUNES OF 
NIGEL (1822), King James calls himself 
the very malleus maleficorum, the con- 
tunding and contriturating hammer of all 
witches, sorcerers, magicians. To contund 
is to pound, bruise, pound to pieces (as 
in a mortar) : Latin com -f tundere, tusus, 
to beat. The past participle form of this 
gave us the English verb contuse, to bruise 
(especially as with a blunt instrument 
that does not break the skin); this has 
survived in the noun form, contusion. 

contund. See contriturate. 
contusion. See contriturate. 

convail, convale. This simple form mean- 
ing to recover strength or health, was re- 
placed by convalesce in the 19th century. 
Convale is from Latin con, altogether + 
valere, to be strong. From valere came 
valescere, to grow strong, whence con- 
valesce. 



173 



convenable 



cope 



convenable. See conable. 

convertite. A convert. Especially com- 
mon in the 16th and 17th centuries, re- 
newed by Scott and others in the 19th. 
Shakespeare in KING JOHN (1595) has: But 
since you are a gentle convertite, My 
tongue shall hush againe this storme of 
warre. BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE 
of 1839 recognized the newly-won's fervor: 
With all the zeal of a new convertite. 
Especially, a repentant magdalen; so 
Browning in THE RING AND THE BOOK 
(1868) ; John Weever in ANCIENT FUNER- 
ALL MONUMENTS (1681) said: This church 
was built by a female convertite, to ex- 
piate and make satisfaction for her former 
sinnesj and . . . was called Hore-Church 
at the first. Also to convertise, convertyse, 
convertize, to convert. A convertist is a 
professed convert, or a professional con- 
vert or converter (used in scorn) . A con- 
vertite may be used of one honestly won 
over to a faith (Marlowe, THE JEW OF 
MALTA; 1592) or to an opinion or course 
of action, as in KING JOHN. It may also be 
used in scorn, as when Lamb confesses 

his IMPERFECT SYMPATHIES (ESSAYS OF EUA; 

1833; cp. congee) : I do not understand 
these half convertites. Jews christianizing 
Christians judaizing puzzles me. I like 
fish -or flesh. 

conviciatory. Railing, abusive. To con- 
viciate is to revile; Latin com (with in- 
tensive force) + vitiare, to spoil, corrupt, 
make faulty; vitium, a fault. Also convitia- 
toryi and there is a rare (1 6th- 17th cen- 
tury) noun, convicy, reviling, abuse. 
Thomas James, in A TREATISE OF THE COR- 
RUPTION OF SCRIPTURE BY ... THE CHURCH 

OF ROME (1611) wisely warned against 
convitiatone arguments, which do but 
ingender strife. J. C. Hobhouse, in A 

JOURNEY THROUGH ALBANIA ... (1813), 



encountered the Greeks, whose convitia- 
tory language is most violent and abusive. 

cony. See coney. 

conyger. A rabbit warren. Also cony- 
garth, cony grate, conygree, cony green; co~ 
nynger, cunnerie, conery and a dozen 
other forms of this very common word, 
from the 10th into the 19th century. It was 
also called conyhold, conyhole, and 
though not until the 17th century cony- 
warren. See coney. 

conynge. A variant of coney, q.v. 
cop. See spincop. 

coparcenary. Joint share in an inherit- 
ance; joint ownership. Com-, together 4- 
Old French par^onerie, partnership; Latin 
partitionem, dividing, whence also Eng- 
lish partition. Also coparcenery. Thence 
also coparcener, a co-heir or copartner. 
From the 16th century; replaced in the 
late 19th century, in the second sense, by 
copartnership and copartner. 

copataine. A high-crowned hat, shaped 
like a sugar-loaf. Shakespeare, in THE 
TAMING OF THE SHREW (1596) : Oh fine vil- 
lain, a silken doublet, a velvet hose, a 
scarlet cloak, and a copataine hat. Scott 
in KENILWORTH (1821) speaks of a capo- 
taine hat. Perhaps he thought the word 
related to cap] but its most frequent forms 
are copintank, copentank, coptank, and 
the like. There are also forms including 
coptanct, copple-tanked, which mean 
wearing such a hat. References to this 
style of hat are frequent through the 16th 
century, and the hat may be seen in the 
art of the period, but (although cop was 
slang for head) the origin of the word 
is unknown. Stranger styles have been 
seen since. 

cope (as a noun). Originally a long cloak 
worn outdoors as an outer garment; a 



174 



copeman 

common English, word until the 18th. cen- 
tury; in this sense, supplanted by cape, 
another form of the same word. By ex- 
tension: (1) a tablecloth. (2) In the 
phrases (a) cope of Night, pall of night 
Gower, Addison, Southey; (b) cope of 
lead, coffin (15th to 17th century) ; (c) 
cope of heaven, Chaucer, Spenser, to 
Swinburne in this sense sometimes just 
the cope: Shakespeare, PERICLES (1608) : 
The cheapest country under the cope; 
hence used to mean height, expanse, firm- 
ament, as by Coleridge and Tennyson. 
(3) A canopy; Milton in PARADISE LOST 
(1667) : Bad angels seen Hovering on 
wing under the cope of Hell; Longfellow 
in EVANGELINE (1847) : the cope of a 
cedar. Cp. copeman. 

From another source Old French cop 
(Modern coup) , blow comes cope, en- 
counter, shock of combat; by extension, 
to gain cope of, to gain advantage over. 
Still another cope (related to cheap) was 
a 16th century word meaning bargain; a 
large sum was called God's cope. May 
God's cope be wi' ye! 

copeman. A dealer, merchant. In late 
18th century, a receiver of stolen goods. 
Also copesman, copemaster, copesmaster. 
Cp. copesmate. (Also, a person wearing a 
cope; 19th century.) Cope, to deal satis- 
factorily with in OTHELLO (is again to 
cope with your wife) , to have intercourse 
is from French couper, to strike, earlier 
colper; Latin colaphus, blow of the fist. 
Jonson in VOLPONE (1605) says: He would 
have sold his part of Paradise For ready 
money, had he met a copeman. 

copener. Paramour. From copen, Middle 
English copnien, to long for. Used from 
the 9th through the 14th century. Also 
copynere. In THE SEVEN SAGES (1320) , The 
pie saide, f Bi God Almight! The copiner 
was here tonight.' 



coprolite 

copesmate. A person with whom one 
copes; an adversary. Hence, a love partner, 
paramour. Hence, a partner or colleague; 
a partner in marriage, spouse; by exten- 
sion, a confederate (cheat) at cards or 
other gaming; more vaguely, often with 
contempt, a fellow. Also copemate; cp. 
copeman. Lisle in his translation (1625) 
of Du Bartas: Fooles, idiots, jesters, an- 
ticks, and such copesmates as of naught- 
worth are suddenly start up. Jonson, in 

EVERY MAN IN HIS HUMOUR (1598) : O, 

this is the female copesmate of my son. 
Shakespeare in THE RAPE OF LUCRECE 
(1593) : Mis-shapen Time, copesmate of 
ugly Night . . . eater of youth, false slave 
to false delight, Base watch of woes, sin's 
packhorse, virtue's snare. 

copintank. See copataine. 

copist. A 17th and 18th century variant 
of copyist. 

coppice. A grove of small trees, grown 
for periodical cutting. Via Old French 
copiez from Late Latin (Salic Law) col- 
pus, blow, stroke; Greek kolaphos, blow. 
Treated as a plural, coppice (copys) de- 
veloped the forms copy, coppy; more 
often it was shortened to cops, surviving 
as copse. Milton, in LYCIDAS (1637) speaks 
of the willows and the hazel copses green; 
Goldsmith in THE DESERTED VILLAGE (1770) 
has: Near yonder copse where once the 
garden smiled. Shakespeare in LOVE'S 
LABOUR'S LOST (1588) has: Upon the edge 
of yonder coppice. Shakespeare does not 
have Macbeth's sentry cry, on seeing Bir- 
nam Wood move toward Dunsinane: 
Cheese it, the copse! 

coprolite. A stony round fossil, originally 
(or thought to be) animal dung. Greek 
kopws, dung + lithos, stone, whence also 
lithography, etc. Kopros has given us sev- 
eral English words, including coprophi- 



175 



copse 

lous, fond of, or feeding on, dung, by ex- 
tension, fond of "obscene" literature; 
coprophory, purgation. Coprolite is ac- 
cented on the first syllable; all the others, 
on the second. Swinburne in an essay on 
Ben Jonson (1889) , hopefully chauvinist, 
exclaimed: All English readers, I trust, 
will agree with me that coprology should 
be left to Frenchmen. 

copse. See coppice. 

copy. Abundance; fullness; resources; 
power. Latin copia, multitude; whence 
also cornucopia, horn of plenty. Used 
from the 14th century. (In Medieval 
Latin, from such phrases as facer e copiam 
describendi, to give the power of setting 
down, came the meaning of copy, a tran- 
script.) For an instance of its use, see 
betony. 

coquet. Amorously familiar; flirtatious, 
French coquet, diminutive of coq, cock; 
after the strut of the rooster. As a noun 
coquet was used of either sex Gay in 
THE BEGGAR'S OPERA (1728) says: The 
coquets of both sexes are self-lovers, and 
that is a love no other whatever can dis- 
possess until the mid-1 8th century, when 
coquette was adopted for the woman, and 
the male coquet became obsolete. The 
verb coquet, coquette and the noun co- 
quetry are still prevalent 
coraggio. The Italian word for courage, 
used in English as an exclamation. Shake- 
speare in ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL 
(1601), and in THE TEMPEST (1610): 
Coragio, Bully-Monster, Coragio! Also 
Macaulay, in his DIARY of 1850: But co- 
raggio! and think of A.D. 2850. Where 
will your Emersons be then? 

corance. See crants* 

coranto. (1) A lively dance. From Italian 
coranta, "a kind of French dance"; also 



corbel 

courante, directly from the French. It was 
danced at a lively triple time; hence 
coranto was used in general for lively; 
Middleton in MORE DISSEMBLERS BESIDES 
WOMEN (1627) has Away I rid, Sir; put 
my horse to a coranto pace. Shakespeare 
knew the dance; HENRY v (1599) has: 
They bid us to the English Dancing 
Schools, And teach lavoltas high, and 
swift carrantos. Cp. galliard; pavan; la- 
volta. (2) a news-letter, or early news- 
paper. Modified, like the above, by the 
Italian, but from French courante, cur- 
rent. Used in the 17th century, as in Bur- 
ton's ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY (1621) : 

New books every day, pamphlets, cur- 
rantoes, stories, Also currant, curranto. 
The currantos came to be noted for their 
feigned stories, so that coranto was syn- 
onymous with liar. Thus the Water Poet 
(WORKS; 1630) slily wrote: It was reported 
lately in a currant that a troope of French 
horse did take a fleets of Turkish gallies, 
in the Adriaticke sea, neere the gulph of 
Venice. The newes was welcome to me, 
though I was in some doubt of the truth 
of it; but after, I heard that the horses 
were shod with very thicke corke; and I 
am sure I have heard of many impossi- 
bilities as true as that. That's one for the 
horse marines (q.v.} I 

corat. A dish, recipe given in THE FORME 
OF CURY (1390) : Take the noumbles [en- 
trails] of calf, swyne, or of shepe; parboile 
hem, and skerne hem to dyce; cast hem 
in gode broth, and do thereto herbes. 
Grynde chyballs [chibol: rock onion be- 
tween onion and leek] smalle y-hewe. 
Seeth it tendre, and lye it with yolkes of 
eyrenn [eggs]. Do thereto verjous, safronn, 
powdor-douce, and salt, and serve it forth. 

corbel. A raven. Via Old French corbel 
from Latin corvellum, diminutive of cor- 
vus, raven. The corbel's fee was part of a 



176 



corcousness 



corinthian 



deer left by the hunters for the ravens pod-, foot -f agra, a catching: a trap for 



(for good luck and propitiation) . From 
its shape, in profile like a raven's beak, 
corbel was used by architects in Medieval 
France and England to mean a projec- 
tion, jutting out from the face of a wall, 
to act as a support. It was usually a plain, 
unadorned architectural feature (although 
Spenser in THE FAERIE QUEENE, 1596, 
speaks of a bridge . . . with curious corbes 
and pendants graven faire) until Scott 
seized on the term in THE LAY OF THE 
LAST MINSTREL (1805) and gave it decora- 
tions: The corbels were carved grotesque 
and grim. Since then, historical novelists 
(and some historians) have elaborated 
the decorations. 

Latin corvus, raven, apparently had an- 
other diminutive, corvetto f from which a 
variant of corbel came into English 
corbet, with the same architectural signifi- 
cance. Chaucer used this in THE HOUS OF 
FAME (1384) : How they hate in mason- 
eryes As corbetz and ymageryes. This pas- 
sage was misunderstood, and 17th and 
18th century dictionaries define corbet 
and corbel, erroneously, as "a niche in 
a wall, for a statue, etc." So even Britton's 

DICTIONARY OF THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE 

MIDDLE AGES, in 1838. 

corcousness. Corpulency. Listed by Bailey 
(1751) as an old word. The adjectives 
corcy, corsy, corsive, big-bodied, were used 
from the 15th into the 17th century. 
From French corse, having body; cors, 
body, Latin corpus. Corsive was more fre- 
quently used as a variant o corrosive, as 
Jonson speaks of corsive waters in THE 

ALCHEMIST (1610). Topsell, in THE HISr 

TORIE OF SERPENTS (1608), tells that Po- 
dagra went to the house of a certain fat, 
rich, and well-monied man; and quietly 
laid herself down at the feet of this corsie 
sire. Podagra (gout) is from Greek pous, 



the foot. This is the story of the origin 
of gout. Life insurance statistics have 
further woes for the corsy. 

cordovan. See cordwain. 

cordwain. Leather, originally of goat 
skins, later of split horsehides. Much used 
for shoes by the upper classes in the Mid- 
dle Ages. Named from Cordova, Spain, 
whence the leather came. Used from the 
12th through the 16th century; revived 
by Scott in REDGAUNTLET (1824) , but since 
1590 largely replaced by the form cordo- 
van, reborrowed directly from the Spanish 
and still used. 

coriander. A plant from the Levant, 
naturalized in parts of England, the fruit 
whereof is used for flavoring. Also (cori- 
ander-seed; from the shape), 18th and 
early 19th century slang for money. Ozell 
in his translation (1737) of Rabelais, 
wrote: Which they told us was neither for 
the sake of her piety, parts, or person, but 
for the fourth comprehensive p, portion; 
the spankers, spur-royals, rose-nobles, and 
other coriander seed with which she was 
quilted all over. Coriander was also used 
in the fumigation, part of the incantation 
ceremony to summon spirits, who ap- 
peared within the wreathing and writhing 
smoke. 

Corinthian. (1) Elegant in style. Emer- 
son in his essay on BEHAVIOUR (1860) says: 
Nothing can be more excellent in kind 
than the Corinthian grace of Gertrude's 
manners. Arnold, on the other hand, 
speaking of literary style, contrasts it with 
the warm glow, blithe movement, and 
soft pliancy of life, as in the Attic style, 
and with the over-heavy richness and en- 
cumbered gait of the Asiatic; the Corin- 
thian style has glitter without warmth, 
rapidity without ease, effectiveness with- 



177 



cormarye 



cornemuse 



out charm. (2) In various uses, from the 
reputation for profligacy and dissipation 
of the inhabitants of Corinth. When 
Shakespeare in TIMON OF ATHENS (1607) 
says: Would we could see you at Corinth, 
he means a house of ill fame. When in 
HENRY TV, PART ONE he has: I am ... a 
corinthian, a lad of mettle, a good boy, 
the implication is of profligate idling, gay 
licentiousness. In 19th century England 
the word was used for a man about town, 
a 'swell'; also, especially in the United 
States, an amateur yachtsman, a wealthy 
sportsman. Among phrases: to act the 
Corinthian, to commit fornication; also to 
corinthianize, to be licentious; to be a 
(costly) prostitute. It falls not to every 
man to get to Corinth (not every one can 
afford it), said Plutarch: the courtesans 
there, notably Lais, as Demosthenes com- 
mented, spurned many suitors and set 
enormous prices on their favors. Lais 
might ask 10,000 Attic drachmae (some 
$3,000) for a night's companionship. 
Corinthian brass was an alloy (perhaps of 
gold, silver and copper) highly valued 
for ornaments; but also, figuratively, it 
was used to mean effrontery, shameless- 
ness. Hence corinthian, brazen, St. Paul, 
in his first EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 
(the BIBLE) said: It is reported commonly 
that there is fornication among you; but 
from other aspects of the Biblical account 
Andrew Lang refers to the 'old saying* 
that Pater in MARIUS THE EPICUREAN (1885) 
worded as follows: There is but one road 
that leads to Corinth. The meaning here 
is that the way of evil is broad, with many 
tracks (the early Protestants might in- 
stance: All roads lead to Rome) ; but 
there is only one road, straight and nar- 
row, to righteousness. The Corinthian 
(vs. the Doric and the Ionic) is the light- 
est and most ornate of the three orders 
of Grecian architecture, its column being 



identifiable by the bell-shaped capital 
adorned with rows of acanthus leaves. 
Ruskin in THE STONES OF VENICE (1851) 
says that the two orders, Doric and Corin- 
thian, are the roots of all European archi- 
tecture. 

cormarye. Another olden dish, from THE 
FORME OF CURY (1390) : Take coliander, 
caraway, smale grounden; powder of pep- 
er and garlec y-grounde in rede wyne. 
Medle alle these together, and salt it. [A 
goodly startl] Take loynes of pork, rawe, 
and fle of the skyn, and pryk it welle with 
a knyf, and lay it in the sawse. Roost 
thereof what thou wilt, and keep that that 
fallith therefrom in the rosting, and seeth 
it in a possynet \posnet: small pot, skillet] 
with faire broth, and serve it forth with 
the roost anoon. 

coinage. A feudal rent, calculated by the 
horned beasts (French corn, corne, horn) : 
one in every ten was set apart for the 
overlord. Cornage is interesting because 
of the misunderstandings of later histori- 
ans and lexicographers. Littleton (1574) 
said that it was land granted because the 
tenant engaged himself to blow a horn 
as warning of a (Scotch or other) enemy 
raid; this error is repeated in Blackstone's 
COMMENTARIES (1767) . Also, misread as 
coruage, coraage, it was explained in the 
17th century as an unusual imposition, a 
levy of corn. 

cornardy. Folly. A 14th century word, 
from Old French cornard, a cuckold, a 
horned person; corn, horn. See cornute. 

cornemuse. A hornpipe; an early form 
of the bagpipe. Not every loyal Scot ap- 
proved of it; BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH 
MAGAZINE of August 1882 said: Long be- 
fore the cornamouse (father of the bag- 
pipe) sent its execrable Sclavic notes up 
the Highland straths. Chaucer in THE 



178 



cornute 



corsned 



HOUS OF FAME (1384) mentioned the in- 
strument; Mrs. Palliser (in BRITTANY; 
1869) said that it is the national instru- 
ment of Western and Southern France. 
It may have wailed with the builders of 
the pyramids. 

cornute. Horned; in various figurative 
senses. (1) a retort used in distilling; 
17th and 18th centuries. (2) a forked 
pennon; 17th century. (3) a cuckold 
common 14th through 18th century; in 
this sense, the Italian form cornuto was 
often used, as in Shakespeare's THE MERRY 
WIVES OF WINDSOR (1598) : the peaking 
cornuto her husband. Hence also corn- 
ardy, state of being deceived or horned; 
folly. (4) a dilemma; the "horned argu- 
ment," see ceratine. Hence also the verb, 
popular among playwrights into the 18th 
century, to cornute, to give horns, to 
cuckold. Thomas Jordan, in a poem of 
1675, pillories jealousy: He that thinks 
every man is his wife's suitor Defiles his 
bed, and proves his own cornutor. 

corody. See corrody. 

corposant. A glowing ball of electrical 
discharge sometimes seen on a church 
steeple or a ship's mast; I have seen one 
atop the Empire State Building. From 
Portuguese corpo santo; Latin corpus 
sanctum, holy body, body of a saint. Since 
St. Elmo is the patron saint of sailors, 
this phenomenon is also called St. Elmo's 
fire or St. Elmo's light. See furole. 

corpse-candle. (1) A thick candle used 
at wakes. (2) a flickering light seen in a 
churchyard, believed by many to be an 
omen of death. Used in 17th, 18th and 
19th centuries; Tennyson in HAROLD 
(1876) speaks of Corpse-candles gliding 
over nameless graves. 

corrade. To scrape together; hence, to 
collect. Latin corn-, together 4- radere. 



rasus, whence also razor. The cor- is also 
taken as though it were an intensive; in 
this use corrade means to scrape away, 
to wear away by scraping, A 17th century 
word, also used (from the past participle) 
in the form corrase; the noun, scraping 
together, was corrasion. 

corrige. To correct; to punish. Latin 
com-, altogether + regere, to make straight. 
Corrigenda are things that must be cor- 
rected, as agenda are things to be done. 
Corrige was used in the 14th and 15th 
centuries (by Chaucer in BOETHIUS, 1574) ; 
corrigendum was taken directly from the 
Latin in the 19th century. 

corrivate. To flow together. Small streams 
by corrivation grow into rivers. From 
Latin com-, together + rivalis, of the 
bank; rivus, stream. A rival f was, origi- 
nally, a fellow from the opposite bank of 
the stream; a corrival is one of two or 
more rivals of equal status. Burton, in 

THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY (1621) 

misused corrivate and corrivation, revers- 
ing the process, as though a large stream 
were dividing, as for irrigation. 

corrody. An allowance for maintenance; 
a pension. Also corody; corradie, corradye, 
and the like; Romanic form conredo, 
making ready; whence English conrey, 
equipment, company equipped to fight, 
used in the 14th century. Accent on the 
core. Originally (in feudal time) the right 
of free quarters, supplied by the vassal 
to the lord on his circuit; or an abbot to 
the king; later, in the form of an annual 
payment. The last sense became domi- 
nant, hence the word lapsed with the 
Reformation. 

corsned. The easiest of the three major 
medieval tests for guilt. Ordeal of bread: 
a piece of bread (about an ounce) con- 
secrated by the priest, to be swallowed by 



179 



corsy 

persons accused of a crime "wishing it 
might be their poison, or last morsel, if 
they were guilty." So said Bailey in 1751, 
by which time the word was purely his- 
torical. Gorsned was a Saxon test. Old 
English corsnaed, cor, choice, trial 4- 
snaed, bit, piece, snidan, to cut. In the 
ordeal of fire, if the red-hot iron does not 
burn you, you are innocent. In the ordeal 
of water, if when bound and thrown in 
you do not sink, you are guilty. Most 
ordeals and corsned with them were 
abolished in the early 13th century; or- 
deal of water was used as a test for witches 
until comparatively recent times. 

corsy* See corcousness. 

corybant. Originally, a priest of the 
Phrygian worship of Cybele, who per- 
formed with noisy, turbulent dancing; 
hence, a reveler. Hence corybantiasm, 
corybantic frenzy. The plural is usually 
corybantes; Chaucer (in BOETHIUS, 1374) 
has coribandes; Drummond of Hawthorn- 
den in his poems of 1649 has cory bants. 
The O.E.D. defines corybantiate, to act 
like a corybant; but Bailey in his DIC- 
TIONARY (1751) has "corybantiate, to 
sleep with one's eyes open, or be troubled 
with -visions that one cannot sleep." In 
this sense, corybantiating is well known 
today. For another instance, see clipse. 

corymb, A cluster of ivy-berries or grapes. 
Before the 19th century used only in 
botany. Also corjmbus, the Latin form. 
De Quincey in THE ENGLISH MAIL-COACH 
(1849) speaks of gorgeous corymbi from 
vintages. Hence corymbiate, corymbiated, 
set with dusters of ivy-berries. The word 
has also been used in the sense of wreath 
or garland, as by Francis Thompson, who 
entitled one of his colorful poems (1888) 
A Corymbus For Autumn. 



cosins 

coryphe'e. The chief dancer in a ballet; 
by extension, a ballet dancer. In Greek 
drama the koryphaios was the leader of 
the chorus, koryphe, head, top. Hence 
also, the leader of a party, sect, group, etc. 

cos. A short form of coss, q.v. 

cosaque. A fancy paper (originally French, 
brought to England in the 19th century) 
for wrapping bon-bons; especially, the 
kind that explodes when pulled open. 
Named humorously from the unexpected, 
irregular firing of the Cossacks. 

coscinomancy. See aeromancy. 

cose. To make oneself cosy. Harriet Parr 
('Holme Lee' why should she pick this 
homely pseudonym?) in ANNIE WARLEIGH'S 
FORTUNES (1863) spoke of Rachel's cosing 
with a delightful new novel in her sofa 
corner. 

cosher. To feast; to live free of charge 
with kinsmen. A 17th century use, from 
Irish coisir, entertainment. By the 19th 
century, cosher had come to mean (1) to 
pamper; (2) to chat with familiarly. 
Goshery, entertainment for himself and 
his followers exacted by an Irish chief 
as John Bymmok put it in A TREATISE OF 
IRELAND (1600) "after Easter, Christ- 
mastide, Whitsuntide, Michaelmas and 
all other times at his pleasure." Hence a 
cosherer, one who lives on others. In the 
16th and 17th century, laws vainly sought 
to suppress the practice. 

cosins. An 18th century style of stays, 
named from the maker. Pope in THE ART 
OF POLITICKS (1729) inquired: Think we 
that modern words eternal aref Toupet, 
and tompion, cosins and colmar Here- 
after will be called by some plain man A 
wig f a watch, a pair of stays, a fan. 



iao 



coss 



costrel 



coss. "Rule of coss," the term for algebra, 
until the 16th century. From Italian cosa, 
thing, translating Arabic shai, thing, the 
word for the unknown quantity (x) of an 
equation. Coss is also (1) an Old English 
(mainly Scottish) word for barter, trade 
both noun and verb; (2) a measure of 
length in India, varying from a little over 
one mile to a little over two. From San- 
skrit kroga, originally a call, calling dis- 
tance. There were stentors in those days. 
(3) An old form of kiss, which has con- 
tinued; more often cosse, q.v. 

cosse. A variant form of kiss. In SIR 

GAWAYNE AND THE GRENE KNIGHT (1360) , 

the Green Knight's lady, tempting Sir 
Gawain, gently reproaches him with the 
suggestion that a true knight couth nat 
lightly have lenged so long with a lady 
Bot he had craved a cosse by his cour- 
taysye, Bi sum touch of summe trifle at 
sum tales ende. 

cosset. A lamb (or other quadruped) 
brought up by hand, a cade lamb. See 
cade. Also cossart. Hence, a pet, a spoiled 
child. Not used before the 16th century. 
To cosset, to fondle, to pamper, was used 
17th through the 19th century. A cossety 
child (or cat) is one that expects and likes 
to be petted and pampered. 

costable. Expensive. A 15th and 16th 
century word, supplanted by costly. Also 
(14th through 17th century) costage, ex- 
pense, expenditure, cost; (in the 13th and 
14th century) costning. Costal, however, 
means related to the ribs; Latin costalis, 
from costa, rib. 

costard. A large apple. Originally prob- 
ably a ribbed one, from Old French coste, 
rib. Applied in derision to the head, as 
in Shakespeare's KING LEAR (1605) , where 
Edgar in disguise says to Oswald: Ise try 



whether your costard or my ballow be the 
harder, 

costay. This is an old form, from the 
French costoyer, of the verb to coast. The 
spelling coast did not become usual until 
about 1600. The Latin costa meant rib or 
side. Lydgate in THE COMPLAINT OF THE 
BLACK KNIGHT (1430) says And by a river 
forth I gan costay. Costeaunt is a 14th 
century word (used by Gower) for border- 
ing, alongside. 

costermonger. Originally an apple-seller 
costard, apple; monger, dealer. Thence, 
a pushcart salesman; also used figuratively 
Miss Mitford (1812) From all the se- 
lected fruits of all the poetical coster- 
mongers . . . could ye choose nothing more 
promising than this green sour apple? 
and as a term of abuse Shakespeare, 
HENRY iv, PART TWO (1597) : Virtue is of 
so little regard in these costermonger 
times, (the monger is pronounced mun' fa.) 
Hence also costermongering, costermon- 
gery, costermongerdom. Also, tout court, 
coster. Various other combinations have 
been used, such as costerditty, street song; 
costerwife, a woman with a stall for selling 
apples and the like. Cp. applesquire. 

costile. See custile. 
costning. See costable. 

costming. Temptation. Old English cost- 
nian, costian, to tempt. Used 10th into 
13th century. 

costrel. A bottle for holding wine or less 
inviting liquid; especially one with an 
ear by which it could be hung at the 
waist. Later, a small keg. Very popular, 
14th through 16th century. Chaucer in 

THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN (1385) 

shrewdly says (three manuscripts spell it 
costret; three, costrel) : And therewithal 



181 



cothurnus 



count palatine 



a costrel taketh he And said 'Hereof a 
draught, or two, or three' Perhaps in con- 
fusion with costard, q.v., costrel was also 
used (in the 1 7th century) to mean the 
head. 

cothurnus. See buskin. Sometimes coth- 
urnus is shortened to cothurn. Also, mean- 
ing shod with the cothurnus, hence tragic: 
cothurnal, cothurnate, cothurnic, coth- 
urnian. 

cotidian. Also cotidial. See cotydyan. 

cotquean. A housewife. From cot, house 
+ quean, woman; not to be confused with 
cuckquean, q.v. Cotquean later became a 
term of abuse, meaning a vulgar, scolding 
woman; finally (16th to 19th century) a 
man that fusses over and meddles in af- 
fairs that should be the housewife's. In 
this sense, to play the cotquean, to be a 
(male) busybody in household affairs. 
When Capulet (in Shakespeare's ROMEO 
AND JULIET, 1592) says: Look to the bakt 
meats, good Angelica, Spare not for cost, 
the Nurse replies: Go you cot-queane, to, 
Get you to bed. Ben Jonson piles it on, in 
THE POETASTER (1601) : We tell thee thou 
anger est us, cotquean; and we will thun- 
der thee in pieces for thy cotqueanity. 

cottabus. A diversion of ancient Athe- 
nian youth, which consisted in the young 
man's drinking some wine, invoking his 
mistress' name, and throwing the rest of 
the wine into a metal basin. If it struck 
fairly, with a clear sound, and none spilled 
over, it was a sign the girl would favor 
him. Greek kottabos; kottabeion, the 
metal basin for the game. Cottabus was 
a popular game, and developed more com- 
plicated forms; e.g., a number of little 
cups might be set floating in the basin, 
and he whose tossed wine sank the most 
cups would win a prize. Sometimes the 
mistresses floated in the wine. 



cotydyan. An old form of quotidian, 
daily. Also cotidian, cotidial. Caxton in 
POLYCRONICON (1482) truly declared: His- 
torye is a perpetuel conservatryce of thoos 
thynges that have be doone before this 
presente tyme, and also a cotydyan 
wytness of bienfayttes, of malefaytes, grete 
actes, and tryumphal vyctoryes of all 
maner peple. 

coulant. Flowing. A pleasant 17th cen- 
tury word; French coulant, present parti- 
ciple of couler, to flow, whence also cou- 
lee. Lithgow in THE TOTALL DISCOURSE 

OF THE . . . PAINEFULL PEREGRINATIONS OF 
LONG NINETEEN YEARES TRAVAYLES (1632) 

states: Epiphanio calls it Chrysoroas, that 
is . . . coulant in gold. A sunny stream, 
pardy! 

coulter. The front blade in a plough, 
making the vertical cut in the soil, which 
is then cut horizontally by the share. Old 
English culter, Latin culter, knife. Also 
colter. The King James BIBLE: SAMSON 
(1611) : To sharpen every man his share 
and his coulter; so also in Chaucer (1386). 
The word is in Burns' well-known TO A 
MOUSE; whence Hardy's figurative use in 

THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE (1889) : That 

field-mouse fear of the coulter of destiny. 
For Shakespeare's use, in HENRY v (1599) , 
see fumitory. 

count palatine. A noble that within his 
territory had the powers that elsewhere 
belonged to the sovereign alone. Origi- 
nally, in the later Roman Empire, a count 
(comes) of the palace (palatium, palace) , 
with supreme judicial authority; in the 
German Empire and in England it came 
to have the meaning above. Also Earl 
palatine. Shakespeare in THE MERCHANT 
OF VENICE (1596) speaks of one with a 
better bad habite of frowning then the 
count palatine. His fief was a county, but 
this word was sometimes used for the 



182 



countermate 



cousin 



man; a few lines earlier in the same play, 
Shakespeare said: Than is there the 
countie palentine. The terms were also 
used figuratively, of one with complete 
authority in any field; Nashe in THE UN- 
FORTUNATE TRAVELLER (1594) has Jacke 
Wilton say: There did I (soft, let me 
drinke before I go anie further) raigne 
sole king of the cans and blacke jackes 
[leather bottles for liquor], prince of the 
pigmeiS; countie palatine of cleane straw 
and provant [army issue of arms and sup- 
plies], and, to conclude, lord high regent 
of rashers of the coles and red herring 
cobs. 

countermate. Opponent, rival. Used in 
the 16th century. 

countour. (1) An accountant; the officer 
that assisted in collecting and auditing 
county dues, in the 13th and 14th cen- 
turies. (2) especially in the phrase the 
common countor, a legal pleader, a ser- 
jeant-at-law. Countour is an early form of 
counter, one that counts. A poem on Ed- 
ward II in 1325 mentioned contours in 
benche that standeth at the barre. In the 
first sense, Chaucer in the Prologue of 

THE CANTERBURY TALES (1386) SayS of the 

ffrankeleyn: A shirr eve [sheriff] hadde he 
been and countour. 

county palatine. See count palatine. 

coup-gorge. A cut-throat (literally, from 
the French) . As a military term (15th- 
17th centuries) , a spot in which one must 
surrender or be cut to pieces. 

couplement. (1) Joining two things to- 
gether. Spenser in PROTHALAMION (1596) 
speaks of love's couplement] Shakespeare 
in SONNET xxi more figuratively says: Mak- 
ing a coopelment of proud compare With 
sun and moon, with earth and seas rich 
gems. (2) The things joined: a couple. 



Again Spenser (THE FAERIE QUEENED 1596), 
and Shakespeare in LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST 
(1588) : / wish you the peace of mind, 
most royall cupplement. 

courante. See coranto. Swift but sliding 
steps (as opposed to leaping) . Sometimes 
cor ant, currant; in the 18th century cou- 
rante replaced coranto; courante is the 
only word used for the music, the tune 
of the dance. 

court-cupboard. A movable sideboard, 
used to display plate and other silver 
service. Shakespeare, in ROMEO AND JULIET 
(1592) : Remove the court-cubbord, looke 
to the plate. Scott revived the word in 

KENILWORTH (1821) . 

courtepy. A short coat or tabard of 
coarse material, worn in the 14th and 
15th centuries. Dutch korte, short + pie, 
pij, a coarse woolen coat, a peacoat. Used 
by Langland (1362) and Chaucer (see 
over eye for quotation) ; revived by Bui- 
wer-Lytton in THE LAST OF THE BARONS 
(1843) : Going out in that old courtpie 
and wimple you a knight's grandchild. 

court-hand. The style of handwriting 
used in the English law-courts, from the 
16th century until abolished by statute 
under George II. Commonly referred to; 
by Shakespeare in HENRY vi, PART TWO 
(1593) . 

court holy water. Fair words without 
sincere intention; flattery. Also court- 
water. Gourt-holy-bread was used in the 
same way. Shakespeare, in KING LEAR 
(1605) : O nunkle, court holy-water in a 
dry house is better than this rainwater 
out o' do ore. 

courtship-and-marriage. See Hymen's 
torch. 

cousin. As early as the still current sense 
(1300) was the use of cousin to mean any 



183 



cousoner 

relative more distant than brother or 
sister. Legally, the next of kin, thus in 
Shakespeare's KING JOHN (1596) it refers 
to a grandchild. A king (15th to 18th cen- 
tury) might call another monarch, or a 
high noble, cousin. Also, a close friend; 
thus Celia in Shakespeare's AS YOU LIKE 
IT: / pray thee, Rosalind, sweet my coz, 
be merry. Coz (q.v.) was a frequent ab- 
breviation of cousin; also cosin, kosin, 
cozyn, c oss en, cosyng, and many more 
at times it was linked with cozen, q.v.; to 
make a cousin of, to deceive, impose upon, 
cheat; to prove a cousin to, to prove a 
deceiver. Medieval Latin cosinus, perhaps 
from consanguineus; com, together 4- 
sanguineus, of blood; sanguis, blood. Cp. 
aunt. While sometimes traced to Latin 
consobrinus, cousin of the mother's side, 
cousin was the term used, from medieval 
times, in translation of a royal writ: di- 
lecto consanguineo nostro: to our well- 
beloved cousin. In the 18th century, cousin 
was used for a strumpet; Motteux in his 
translation (1708) of Rabelais listed 
cousins, cullies, stallions, and bellibum- 
pers. A Cousin Betty was successively a 
strumpet, a beggar, a madwoman (usually 
begging) ; similarly Cousin Tom, a bed- 
lamite beggar. Also cousin brutes, fellow 
men; to be cousin to, to be akin, related; 
Chaucer in the Prologue to THE CANTER- 
BURY TALES (1386) says: The wordes 
moote be cosyn to the dede. 

cousoner. See cozen. Awdelay in THE 

FRATERNITYE OF VACABONDES (1565) de- 

voted a chapter to The Company of 
Cousoners and Shifters. The author of 

THE DEFENSE OF CONNY-CATCHING (1592) 

spoke of such secret villanies as are prac- 
tised by cosoning companions. 

couth. (1) A variant of could, couldeth; 
for an instance, see cosse. (2) Known, 
familiar; kind, agreeable, pleasant. Couth 



couth 

is the past participle of the Old English 
verb cunnan, can (ken) , which originally 
meant to know; it still means know how 
to, in such expressions as "I can play the 
violin/' "I can speak Urdu." Couth is 
one of a number of English words of 
which the simple form has lapsed from 
use, while a compound remains: we may 
still call an unmannerly person uncouth. 
Uncouth (from the 9th century) meant 
unknown, strange; marvelous; solitary, 
desolate. Shakespeare's AS YOU LIKE IT 
(1600) says: // this uncouth forrest yeeld 
any thing savage, I will either be food for 
it, or bring it for foode to thee. Milton 
in L'ALLEGRO (1632) bids: Hence, loathed 
Melancholy! . . . Find out some uncouth 
cell, Where brooding darkness spreads his 
jealous wings And the night raven sings. 
Applied to persons, uncouth meant un- 
familiar, strange; ignorant; hence (since 
the 18th century) uncultured, rude. Other 
compounds of which the simple form is 
forgotten are ineffable, inscrutable, in- 
superable, innocent, incessant. We re- 
tain both complete and incomplete, etc. 
We still use fatigue and indefatigable, 
but we have forgotten the two families 
fatigable, fatigate, fatigation and defatig- 
able, defatigate, defatigation. We still 
say avail and prevail, but the veil has 
been drawn over vail, q.v. We use con- 
nect, regard, as well as their compounds; 
but, while one may at times be dis- 
gruntled, gruntle has had little use since 
the 17th century. We have turbulence, 
disturbed, perturbed, but turb (save as a 
noun, in the sense of swarm, crowd, troop) 
scarce even came upon the tongue. We 
still may speak of a man as ruthless, but 
ruth (q.v.) stands amid alien corn and 
ruthful long has lapsed. Other simple 
forms listed in this dictionary are: comp- 
lice, effable (see nefandous), dure, gressile, 
minish, pervious, peccable^ rupt (see 



184 



cove 



cowl 



ruptile) , mersion, sightly, sist, spatiate, 
suscitate, vastation (see vastity) , ustula- 
tion (ustion) , verb er ate, vestigate, sperate, 
suade, tire, lumination (see relume] , spec- 
table , tendance, trusion. Also see pease, 
semble, ligate, paration, sperse. Flam- 
mable is coming back into currency, partly 
because inflammable is longer and is 
more likely to be misunderstood on the 
back of gasoline trucks. Cp. avaunt. 

There are also words that have sur- 
vived only in a set phrase. One seldom 
hears of a person off tenterhooks, or at 
the beginning of his tether, or, conceiv- 
ably, wrong as a trivet! We always take 
umbrage, though trees may fairly be said 
to give it; we speak of umbrageous 
boughs' for an instance, see patulous. We 
are often in a quandary; one humorist 
even claims to have spent ten years there, 
but rarely has anyone announced that he 
is, or has come, out of a quandary. Nor, 
indeed, out of clover. Who has been in 
low dudgeon, or low jinks, or in coarse 
fettle? This could go lengthily on, if one 
didn't grow gruntled. 

cove. (1) To hatch, to sit upon. Also 
couve, couvey, covie; roundabout from 
Latin cubare, to lie. Used in the 16th and 
17th centuries. (2) A small room, a bed- 
chamber, an inner chamber. Common 
Teutonic; Old Norse kofi, hut, cell. From 
this comes the still current sense of a 
sheltered place among the hills and 
woods, or along the shore. (5) A fellow, a 
chap. Possibly related to Scotch cofe, 
pedlar; it also appears as co f coff, cofe, 
coffin. It is Tudor thieves' and beggars' 
cant; see pedlers French. 

covenable. See conable. 

covent. The earlier form of convent, 
from Anglo-French covent, couvent; Latin 
convenire, conventum, to come together, 



whence also convene. The form survives 
in place-names, notably Covent Garden, 
London. 

covershame. A cloth over nakedness; a 
cover over infamy. Also, the shrub savin 

(Juniperus Sabina) used to produce abor- 
tion. Gayton in THE ART OF LONGEVITY 

(1659) said: Thou cover-shame, old fig- 
tree. Dryden in THE SPANISH FRIAR (1681) 
asked: Does he put on holy garments for 
a covershame of lewdnessf 

coverslut. A garment to hide slovenli- 
ness; hence, an apron. A decoration, as 
in architecture, covering deformity or ugli- 
ness. Also used figuratively, as by Burke 
(1795) : rags and coversluts of infamy. 

covin. A confederacy; a conspiracy. From 
Old French couvin, couvaine, convine, 
from Latin convenium, com-, together + 
venire, to come. Also covyne, kouveyne, 
covene, coven, convyne, and the like. By 
extension, fraudulent action; secret de- 
vice. A covin er, a covinous person, is one 
guilty of fraud. Frequent in the 14th cen- 
tury (Douglas; Gower uses several forms) 
and into the 17th; Scott revived the word 

in THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH (1828) : Such 

burghers as have covine [secret agreement] 
and alliance with the Highland clans. 
Among nations in our time, covins are 
not unknown. 

cowl. (1) A monk's hood; a monk's gar- 
ment, hooded but sleeveless, covering the 
head and shoulders. Hence, a monk. Also 
used figuratively, as in Kingsley's THE 
WATER-BABIES (1863) : By the smoky town 
in its murky cowl. Ultimately from Latin 
cucullus, hood of a cloak, from the root 
cal, seal, to hide, whence also occult, 
squalor, calix, hole, hall, hell. (2) A tub 
or large vessel for water and other liquids; 
especially a large one with two ears, to 
be carried on the shoulders of two men, 



185 



coxcombic 



crack-halter 



on a cowl-staff. The cowl-staff was in every 
household, and made a handy weapon. 
Shakespeare uses it in THE MERRY WIVES 
OF WINDSOR (1598) when Falstaff is carried 
out and dumped into the water: Go, take 
up these cloathes he ere, quickly: Wher's 
the cowle-staffef Also coule, coll, colt, 
cole, coal + staff. This cowl is possibly 
from Latin cupella, a small cask, diminu- 
tive of cupa, cask, vat, from the root cub, 
bend, lie, whence also incumbent, sue- 
cubus, hump, hoop, heap. To ride on a 
cowl-staff, to carry one, or to be carried, 
on a pole mockingly through the streets, 
a medieval popular punishment, as for 
a man who lets his wife wear the breeches. 
In ARDEN OF FAVERSHAM (1592) it was no 
less than the constable they took and 
carried him about the fields on a colt- 
staff e. May you deserve no such ridel 

coxcombic. Relating to or resembling a 
coxcomb; foolishly conceited; vainly os- 
tentatious. Also coxcombical; coxcomical; 
Scott in THE MONASTERY (1820) refers to 
that singularly coxcomical work, called 
Euphues and His England. Hence, cox- 
combalities, actions or things coxcombi- 
cal. 

coystriL Also coystrilL A form of coistrel, 
q.v. 

coz. Short for cousin, q.v. A form of 
familiar address, to relatives or good 
friends, 16th to the 1 9th century. Shakes- 
peare has "sweet my Coz"; "gentle Coz", 
in several plays. 

cozen. To cheat. A most popular word,, 
16th-18th centuries. Also cosen, cooson, 
cousin, cozon, and the like. Two origins 
are suggested: (1) From cousin, as per- 
sons sought to be entertained by claiming 
kinship especially rife in Ireland; see 
cosher. (2) From Italian cozzone, horse- 
trainer, crafty knave. Shakespeare uses 



cozen in several plays, e.g., MERRY WIVES 
OF WINDSOR (1598) : By gar I am cozoned; 
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL: Sawcie trust- 
ing of the cosin'd thoughts Defiles the 
pitchy night; and in THE RAPE OF LUCRECE: 
Her rosy cheek lies under, cozening the 
pillow of a lawful kiss. Hence cozenage 
(also in various spellings) , an act of 
cheating, a piece of trickery; cozener, 
cousoner, etc.; cozenry. The "gull-groper" 
in Dekker's LANTHORNE AND CANDLE-LIGHT 
(1608) tells the gull that the dice are 
made of w omens bones, and will cozen 
any man. 

crab. The wild apple, now known as the 
crab-apple. Used since the 15th century; 
also crabbe; scrab. Its sour taste made it 
as distasteful as the cultivated apple is 
delicious; thus Shakespeare in KING LEAR 

(1605) says: She's as like this, as a crabbe' s 
like an apple. Browning (1878) figura- 
tively called his poems crabs: weak -fruit 
of idle hours. Crabs, however, were used 
for making verjuice, and were tasty roast- 
ed or preserved. In SONGES AND SONNETTES 

(1557) a poem in praise of "the pore es- 
tate'* declares: Such as with oten cakes 
in poore estate abides, Of care have they 
no cure [worry], the crab with mirth they 
rost. 

crachoun. See craddon. 

crack-halter. A rogue; a gallows-bird. 
One who will some day crack (strain) the 
halter by which he is being hanged. A 
term of abuse (sometimes friendly), es- 
pecially in the 16th and early 17th cen- 
tury playwrights. Also a crackrope, simi- 
larly either abusive or playful. Motteux 
in his translation (1708) of Rabelais 
mentions about a score of fusty crack- 
ropes and gallow clappers. Shirley in LOVE 
IN A MAZE (1631) cried: You do not know 
the mystery: this lady is a boy, a very 



186 



cracknel 

crackrope boy. Dekker in NORTHWARD HOE 
(1607; the one direction these plays didn't 
hoe you was South) says of a talebearer: 
Fetherstone's boy, like an honest crack- 
halter, layd open all to one of my pren- 
tices. 

cracknel. A light, crisp cracker, usually 
curved or hollow. Also crackenelle, crack- 
enal, and the like. As Lord Berners put 
it, in his translation (1523) of Frolssart: 
Whan the plate is hote, they cast of the 
thyn paste thereon, and so make a little 
cake in maner of a crackenell, or bysket. 
In English biscuit; in the U.S., cracknel 
has been replaced by cracker or cookie. 

craddon. A coward. Also craw down; 
crathon, craton, with the same meaning, 
may be other forms of the same word. 
Used 14th to 17th century. There is also 
a form crachoun, which conveys more 
scorn, suggesting French crachat, spit. 
There is also a form craddant, crassant. 
Hence craddenly, craddantly, crassantly, 
cowardly. So many forms seem to indicate 
that the species was widespread. 

crambe. Originally cabbage (Greek 
krambe) ; used by Jovenal (crambe rep- 
etita) to mean a distasteful repetition. 
Hence applied in English (16th through 
18th century) for a wearying repetition of 
words or ideas. Crambe, as noun or verb, 
was sometimes used for crambo, q.v. 

crambo. A name for two games. (1) A 
player starts with a word or line of verse; 
each other in succession must give one 
that rhymes with the first. If any repeats 
a rhyme, all cry 'Crambo P and he pays 
a forfeit. This game was popular in the 
17th and 18th centuries; I used to play 
a variation of it as a child, not quite so 
long ago. (2) Dumb crambo: one group 
must guess a word set by the other group. 
The guessers are told what the word 



crassantly 

rhymes with; then they act in dumb show 
one word after another until they hit the 
right one. A variant of this game, with 
questioning aloud, called "the game" or 
charades, Is still played. Other senses in 
which crambo has been used are (3) 
rhyming (used contemptuously) ; (4) a 
fashion of drinking (early 17th century) ; 
(5) a variant of crambe, q.v. 

crame. Originally (Old High German 
chram, cram) an awning; in English, a 
booth where goods are sold at a fair. 
Hence, a pedlar's stock of wares. Used 
15th through 18th century; longer (as 
krame, kraim) in Scotland. Hence cramer, 
creamer, crammer, craimer, kramer, one 
who sells goods at a booth; a peddler. 

cramp. See crome. 
crankdort. See cankedort. 

cranreuch. Hoarfrost. Used as an adjec- 
tive in Burns' TO A MOUSE (1785) : The 
winter's sleety dribble, An' cranreuch 
cauldt 

Grants. A garland, a chaplet. Old High 
German kranz. Also corance. Shakespeare, 
in HAMLET (1602), of the drowned 
Ophelia: Yet here she is allowed her virgin 
crants (Some versions have the word 
rites) . Later, crants were garlands of 
white paper hung in the church for a 
young girl's funeral; the practice con- 
tinued (in Yorkshire) into the 19th cen- 
tury. 

crappit-head. The head of a haddock 
stuffed with the roe, oatmeal, suet, and 
spices. Apparently from Dutch krappen, 
to cram: a stuffed head. A Scotch 19th 
century notion of a delicacy, though Ed- 
ward Ramsay in his REMINISCENCES (1861) 
sets down: Eat crappit heads for supper 
last night and was the waur o't. 

crassantly. See craddon. 



187 



crassitude 

crassitude. Thickness. Latin crass us, 
thick; whence English crass, correspond- 
ing to the slang sense of 'thick/ At first 
this was simply a measuring term, used 
from the 15th century (not five feet in 
length, and muck less in crassitude) ; then, 
by transference (17th century) , gross ig- 
norance, stupidity, extreme dullness of 
intellect. Cp. inspissate. Mortimer Collins 

in MARQUIS AND MERCHANT (1871) Said 

that Amy, not being afflicted with crassi- 
tude, soon did her work admirably. 

crastin. The day after; especially, after 
a feast-day or holiday. Used in the 16th 
and 17th century; via Old French from 
Latin crastinum, adjective form of eras, 
tomorrow. Hence the rare verb crastinate, 
to put off till tomorrow, which never 
found favor in English, Things seem more 
lingeringly, less malingeringly, delayed 
when we just procrastinate. 

crayton. Also critone. A simple dish of 
the 14th century: Tak checonys, and scald 
hem, and seth hem, and grynd gyngen, 
other pepyr, and comyn; and temper it 
up with god mylk; and do the checonys 
theryn; and boyle hem, and serve yt forth. 

crebrity. Frequency, Latin creber, fre- 
quent. Also crebrous, frequent. Used in 
the 17th and 18th centuries. 

crathon. See cr addon. 
craton. See craddon. 

credenda. Things to be believed. Plural 
of credendum, gerundive of credere, to 
believe. Used in the 17th and 18th cen- 
turies of religious matters, items of faith, 
and usually opposed to agenda, things 
to be done, "works." In the 19th century, 
the word was sometimes given a political 
application, as by Louis C. Miall in THE 
NONCONFORMIST of 1841: Is the power of 
selecting the credenda of the nation to be 



crepuscular 

vested in the civil magistrate? That power 
is being widely manipulated today. 

cremasters. Suspenders. Greek kremaster, 
from krema-, to hang. Accent on the sec- 
ond syllable. Still used in anatomy and 
entomology, but a superfine word for a 
super-fashionable haberdashery. 

cremosin. An early form (Spenser) of 
crimson. Also cremoysin, cremsin, cremysn. 

crepine. See crespine. Also spelled cris- 
pyne, krippin, creppin, and the like. 

crepundian. A toy, a rattle. Hence, an 
empty talker, one who rattles on. Latin 
crepundia, a rattle, from crepare, crepitum. 
to rattle, tinkle; whence crepitare, to 
crackle, etc. (see creve) and English cre- 
pitation, crackling; crepitate, to crackle, 
(17th and 18th centuries) to break wind. 
Although idle talk continues, crepundian 
was used mainly in the 16th and 17th 
centuries. Nashe (Greene's MENAPHON, 
1589) speaks of our quadrant crepundios, 
that spit 'ergo* in the mouth of every one 
they meet. 

crepuscular. Pertaining to twilight. Also 
crepusculine, crepusculous; the first two 
favored by poets. I can still remember a 
lad of sixteen, who wrote, as a classroom 
blackboard exercise, a sonnet To Certain 
Crepuscular Murmurers before he sub- 
dued his poet's heart to his biophysicist 
mind. Also crepuscule, crepusculum, twi- 
light. Latin crepusculum is a diminutive, 
related to creperum, darkness, creper, 
dark. The Romans opposed crepusculum, 
the dusk of evening, to diluculum (lux, 
lucis light), the dusk of dawn. In the 17th 
century, however, the forms dilucid, clear, 
manifest (Latin dis-, apart; lucere, to 
shine, be clear) ; dilucidate, dilucidation, 
dilucidity were used later supplanted by 
lucid and elucidate, etc. 



188 



crespine 

crespine. A variant of crepe (Old French 
crespe) with some special senses: (1) a 
net or caul, of gold thread, silk lace, etc., 
for the hair; worn by ladies of the 14th 
and 15th centuries. (2) a fringe of lace, 
for a hood; or for a bed, dais, and the 
like; 17th and 18th centuries. (B) "a sort 
of farce wrapt up in a veal caul"; also 
crepine; French crepine, the caul around 
the viscera. Listed by gastronome Bailey; 
still flavorous. 

cresset. An iron basket in which a fire 
was lighted, to be hung on a pole or sus- 
pended from a roof, as a beacon; also 
used in the early theatre. Used from the 
13th through the 16th century; till ap- 
plied to a fire-basket on a wharf. Hence 
cresset-light. Used figuratively, as by Scott 
in WOODSTOCK. (1826) , of the moon's dim 
dull cresset; by Bryant in CONSTELLATIONS 
(1877): The resplendent cressets which 
the Twins uplifted. 

creticism. Lying. The 17th and 18th cen- 
tury dictionaries also give the form 
cretism. Also cretize, to play the Cretan, 
to lie, cheat. From Crete, and the reputa- 
tion its enemies gave it. Creticism should 
wherever possible be distinguished from 
criticism. 

creve. To split, burst. THE MIROUR OF 
SALVACIOUN (1450) has: The roches . . . 
creved both uppe and doune. Via French 
crever, to burst, from Latin crepare, 
crepitum, to rattle, to make resound, to 
crack; whence also (see crepundian) crepi- 
tation, decrepit, crevice, crevasse. 

crevecoeur. A style of woman's hair, 
worn in the 17th century: the curl'd lock 
at the nape of the neck, and generally 
there are two of them. Literally, heart- 
breaker. 

crewels. The king's evil. French ecrou- 
elles, scrofula. Also cruels. Up to the 17th 



crocheteur 

century; revived by Scott in 'THE HEART 
OF MIDLOTHIAN (1818) : a beloved child 
sick to the death of the crewels. Scrofula 
was called "the king's evil" because, from 
the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042) 
until that of Queen Anne, it was believed 
the disease could be cured by the royal 
touch. The last person to be thus touched 
in England was Samuel Johnson, at the 
age of two and a half, in 1712, by Queen 
Anne. On Easter Sunday of 1686, King 
Louis XIV of France touched 1600 suf- 
ferers, saying "The King touches you, may 
God cure you." Apparently, God worked 
on Samuel Johnson. 

crine. See cryne. 
cristallomancy. See aeromancy. 
crithomancy. See aeromancy. 

critickin. A petty critic; a critic. Southey 
(1843) cried: Critickin, I defy you! Also 
criticling, criticule, criticaster. Hence criti- 
casterism, criticastry. Mainly 18th and 
19th century terms, used by authors suf- 
fering from criticophobia, which FRASER'S 
MAGAZINE of 1836 says has possessed the 
mind of every great author. Swinburne in 
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE (1872) belabors 
the rancorous and reptile crew of poeti- 
cules who decompose into criticasters. Cp. 
medicaster. 

critone. See crayton. 

cro. Compensation for the killing of a 
man, according to his rank. Also croy. 
In 1609, by statute, cro of an Erie of Scot- 
land is seven tymes twenty kye [cows]. 

crocheteur. A porter. Used in the 16th 
and 17th centuries. French crochet, hook 
(for lifting bundles; cp. crotchet); but the 
English crocheteur (crochetor) was dis- 
tinguished by his whip. Beaumont and 
Fletcher, in THE HONEST MAN'S FORTUNE 
(1613) exclaim: Rescued? 'Slight I would 



189 



croisee 

Have hired a crocheteur for two carde- 
cues, To have done so much with his 
whip. 

croisee. Old form o crusade. Also croi- 
serie. 

crolle. A variant of crull, q.v. 

crome. A hook; especially, a long stick 
with a hook at the end, to pull down 
boughs of a tree, etc. Also cromb, cromp. 
In the 14th and 15th centuries, crome was 
sometimes used to mean the claw of a 
wild beast. From an Old English form 
cromb, cramb, crooked, hooked. So, in 
the 16th and 17th centuries, cramp, an 
iron bar with the end bent as a hook; a 
cramp word is one hard to decipher. The 
senses of cramp, hook, crook, and cramp, 
the hooking or contracting of a muscle, 
grew confounded. 

cronyke. An early variant of chronicle. 
Caxton in POLYGRONIGON (1482) stated 
that the detestable actes of such cruel 
personnes ben oftymes plantyd and regy- 
stred in cronykes, unto theyr perpetuel 
obprobrye and dyvulgacion of theyr in- 
famie, as thactes of Nero and suche other. 

crosbiter. See crossbite. 

croshabelL A prostitute. One of Peele's 
JESTS (1598) is headed: How George 
gulled a punk otherwise called a crosha- 
bell a word but lately used, he explains, 
and fitting with their trade, being of a 
lovely and courteous condition. 

crossbite. To cheat; originally, to outwit 
a cheater, to 'bite the biter/ Also, to 
censure stingingly. Also crosbite; hence 
cros(s)btter* A frequent word in 16th and 
1 7th century plays and pamphlets; thus 
Greene in his A Groat's Worth of Wit, 
Bought with a Million of Repentance 
(1592) speaks of the legerdemaines of nips, 
foysts, conicatchers, crosbyters. In the par- 



crowd 

ticular cheat sometimes called the badger 
game (see badger) Dekker (1608) said: 
The whore is then called the traffick. The 
man that is brought in, is the simpler. 
The ruffian that takes him napping is 
the crosbiter. 

crotchet. Originally, a small hook (French 
crochet, diminutive of croche, hook; wo- 
men still crochet with a small hook; cp. 
crocheteur) . By transference, many other 
meanings, among them: (1) an orna- 
mental hook, a brooch; Steele in THE 
TATLER (1710) tells of a crochet of 122 
Diamonds, set . . . in silver. (2) a hook- 
shaped symbol for a note in music; (3) a 
whimsical fancy; a perverse and peculiar 
notion. Shakespeare plays on both these 
senses in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (1599): 
Why these are very crotchets that he 
speaks, Note notes forsooth, and nothing. 
From (3) came (4) a fanciful device or 
construction. Less literarily and more 
literally (5) a bracket, in typography 
[crotchets]. A dealer in odd conceits and 
deliberately perverse opinions is a 
cro tch et-monger. 

crowd. The common Teutonic noun and 
verb, to press; a large press of persons, 
though used from the 10th century, and 
by Shakespeare (as in HENRY v; 1599) , was 
not common in English until the 17th 
century. In the 14th century, two other 
words took this form. (1) crowd, an un- 
derground vault, a crypt. Via French 
from Late Latin crupta, Latin crypta. A 
will of 1501 asked that the maker be 
buried in the crowde of Saint John Baptist 
in Bristow. (2) A Celtic musical instru- 
ment, at first with three strings; later, 
with six, four played with a bow and two 
with the fingers, an early form of the 
fiddle. From Welsh crwth, paunch, bulg- 
ing box; croth, belly, womb. By extension, 
a fiddle. A fiddler was also a crowd } or a 



190 



croy 



cryne 



crowder. Butler in HUDIBRAS (1664) spoke Chaucer's Prologue to THE CANTERBURY 



of men That kept their consciences in 
cases, As fidlers do their crowds and bases. 
From its big-bellied flowers, the figwort 
was called crowdy-kit. 

croy. See cro. Bailey in his DICTIONARY 
(1751) defines croy: "(Scotch Law) a 
satisfaction that a judge, who does not 
administer justice as he ought, is to pay to 
the nearest of kin to the man that is 
killed." Bailey (not to be confused with 
Old Bailey) has his law confused. 

croysade. Old form of crusade. Also 
croysada, croysado f croyserie. 

crudy. A variant of curdy: like curds 
(the coagulated part of soured milk; the 
liquid part is the whey } as Miss Muffet 
knew) . Also cruddy; in the 14th, 15th, 
and 16th centuries, crodde, crudde, crude 
were as common as curde, courd, curd. 
Shakespeare has curdled in CORIOLANUS 
(1607) ; crudy in HENRY iv, PART TWO: A 
good cherris sack hath a twofold opera- 
tion in it. It ascends me into the "brain, 
dries me there all the foolish and dull and 
crudy vapors which environ it . . . Some 
editors, however, explain crudy here as a 
form of crude. From the Latin crudus, 
raw, came Latin crudelis, rough, fierce, 
whence English cruel. Thus crude and 
cruel are of the same origin. We may note 
15th century crudelity, an early form of 
cruelty listed by Caxton (CATO; 1483) as 
the third sin. Also crudefactwn, the mak- 
ing of something crude, rough, unripe. 

craels. See crewels. 

cruent. Bloody; also, cruel. Latin era- 
entus, from cruor, gore. Also cruentate, 
cruentous; both rare. The (supposed) 
bleeding from the wounds of a body 
when the murderer comes by was called 
cruentation. 

crull. A variant of curled, curly. In 



TALES (1386), he speaks of A Young 
Squier . . . with locks as crulle as they 
were laid in presse. From their shapes 
were named what Irving in THE LEGEND 
OF SLEEPY HOLLOW (1818) calls the doughty 
doughnut . . . the crisp and crumbling 
cruller. 

crumenically. As the purse is concerned 
(Latin crumena f money-bag) . Used for 
humor, as when Coleridge wrote, in a 
letter of 1825, / am interested, morally 
and crumenically. Spenser, in THE SHEP- 
HERD'S CALENDAR (1579) uses crumenal, 
purse. Bailey (1751) lists crumenial, of a 
purse. 

crush-room. A hall or lobby of a theatre 
or opera house, where the audience might 
"promenade," says the O.EJX, but the 
word itself has other implications dur- 
ing intermissions. An early 19th century 
term. 

crastade. "A kind of dainty pye," de- 
servedly popular from the 14th to the 
17th century. From French croustade, 
Latin crusta, a hard surface, a crust (as of 
ice, etc.), crustum, pastry. By way of 
crustarde, custade, the form (and about 
1600 the recipe) changed to the current 
(sometimes currant) custard. The earlier 
crustade was a dish of minced flesh, eggs, 
herbs, and spices, with a little broth or 
milk, baked in a crust (at times with 
fruit instead of meat) . 

cryne. (1) Head of hair. Latin crinis, 
hair. Thomas Chatterton has a roundelay 
(1778) "My love is dead, Gone to his 
death-bed All under the willow tree/' with 
the line: Black his cryne as the winter 
night. The etymological spelling was used 
by Sylvester in his translation (1614) of 
Du Bartas: Priests, whose sacred crine felt 
never razor; also in prosaic reference in 



191 



cry p tar ch 

the BRISTOL JOURNAL of October 1768: 
hose of goatskin, crinepart outwards. (2) 
To shrink, shrivel. This verb is probably 
from Gallic crion, to wither. Used from 
the 15th into the 18th century, it was 
revived by Scott (THE HEART OF MIDLO- 
THIAN, 1818) and used in a letter of 
Jennie Carlyle (1849) : He had grown old 
like a golden pippin, merely crined, with 
the bloom upon him. 

cryptarch. A secret ruler, as would be 
the head of the modern 'gang* in violent 
fiction. Greek kryptos, hidden + archos, 
ruler. Thus cryptarchy, secret government 
or control. Other English forms from 
kryptos include: kryptocephalous (accent 
on the seph) , with the head concealed; 
cryptocerous, with concealed horns, like 
a cuckold; cryptorchis, cryptorchid, a man 
whose testicles are not in his scrotum; 
cryptology, secret or code speech; crypt- 
onyra, a secret name or password,* crypt o- 
dynamic, possessing or relating to hidden 
force; and a number of words specially 
combined, such as crypto-insolence, veiled 
insolence. In times of religious persecu- 
tion, many of the persecuted faith out- 
wardly conform to the persecuting faith 
while retaining an inward conviction; 

thus THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW of April 

1888 noted the large number of Christians 
who professed Islam but remained crypto- 
Christians. 

cryptomancy. See aeromancy. 

crystallomancy. Also cristallomancy. See 
aeromancy. 

cuddjQgstooL A chair in which an of- 
fender (a scold or disorderly woman; a 
fraudulent tradesman) was fastened, and 
either exposed to the public jeers or 
ducked m a pond (often a filthy place) 
or stream. The original chair, for greater 



cuckold 

shame, was in the shape of a close-stool; 
hence the name cucking-stool; cuck, to 
void excrement. Hence also cuck-stool. 
Used from the 13th century. As this idea 
waned, other associations developed the 
forms cuckquean-stool, coqueen-stool; 
ducking-stool (from the 16th century) . 
To cuck, in the 17th century, to punish by 
putting in the cucking-stool The penalty 
is listed in Blackstone's COMMENTARIES 
(1769) . 

cuckold. A man that has a faithless wife. 
The word was always used in derision. It 
is derived from the bird, the cuckoo, 
which lays its eggs in another bird's nest. 
The word was very common from the 1 3th 
to the 18th century, and took many forms, 
including cukeweld, cowckwold, cockhole, 
cookcold, cuckot, cuckhold. Hence the 
verb, to cuckold (cuckoldize) , used by 
Shakespeare in OTHELLO (1604) and THE 
MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, in which latter 
he also says Hang him, poor cuckoldly 
knave. Also cuckoldom } cuckoldry, cuck- 
oldage (as often old age has been) . In 
Jonson, Chapman, and Marston's EAST- 
WARD HOE (1604) Touchstone says: // 
you be a cuckold, it's an argument you 
have a beautiful woman to wife; then 
you shall be much made of; you shall have 
store of friends, never want money; you 
shall be eased of much o f your wedlock 
pain; others will take it for you . . . If you 
be a cuckold and know it not, you are an 
innocent; if you know it and endure it, a 
true martyr. This closing point had been 
earlier developed by Florio, in SECOND 
FRUTES (1591), where in Chapter Nine 
Caesar demonstrates that a cuckold must 
go to heaven: // he knowe it hee must 
needs be a patient, and therefore a martir. 
If he knowe it not, hee is an innocent, 
and you knowe that martires and in- 
nocents shall be saved, which if you grant, 



192 



cuckquean 

it followeth that all cuckolds shall ob- 
taine Paradise. To which Tiberio shrewd- 
ly rejoins: Mee thinks, then, that women 
are not greatlie to bee blamed if they 
seeke their husbands eternall salvation, 
but are rather to be commended, as causes 
of a worthie effect. Caesar shrugs his 
shoulders, but adds: Woman was some- 
times called woe-man. He speaks no more 
favorably, however, of the husband, that 
ruffian-like fellowe that studies nothing 
but bellie-cheere and foolosophie, and that 
with such diligence putts nothing in prac- 
tise but the madmatikes. 

cuckquean. A female cuckold; also as a 
verb. Formed from cuckold, husband of 
an unfaithful wife, and quean, from 
Anglo-Saxon cwene, woman; Greek gyne, 
whence gynecology. Quean and queen are 
related; queen comes directly from Anglo- 
Saxon cwen, lord's wife. Cuckquean was 
common in the 16th and 17th centuries, 
as in Brome's THE MAD COUPLE (1652) : 
You can do him no wrong . . . to cuckold 
him, for assure yourself he cuckqueans 
you. Cuckquean, also cockquean, cue- 
quean, is not to be confused with cot- 
quean, q.v. 

cucupha. A cap with spices quilted into 
it, worn in the 17th century for head 
ailments. Accented on the first syllable; 
also cucufa. A spice-cap. The idea of 
fragrance as well as color in headgear is 
not unattractive. 

cucurbit. A retort, originally shaped like 
a gourd, Aised in alchemical processes; 
usually as the lower part of an alembic, 
q.v. Later (16th century) , a cupping- 
glass. A small cupping-glass was a cucurbi- 
tule, cucurbittel. Other forms are con- 
curbite, cocurbite. French courde, whence 
English gourd, is from the same source, 
Late Latin curbita; Latin cucurbita, a 



cuerpo 
gourd, later a cupping-glass. Chaucer in 

THE CANON YEOMAN^S PROLOGUE (1386) 

speaks of cucurbites and alambikes eek. 

cudden. A born fool. A term favored by 
17th century playwrights. Wycherley, in 
1698, says The fools we may divide into 
three classes, viz. the cudden, the cully, 
and the fop. The cudden a fool of God 
Almighty's making. The cully is one who 
is cheated or imposed upon. Cullies make, 
said Carlyle in his MISCELLANIES (1833) : 
the easy cushion on which knaves and 
knav esses repose. A fop (see fob) also first 
meant a fool, or to fool, cheat; as in 
Shakespeare, OTHELLO (1604) : I . . . begin 
to find myself fopt in it; KING LEAR (1605): 
Wise men are grown foppish. In the 17th 
and 18th centuries, fop developed the 
special senses: (1) a conceited person, a 
pretender to wit or wisdom; (2) one 
foolishly concerned with his appearance, a 
dandy. In these senses, it developed other 
forms: fopdoodle, fopling, foppet, fop- 
potee all meaning simpleton in regard 
to manners or dress, and all contemptu- 
ous. To fopple (18th century) was to 
behave like a ridiculous dandy. Dryden 
knew there's no fool like an old fool, in 
his FABLES (1700) he pictures the slaver- 
ing cudden, propped upon his staff. And 
there is the old saying: Give a cudden a 
mink wrap, it is still but a cudden' s coat. 

cuerpo. Used in the Spanish phrase in 
cuerpo (literally, in the body; Latin 
corpus), without the outer garment, in 
undress; by extension (often humorously), 
naked. Frequently used, however, to mean 
stripped to the waist. Used by 17th and 
18th century playwrights and novelists; 
e.g., Fletcher in LOVE'S CURE (1625) : Boy, 
my cloake and rapier; it fits not a gentle- 
man of my ranch to walk the streets in 
querpo; Jonson in THE NEW INN (a failure 



_ 193 



cuffin 

o 1629) : Your Spanish host is never 
seen in cuerpo, Without his paramentos, 
cloke, and sword, 

cuffin. A man, a fellow, a cove. Also 
cuff en, cuffing. Mainly 16th and 17th cen- 
tury thieves' cant; used by the playwrights. 
Note that cuff and chuff were used always 
in a bad sense: a miserly old fellow; 
chuff also was applied to a boor, a rude 
countryman. A queer cuffin, a churlish 
fellow; hence, a justice of the peace. Scott 
revived the phrase queer cuffin in THE 

HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN (1818). 

cuish. A thigh-piece. Plural, usually 
cuisses, armor for the front of the thighs. 
Also quyssewes, cuissues (14th century) ; 
quysseaux, cusseis, cushes, cuishes, and the 
like; also cuishard, cuisset, cuissot; (15th 
century) cussan. Via Old French cuisseaux; 
Italian cosciale; Latin coxale; coxa, hip. 
Shakespeare in HENRY iv, PART ONE (1596) 
says: I saw young Harry with his I) ever 
on, his cushes on his thighs. Used by Pope, 
Dryden; Scott in THE LORD OF THE ISLES 
(1814) : Helm, cuish, and breastplate 
streamed -with gore. 

cuisses. See cuish. 

cullion. Testicle. Usually in the plural. 
From Latin culleus, a sack (in which a 
parricide was sewed up and drowned) , a 
testicle; Greek koleos, kouleos, sheath. 
Chaucer, in THE PARDONER'S TALE (1386): 
I would I had thy coillons in myn hand. 
(For pardoner, see palmer.) Other manu- 
scripts read coylons, colyounnys, culyons. 
By extension, cullion, rascal; as in Shake- 
speare's HENRY VI, PART TWO (1593) : 
Away, base cullionsl Hence cullionly (in 
KING LEAR; revived by Scott), rascally, 
base; cullionry, rascally conduct. Cp. cul- 
ly enly. 

cullis. A strong broth (as "beef-tea") 
made of flesh or fowl boiled and strained; 



culpon 

especially, as used for the sick. So made 
15th through 17th century. Spelled in 
many ways: colys, culys, collesse, collice, 
coolisse and several more; ultimately from 
Latin colare, to strain, whence also Eng- 
lish colander. In the 18th century, a cullis 
grew into a savoury soup: 'Use for a 
cullis, a leg of veal and a ham . . . take 
onions . . . thicken with cullis, oil, and 
wine/ The word was also used figura- 
tively, from its use to nourish as in Lyly's 
EUPHUES (1580) : Expecting thy letter, 
either as a cullis to preserve or as a sword 
to destroy and occasionally in irony (to 
mean a beating) ; Fletcher's THE NICE 
VALOUR (1625) : He has beat me e'en to 
a cullis shows the development toward 
D'Urfey's PILLS TO PURGE MELANCHOLY 
(1719) : a cullise for the back too. Hence 
the verb cullis, to beat to a jelly. 

culllsance. A badge or a sign, a mark of 
rank. Also cullisen, cullizan. A corrupt 
form of cognizance. See bawdreaminy. 
Jonson in EVERY MAN OUT OF HIS HUMOUR 
(1599) has: Til keep men . . . and Til give 
coats . . . but I lack a cullisen. 

cully. See cudden. 

cullyenly. A variant form of cullionly. 
For an instance of its use, see barber; 
cp. cullion. 

culpon. A piece cut off; hence, a slice, 
strip, shred. In the 18th century this be- 
came coupon. Also to culpon, to cut, to 
slice; (16th and 17th centuries) to border 
or ornament with strips or slices of a 
different-colored material. Old French 
colper; couper, to cut; from Latin co- 
laphus, Greek kolaphos, a blow. Chaucer, 
in THE KNIGHT'S TALE (1386) : He hath 
anon commanded to hack and hew The 
okes old, and laie them all on a rew, In 
culpons well araied for to brenne. A 15th 
century cookbook recommended: Take 
eeles culponde and dene wasshen . . . 



194 



culter 



curdcake 



culter. See coulter. 

culver. A pigeon. From 8th. century; in 
Spenser (SONNET 89} , on to Tennyson and 
Browning. Hence, a term of endearment 
(mainly in the 13th through 15th cen- 
turies). Perhaps from the timidity of the 
dove, Bailey's (1751) DICTIONARY lists 
culvenage, faintheartedness. Cp. coleron. 

culverin. See basilisk. 
culys. See cullis. 
cumber. See cumber-world. 

cumberworld. A useless person or thing, 
that needlessly encumbers the world. In 
Chaucer's TROYLUS AND CRISEYDE (1374). 
The verb cumber, used from the 14th into 
the 19th century, has been largely re- 
placed by encumber. Note that the origi- 
nal sense was to overwhelm, destroy; then 
harass (body or mind); then hamper, 
burden. The present disencumber was 
preceded by the verb uncumber, to free 
from a burden, used from the 15th cen- 
tury. There was a saintly woman named 
Wylgeforte, most beautiful, who prayed 
for a beard, that she might be uncum- 
bered of suitors and lead a holy life. 
Women changed her name to St. Uncum- 
ber, said Sir Thomas More in a DYALOGE 
of 1529, because they reken that for a pek 
of otys she wyll not fayle to uncumber 
theym of theyr husbondys. Michael Woode 
explained (1554) that if a wife were weary 
of a husband, she offered oats at Poules 
to St. Uncumber, and More elaborated: 
For a peck of oats she would provide a 
horse for an evil housebonde to ride to 
the deville upon. In the United States, 
although the desire is unchanged, the 
saint has been Renovated. 

cunctation. Delaying; delaying action. 
From 16th into the 19th century. Herrick, 
in HESPERIDES (1648), cried: Break off 



delay, since we but read of one That ever 
prospered by cunctation. The "one" is 
Fabius Cunctator, the Roman Quintus 
Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, surnamed 
Cunctator, Delayer; in the Second Punic 
War (218-201 B.C.) the Fabian tactics of 
harassing the enemy while avoiding direct 
combat broke Carthaginian Hannibal's 
military strength. Hence the Fabian So- 
ciety in England (founded 1884) which 
believed in the advance of Socialism by 
gradual degrees, of which the best known 
member was Bernard Shaw. Hence also 
the adjective forms cunctatious, cuncta- 
tive, cunctatory, prone to delay. 

cupshotten. Drunken, "in his cups." 
Cupshotten and swilling fool! cried 
Urquhart in his translation (1693) of 
Rabelais. More, in a DYALOGE of 1529, re- 
marked: If a maide be suffred to ronne 
on the brydle, or be cup shotten, or wax 
too prowde . . . Gup-shotten was in use 
since the 13th century; in the 16th, the 
shorter form cupshot (cup-shot, cupshott) 
also appeared, as in Herrick's HESPERIDES 
(1648) : A young enchantress close by him 
did stand Tapping his plump thighs with 
a myrtle wand; She smiled: he kissed: and 
kissing, culled her too; And, being cup- 
shot, more he could not do, 

curch. See coif. Curch is by error from 
curches; Old French couvreches, plural 
of couvrechef, cover head, whence cover- 
chief, kerchief. A square piece of linen, 
used instead of a cap. Used, mainly in 
Scotland, from the 1 5th century. 

curdcake. As described in THE QUEEN'S 
ROYAL COOKERY of 1713: Take a pint of 
curds, four eggs: take out two of the 
whites, put in some sugar, a little nutmeg 
and a little flour, stir them well together, 
and drop them in, and fry them with a 
little butter. 



195 



curiosity 

curiosity. This word, from Latin curi- 
osus, full of pains; cura, trouble, care, 
pains, had had many meanings. The O.E.D. 
lists 18 major senses of the form curious, 
q.v., only two of which are still current. 
Among those of curiosity are: carefulness; 
scrupulousness; accuracy; skill arrived at 
by these qualities; Shadwell in THE VIRTU- 
OSO (1676) says, of swimming: You will 
arrive at that curiosity in this watery 
science, that not a frog breathing will 
exceed you. By extension, excessive at- 
tention, undue fastidiousness; an undue 
subtlety. A pursuit to which one gives 
great attention; a hobby. Also, of things: 
careful or elaborate workmanship; ele- 
gance. Ingeniousness in art or experiment. 
A vanity, an object or matter on which 
much concern is lavished. This sense sur- 
vives in the familiar curiosity-shop. As- 
cham in THE SCHOLEMASTER (1568) said 
that Caesars Commentaries are to be read 
with all curiositie; Barclay, in THE MIRROR 
OF GOOD MANNERS (1510) : Though I for- 
bid thee proude curiositie Yet I do not 
counsell nor move thee to rudenes; Wy- 
clif (WORKS; 1380) spoke of men that 
traveilen not in holy writt but veyn pleies 
and curioustees* 

curious. Early meanings of curious 
(Latin curiosus, full of cura, care) in- 
clude: (I) careful, taking pains, as in 
Chaucer's THE SHIPMAN'S TALE (1386): For 
to keep our good be curious. (2) anxious, 
concerned, as in Shakespeare's CYMBELINE 
(1611): And / am something curious . . . 
To have them in safe stowage. (3) fastidi- 
ous, particular, cautious, as in Shake- 
speare's THE TAMING OF THE SHREW (1596): 
For curious I cannot be with you, Signior 
Baptista. (4) careful in observation, par- 
ticular about details, as in Shakespeare's 
ROMEO AND JULIET (1592): What curious 
eye doth quote deformities? Scott revived 
senses (3) and (4) together, in KENIL- 



curtal 

WORTH (1821) saying that men, in arrang- 
ing their hair, were very nice and curious. 
One must not be too curious, though one 
be not feline. 

curkle. To call as does a quail. An echoic 
word. Urquhart in his translation (1693) 
of Rabelais mentions curring of pigeons 
. . . curkling of quails. 

currant. See coranto. 
curry favor. See favel. 
curse. See precurrer. 
cnrsitor. See cursorary. 

cursorary. A Shakespearean variant of 
cursory, used in HENRY v (1599): We have 
but with a cursorary eye Ore-viewed them. 
Latin currere, cursum f to run, whence 
discursive, course, discourse, excursion, 
corsair, not related to curse. Note cursor- 
ial, relating to or adapted for running. 
Also cursitor (cursetor, cursitour) ; Latin 
cursor, runner. (1) One of 24 clerks of 
the Court of Chancery, who made out all 
writs de cursu, i.e. of the usual run or 
routine; each had his own shire or shires. 
The post was abolished in 1835. By ex- 
tension, a secretary. (2) A runner, mes- 
senger. Fuller in THE WOUNDED CONSCIENCE 
(1646) uses this figuratively: The spirits, 
those cursitors betwixt soul and body. (3) 
A wanderer, vagabond, tramp. Harman 
in 1567 wrote a book titled A Caveat or 
Warening, for commen cursitors vulgarely 
called vagabones. 

curtal. A horse, later any animal, that 
has lost its tail, or had its tail cut short. 
Romanic corto, French court, short. Also 
used as a term of contempt for a rogue 
or a drab; Cotgrave's DICTIONARY (1611) 
lists a hedge-whore, lazie queane, lowsie 
trull, filthie curtail. Toone's GLOSSARY 
(1834) states: A dog whose tail had been 
cut off by the effect of the forest laws, to 
hinder him from hunting, was called a 



196 



curtsey man custron 

curtail dog; and by abbreviation, a worth- curvify. To grow curved; to make curve 



less dog is at this day called a cur. Shake- 

speare in THE COMEDY OF ERRORS (1590) 

has: She had transformed me to a curtull 
dogy and made me turne i' th' wheel. 
Cur, however (first in the phrase cur-dog), 
is probably related to Norse kurra, to 
growl, grumble. The verb curtail was orig- 
inally curtal, to make a curtal of, to dock 
the tail; its ending changed by associa- 
tion with tail or (17th century) with 
French tailler, to cut. Note that cutlass 
(Old French coutelas, a large knife; coutel, 
couteau, knife), being a short sword, was 
given many forms: curtelace, curtalax; 
Spenser mistook this and in THE FAERIE 
QUEENE (1596) pictures Priamond using 
spear and curtaxe both, while With cur- 
taxe used Diamond to smite, as though 
curtaxe were a short-handled ax. Curtal 
was also a man wearing a short coat; the 
curtail Friar was Friar Tuck in the Robin 
Hood ballads, whence Scott rather vaguely 
revived the phrase (IVANHOE, 1820): Now, 
sirs, who hath seen our chaplain? Where 
is -our curtal friar? In the 18th century, 
curtal was also used for a cutpurse, or 
petty thief that cut pieces from fabrics 
displayed out of shop windows. H. 
Cogan, in his translation (1653) of Pinto's 
TRAVELS pictured six pages apparelled in 
his livery mounted on white curtals. 

curtsey man. See pedlers French. 

curule. In the phrase curule chair, a 
seat shaped like a camp-stool with curved 
legs, but of costly wood inlaid with ivory, 
occupied by the highest magistrates of 
ancient Rome. Hence, curule, pertaining 
to high civic office, eminent. The word was 
used in English in the 17th century; it 
was revived by Scott in THE HEART OF 
MIDLOTHIAN (1818); Butler shifted its ap- 
plication in HUDIBRAS (1663): We that are 
merely mounted higher Than constables 
in curule wit. 



or bend; to curl. Jordan in DEATH DIS- 
SECTED (1649) speaks of Irons to curvifte 
your flaxen locks, And spangled roses that 
outshine the skie. 

cury. Cookery. A bookful of delicious 
dishes is bound within THE FORME OF 
CURY (1390) . The word is roundabout 
from Latin coquus, cocus, cook; coquere, 
coctum, to cook, to ripen, whence also 
concoction; precocious, biscuit (French 
bis, twice + cuire, cuit, to cook; whence 
also cuisine.) The Latin coquere was used 
figuratively to mean to think out, to plan, 
as in modern slang: What's cooking? 
Trevisa in the HIGDEN ROLLS (1387) de- 
clared They conne ete and be mury With- 
oute grete kewery. 

oissan. See cuish. 

custard. See crustade. The recipe now 
used dates from about 1600. 

custile. A long, two-edged dagger. A 15th 
century weapon, from Old French cous- 
tille. Also costile. See custrel. 

custos. Custodian; keeper; guardian. 
From 15th through 17th century regarded 
as an English word, plural custoses; re- 
vived in the 19th century (e.g., in Thack- 
eray's THE NEWCOMES, 1855) as though 
direct from the Latin, plural custodes. 
Also custosship (accent on the first sylla- 
ble) , the office of custos. 

custrel. An attendant on a knight. Used 
15th through 17th century; Old French 
coustillier, soldier armed with a coustille; 
see custile. Later degenerated to mean 
knave, rascal; in this sense possibly in- 
fluenced by custron, q.v. In this sense, 
also, more frequently in the form coistrel, 
q.v. 

custron. A kitchen-knave. Hence, a base 
fellow, a rascal. From Old French coistron, 



- 197 



cutchery 

Late Latin cocistronem, cook's helper, 
coquere, coctus, to cook. See custrel; cois- 
trel 

cutchery. See kedgeree. 

cutty. See sark. Cutty is a Scotch or 
Northern Dialect word. 

cutwaist. An insect. Latin in -f sectum, 
cut; cutwast, cutwaist, is an English ren- 
dering. Thus also the Greek, entomology, 
en, in 4- tomos, cut Topsail introduced 
the English form in THE HISTORJE OF SER- 
PENTS (1608) ; it did not survive the pres- 
sure of foreign terms in science. 

cyclamen. A plant, with beautiful early- 
blooming flowers. Also called sow-bread, 
the fleshy root bulbs being a favorite food 
of swine. The name is from Greek 
kyklaminos, circular; kyklos, circle the 
shape of the root. The cyclamen was 
highly esteemed for a love-philtre; but 
Gerard (HERBALL; 1597) was so afraid 
of its abortive effects that he set a criss- 
cross fence of sticks about the plant in 
his garden, lest women stepping over it 
be cursed with a miscarriage. 

cygnet. See swan. 

cymar. A loose light garment for women; 
also, a chemise. Also simarre. A favorite 
word in exotic poetry and fiction since 
the 17th century, usually as the only gar- 
ment left on, as in Scott's THE TALISMAN 
(1825) : Disrobed of all clothing saving a 
cymar of white silk. A chimer, from the 
same source, old French chamarre, was a 
loose upper robe; especially, a bishop's, 
to which his lawn sleeves were attached. 
It was of scarlet silk until Queen Eliza- 
beth's time, when Bishop Hooper changed 
it to more sober black satin. Mrs. Brown- 
ing brought this form back into use, in a 
poem (1850) : This purple chimar which 
we wear. 



czaricide 

cynarctomachy. Fighting of dogs and bears; 
bear-baiting, Greek kynos, dog -f arctos, 
bear + machia, fighting. Butler in HUDI- 
BRAS (1663) declared That some occult 
design doth ly In bloudy cynarctomachy. 
[The arctic region is the region not of the 
polar bear but of the Great Bear constel- 
lation.] The Batrachomyomachia, the 
battle of the frogs and the mice, is a mock 
epic written in ancient Greece in Homeric 
style; it is sometimes used as a symbol of 
a war over trivial things, like the Big- 
endian and Little-endian war (over which 
end of the shell of a soft-boiled egg to 
open, to eat it from the shell) in GUL- 
LIVER'S TRAVELS (1726; LILLIPUT): The 
books of the Big-endians have long been 
forbidden. Carlyle (in FRASER'S MAGAZINE; 
1832) said: Its dome is but a foolish Big- 
endian or Little-endian chip of an egg- 
shell compared with that star-fretted 
dome. 

cynocephali. See acephalist. 

cyprian. Licentious, lewd; also, a licen- 
tious person; a prostitute. Literally, of 
Cyprus, an island in the eastern Mediter- 
ranean, anciently known for the worship 
of Aphrodite. Used from the 16th cen- 
tury. THE SATURDAY REVIEW in 1859 Spoke 

of the cyprian patrol which occupies our 
streets in force every night; but forty 
years earlier J. H. Vaux in his MEMOIRS 
told of a very interesting young cyprian 
whom I . . . attended to her apartments. 

cyule. A boat. From Late Latin cyula, 
which is from Old English ciol, whence 
keel, boat. Holland in his translation 
(1610) of Camden's BRITAIN wrote: Em- 
barqu'd in forty cyules or pinnaces, and 
sailing about the Picts' coasts . . . in every 
ciule thirtie wives. 

czaricide. See stillicide. 



198 



D 



dacity. Energy; activity; capability. Short- 
ened from audacity; Latin audax, auda- 
cem f spirited. Sampson in THE vow BREAK- 
ER (1636) declared: I have plaid a major 
in my time with as good dacity as ere a 
hobby-horse on 'em all. 

dacryopoeos. Things, according to Bailey 
(1751) "which excite tears from their 
acrimony, as onions, horseradish, and the 
like." A number of English medical terms 
have been formed from Greek dacry f tear. 
Hence, dacryopoetic, producting or caus- 
ing tears, like a *tear-jerker* screen-play. 

dactyliomancy, dactylomancy. See aero- 
mancy. 

daddock. Rotted wood. Blount (1674), and 
Bailey after him, call it "the heart or body 
of a tree thoroughly rotten," and suggest 
the word is a corruption of dead oak. Its 
etymology is unknown. 

daedal. Skilful, inventive. From Daedalus, 
the legendary inventor and architect, who 
built the Labyrinth for the Minotaur in 
Crete. When King Minos imprisoned 
Daedalus and his son Icarus (they first 
devised the Labyrinth, then showed Ari- 
adne how Theseus could escape from it) , 
Daedalus fashioned wings on which they 
flew away. Despite his father's warning, 
the presumptuous Icarus flew too near 
the sun; his wings melted off, and he fell 
into what was thereafter known as the 
Icarian Sea. Daedalus landed safely in 
Sicily. 



The word daedal was also applied to 
the earth, as inventive of many forms; 
variously adorned, as in Spenser's THE 
FAERIE QUEENE (1596) i Then doth the 
daedale earth throw -forth to thee Out of 
her fruitful lap abundant flowers. Hence 
also daedalian, skilful, ingenious. Both 
these forms are also occasionally used in 
the sense of labyrinthine, mazy as dae- 
dalian arguments; or as in Keats* ENDY- 
MION: By truth's own tongue^ I have no 
daedal heart! Hence daedalize, to make 
intricate. 

daff. (1) A person deficient in sense or in 
courage; one who is daft. So Chaucer, in 
THE REEVE'S TALE (1396). Hence to daff, 
to play the fool; to make sport of. (2) to 
remove, to take off. A variant of doff, to 
do off. Thus Shakespeare in THE LOVER'S 
COMPLAINT (1597) has There my white 
stole of chastity I daff'd. Hence, to thrust 
aside, as Shakespeare in HENRY rv, PART 
ONE (1596) speaks of Prince Hal that daft 
the world aside; or to put off, as in 
OTHELLO (1604) : Every day thou dafts 
me with some device, lago. Daffing the 
world aside was a frequent phrase, after 
Shakespeare. Johnson, misunderstanding 
Shakespeare's usage, erroneously taking 
the past form for the present, put in his 
DICTIONARY (1755) a non-existent verb, 
to daft. 

daffadowndilly. A poetic and to some 
extent still a popular form of daffodil, 
which itself is a variant of affodill, which is 



199 



dag 

a corruption of asphodel, which is directly 
from Greek asphodelos. Strew me the 
ground with daffadowndillies, cried Spen- 
ser in THE SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR (1579); 
the inevitable rhyme appears in Henry 
Constable's poem DAIPHENIA (1592) : Di- 
aphenia like the daffadowndilly, White as 
the sun, fair as the lily, Heigh ho, how I 
do love theel Fair flower of spring. 

dag. A pendant; anything short and 
pointed, as the straight horn of a young 
stag. Diminutive of dagger, from French 
dague, dagger. Hence (1) the points of a 
cloak or dress slashed at the bottom as an 
ornament (Chaucer and the 15th cen- 
tury) . (2) The top of a shoelace (I5th to 
18th century). (3) A lock of wool about 
the hinder parts of a sheep, dirty and 
draggling. (4) A hand-gun or heavy pistol 
(of the 16th to the 18th century). The 
O.E.D. sees no connection between this 
use of dag and dagger, but the publisher 
of this volume has in his collection a 
weapon that is at once a dagger and a gun. 
In the 16th and 17th century dag and 
dagger was a frequent phrase; Johnson 
(1751) hence mistakenly defined dag as 
dagger. For an instance of its use, see 
slop. Note, however, French dague, dag- 
ger; and to dag meant to stab (14th cen- 
tury) before it meant to shoot. 

There is also a word dag of Norse 
origin, used from the 17th century (and 
in dialects) to mean dew, or a gentle rain 
or mist. 

dahet. A curse upon! An imprecation, 
possibly from Old (Merovingian) French 
Deu hat, God's hate. Also dathet, dathait, 
dait. In early uses, with the verb have, as 

in THE OWL AND THE NIGHTINGALE (1250): 

Dahet habbe that like best [every beast] 
That fouleth his owne nest Used to the 
1 5th century. 



daltonism 

dainty. Asra noun. Estimation, honor; de- 
light, joy. By extension, fastidiousness. 
Old French dainte, pleasure, titbit; Latin 
dignitatem, worthiness; dignus, worthy, 
whence also dignity, indignation. (Eliezer 
Edwards, in WORDS, FACTS, AND PHRASES, 
1881, says that the first meaning of dainty 
was a venison pasty, from French daine, 
a deer. A pleasant thought, but oh dear!) 
In the sense of fastidiousness, Shakespeare 
has, in HENRY iv, PART TWO (1597) : The 
King is wearie Of daintie, and such pick- 
ing grievances. As joy, Dunbar in TWA 
MARYIT WEMEN (1508) : Adew, dolour, 
adew! my daynte now begynis. Also, to 
make dainty, to hold back, scruple, refuse. 
Shakespeare has, in ROMEO AND JULIET: 
ah ha, my mistresses! which of you all 
Will now deny to dance? She that makes 
dainty, she, Til swear, hath corns. 

daisy. The Bellis perennis, "a familiar 
and favorite flower/' says the O.E.D. Old 
English daeyes eage, day's eye; its white 
petals fold in at night, hiding its central 
sun until the dawning. In olden times, it 
was an emblem of fidelity; knights and 
ladies wore them at tourneys, and Ophelia 
gathered them, to be strewn on her grave. 
There is indeed beauty, as Spenser sees 
it in THE SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR (1579) in 
the grassye ground with daintye daysies 
dight. 

daltonism. Color-blindness; especially, in- 
ability to discriminate red and green. 
From John Dalton, English chemist (1766- 
1844), who developed the atomic theory 
and was afflicted with color-blindness. 
The word was first used (1827) by Prof. 
Pierre Prevost of Geneva; it was objected 
to by the British, in that it associates a 
great name with a physical defect (as 
though the crippling from infantile pa- 
ralysis were called Rooseveltism); the word 
is therefore seldom used in English, 



200 



damoclean 

though daltonisme is the current French 
term. A daltonian is a person afflicted 
with color-blindness. 

damoclean. Relating to Damocles. Also 
(19th century), damoclesian; the sword o 
Damocles. Damocles was not the king, but 
a flatterer in the train of Dionysius the 
Elder, tyrant of Syracuse, an unscrupulous 
plunderer to keep Jupiter warm, he re- 
placed the golden mantle on the god's 
statue with a woolen one impious, sav- 
age, suspicious, credulous. He was, how- 
ever, a shrewd commander; he invented 
the catapult, and held his throne for 38 
years, dying in 368 B.C. When Damocles 
expressed envy of Dionysius' happy state, 
the king made Damocles ruler for a day. 
All went merrily until Damocles noticed, 
over the throne on which he sat, a sword 
suspended by a horse hair. Dionysius' 
symbolism was so obvious and so apt that 
the sword of Damocles has been often 
used to refer to the thread by which all 
fortune hangs. 

dandeprat. See dandiprat. 

dandiprat. A small coin (3 halfpence) of 
the 16th century. A contemptible or in- 
significant fellow; a dwarf. Applied in 
friendly intimacy to a little child. Also 
dandeprat, dantiprat. 

dapatical. Sumptuous; costly. Late Latin 
dap aliens, from dap em, feast. A 17th and 
18th century dictionary word; cp. dapifer. 

daphnomancy. See aeromancy. Greek 
Daphne, a nymph loved by Apollo> fleeing 
whom she was, at her own entreaty, 
changed into a bay-tree (laurel) . Hence 
winners of "the bays"; hence champions 
in the games Apollo sponsored were 
crowned with laurel. 

dapifer. One who serves at table; a 
steward; a waiter. Latin dapem, feast (see 



darnel 

dapatical) 4- ferre, to bear. A 17th and 
18th century word. 

dapinate. To provide or serve dainty 
meats, as among les amis d'Escoffier. Latin 
dapem, food; cp. dapifer. 

dapocaginous. Mean-spirited; of little 
worth. A 17th century term (accented on 
the cadge) from Italian dapoco, of little 
(value). 

dariole. A crustade, q.v. From the 14th 
century; but by 1650 the recipe had 
changed and a dariole was a cream tart. 
In that sense Scott revived the word in 
QUENTIN DURWARD (1823) : Ordering con- 
fections, darioles, and any other light 
dainties he could think of. 

darkhede. See darkmans. 

darkmans. Night. Originally 16th cen- 
tury thieves' cant; also crackmans, a 
hedge; lightmans, daytime, etc. See lib; 
pedlers French. Used by 16th and 17th 
century playwrights (Dekker, THE ROAR- 
ING GIRL, 1611, e.g.), revived by Scott in 
GUY MANNERING (1815) : Men were men 
then, and fought other in the open field, 
and there was nae milling in the dark- 
mans. The regular early English word for 
darkness was darkhede (10th to 14th cen- 
tury) . 

darnel. A grass; especially (lolium temu- 
lentum) , one that grows as a weed in 
corn, supposed to make dim the eyesight. 
Joan of Arc (La Pucelle) in Shakespeare's 
HENRY vi, PART ONE (1597) mocks the 
English for having corn full of darnel. 
Hence, figuratively, weeds, tares, evil 
things that grow amidst us; H. Barrow in 
John Greenwood's COLLECTION OF CER- 

TAINE SCLAUNDEROUS ARTICLES GYVEN OUT 

BY THE BISSHOPS (1590) spoke of Satan 
sowing his darnel of errors and tares of 
discord amongst them. 



201 



darraign 

darraign. An early variant of deraign, 
q.u. Also darrain, darrein, darrayne, dar- 
rein, darreyne. 

darrein. Final. An old legal term, from 
the 13th century. Via Old French darrain, 
derrein; Late Latin deretranus; de retro, 
behind. Especially in the phrase darrein 
resort, last resort. But also see darraign. 

dathet. See dahet. 

daub. See dealbate. The earliest mean- 
ing in English was to plaster; hence, to 
lay on crudely. 

daw. See dawkin. 
dawgos. See dawkin. 

dawkin. A fool; a slattern. Diminutive 
of daw, the bird (jackdaw) ; applied con- 
temptuously, in the same senses. A jingle 
of 1565 says: Then Martiall and Maukin, 
a dolt with a dawkin, might marry to- 
gether. Bailey (1751) gives the variant 
form dawgos. 

daysman. An umpire, a mediator. Day, 
as a verb, meant (1) to dawn; in this 
sense, also daw. (2) to appoint or set a 
day; hence, to appoint a time for decision, 
for arbitration. Thus also dayment, day- 
ing (15th to 17th century), arbitration. 
Lupton in 1580 uttered a sound lament: 
to spende all . . , that money and put 
it to dayment at last. Hervey in his MEDI- 
TATIONS (1747) wrote that Death, like 
some able daysman, has laid his hand on 
the contending parties. The public suffers 
today from reluctance to call upon days- 
men. 

dealbate. (Three syllables.) To whiten. 
From Latin de + albare, to whiten; albus, 
white. The Old French form of this, 
dauber, gave English daub. T. Whi taker, 
in THE TREE OF HUMANE LIFE (1658) , ven- 
tured the suggestion that Milke is blood 



debellish 

dealbated or thrice concocted. Dealbation, 
the action of bleaching, whitening; but 
deniable, that which may be dealt, or 
dealt with. 

deambulate. To walk, to walk about. A 
common 16th century word, used into the 
19th century; now supplanted by per- 
ambulate and its forms. Skelton in a poem 
of 1529 has: They make deambulations 
With great ostentations. A deambulatory 
(also deambulatour) was a place to walk 
in for exercise; especially, a cloister. 

deartuate. To dismember. Latin de, from 
+ artus, joint, member; whence also artic- 
ulate. A 17th century word. Hence, deart- 
nation. 

dearworth. Honorable, noble; costly, 
precious; highly esteemed, beloved. Also 
dearworthy. A common word from the 
9th into the 15th century. Also derworth, 
deorwurthe, direwerthe, dereworth, der- 
warde, and the like. Hence dearworthily, 
honorably; dearworthiness. As late as Tot- 
ters MISCELLANY (1577) we read of a dear- 
worth dame. 

debacchate. To rage like a bacchanal; to 
revile like a drunkard. Prynne, in HISTRIO- 
MASTIX (1653) speaks of folk that defile 
their holiday with . . . most wicked de- 
bacchations and sacrilegious execrations. 

debellate. To vanquish, to put down by 
war. Latin debellare, to subdue, de- down 
-f bellare, to fight; bellum, war. Also 
debel, debell. Hence debellation, van- 
quishing; debellator, debellative, tending 
to overcome. Note however that debellish 
(also used in the 17th and 18th centuries) 
meant to dis-ernbellish, to rob of beauty. 
How soon are the winners of beauty con- 
tests debellished belles! It is the inner 
beauty that lengthily holds the eye. 

debeUish. See debellate. 



debile 



decaudate 



debile. Weak, feeble. Latin de, from 
(the opposite of) + habilis, able; habere, 
to have, to be able. Hence also 17th cen- 
tury debilitude, replaced by debility, debi- 
litated', to debilite (15th and 16th cen- 
turies) to weaken, to debilitate. Shake- 
speare uses debile in ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS 
WELL and in CORIOLANUS (1607) : For that 
I have not washed my nose that bled, or 
foyl'd some debile wretch . . . You shout 
me -forth In acclamations hyperbolical. 
As if I loved my little should be dieted In 
praises sauced with lies. 

deblateration. Blabbling overmuch, prat- 
ing. See quisquilious. Latin deblaterare, 
deblateratum, to blab out; blaterare, to 
prate, from the root bal-, bar- f to bleat, 
stammer. Stevenson in THE BRITISH WEEKLY 
of 27 April, 1893, wrote from the South 
Seas: Those who deblaterate against mis- 
sions have only one thing to do, to come 
and see them on the spot 

deboshed. An early form of debauched. 
Shakespeare, in KING LEAR (1605) speaks 
of Men so disordered, so debosh'd, and 
bold. Revived by Scott, in WOODSTOCK 
(1826): Swashbucklers, deboshed revelers, 
bloody brawlers. Used by Lowell and 
others, with a less specific and milder 
sense than debauched. 

decachinnate. To scorn. Late Latin de, 
down + cachinnare, cachinnatum, to 
laugh, whence also cachinnation. In 17th 
century dictionaries. 

decadist. Amid the various forms of 
decay, decadence, decadescence (the in- 
itial stages) , it is interesting to note the 
appearance of the decadist, a poet (such 
as Livy) that writes in decades, that is, 
sections subdivided into ten parts. The 
'perfect number* of the Pythagoreans, 10, 
was called the decad (Latin decem, ten) . 



We usually think of a decade as a period 
of ten years, but the French Republican 
calendar of 1793 substituted for the seven- 
day week a decade of ten days the last 
day of which, Decadi, replaced Sunday as 
a day of rest and decadary means relat- 
ing to such a ten-day period; decadic, re- 
lated to counting by tens, as in the metric 
system. 

decant. To sing (or say) over and over. 
Also decantate. Coryat in his CRUDITIES 
(1611) mentions the very Elysian Fields, 
so much decantated and celebrated by the 
verses of poets. From Latin de, off 4- 
cantare, to sing. The still current use of 
decant, to pour out (as into a decanter, 
from which wine is decanted into the 
glasses) is from the Latin of the alchemists, 
decanthare; de, off + canthus, the 'lip' 
of a jar, by transfer from Greek canthos, 
corner of the eye. The word was especially 
applied to pouring off the clear liquid, 
leaving the sediment or lees. Holmes used 
this sense figuratively in THE POET AT THE 
BREAKFAST-TABLE (1872) considering it un- 
fortunate if you are not decanted off from 
yourself every few days or weeks. 

decarnation. Stripping of the flesh; de- 
liverance from carnality. Latin de, off + 
camera, flesh. Thus Walter Montague in 
DEVOUT ESSAYS (1648) said: God's incarna- 
tion enableth man for his decarnation, as 
I may say, and devesture of carnality, 
Hence decarnate, unfleshed, not in the 
flesh; THE READER of 16 December, 1865, 
remarked: Logic Comte never liked, but 
it became to him at last a sort of devil 
decarnate. 

decaudate. To untail, remove the tail. 
Latin de, off + cauda, tail. NOTES AND 
QUERIES in 1864 observed that The P was 
originally an R which has had the mis- 
fortune to be decaudated. 



203 



decollation 



deemster 



decollation. A beheading. Latin de, from cate his nature, station, and course of life. 



4- collum, neck. Burke in his ESSAY ON 

THE SUBLIME AND THE BEAUTIFUL (1756) 

remarks that a fine piece of a decollated 
head of St. John the Baptist was shewn 
to a Turkish emperor. The word was also 
used figuratively, as when Sir Thomas 
Browne (1646) said: He by a decollation 
of all hope annihilated his mercy. The 
verb decollate, in the 17th century, was 
used in the short form decolL Although 
the French invented the guillotine ex- 
pressly for decollation, the French form. 
decollete 'e means merely cut low around 
the neck, or wearing a dress low-cut. 

Note also that decollation and collation 
are not opposites. Indeed, they are not 
related. Collation is from Latin collatum, 
past participle of conferre, to bring to- 
gether as in a conference. About 410 
John Cassian wrote COLLATIONES PATRUM. 
. . , which in 540 St. Benedict ordered to 
be read in his monasteries before the last 
service of the day (Compline) ; the word 
collation was applied to the reading, and 
then to the light repast that followed it; 
hence, any light repast. A collatitious 
work is one produced by conference, by 
working together as the organs of the 
digestive tract, stomach, intestines, bowels, 
are called the collatitious organs. They 
were often subjected to exenteration (q.v.) 
after their owner's decollation. 

decorragative. Tending to remove 
wrinkles, as (many women hope) oint- 
ments or (more probably) peace of mind. 

decorticate. To remove the bark, rind, 
or husk; hence, to strip off what conceals, 
to expose; to flay (figuratively) . Latin de, 
from; cortex, corticem, bark. Hence de- 
cortication. Waterhouse in ARMS AND 
ARMOUR (1660) wrote: Arms ought to 
have analogic and proportion to the 
bearer, and in a great measure to decorti- 



THE LONDON REVIEW of 16 AugUSt, 1862, 

said: It is impossible to decorticate people, 
as the writer now and then does, without 
inflicting pain. 

decrepitation. The roasting (of a salt 
or mineral) until it no longer crackles 
with the heat. Latin de, away H- crepitare, 
to crackle, frequentative of crepare, to 
crack. Also decreptitate, the verb. From 
this literal sense have come the applica- 
tions to mankind in decrepitude (16th 
and 17th century, decrepity, 17th century, 
decrepitness; 18th century, decrepidity) ; 
decrepit, limp, with all the 'crackling' 
vitality burned away. 

decussated. Intersected, formed by cross- 
ing lines, like an X. There is a rare verb, 
to decuss, to divide crosswise; to cross out, 
from Latin decussis (X) , probably from 
decem, ten and as, a Roman coin. The 
English word is known mainly from John- 
son's ponderously humorous definition 
(1755) of network: anything reticulated or 
decussated, at equal distances, with in- 
terstices between the intersections. John- 
son's definition may well be decussed. 

dedalian. Another form of daedal, q.v. 
deem. See deemster. 

deemster. A judge. Deem originally 
meant opinion, judgment, as in Shake- 
speare's TROILUS AND CRESSIDA (1606) where 
Cressida cries: / truef how nowf what 
wicked deeme is this? The verb deem also 
first meant to pronounce judgment; it is 
closely related to doom. A less frequent 
form of deemster, though phonetically 
more regular, is dempster, which also 
meant judge, but in Scotland until the 
1 9th century was used for the officer of the 
court who (after the judge's decision) 
pronounced sentence, or doom, upon the 



204 



deer 



deferve 



prisoner. In current use, deemster refers 
specifically to one of the two Manx judges, 
one presiding over the northern, one over 
the southern, division of the Isle of Man. 

deer. A beast. The original sense of this 
common Teuton word was an animal, a 
quadruped, as distinct from birds and 
fishes. This meaning survived into the 
16th century, although the restricted 
meaning was also in use by 1100. The 
word is probably from the root dhus, to 
breathe; as animal is from anima, breath. 
Shakespeare used deer in the general sense 
in KING LEAR (1605) , when he said, of 
Tom the cat (echoing the early 14th cen- 
tury poem SIR BEVES) : But mice, and rats, 
and such small deare Have been Tom's 
"food for seven long yeare. 

defatigation. See couth. 

defeature. (I) Undoing, defeat (16th 
and 17th centuries). (2) Frustration. Old 
French desfaiture; desfaire, to undo; Latin 
de, from + factura, making, doing; facere, 
factum, to make, do; whence factotum, 
manufacture, factitious; that's a fact. (3) 
Disfigurement, defacement. In this sense, 
mainly copied from Shakespeare, who 
thus used the word in VENUS AND ADONIS 
and in THE COMEDY OF ERRORS (1590) : 
Care-full houres with times deformed 
hand Have written strange defeatures on 
my face. 

defecate. To clear of dregs and impuri- 
ties; to purify; to refine; to purge. Latin 
defaecare, defaecatum; de, from + faeces, 
dregs, excrement. Laneham in a letter of 
1575, said: I am of woont jolly and dry a 
mornings; I drink me up a good bol of 
ale, when in a sweet pot it iz defecated by 
al nights standing the drink iz the better, 
take that of me, and a morsel in a morn- 
ing with a sound draught iz very holsome 
and good for the ey sight. It is also used 



figuratively, as by Burton in THE ANATOMY 
OF MELANCHOLY (1621) declaring that 
Luther began upon a sudden to defecate, 
and as another sun to drive away those 
foggy mists of superstition. 

defenestration. The act of throwing out 
of a window. Latin de, from 4- fenestra, 
an opening for light. The word has a 
place in history, because the defenestra- 
tion of Prague 21 May, 1618; the hurling 
of Imperial commissioners out the win- 
dow by insurgent Bohemians was im- 
mediate cause of the Thirty Years' War. 
It plays a part also in theatrical lore. A 
group in an upper room of an 18th cen- 
tury tavern were arguing the value of 
silence onstage. Garrick took no part in 
the discussion, but began to walk to and 
fro, cradling in his arms an imaginary 
infant. After a minute or two, he walked 
toward the window, then the others leapt 
to their feet in an impulse to rush: Gar- 
rick had defenestrated the child. 

defensum. An enclosure; fenced ground. 
Indeed, fence is a shortened form of de- 
fence; fencible, capable of making de- 
fence, hence liable for military service; 
also, capable of being defended, strong. 
Spenser in THE FAERIE QUEENE (1590) de- 
clares: No fort so fensible . . . but that 
continuall battery will rive. Defensum is 
in Bailey (1751) ; not in O.E.D. (1933) . It 
helps us, however, to grind teeth at the 
perhaps unintended paronomasia in Rob- 
ert Frost's MENDING WALL (1914) : Before 
I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was 
walling in or walling out, And to whom 
I was like to give offence. (There is, of 
course, no offence intended.) 

deferve. To boil down. Latin de + fer- 
vere, to boil, whence also fervent Deferve 
was used in the 15th century. Later (from 
the 18th century) but more common was 



205 



deflorate 



delator 



defervescence, cooling down; Latin de + 
feruescere, to begin to boil; English de- 
fervesce, to begin to cool; also de ferves- 
cent . These terms were used both of 
liquids and of human emotions; the con- 
trary progression effervescence has sur- 
vived. Less remembered are effervescible; 
and effervency, the condition of being 
overheated, of issuing forth in a heated 
state, as occasionally the water in an auto- 
^mobile. 

deflorate. An early form of deflower. 
Used in the 15th century of a woman; in 
the 19th, of a plant. Hence defloration. 
Note that deflorator has also been used 
(17th century) of one that culls the 
choicest parts of a book -or author. 

defunctive. Pertaining to dying. Defunct 
has been preserved, as a euphemistic ref- 
erence to the dead, but the adjective has 
lapsed. Shakespeare uses both: defunct in 
HENRY v and CYMBELINE; in THE PHOENIX 
AND THE TURTLE (1601) : Let the priest in 
surplice white That defunctive music can, 
Be the death-divining swan. 

deipnosophlst. A master of the art of 
dining, like my fellow-member of les amis 
d'Escoffier, Moritz. Accent on the nos; 
Greek deipnos, dinner + sophistes, a wise 
man, a master. There are also a few words 
coined for special use: deipno diplomat, 
one that forwards affairs of state at din- 
ners; deipnophobia, dread of dinner-par- 
ties. Deipnosophistai was the title of a 
widely read work, about 230 A.D., by the 
Greek Athenaeus, picturing the wide-rang- 
ing discussions of a group of men dining 
together. Hence also deipnosophistic; de- 
ipnosophism. BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH 
MAGAZINE in 1836 exclaimed: Let me . . . 
luxuriate in the , . . paradisiacal depart- 
ment of deipnosophism. 



deitate. Made into a god, deified, as the 
Pharaohs and the Caesars. Used in the 
16th century. Latin deltas, from deus, del, 
god. Three syllables, accent on the dee. 

deivirile. See theandric. 

delator. An informer. The verb delate 
is from a Latin frequentative form of the 
verb that gives us English defer; Latin 
delatare from deferre, delatum, to carry 
down or away. Both verbs in English 
meant the same as in Latin; delate took 
on the meanings deliver, report, accuse. 
Hence delatory, pertaining to accusing or 
informing (of criminal activity) . Gibbon 

in THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN 

EMPIRE (1776) refers to a formidable 
army of sycophants and delators. Delator 
and delatory are also early forms of di- 
lator, a delaying, and dilatory, tending to 
cause delay; slow, tardy as in Shake- 
speare's OTHELLO (1604) : Wit depends on 
dilatory time and Addison's SPECTATOR 
reference (17 11, No. 89) to women of di- 
latory tempers, who are for spinning out 
the time of courtship. These two forms 
are from diferre, dilatum, to carry or hold 
back or apart; hence, to delay. There is 
still another word dilator (accented on the 
second syllable; the other is accented on 
the first) , early dilater, from the verb to 
dilate, to stretch, to spread wide; this is 
from Latin dilatare, from dis-, apart -f- 
latus, wide. The verb dilate, to delay, has 
not been used since the 17th century. 
Men who delate (inform) we still have 
with us. To confound confusion, there 
are also the forms deletory and deletori- 
ous, relating to the act of deleting or rub- 
bing out; Jeremy Taylor in his A DIS- 
SUASIVE FROM POPERY, addressed (1647) 
to the people of Ireland, says that con- 
fession was most certainly intended as 
a deletory of sin, and gout, we are told, is 
a perfect deletory of folly. The form de- 



206 



deleniate 

letorious, blotting out (from Latin delere, 
deletum, to efface) was confused (even in 
the Latin) with deleterious, harmful, from 
Greek deleterios, noxious; deleter, de- 
stroyer. Thus the word deletery was used 
in the 16th and 17th century to mean a 
noxious drug, a poison, but also in the 
17th century to mean an antidote, that 
wipes out poison. In the latter sense it 
was often used figuratively: deleteries of 
the sin; Episcopacy, said Jeremy Taylor 
(1642) 2^ the best deletery in the world for 
schism. One can perhaps, now, sympathize 
with Byron's lament in DON JUAN (1821) : 
'Tis pity wine should be so deleterious, 
For tea and coffee leave us much more 
serious. 

deleniate. To soothe. From Latin de~ 
lenire; de, down; lenis, soft, mild, sooth- 
ing. Sometimes spelled delineate, in ortho- 
graphical confusion with delineate, to 
draw, to trace in outline, from Latin de + 
linea, line. The 17th and 18th century 
dictionaries also give the form deleniftcal 
(accented on the third syllable), soothing, 
pacifying. A 'modern' mother does not 
tender the delenifical nipple. 

deleterious. See delator. 
deletory. See delator. 

delf. That which is delved (dug) : a 
hole, a pit, a quarry, a mine, a grave. 
Used from the 13th through the 18th cen- 
tury. The plural is delfs, delphs t or delves. 
Spenser in THE FAERIE QUEENE (1590) 
speaks of Mammon in a delve; Shelley in 
the HYMN TO MERCURY (1820) also uses 
this form. The verb to delve is from a 
common Teutonic form. The glazed earth- 
enware originally made at Delft in Hol- 
land may be called delft or delf, as Swift 
in his poems (to Stella) of 1723: A supper 
worthy of herself, Five nothings in five 
plates of delf. The original name of the 



deligible 

town in Holland was Delf, from the delf, 
the ditch or canal, that runs through it. 

Delian. (1) Relating to Delos, an island 
of Greece, birthplace of the divine Apollo 
and Artemis. Hence, from their realms, 
the Delian twins, the sun and moon (17th 
century) . (2) Relating to the oracle at 
Delos. From the oracle's statement that 
a plague in Athens would end when 
Apollo's altar, which was of cubical shape, 
was doubled, the Delian problem, the 
doubling of the cube, the finding the 
square root of two. (3) Nashe in LENTEN 
STUFFE (1599) speaks of Hero as Leander's 
mistress or Delia. 

delibate. To taste, sip; take a little of; 
cull; pluck. Fuller in a sermon of 1655 
spoke of a soul unacquainted with virgin, 
delibated, and clarified joy. Latin de, 
from H- libare, libatum, to take as a 
sample, to taste, sip; pour whence also 
libation. Also delibation, a taste; a slight 
knowledge; a portion culled or extracted. 
Mede in his Biblical commentary on ACTS 
(WORKS; 1638) said: Nor can it be under- 
stood without some delibation of Jewish 
Antiquity. 

deliber. An old and simpler form of 
deliberate. Also delibere, delybre (15th 
and 1 6th centuries), deliver. Latin de- 
lib erare; de, from + librare, libratum, to 
poise, balance; libra, balance, pair of 
scales. Deliber was also used in the sense 
of to decide, to resolve, as when Caxton 
in POLYCRONICON (1482) said: / have 
delybered too wryte twoo bookes notable. 

deligible. Worthy of being chosen. From 
Latin deligere, to choose; de-, down -f 
legere, to propose, to name; lex, legis, a 
motion, a proposal of a bill later, by ex- 
tension, a bill that has passed, a law 
whence legal, legislate, and further com- 



207 



delignate 

plications. If only all that were eligible 
were deligible! 

delignate. To remove the wood. Latin 
de, from; lignum, wood. Fuller, in THE 

CHURCH-HISTORY OF BRITAIN (1655) gives 

the only recorded instance of its use; 
Dilapidating (or rather delignating) his 
bishoprick. 

delineate. See deleniate. 

deliquium. A failure of the vital powers, 
a swoon; a failure of light; a melting 
away. Two Latin words fused in this 
form, and are tangled in other English 
words. Latin delinquere; de, down 4- 
linquere, liqui, lictum, to leave, forsake; 
and deliquescere, deliqui, to begin to 
melt, to pine away, de -f liqui, to be fluid; 
liquare, liquatum, to make fluid, to 
liquefy. Delinquere came to mean to 
lapse, hence to commit a fault, whence 
English delinquency and delinquents; de- 
lict, an offence, and the legal (Latin) 
phrase in flagrante delictu, in the very act 
of committing the crime; also (as in 
Scott's IVANHOE, 1820), in the flagrant 
delict. Other English words from these 
forms include deliquesce, deliquiate, de- 
liquate, to dissolve, melt; delique, a failure 
(deliquium); deliquity, guilt. Sydney Smith 
in a letter to Singleton in 1837 uses de- 
liquescent humorously, as dissolving in 
perspiration: Striding over the stiles to 
church, with a second-rate wife dusty and 
deliquescent and four parochial children, 
full of catechism and bread and butter. 
Burton in THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY 
(1621) speaks of a man who carries bisket, 
aquavitae, or some strong waters about 
him, for fear of deliquiums. Carlyle in 
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1837) said: The 
assembly melts, under such pressure, into 
deliquium; or, as it is officially called, ad- 
journs. WMtlock in ZOOTOMIA (1654) de- 



deme 

clared: Death is a preparing deliquium, 
or melting us down into a menstruum, fit 
for the chymistry of the resurrection to 
work on. 

delirous. A 17th century form of deliri- 
ous. Also deliry, delirium. 

delitability. Delightfulness. Also delite, 
delitable, delightful. Old French delitier, 
to delight; Latin (de, from 4- legere, lee- 
turn, gather, bring together) deligere, de- 
lectum, to choose, select; hence delectum, 
chosen, therefore delectable and (via 
French) delightful. All three English 
forms are from the same Latin word. 

delitescent. Concealed, latent. Latin de, 
away 4- latescere, inceptive of later e, to 
lie hid, whence latent. Used from the 17th 
century; also delitescence, delitescency. 
The Preface to an 1805 reprint of Brath- 
wait's DRUNKEN BARNABY speaks of repub- 
lishing this facetious little book after a 
delitescency of near a hundred years. Sir 
William Hamilton in his LECTURES ON 
METHAPHYSICS (1837) declared: The im- 
mense proportion of our intellectual pos- 
sessions consists of our delitescent cogni- 
tions. Praise be! 

deme. (1) A judge, a ruler. An old Teu- 
tonic form, related to dom, doom. Used 
from the 8th to the mid-13th century. (2) 
A township of ancient Attica. Greek 
demos, township; hence, the people 
whence the trials and virtues of democ- 
racy. The academe or academy, the athletic 
field and grove near Athens where Plato 
taught, took its name from the Athenian 
legendary hero Academus (Akademion; 
aka, gently; demion, oi the people.) Shake* 
speare in LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST (1588) says: 
Our court shall be a little achademe. 
Lowell in a poem of 1870 speaks of That 
best academe, a mother's knee. Academe 
is reserved for Plato's school, or grove of 



208 



demean 

learning, leaving academy for the modern 
institution. 

demean. Behavior; treatment (of others). 
Spenser in THE FAERIE QUEENE (1596) has: 
All the vile demeane and usage bad, With 
which he had those two so ill bestad. Cp. 
bestad. The early form of demeanor. Also 
a verb, to behave; manage; employ; deal 
with. The sense of demean, to lower, de- 
veloped about the 18th century, probably 
by analogy with debase, the earlier and 
natural English form for this sense is 
bemean, which was superseded by demean. 

demesne. Possession; then, an estate pos- 
sessed. By extension, land subject to a 
lord, domain which is another form of 
the same word. Spelled in many ways, 
demean, demeigne, etc., via French from 
Latin dominicus, of the lord, dominus, 
lord, demesne is pronounced demean. The 
word has been in common use since the 
13th century, but for the past 150 years 
has been mainly limited to historical or 
poetic uses, as in Keats' sonnet-reference 
(1816) to the wide expanse That deep- 
brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne. 
Shakespeare used the word smilingly in 
ROMEO AND JULIET (1595) : I conjure thee 
by Rosaline's bright eye . . . By her fine 
foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh And 
the demesnes that there adjacent lie. 

demiceint. A belt of gold or silver in 
front, silk or other material behind; a 
girdle with ornamental work only in front, 
Latin demi, half; Old French ceint, Latin 
cinctum, girdle; cingere, cinctum, to bind; 
cp. ceint. Also dymysen, dymison, demi- 
cent. Many 15th and 16th century records 
refer to such items as a dymysen with a 
red crosse harnossid with silver wrought 
with golds; my dymyson gyrdylle and my 
coralle beydes. The word faded, but the 
fashion survives. 



dentiscalp 
demonifuge. See demonocracy. 

deinonocracy. Government by demons. 
Greek daimon, a ministering spirit; kratos, 
rule. The daemon of Sophocles was by 
him called a daimonion, a divine prin- 
ciple. The Jews added the sense of evil 
to the idea demon; this was followed (of 
Socrates and in general use) by the Chris- 
tion Fathers, whence the current sense. 
There is also the form demonarchy, rule 
by a demon (Greek arche, rule) , which 
seems a better word to employ than 
demonocracy, lest one elide a syllable. One 
may, if necessary, have recourse to a 
demonifuge, diabolifuge, a charm against 
evil spirits. 

demonomancy. See aeromancy. 
dempster. See deemster. 
den. See dene. 

dene. A bare sandy tract by the sea. 
Bailey's DICTIONARY (1751) calls dene 'a 
small valley/ and dena 'a hollow place be- 
tween two hills' but (spelled den, dene, 
or deane] the word seems in most uses 
closer to the still current dune. It was 
used in the 13th and 14th centuries in 
the phrase den and strand: den, the privi- 
lege of fishermen to spread and mend or 
dry their nets on the denes at Great 
Yarmouth; strande, their privilege to de- 
liver their herrings freely at the Great 
Yarmouth port. Dene is also used (1) as 
a separate form by dene, of the adverb 
bedene, together; (2) to mean ten (Latin 
dent) ; (3) as a variant spelling of den, 
din, or dean. 

dentiscalp. A toothpick. Latin dens, 
dentem, tooth (whence the dentist and 
more) 4~ scalpere, to scratch; scalprum, a 
knife, a chisel; scalpellum, a little knife, 
whence the surgeon's scalpel. The scalp 
we used to associate with the Indians is 



209 



decollate 

a form of scallop, a shell-shaped vessel; 
hence, top of the head. Dentiscalps, com- 
ments W. King in 1708, vulgarly called 
toothpicks. 

decollate. To deprive of eyes, or of sight. 
Lamb uses this word its only recorded 
use in a letter of 1816 to Wordsworth: 
Dorothy, I hear, has mounted spectacles; 
so you have deoculated two of your dearest 
relations in life. 

deodand. (Latin dec dandum, that 
which is to be given to God) . A gift to 
expiate the divine wrath; in old English 
law, a chattel that, having caused the 
death of a person, was forfeit to the 
Crown, to be applied to pious uses. Some- 
times the money value was given instead, 
as when a jury of 1838 laid a deodand of 
1500 upon the boiler or steam engine of 
the Victoria. The deodand, granted since 
the 13th century, was abolished in 1846. 

deonerate. Unload, relieve of a burden. 
Latin de-, down -f onerare, to load; onus, 
oneris, a burden; whence also onerous. 
Used mainly in the 17th century, of both 
literal and figurative burdens. 

deosculate. To kiss eagerly. Latin de- f 
(in the sense of 'down to the bottom/ 
completely) 4- oscular e, osculat-, to kiss, 
whence osculation; os, mouth. The verb 
(defined by Cockeram, 1623, as 'to kiss 
sweetly') is confined to the dictionaries; 
the practice is less restrained. The noun 
deosculation, though also rare, was used 
in the 17th and 18th centuries. See bass. 

depaint. See depeint. 

depascent. Eating greedily; consuming. 
Latin de, down + pascere, pastum, to 
feed, whence pasture, pastor. Hence de- 
pasture, to consume by grazing, eat out of 
pasturage, used (1596) by Spenser and 
(1858) by Carlyle. Stubbes in his ANATOMY 



dequace 

OF ABUSE (1583) wrote of The wicked 
lives of their pastors (or rather depastors), 
In the 19th century, depascent was used 
as a medical term, meaning eating away; 
from the 17th, depastion, consumption 
a wasting depastion and decay of nature. 

depeach. To send away quickly; to get 
rid of. So O.E.D. Bailey, however, in 1751 
defined depeach as to acquit, thus linking 
it by contrast with impeach. Both (with 
opposed prefixes: de-, down, off; im, in, 
on) are via French from Latin pedica, 
snare; ped-, foot. From the same source, 
with the prefix ex- comes English expedite. 
Depeach was used in the 15th, 16th and 
17th centuries. 

depeculate. To embezzle; used of public 
officials preying upon public funds. Hence, 
depeculation. 

depeditate. To deprive of feet, or the 
use thereof. Hence, depeditation, the cut- 
ting off of a foot or feet. Johnson is re- 
ported, in the TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES 
(1773), to have punned on the depedita- 
tion of Foote. (Samuel Foote, player and 
playwright, 1720-1777, who had a leg 
amputated in 1766; he was called the 
English Aristophanes. Johnson was not 
on punning terms with Richard Head 
who in any event was not decapitated.) 

depeint. A variant of depaint, to set 
forth or represent, to portray. Also de- 
peinct, depinct, depict the last of which 
has survived. A verb, to depeint, but more 
frequent (13th to 16th century) as the 
past participle; LAUNCELOT (1500) : with 
wordis fair depaynt Spenser in THE SHEP- 
HERD'S CALENDAR (1579; APRIL) has; The 
redde rose medled with the white yfere, 
In either cheeke depeincten lively chere. 

dequace. To crush. Also dequass. Better 
known in the simple form quash. From 
Latin de-, down + quassare, frequentative 



210 



deraigne 

of quatere, quass-, to shake; hence, to 
break. The compound form is rare; it 
appears in THE TESTAMENT OF LOVE (1400): 
Thus with sleight shalt thou surmount 
and dequace the evil in their hearts. 

deraigne. To vindicate; especially, to 
vindicate or maintain a claim by single 
combat; hence, to settle by single combat; 
to deraign battle, to wage single combat 
to decide a claim, to engage in battle; 
more generally, to line up for battle (so 
Spenser; so Shakespeare in HENRY vi, PART 
THREE, 1953: Darraigne your battell, for 
they are at hand) ; hence, to line up, to 
array, to order, to arrange. Also dereyne, 
dereine, darraign, derene, and more; Old 
French deraisnier, to render a reason, de- 
fend; Latin de, from 4- rationem, reckon- 
ing. But also deraigne, to put into dis- 
order, disarrange (16th to 18th century) ; 
Old French desregner, to put out of rank; 
replaced by derange. The second deraigne 
also was used of those discharged from re- 
ligious orders; hence deraignment (16th 
and 17th centuries) , discharge from a re- 
ligious order. 

dern. Dark, sombre, solitary; hence, 
secret; hence sly, deceitful, evil. Chaucer 
in THE MILLER'S TALE (1386) has: Ye must 
been ful deerne as in this case. The word 
appears from BEOWULF (10th century) to 
Scott who in WAVERLEY (1814) speaks of 
the dern path. Dern is also used as a 
noun, in the senses: a secret; secrecy; a 
place of concealment; darkness. The word 
was common in Old Teutonic; there is 
also a verb dern, to hide, to keep secret 
Other early forms are derned, darned, hid- 
den; dernful, dreary; dernly, secretly; 
dernhede (1300) and dernship (darn- 
stipe, in the ANCREN RIWLE, 1225), secrecy. 

derring-do. Desperate courage. So Sir 
Walter Scott, in a note to Ivanhoe (1818) , 



dess 

on the passage: Singular . . . if there be 
two who can do a deed of such derring-do. 
Also dorryng do, derring doe; Spenser in 

THE FAERIE QUEENE (1596) Speaks Of 

dreadful derring doers. The form was orig- 
inally daring to do, in Chaucer's TROYLUS 
AND CRISEYDE (1374) : Troylus was never e 
unto no wight . . . in no degre secounde 
In dorynge to do that longeth [that which 
belongeth, is proper] to a knyght. Other 
manuscripts had duryng do and dorryng 
don. Lydgate in his TROY-BOOK (1420) said 
that Troilus was the equal of any in 
dorryng do, this noble worthy wyght. 
The 16th century editions printed this 
derrynge do. Then Spenser in THE SHEP- 
HERD'S CALENDAR (1579; OCTOBER) Spoke 

of those who in derring doe were dreade, 
explained derring doe in the gloss as 
'manhood and chevalrie' and the new 
word was launched. Spenser used it again 
in the DECEMBER eclogue and twice in 

THE FAERIE QUEENE, then Scott, Bulwer- 

Lytton, Burton in his translation (1885) of 
THE ARABIAN NIGHTS and other historical 
novelists gave currency to the goodly 
knight of derring-do. 

desipience. Folly; idle trifling. THE SPEC- 
TATOR of 17 September, 1887, spoke of 
the maturity of sweet desipience. Also 
desipiency. Latin de, from + sapere, to 
taste, to have taste, to be wise. Hence 
sapid; insipid, tasteless, sapience, wisdom. 
Thus desipient; used since the 17th cen- 
tury; Stevenson in THE TIMES (2 June, 
1894) : in his character of disinterested 
spectator, gracefully desipient. 

dess. A table; early variant of dais. 
Spenser in THE FAERIE QUEENE (1596) pic- 
tures Shamefastnesse, who ne ever once 
did look up from her desse. Hence the 
verb desse, to pile in layers, used by 
farmers (17th-19th centuries) of stacking 



211 



desuete 

straw or hay. Hence dessably, well ar- 
ranged. 

desuete. Out of use, like desuete itself, 
though revived by Max Beerbohm, from 
18th century dictionaries and innocuous 
desuetude, 

deuterogamy. Second marriage. Greek 
deutero-, second + gamos, marriage. Gold- 
smith, in THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD (1766) 

uses both deuterogamy and deutero gamist. 
THE ECHO of 7 September, 1869, expressed 
the English law: We do not allow deuter- 
ogamy until the primal spouse is disposed 
of by death or divorce. 

devirginate. To deflower. Also an adjec- 
tive, ravished. Hence devirgination; de~ 
virginator. Also divirginate. Used from 
the 15th century. Chapman in MUSAEUS 
(1600) said: Fair Hero, left devirginate, 
Weighs, and with fury wails her state. R. 
Ellis in his COMMENTARY ON CATULLUS 
(1889) speaks of Night the devirginator. 
Stubbes in THE ANATOMIE OF ABUSES (1583) 
rails at the theatre: Whereas you say there 
are good examples to be learned in them y 
truely so there are* if you will learn fals- 
hood, if you will learn cosonage, if you 
will learn to deceive, if you will learne to 
playe the hypocrit, to cog, to lie and 
falsify, if you will learne to jest, laugh, 
and fleare, to grinne, to nodde and mowe; 
if you will learne to play the Vice, to 
sweare, teare, and blaspheme both heaven 
and earth, if you will learne to become a 
baud, uncleane, and to divirginate maides, 
to defloure honest wives; if you will learne 
to murther, flay, kill, picke, steal e, rob, 
and rove; if you will learne to rebell 
against princes, to commit treason, to con- 
sume treasures, to practise idlenesse, to 
sing and talk of bawdie love and venerie; 
if you will learne to deride, scoff e, mo eke, 
and floute, to flatter and smooth, if you 



dey 

will learne to play the whoremaister, the 
glutton, drunkard, or incestuous person; 
if you will learne to become proud, hautie, 
and arrogant, and finally, if you will 
learne to contemne God and all his lawes, 
to care neither -for heaven nor hell, and 
to commit all kind of sinne and mischief e, 
you need to goe to no other schoole, for 
all these good examples you may see 
painted before your eyes in enterludes and 
plaies. This is such a detailed indictment 
as in our day Dr. Fredric Wertham (with 
illustrations to boot) levels against crime 
"comic" books for children. 

dewitt. To lynch. As lynch law comes 
from a practitioner (or place of practice) , 
so to dewitt comes from a victim. Two 
victims: the brothers John and Cornelius 
De Witt, Dutch opponents of William III, 
Stadtholder of the United Provinces, were 
murdered by a mob in 1672. Their name 
was used, in connection with mob vio- 
lence, into the 19th century, as by Mac- 
aulay in his HISTORY OF ENGLAND (1855) . 

dewtry. A potion prepared from the 
thorn-apple, employed to produce stupe- 
faction. Also deutery, doutry, dutra, deu- 
troa, dutry; varied from datura; Sanskrit 
dhattura, the name of the plant (Datura 
Stramonium) . Its powers were thought 
similar to those of the nightshade. Butler 
in HUDIBRAS (1678) wrote: Make lechers 
and their punks, with dewtry, commit 
phantastical advowtry. Fryer (1698) pic- 
tures the Indian practice of widow-burn- 
ing (suttee): They give her dutry; when 
half mad she throws herself into the fire, 
and they ready with great logs keep her 
in his funeral pile. On the other hand, 
said Ken in HYMNOTHEO (1700) : Indian 
dames, their consorts to abuse, Dewtry by 
stealth into their cups infuse. 

dey. A dairy-woman; a maid servant 
Used from early times, Old English daege, 



212 



deyite 

maid; dag, dough. From the 14th to the 
18th century, a man in charge of a dairy 
milking, tending cows might also be 
called a dey (deie, dai, dale) . A deyhouse 
was a dairy. 

deyite. An old form of deity. 
deyntie. An old form of dainty, q.v. 

deywife. A dairy woman, dairymaid. 
Cheese, said Trevisa in his translation 
(1398) of Bartholomew' DE PROPRIETATI- 
BUS RERUM, slydeth out bytwene the 
fyngres of the deyewife. Also deywoman. 
Scott (1828, THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH) re- 
newed the use of this form, after Shake- 
speare's LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST (1588) : For 
this damsell I must keepe her at the parke, 
shee is alowd for the day-woman. 

dia. Used now as a pharmaceutical com- 
pound, to mean consisting (mainly) of; as 
a noun, a compound. Also dya; cp. di- 
amerdes. In the 14th, 15th, and 16th cen- 
turies, dia was used as a separate word, 
e.g., goats' milk dia. Lydgate in a poem 
of 1430 said: Drugge nor dya was none 
in Bury towne. 

diablogue. See endiablee. 

diabolifuge. See demonocracy; endiablee. 

diamerdes. Consisting of dung. Also di- 
amerdis. Cp. dia. For an illustration of 
its use, see sinapize. Greek dia was used 
often (as a separate word; combined as 
a prefix in Latin) for medicaments, condi- 
ments, etc., meaning made up of, con- 
sisting of. Some of these have been used 
in English, among them diabotanum, a 
plaster of herbs; diacaryon, a preparation 
of walnuts; diacopraegia, of goat's dung; 
diacrommyon, of onions; diacydonium, of 
quinces marmalade; diapapaver, of pop- 
pies; diatrionpipereon, of three kinds of 
peppers; diazingiber, diazinztber, of gin- 
ger. 



dicacity 

Diana. The goddess of the moon, patron- 
ess of virginity and of hunting. Latin 
Diana, corresponding to Greek Artemis; 
French Diane, whence also English Diane, 
Dian. Used in various ways. As an ad- 
jective, unsullied: snow of Dian purity. 
With reference to Diana of the Ephesians 
(BIBLE; ACTS 19) ; by making silver shrines 
for her Demetrius made "no small gain": 
a source of wealth; (1681) our woolen 
manufactures which is our Diana. In al- 
chemy (from the color of the moon), 
silver: Sol, gold; Mercury, quicksilver; 
Venus, copper; Mars, iron; Jupiter, tin; 
Saturn, lead. Dian's bud, the wormwort 
(q.v.) was used as an antaphrodisiac, or 
a cure for love-blindness, to keep maids 
virgin. A good blossom for a girl to wear 
on her first date. 

diascord. A medicine made of dried 
leaves of the plant Teucrium Scordium, 
with other herbs. Used from the 16th 
century. Also diascordium; see alkermes. 
Greek dia, made up of + scordian, the 
plant water-germander. Scott in THE AB- 
BOT wrote: With their sirups, and their 
julaps, and diascordium, and mithridate, 
and My Lady What-sha-call'um's powder. 
Sovereign remedies, all. 

diasper. An early form of jasper. Also 
diasprie. Not of marble, said RJX in 
HYPNEROTOMACHIA (1592) , but of rare and 
hard diasper of the East. 

dicacity. Jesting speech, banter, raillery. 
From Latin dicacem, sarcastic; dicere, to 
speak. The form dicacious, defined by 
Wright (1869) as talkative, is defined in 
the O.E.D. as pert of speech, saucy. Rarely 
dicacity was used to mean talkativeness, 
or mere babbling, as the dicacity of a par- 
rot. Heywood in PLEASANT DIALOGUES 
(1637) says His quick dicacitie Would 
evermore be taunting my voracity. It 



dicephalous 

would be pleasant if those given to dica- 
city had equal capacity for sagacity and 
veracity. 

dicephalous. Two-headed. Greek di, two 
4- kephale, head. Also dicephalism; di- 
cephalus, a two-headed creature, like truth 
or Mr. Lookingbothways, cousin to old 
Mr. Turncoat. 

dicker. As a noun. Ten; especially as a 
unit of exchange: a parcel of ten hides 
or skins. Roundabout (Old English dicof) 
from Latin decuria, a company or parcel 
of ten; decem, ten. In trade with the 
American Indians, dicker became a verb, 
to deal in skins; hence, to bargain, haggle, 
barter, trade. By extension, a dicker, a 
lot, a large but vague number or amount, 
as in Sidney's ARCADIA (1580) Behold, 
said Pas, a whole dicker of wit. 

dictitate. To declare. From Latin dicti- 
tare, the emphatic form of dictare, dicta- 
turn, to pronounce, to say often itself 
the frequentative form of dicere, dictum, 
to say. From these forms come dictate and 
dictum, predict and more beyond fear of 
contradiction. In STAFFORD'S HEAVENLY 
DOGGE (1615) we are told: No doubt the 
old man did dictitate things, the knowl- 
edge whereof would have beatified all 
happy wits. 

didymate. Paired, as twins. Greek didy- 
mos, twin; see didymist. Also didymated; 
didymous. The forms survive in scientific 
use. Also didynamy, twinship. 

didymist. A sceptic. Also didymite. Cp. 
didimate. Greek didymoi, twins; by ex- 
tension, testicles, in which sense Bailey 
gives the word in his 1751 DICTIONARY, 
The meaning sceptic comes from "doubt- 
ing Thomas," the apostle that wavered in 
his faith: Thomas* surname was Didymos, 
twin. BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE 



dight 

(1822) has: His Lordship is a Dydimite 
in politics and religion . . . he must put 
forth his finger to touch, ere he be con- 
vinced. 

diffarreation. Divorce. The opposite of 
confarreation, q.v. On this occasion "the 
breaking of bread" also broke the union. 

diffugient. Dispersing. Latin dif, dis, 
apart 4* fugere, to flee. The form diffugous 
(accent on the dif) is defined in 18th cen- 
tury dictionaries as flying off in different 
directions like the man that was tied 
to four horses. Thackeray in THE ROUND- 
ABOUT PAPERS (1860) says: Tomorrow the 
diffugient snows will give place to spring. 
A pleasant prospect! 

digastric. Double-bellied. Greek di-, two 
4- gastr-, belly, whence also gastronome, 
one skilled in what goes into the belly. 
Gastronomy was first used as the title of 
a poem by Berchoux (French, Gastr "o- 
nomie, 1801) ; the ending was formed after 
astronomy. While digastric is used in anat- 
omy, of certain muscles (as that of the 
lower jaw) that have twin swellings, in 
another sense a gastronome must be care- 
ful lest he become digastric. 

dighel. Secret, obscure. Old High Ger- 
man tougal, dougal, secret. Used until the 
14th century. Also dighelness, secrecy; 
dighelliche, dighenliche, secretly. Laya- 
mon, in 1205, wrote: Fourth riht far en 
we him to, digelliche and stille. 

dight. This was a most common word, 
from early times. Its original sense was to 
dictate, compose a speech, letter, etc. 
related to German Dichter, poet, and 
Latin dictare, dictatum, to dictate; dicer e, 
dictum, to speak. Many other senses de- 
veloped. (1) To appoint, ordain. Thus by 
Chaucer in TROYLUS AND CRISEYDE (1374); 



214 



digladiation 

revived by Scott in MARMION (1808) : The 
golden legend bore aright, 'who checks at 
me, to death is dight' (2) To keep in 
order, to deal with, to use then, to 
abuse. By extension, to deal with sexually, 
Chaucer uses this sense several times, as 

in THE WIFE OF BATHES PROLOGUE (1386) : 

Al my walkynge out by nyghte Was for 
tespy wenches that he dighte. (3) To 
dispose, put, remove. To put into a specific 
state; e.g., to dight to death. So used by 
Gower (1393) ; North in his translation 
(1580) of Plutarch, from which Shake- 
speare drew his classical plots; Scott in 

HAROLD THE DAUNTLESS (1817) . (4) To 

compose; construct, make; perform, Spen- 
ser in THE FAERIE QUEENE (1596) I Curst 

the hand which did that vengeance on 
him dight. (5) To equip, set in order; 
array, arrange; prepare, make ready. Mor- 
ris in his version (1887) of THE ODYSSEY 
has: This Queen of the many wooers 
dights the wedding for us then. (6) To 
array, dress, adorn. To dight naked, to 
strip. Palsgrave in 1530 set down the say- 
ing: A foule woman rychly dyght semeth 
fayre by candell lyght. Spenser in THE 
SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR: JANUARY has: Thy 
summer prowde with daffadillies dight. 
For another instance of dight, adorned, 
see blow ess. Spenser also gave the word an 
erroneous meaning, to lift, in THE FAERIE 
QUEENE: With which his hideous club 
aloft he dights. (7) To direct; to direct 
oneself, to go. Chaucer says in THE MONK'S 
PROLOGUE: And out at dore anon I moot 
me dighte. (8) To repair, put to rights; 
to cleanse from rust, to polish; Chaucer 

in THE ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE Speaks of 

arrows shaven wel and dight. Among the 
forms in which the word appeared are 
dihtan, dyghte, dyte, dyth. Meanings (5) 
and (6) are still used occasionally, by 
poets. Poe in EL DORADO (1849) has his 
gallant knight gaily bedight. 



dildo 

digladiation. Grossing of swords, hand- 
to-hand fighting; more often, wrangling, 
verbal disputation. Latin di> dis, asunder 
+ gladiari; gladius, sword, whence also 
the flower gladiola; gladiator. Also digladi- 
ator; to digladiate, to contend, dispute. 
Used since the 16th century. Hales in 
GOLDEN REMAINS (1656) spoke of mutual 
pasquils and satyrs against each others 
lives, wherein digladiating like Eschines 
and Demosthenes, they reciprocally lay 
open each others filthiness to the view and 
scorn of the world. 

dilaceration. A tearing to pieces. Dilacer- 
ate (sometimes delacerate) is an emphatic 
form of lacerate, from Latin dis-, asunder 
and lacerare, to tear; lacer, mangled, torn. 
The riddles of the Sphinx, observed B. 
Montague in 1805, have two conditions 
annexed . . . dilaceration of those who 
do not solve them, and empire to those 
that do. See exenteration; dilaniation* 

dilaniation. A ripping or cutting to 
pieces. Latin di- f apart + laniare, lani- 
atum, to tear; lanius, butcher. Frequent, 
especially figuratively, in 16th and 17th 
century sermons. We read of the dilania- 
tion of Bacchus, and Overbury in a letter 
to Cromwell (1535) exclaimed There be 
many perverse men, which do dilaniate 
the flock of Christ. See dilaceration. 

dilate. (1) To delay. (2) To spread 
wide. See delator. 

dildo. (1) A nonsense word used in 
refrains, as Sing trang dildo lee. Shake- 
speare in THE WINTER'S TALE (1611) plays 
the innocent in the servant's words of 
Autolycus: He has the prettiest love-songs 
for maids; so without bawdry, which is 
strange; with such delicate burthens of 
'dildos 9 and 'fadings', 'jump her and 
thump her 1 ; and where some stretch- 
mouth 3 d rascal would, as it were, mean 



215 



dilligrout 

mischief, and break a foul jape into the 
matter, he makes the maid to answer, 
{ Whoop, do me no harm, good man'; puts 
him off, slights him, with 'Whoop, do me 
no harm, good man! A burthen, burden 
was a refrain, * carried along/ A fading 
was a 16th and 17th century lively dance; 
but Partridge in SHAKESPEARE'S BAWDRY 
suggests that in the passage quoted fad- 
ings implies the die-away languor at the 
end of love-making. With a dildo was 
the refrain of a popular risqu< song; 
hence (2) A name for the phallus. There- 
fore applied contemptuously to a man. 
Hence, also, to objects of phallic shape, 
as a sausage-like curl on an 18th century 
wig; R. Holme in THE ACADEMY OF 
ARMOURY (1688) said: A campaign wig 
hath knots or bobs, or a dildo on each 
side, with a curled forehead, Jonson in 
THE ALCHEMIST (1610) comments on a 
practice still familiar in public toilets 
today: Madame, with a dildo, writ o* the 
wall. 

dilligrout. A mess of pottage, offered to 
the King of England on his Coronation 
Day, by the lord of the manor of Adding- 
ton in Surrey. It was by this service that 
the manor was held, the first lord (named 
Tezelin, in the Domesday Book) having 
been the King's cook. The word is a cor- 
ruption of the Latin phrase del girunt, 
possibly "by which it should be held." 
The last service of the dilligrout was at 
the Coronation Banquet of George IV, 
1820. 

dilling, A child born when the parents 
are old. So Bailey, in 1751. The O.E.D. 
suggests that it may be a corruption of 
darling (little dear), applied to the young- 
est child. In country dialects (dilling pig), 
the word is applied to the weakling of a 
litter. 



dipsas 
dilucid. See crepuscular. 

dimble. A deep, shady dell, a dingle, q.v. 
Frequent in 16th and 17th century verse. 
Jonson in THE SAD SHEPHERD (1637) says: 
Within a gloomy dimble she doth dwell, 
Downe in a pitt, ore-grown with brakes 
and briars. For another instance, see slade. 

dime. See disme. 

dimication. Contention, fighting. Latin 
dimicare, dimicatus, to contend. Mainly in 
the 17th century; used later for humorous 
or deliberately ponderous effect. 

dimidiate. To divide into halves; to re- 
duce to half. Latin di, dis, asunder + 
medium, middle; hence also dimidiation. 
Dimidiated, halved, but also dimidiate 
as an adjective; Lamb in his POPULAR FAL- 
LACIES (ESSAYS OF ELIA; 1825) says that 
the author of TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL DAYS 
allows his hero a sort of dimidiate pre- 
eminence: Bully Dawson kicked by half 
the town, and half the town kicked by 
Bully Dawson. 

dingle. A deep dell. Used since the 13th 
century, but appearing in literature only 
from the 17th. Milton applied the word 
in COMUS, 1634: / know each lane, and 
every alley green , Dingle, or bushy dell 
of this wild wood to a hollow in a forest; 
use since then has continued the associa- 
tion. For a further instance, see slade; cp. 
dimble. 

dipsas. A serpent whose bite was fabled 
to cause a raging thirst. From Wyclif 
(1382) through Milton (PARADISE LOST, 
1667: see ellops) and Shelley, who in 

PROMETHEUS UNBOUND (1821) SaySt It 

thirsted As one bit by a dipsas. The plural 
is dipsades. From Greek dipsa, thirst, 
whence dipsomaniacs. Sylvester in his 
translation (1618) of Du Bartas says: Gold 
bewitches me, and frets accurst My greedy 
throat with more than dipsian thirst. 



216 



dipsian 

dipsian. See dipsas. 

diral. Terrible; dire (of which it is a 
rare alternate form) ; pertaining to the 
Furies. Latin Dirae, the Furies, the dire 
ones. The Romans also borrowed the 
Greek euphemistic appellation of the 
Furies: Eumenides, daughters of kindness. 
There is also an infrequent (16th-18th 
century) noun dirity, dreadfulness, as in 
a sermon of Hooker (1586) : So unappeas- 
able is the rigour and dirity of his cor- 
rective justice. 

direption. Pillaging; snatching away; 
dragging apart (as when a man is tied by 
the legs to two stallions whipped off in 
different directions Cp. diffugient) . From 
Latin di-, asunder + rapere, rep turn 
whence also rape. Fairly common (as was 
the sacking of captured towns) 15th-18th 
century. 

dirity. See diral. 

disannul. An emphatic form of annul. It 
was used by Shakespeare (THE COMEDY OF 
ERRORS, 1590: Our laws . . . Which Princes, 
would they, may not disanull) , but since 
the 17th century has been largely sup- 
planted by the simple form annul. The 
opposite course was taken in the case of 
shevel, sheveled, which have been sup- 
planted by dishevel, disheveled, with the 
same meanings. Other instances where the 
prefix (instead of forming antonyms, as 
connect, disconnect, etc.) intensifies the 
meaning are embowel, disembowel; sever, 
dissever; simulation, dissimulation. Also 
loose, unloose; flammable, inflammable; 
ravel, unravel. 

discalceate. Barefoot. Also discalced. 
Latin dis-, away, off + calceare, to shoe; 
calceus, a shoe; calx, calcis, heel. Dis- 
calceate was first used of friars or nuns 
whose order was barefoot, then in more 



discinct 

general application; discalceation more 
common in the Eastern lands is the 
action of taking off the shoes in reverence. 
In the West men more usually take off 
their hats. 

discandy. To dissolve from a candied or 
solid state. Also discander. Shakespeare 
uses discander in ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 
(1606) , but also: The hearts . . . to whom 
I gave their wishes, do discandie, melt 
their sweets On blossoming Caesar. 

discerp. To dismember; pull to pieces; 
to pluck or tear off; sever. Used from the 
15th century. Latin dis, apart + carper e, 
pick, pluck; with other prefix, English 
excerpt (picked from) . Hence discernible, 
discerptible; the soul, said the CONTEMPO- 
RARY REVIEW in 1867, is discerptible, and 
perishes with the body. East Apthorp, 
however, in his LETTERS ON THE PREVA- 
LENCE OF CHRISTIANITY (1778) presented 
an alternate view: His principle was, that 
the human soul, discerped from the soul 
of the universe, after death was re-fused 
into the parent-substance, discerp tibility, 
divisibility, was defined by Johnson (1775) 
as 'liableness to be destroyed by disunion 
of parts/ Also discerption, the action of 
pulling to pieces, of tearing off; a portion 
thus severed, discerptive, tending to pull 
to pieces, promoting division ("in the 
ranks," or in a party) . 

discinct. Ungirt; loosely clad. Hence dis- 
cincture, ungirding; Latin dis, away 4- 
cingere, cinctum, to gird; see cinct. When 
a knight was disgraced, he suffered dis- 
cincture, 'the depriving of the belt/ The 
word was also used figuratively; Trapp in 
his COMMENTARIES (1647: LUKE) declared: 
A loose, discinct, and diffluent mind is 
unfit to serve God. Landor in his WORKS 
(1846) tells: In the country I walk and 
wander about discinct. 



217 



discomfish 



dishonest 



discomfish. See scomfit. 

discount. Literally, to count off, whence 
the current financial sense. It was also 
used to mean to leave out of account, to 
disregard; to subtract, deduct, detract 
from. Thus Butler in HUDIBRAS (1664) : 
For the more languages a man can speak, 
His talent has but sprung the greater 
leak; And for the industry he has spent 
upon't Must full as much some other way 
discount . . . Yet he that is but able to 
express No sense at all in several languages 
Will pass for learneder than he that's 
known To speak the strongest reason in 
his own. 

disembogue. To come out of land-waters 
into the sea; to flow out, to flow into; 
hence, to pour forth, to empty out. The 
disembogue, disembogure, the mouth (of 
a river or strait) . Via the Spanish: dis + 
en, in + boca, mouth. Maynarde in his 
account of DRAKE'S VOYAGE (1595) stated 
that Sir Thomas Baskerville talked with 
such as hee hearde intended to quit com- 
panie before they were disembogued. De 
Quincey in a letter of 1823, on education, 
said: The presses of Europe are still dis- 
emboguing into the ocean of literature. 
Pope in THE ODYSSEY (1725) mentions the 
deep roar of disemboguing Nile (a sound 
I should like to hear!) ; three years later 
in THE DUNCIAD he moves in more familiar 
waters: . . . by Bridewell all descend (As 
morning-pray' r and flagellation end) To 
\where Fleet-Ditch with disemboguing 
streams, Rolls the large tribute of dead 
dogs to Thames, The King of dykes! Than 
whom no sluice of mud With deeper 
sable blots the silver flood. From this let 
us turn to AN ADDRESS TO THE HOPEFUL 

YOUNG GENTRY OF ENGLAND, which in 1669 

declared that wit does not need to call a 
deity down upon the stage, to make its 
way open and disembogued. 



disgregate. To separate, scatter, go apart, 
disintegrate. The opposite of congregate. 
From Latin dis~, apart + gregare, to col- 
lect; gregem, flock. In a sermon of 1631, 
Donne said: The beams of their eyes 
were scattered and disgregated . . . so that 
they could not confidently discern him. 
This is based on the then current theory 
of vision, which held that visual rays 
might be scattered (rendered divergent) , 
thus confusing or obscuring the sight. 
Bishop Andrews in a sermon of 1626 said 
that without concord a gregation it may 
be, but no congregation. The con is gone; 
a disgregation rather: 

disguise. An alteration of a fashion or 
style; a new, ostentatious or distinctive 
fashion. Latin dis, de, apart + Romanic 
guisa from Old High German wisa, man- 
ner, mode, appearance whence English 
wise (the noun, surviving in phrases and 
as a suffix: in this wise; lengthwise, cross- 
wise) . Also as a verb; the first sense (from 
the 14th century) was to alter the style 
or appearance, to make different, to trans- 
form. The intent of concealment also de- 
veloped in the 14th century; it became 
dominant by the 17th. Whetstone in AN 

HEPTAMERON OF CIVILL DISCOURSES (1582) 

said: In this cittie there was an old cus- 
tome . . . that what man so ever com- 
mitted adulterie should lose his head, and 
the woman offender should ever after be 
infamously noted by the wearing of some 
disguised apparrell. 

disheveled. See disannul. 

dishonest. Used as a verb from the 14th 
into the 17th century, meaning: to dis- 
honor, bring disgrace upon; to defame, 
calumniate; to violate, defile; to deform, 
render ugly or repellent. Whetstone in 

AN HEPTAMERON OF CIVILL DISCOURSES 

(1582) pictured Andrugio, to save his life, 



18 



dislimn 



distrain 



beseeching his sister Cassandra to give 
herself to Lord Prornos: Thou shalt be de- 
flowred, but not dishonested. 

dislimn. To efface the outlines of, erase, 
blot out; to become effaced, to vanish. 
Shakespeare in ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 
(1606) says: Sometimes we see a clowd 
that's dragonish, A vapour sometime like 
a beare or lyon, A towered citadel, a 
pendent rock . . . That which is now a 
horse, even with a thoght The racke dis- 
limes and makes it indistinct As water is 
in water. 

disme. Tenth. An early form of the com- 
mon dime; Old French disme,, Latin 
decima, a tenth part, decem, ten. Also, 
to dime, disme (15th to 17th century) to 
take a tenth of; to divide into tenths. 
From the 14th to the 17th century, es- 
pecially the tithe or the share for the 
church or the government. Also a * tithe* 
of war, every tenth man slain, as in Shake- 
speare's ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA (1606): 
Let Helen go. Since the first sward was 
drawn about this question, Every tithe 
soul, mongst many thousand dismes, Hath 
been as dear as Helen. 

disour. Via Old French from Latin 
dicere, to tell. A story-teller, a reciter of 
gestes; a jester. See dizzard. 

disperson. To insult; treat like a dog. 
Latin, dis, away from + persona (origi- 
nally, mask) , person; dignity. ALEXANDER 
(1400) said: For spyte he spittis in his 
face, Dispises him despetously, dispersons 
him foule. 

displant. Shakespeare first took this word 
out of its literal sense, in ROMEO AND 
JULIET (1592) ; hence it developed the 
sense of removing persons from their 
settlements (plantations; Spenser speaks 
in 1596 of countries planted with English 



. . . shortly displanted and lost) . Hence 
also, to root up; to supplant; Shakespeare 
in OTHELLO speaks of the displanting of 

Cassio. THE LONDON QUARTERLY REVIEW of 

June 1847 quoted Shakespeare: 'Hang up 
philosophy! Unless philosophy can make 
a Juliet, Displant a town, reverse a 
prince's doom, It helps not, it prevails 
not; talk no more!' But Dante, in the 
same Verona, found not merely an ade- 
quate but an apt substitute for his lost 
love in the religious stoicism of the day. 

dissemble. See semble. AN ASYLUM FOR 
FUGITIVE PIECES, in 1785, printed anonym- 
ously the now noted lines: Perhaps it was 
right to dissemble your love, But why did 
you kick me downstairs? 

distain. To stain; to discolor, dirty; 
hence, to defile, dishonor. Via Old French 
from Latin dis, away 4- tingere, tinctum, 
whence tinge, tint, tincture. In the first 
sense, Spenser in THE FAERIE QUEENE 
(1590) says: / found her golden girdle cast 
astray Distaynd with durt and blood. In 
the second, Shakespeare has, in THE RAPE 
OF LUCRECE (1594) : The silver-shining 
queen he would distain; her twinkling 
handmaids too; and in RICHARD m: You 
having lands, and blest with beauteous 
wives, They would restraine the one, dis- 
taine the other. 

distrain. To press, squeeze; confine, re- 
strain; constrain, compel; to seize, con- 
fiscate; to tear off, tear asunder. Chaucer 
speaks in THE PARLEMENT OF FOULES 
(1381) of The gentyl faucoun that with his 
feet distraynyth The kyngis hand. Spenser 
says in THE FAERIE QUEENE (1590) : That 
same net so cunningly was wound That 
neither guile nor force might it distraine. 
Shakespeare in RICHARD n (1583) cries: 
My fathers goods are all distraynd, and 
sold. The word was very common from 



219 



divirginate 

the 13th to the 17th century, being used 
in law: distrain,, to hold as a forfeit to 
ensure the fulfilment of an obligation; 
later (18th century) to sell chattels to 
satisfy a debt, especially arrears of rent; 
to distrain upon a person, to enforce 
such a sale. 

divirginate. See devirginate. 

dizzard. A fool. Perhaps originally a 
variant of disour, q.v., but soon linked 
with dizzy. A frequent 16th and 17th cen- 
tury term of contempt, used into the 19th 
century, as in D' Israeli's CURIOSITIES OF 
LITERATURE. More than one man that 
prides himself on being a wizard is by his 
friends esteemed a very dizzard. 

doak. See dolk. 
docible. See indocible. 

doddard. A tree (especially, an oak) that 
has lost its top branches (by decay) . The 
Old English verb to dod meant to blunt 
the top of a thing; hence, to clip a per- 
son's hair or an animal's horns dodded, 
clipped, polled, hornless and by exten- 
sion, to behead. The doddings are the 
cuttings (e.g., the wool cut near the tails 
of sheep) . A doddle is a pollard; also, an 
infirm person. To doddle is to shake the 
head, or walk feebly about, as in Urqu- 
hart's translation (1653) of Rabelais: 
dodling his head; or to toddle or waddle, 
as when THE SPECTATOR of 6 December, 
1884, speaks of a pretty girl , . . with a 
quantity of little pigs doddling about in 
front of her. Doddy-pate and doddypoll 
are 15th through 18th century terms for 
blockhead, fool; they are related to the 
verb dote, to be foolish, which is related to 
dod a 'dodded poll' being a sign of a 
simpleton, it seems. And dotard is another 
form of doddard. 

doit. A trifling sum; a very litde. Origi- 
nally (perhaps via Norwegian dveit, a 



dole 

piece cut off, dvita, to cut) a Dutch coin 
worth half an English farthing. Shake- 
speare in THE TEMPEST (1610) says: They 
will not give a doit to relieve a lame beg- 
gar; Mrs. Carlyle in a letter of 1849 ex- 
claimed: As if anybody out of the family 
of Friends cared a doit about W. Penn! 

doke. See do Ik. 

dole. This common form came into the 
language from three sources; it has had 
many meanings. (1) Old English dal, dael, 
whence also deal. The state of being di- 
vided; division. Hence, a portion (16th 
to 18th century, a portion of a common 
field) ; one's portion or lot in life: Happy 
man be his dole. From this meaning came 
the current uses of dole, a gift made in 
charity, food doled out. (2) Late Latin 
dolium, grief, whence French deuil; Latin 
dolere, to grieve, to suffer; dolor, grief, 
pain, anguish; also in English, dolor. 
Hence dolorific, doloriferous, causing 
pain, suffering grief. Grief, mental dis- 
tress; mourning; lamentation. To make 
dole, to lament; dolent, mournful; clothes, 
weeds of dole, mourning garments. Also 
pain; also, that which rouses sorrow, a 
piteous thing. A dole tree (19th century, 
e.g., Stevenson, dule tree), a gallows, a 
hanging-tree. From this dole also came 
indolency, indolence, which first meant 
freedom from pain, insensibility or in- 
difference to pain; thus, also, an indolent 
ulcer, one causing no pain. From this 
came the current meaning of indolent, 
lazy; Addison in verses of 1719 wrote: 
While lull'd by sound, and undisturbed 
by wit, Calm and serene you indolently 
sit. An indolent man, however, may find 
himself in need of a dole. (3) Greek dolos, 
deceit. Guile, deceit; deliberate mischief; 
in Scotch law, dole means the malicious 
or evil intent that makes a misdeed a 
crime. Thus Chambers in his CYCLOPAEDIA 



220 



dolk 

(1753) stated: Under dole are compre- 
hended the vices and errors of the will, 
which are immediately productive of the 
criminal act. Hence also dolose, intention- 
ally deceitful; maliciously intended; do- 
losity, hidden malice; deceitfulness. Lord 
Cranford in THE MANCHESTER GUARDIAN 
(31 July, 1861) wrote: Without accusing 
his . . . learned friend of being dolose, he 
did accuse him of having misled their 
lordships. The word dole took many 
forms, among them dool, dule, deol, del, 
doylle, dol } doale, doel, dowle, duyl, duill, 
dulle. In hunting, said Turberville in his 
VENERIE (1576), the houndes must be re- 
warded with the bowels, the bloud and 
the feete . . . it is not called a reward but 
a dole. Milton used the word figuratively 
in his APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUS (1642) : 
Who made you the busy almoner to deal 
about this dole of laughter and reprehen- 
sion? A dole-window was a window from 
which doles were distributed, as to a 
breadline. 

dolk. A dimple, a dint or tiny hollow. 
Also doke, doak. THE SPECTATOR of 20 Jan- 
uary, 1866, mentions a little doke in the 
end of the nose. 

dolose. See dole. 

dolphin. An early variant of dauphin; 
used by Shakespeare. The French dauphin 
was derived from delphinus (the name of 
the fish), the proper name of the lords 
of the Viennois, whose province was 
thence called Dauphine. The last lord of 
Dauphind, Humbert III, on ceding the 
province to Philip of Valois, in 1349, 
stipulated that the title dauphin should 
thereafter be borne by the heir to the 
throne of Naples. 

domable. Tamable. From Late Latin 
domabilis, tamable, from domare, to tame. 
The frequentative form of domare was 



dop 

domitare, whence English domitable, a 
rare form, surviving in the negative, in- 
domitable, untamable. Bailey's DICTIONARY 
(1751) also gives domation and domature, 
both meaning taming which the O.EJX 
(1933) ignores. 

dondaine. A medieval engine for hurling 
stones. Lydgate (1430) spells it dondine, 
but rhymes it with attayne. 

donet. A grammar; hence, a primer in 
any field. Also donat. From Aelius Dona- 
tus y a 4th century scholar whose elemen- 
tary Latin grammar (ARS GRAMMATICA) 
became the standard. 

doniferous. Bearing a gift, as Santa 
Glaus come Christmastide. The word, 
found in 17th and 18th century diction- 
aries, may be traced to Virgil's lines in 
Book II of the AENEHX "Men of Troy, 
trust not the horse! Whatever it is, I fear 
the Greeks even bearing gifts" Timeo 
Danaos et dona ferentes. 

donjon. Early form of dungeon. The old 
spelling is usually retained for the mean- 
ing 'the great tower or innermost keep 
of a castle.' The word is from Late Latin 
domnionem, castle, from domnus, domi- 
nus, lord, whence also dominion. A 1678 
translation of Gaya's THE ART OF WAR ex- 
plains donjon as a place of retreat in a 
town or place, to capitulate in with greater 
security in case of extremity a definition 
of realism, but hardly of romance. Scott 
was fond (as in MARMION, 1808) of the 
battled towers, the donjon keep. 

dool. See dole. 
doom. See deemster. 

dop. An old form of dip, as noun and 
verb. Hence, a bow, a quick curtsey. 
Jonson in CYNTHIA'S REVELS (1599) re- 
marks: The Venetian dop, this. 



221 



dor 



dossal 



dor. As a noun: (1) An insect that flies 
with a humming sound. Also dorr, dore^ 
doar. Probably echoic in origin. Also dor- 
bee, dor-fly; dumble-dor, the dung-beetle. 
Also, a drone bee; hence, an idler, a lazy 
drone, a dor-head. (2) An old form for 
dare. (3) An old form for deer. (4) Mock- 
ery, making game (of) ; to give one the 
dor, to put the dor upon. Milton in THE 

APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUS (1642) WTOte 

that he brings home the dorre upon him- 
self. (5) A simpleton, a fool. Jonson in 
CYNTHIA'S REVELS (1599) uses give him 
the dor, also: This night's sport, Which 
our court-dors so heartily intend. As a 
verb: (a) dor, dorr, durr, to make dim or 
dull (color) ; to deaden. Holland in his 
Pliny (1601) says of colors: The light- 
nesse or sadnesse of the one doth quicken 
and raise, or eh dorr and take downe the 
colour of the other, (b) dor, dorre, to 
make game of, mock, confound. 'Smectym- 
nus' in his ANSWER (1641) said: This is 
but a blind, wherewith the Bishop would 
dorre his reader. To dor the dotterel, to 
hoax a simpleton. The form dotterel is 
related to dote; cp. doddard. Also dottrel, 
dotrill, and more. It meant a silly person; 
especially, one whose intellect is decayed. 
It was also applied to a kind of plover, 
because the bird (like a fool) allows it- 
self to be easily taken; and to a doddered 
tree. Thy words, said Bauldwin in his 

TREATISE OF MORALL PHILOSOPHIE (1547) , 

savour of old idle dottrels tales. This 
should suggest some new answers to the 
old riddle: When is a door not a door? 

dorbeL A dull-witted pedant; a foolish 
pretender to learning. From Nicholas 
Dorbellus (Nicholas de Orbellis, died 
1455) , a professor of Scholastic Philosophy 
at Poitiers, a follower of Duns Scotus 
(whose name gave us dunce) . Hence also 
dorbelish, dorbellical, stupid, clumsy. 



Nashe in PIERCE PENNILESS (1592) spoke 
of sheepish discourse . . . uglye, dorbel- 
licall and lumpish. When the dorbel rings, 
the dunce enters. Dunce has remained. 

dorrye. See hastlet. 
dorse. See dossal. 

dorter. A sleeping-room; sleeping quar- 
ters; especially in a monastery. Cp. dossal. 
Also dortour, dortore, dortoire; Old 
French dortour, dortoir; Latin dormito- 
rium, dormitory; dormitare t to be sleepy, 
fall asleep; dormire, dormitum, to sleep. A 
common word from the 13th to the 17th 
century; Nashe in PIERCE PENNILESS (1592) 
said: It will make them jolly long winded 
to trot up and downe the dorter staires. 
Bishop Andrewes in a sermon of 1626 
spoke of a cemetery as a great dortor; 
Hey wood in PROVERBS (1562) said: The 
mouth is assynde to be the tounges dorter. 
Silence is golden. 

dossal. (1) An ornamental cloth for the 
back of a seat, especially a throne, or for 
the back of an altar. Bulwer-Lytton in 
HAROLD (1848) pictures a hawk perched 
on the dossal of the Earl's chair. Cp. anti- 
macassar. (2) A pannier, a basket carried 
on the back, or two such hanging over the 
back of a beast of burden, as Chaucer 
mentions (1384: dosser) in THE HOUS OF 
FAME. Also dossel, dosel, dosser, dorse, 
dorsel. Old French dossel, from dos (Latin 
dorsum) , back. From the general sense 
"back" various other forms have come. A 
dorter (dortour) q.v., is a sleeping-room, 
dormitory. To dorse was 18th and 19th 
century boxing slang for to knock down 
(flat on the back) ; Wilson in NOCTES AM- 
BROSIANAE (1826) wisely remarked that 
the straight hitting . . . soon dorsers your 
roundabout hand-over-head hitters. Dorty 
(perhaps, however, another word) meant 
sulky, then saucy, haughty; dort, dortiness, 



222 



dotant 



dowlas 



dortiship, all meant ill-humor, the sulks. 
A dosser is one who sleeps at a cheap 
lodging-house; a happy dosser (19th cen- 
tury) was one who slept wherever he could 
find a place. To doze, which of course 
does not require one to lie on the back, is 
apparently from the Scandinavian. The 
word does not appear in literary English 
before the 17th century, but the practice 
dates at least as far back as schools and 
churches. One cannot always keep one's 
eyes fixed on the dossal! 

dotant. One that dotes, a simpleton. A 
variant of dotard; see doddard. Shake- 
speare has, in CORIOLANUS (1607) : Such a 
decay'd dotant as you seem to be. 

dotard. See doddard. Also dotehead, 
blockhead; doter. 

dotterel. See dor. 

douce-ame. A sweetly savory dish, recipe 
in THE FORME OF cuRY (1390) : Take gode 
cowe mylkf and do it in a pot. Take parsel, 
sawge, ysope, savray, and oother gode 
herbes, hewe hem, and do hem in the 
mylke, and seeth hem. Take capons half 
yrosted, and smyte hem on pecys, and do 
thereto pynes and hony clarified. Salt it, 
and color it with safron, and serve it forth. 

doucet. A sweet thing; applied to vari- 
ous fruits (apple, grape) , then to dishes. 
Also dowcet, dulcet. A 15th century recipe 
called for pork, honey, pepper, and flowr, 
baked "in a cofyn." In the plural, a special 
delicacy, the testicles of a deer; Sir Walter 
Scott in WOODSTOCK (1826) speaks of 
broiling the . . . dowsets of the deer upon 
the glowing embers with their own royal 
hands.. There was also a sweet-sounding 
sort of flute (as in Chaucer's THE HOUS 
OF FAME, 1384) called the doucet. From 
French doucet, diminutive of douce, 
Latin dulcis, sweet In a poem of 1640 



we read: Heer's dousets and flapp jacks, 
and I ken not what. 

dought. See douth. 

doundrins. Afternoon drinkings. Bailey 
(1751) lists these as in Derbyshire, but 
today they are ubiquitous. 

dout. To put out, extinguish. From do 
4- out. Also dout, douter, an extinguisher. 
Used from the 16th into the 18th cen- 
tury. Cp. dup. Rastell in A HUNDRED MERRY 
TALES (1526) said Dout the candell and 
dout the fyre. Shakespeare in HAMLET 
(1603) notes that the dram of base Doth 
all the noble substance often dout To 
his own scandal. 

douth. Virtue, power; good deed; man- 
hood. Early English, from a common Teu- 
tonic form. Early dugan, to be good. Later 
appears as dought (18th century) , per- 
haps a back-formation from doughty, also 
related to dugan. Doughty is now archaic 
or humorous. 

dowlas. A coarse linen. Also dowlace, 
doulas; (in Scotland, late 15th century) 
douglas. The word is from the town of 
Doulas in Brittany. A similar linen cloth, 
apparently finer, was called lockram or 
lockeram, from the nearby town of Loc- 
ronan, 'cell of St. Roman/ Lockram was 
used for the cloth, and for articles made 
from it, from the 15th into the 18th cen- 
tury; Scott revived the word (lockeram) 
in THE ABBOT (1820) . Shakespeare in 
HENRY rv, PART ONE (1596) says: doulas, 
filthy doulas . . . they have made boulters 
of them. Dowlas was a very common cloth 
(linen, made of flax) in the 16th and 
17th centuries; then the word began to 
be used of a strong calico substitute for 
the linen. The shift in meaning is shown 
in a trial recorded in PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
SESSIONS OF THE PEACE, April 1733; Goody 



223 



down 

Baker and Goody Trumper are arguing 
over the theft of a linen cap, of 'an 
ordinary coarse cloth/ Tr. Coarse, but 
what sort I say? B. Why, it was of flax. Tr. 
Flax; very well! Now my brother's cap 
was made of dowlas, and this cap here is 
dowlas, I'll take my oath on't; and pray 
Goody Baker, do you call dowlas flax? 

down. See adown. 

doxy. (1) Mistress; wench. From the 14th 
century (first as slang: the mistress of a 
beggar or a vagabond) , prostitute; then 
wench; later, sweetheart. Shakespeare has 
a refrain in THE WINTER'S TALE (1611) : 
With hey, the doxy over the dale. (2) 
Opinion, especially in regard to religion. 
Since the 18th century. Warburton, fol- 
lowed by John Quincy Adams (1778) and 
countless others, remarked: Orthodoxy is 
my doxy; heterodoxy is the other man's. 
Greek doxa, opinion. 

draomian. (1) Severe, harsh; character- 
istic of Draco, archon of Athens in 621 
B.C., said to have established a severe 
code of laws. / never much admired, said 
Gifford (in Smiles' j. MURRAY) in 1819, 
the vaunt of draconianism, 'And all this 
I dare do, because I dare! Also draconism, 
severity. (2) Relating to a dragon; Greek 
drakon, dragon. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH (10 
November, 1880) recorded that, in the 
course of one of these dracontan per- 
formances . . . the mummer's tail came off. 
Other forms with the same meanings are 
draconic, draconical; dracontic used of 
the dragon only; also dracontine. A 
precious stone supposedly found in the 
dragon's brain was the (four syllabled) 
draconites (dracontites, dracondite) . In 
astronomy, dracontic, relating to the 
moon's nodes: the ascending node of the 
moon's orbit is known as the dragon's 
head; the descending, the dragon's tail. 



draught 

In palmistry, the dragon's tail is the 
discriminal line between the hand and 
the arm. 

draff. Dregs, refuse; swill for swine; es- 
pecially, the refuse or grains of malt after 
brewing. Hence draffish, worthless. The 
word appears in various proverbs: Hey- 
wood (1546), Draffe is your errand, but 
drinke ye woulde; Shakespeare (THE 

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, 1598) , Still 

swine eats all the draffe; Ferguson (1598) , 
As the sow fills the draff sours. Also in 
combinations: Thanks is but a draff-cheap 
phrase. A draffsack, a big paunch; a lazy 
glutton; Chaucer in THE REEVE'S TALE 
(1386) : I lye as a draf-sak in my bed. The 
word was also used figuratively, as in 
Chaucer's THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN 
(1385) : To wryte the draff of stories, and 
forgo the corn. 

dragon's tail. See draconian. 

dragon-water. A medicinal drink, fre- 
quently prescribed in the 17th century. 
The Water Poet (WORKS; 1630) spoke of 
dragon-water in most high request. 

dratchell. See drazel. 

draught. From the general sense of draw- 
ing (dragging) or pulling, other mean- 
ings arose. These include: (1) drawing 
of breath. (2) a team of horses. (3) a 
take, quantity of fish in one draught of 
the net; specifically (19th century) , 20 
Ibs. of eels. (4) the distance a bow can 
shoot. (5) a move at chess or other game; 
the draught of a pawne, Beale noted in 
CHESS (1656) is only one house at a time. 
Cp. drautt. (6) a current, flow. Also, the 
bed of a stream; a ravine. (7) The en- 
trails of an animal when drawn out; the 
pluck, q.v. (8) A cesspool, sewer. Shake- 
speare in TROILUS AND CRESSIDA (1606) CX- 

claims: Sweet draught: sweet quoth-a? 



224 



drautt 



dretch 



sweet sinke, sweet sure. Hence, a privy 
(also draught-house) ; Shakespeare in 
TIMON OF ATHENS cries: Hang them, or 
stab them, drowne them in a draught. 
Hence also, a voiding of the bowels. 

drautt. A variant form of draught, q.v. 
For an instance of its use, see brynnyng. 

draw-glove. A game (draw-gloves; draw- 
ing gloves] known only from literary 
references; played 15th to 18th century. 
It seems to have been a race to see who, 
when a certain word was unexpectedly 
spoken, could first draw off his (or her) 
gloves. Herri ck in HESPERIDES (1648) re- 
fers to it twice, in addition to his little 
poem Draw-Gloves: At draw-gloves we'll 
play And prethee let's lay A wager, and 
let it be this: Who first to the sum Of 
twenty shall come. Shall have for his win- 
ning a kiss. 

drazel. A slut. So in 17th century use; 
the 18th and 19th centuries used the forms 
dratchell and drotchell, as George Eliot in 
ADAM BEDE (1859) : She's not a common 
flaunting dratchell, I can see that. These 
are all variants of drossel, q.v. 

dreary. See dririmancy. 
dreche. A variant of dretch, q.v. 
drede. An old form of dread. 

dredge. A comfit, a sweetmeat; especially, 
one containing a grain of spice. In the 
form dragee (19th century) one that has 
medicine in the center. The candy dredge 
(drage, dragie, dregge; at first, two syl- 
lables) came roundabout from the Greek 
tragemata, spices. Hence, dredge-box, 
drageoir, dragenall, a box to hold sweets; 
Lord Berners in his translation (1525) of 
Froissart lists two dredge-boxes of golde* 
[The verb to dredge, to bring up from the 
water, occurs first in the 16th century; it 
is probably a variant of drag.} 



dree. To do, perform, commit; to en- 
dure, suffer (especially, to dree one's 
weird, to endure one's fate; the three 
fates are the weird sisters} ; to endure, to 
last. Also a noun. And an adjective, heavy; 
long-suffering; long-lasting. Very common, 
10th through 16th century; thereafter 
archaic, though revived by Sir Walter 
Scott (as in a letter of 1810: / was dree- 
ing penance for some undiscovered sin at 
a family party) and others. Robert Bridges 
uses the noun in a poem of 1890: The 
half-moon . . . shrinketh her face of dree 
[trouble]. Lydgate in a poem of 1430 says: 
The first year of wedlock is called pleye, 
the second dreye, and the third year deye. 
Lucky those that reach day so soon! [But 
beware! deye is an old form for die.] 

drepee. A dish, described in THE FORME 
OF CURY (1S90) : Take blanched almandes, 
grynde hem, and temper hem up with 
gode broth; take oynouns a grete quantite, 
perboyle hem, and frye hem, and do 
thereto. Take smalle bryddes [birds], per- 
boyle hem, and do thereto pellydore, and 
a lytel grece. 

dress-improver. A mid- Victorian term for 
the bustle; so named because it amply 
covered the posterior (though probably 
the ladies figured that while it dimmed 
the outline it accentuated the appeal) . 
Lustier times called this article the bum- 
rowl, q.v. 

dretch. To trouble in sleep; to torment. 
As a noun, dretch, dr etching, trouble. 
From the 9th century. Also, from the 13th 
century, to dretch, to delay, linger; pro- 
tract. Also dreche, dracche, drecche; not 
known in other languages. Malory in 
MORTE D'ARTHUR (1485) : We alle , . . were 
soo dretched that somme of its lepte oute 
of oure beddes naked. Chaucer uses the 
word in both senses. 



225 



dreynt 

dreynt. Drenched. An early form of the 
past tense and past participle of drench. 

drightin. A lord; hence, the Lord, God. 
Also drighton, drighten; sometimes short- 
ened to dright. Dright was also an Old 
English word to the 13th century mean- 
ing army; Gothic go-draughts,, soldier. 
Hence drightman, warrior, dright fare, 
march, procession, throng, drightin was 
used from BEOWULF to the 15th century. 
Hence drightness, drihtnesse, majesty, god- 
head, drightful, drightlike, noble. In SIR 

GAWAYNE AND THE GRENE KNIGHT (1360) 

we are assured: Ful wel con Drightin 
shape His servauntes for to save. 

dririmancy. See aeromancy. Reade in 

THE CLOISTER AND THE HEARTH (1861) has: 

/ studied at Montpelier . . . There learned 
I dririmancy, scatomancy, pathology . . . 
The reference here is to diagnosis rather 
than divination. The form driry is a vari- 
ant of dreary, which first (Old Saxon 
dror; Old Norse dreyri, gore) meant gory, 
bloody; then horrid, dire, cruel then 
sad, melancholy, and finally the current 
dismal, gloomy, BEOWULF shows the first 
meaning, as does Spenser in THE FAERIE 
OJCJEENE (1590) : With their drery wounds. 

dromond. 'A great vessel of the class of 
long ships'; one of the largest of medieval 
vessels, used in commerce and war. Also 
dromon, dromoun, dromund, dromonde. 
Greek dromon, large vessel; dromos, run- 
ning, course, as also in dromedary, 'ship 
of the desert/ a fleet breed of camel. The 
word was not used after 1500 except 
historically, as by Scott in THE FAIR MAID 
OF PERTH (1828) : I have got the sternpost 
of a dromond brought up the river from 
Dundee. 

drore. A 15th century dish: Take vele or 
motun, and smyte it on gobettes, and put 
it in a pot with watur, and let it sethe; 



drumble 

and take onyons, and mynce horn, and do 
thereto, and parsel, sauge, ysope, savery, 
and hewe horn smale, and do hit in the 
pot, and coloure hit with saffron, and do 
thereto powder of pepur, and of clowes, 
and of maces f and alaye it wyth yolkes of 
rawe eggus and verjus; but let it not sethe 
after, and serve hit forthe. 

drosomely. Honey-dew; manna. Greek 
drosos, dew; meli, honey. Four syllables, 
accent on the second. A pleasant word, 
in Bailey (1751), although the O.E.D. 
ignores it. 

drossel. A slut. Also drosell, drossell; cp. 
drazel. Used from the 16th century. War- 
ner in Albion's England (1602) said: 
Now dwels each drossell in her glasse. 
Origin unknown; probably not related to 
dross, though the O.E.D. defines this as 
scum, recrement, or extraneous material 
thrown off ... 

drotchell. See drazel. 
druery. See drury. 

drumble. An inert or sluggish fellow, a 
'drone/ Also in the names of insects, 
drumble-, drummel-, dumble-: a drumble- 
bee, a humble-bee, bumble-bee; drumble- 
dore, a clumsy insect; hence, a heavy, 
sluggish, stupid person. Hence, to 
drumble, to drone, mumble; to move 
sluggishly. In this sense, used by Shake- 
speare (MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR; -1598) ; 
revived by Scott (THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL; 
1822) : Why, how she drumble s I war- 
rant she stops to take a sip on the road. 
There are two other verbs, to drumble: 
(1) to sound like a drum (the drumbling 
tabor; 17th century) . (2) to trouble, dis- 
turb; to make drumly or turbid. Drumly, 
cloudy (of the sky), turbid (of water) 
was used from the 16th into the 18th 
century. And from Dutch drommeler f a 



226 



drumly 

boat, a heavy-set man, English in the 1 6th 
and 17th centuries used drumbler, drum- 
ler, for a small but fast boat, especially 
used as a privateer or by pirates. 

drumly. See drumble. 

drary. It is amusing to think that the 
two great (licenced) theatres of England 
for two centuries, drew their names from 
the same mood. Covent Garden was con- 
vent garden; Drury Lane was modesty 
(sobriety) lane. So at least Bailey (1751), 
defining drury as modesty. The O.E.D., 
however, will have none of this. It lists 
drury as one of many different spellings 
of druery, which means love, especially 
illicit love; a love token or gift; a sweet- 
heart. Druery (ultimately from Old 
French dru, drut, lover, akin to German 
traut, beloved, whence also Old Eng- 
lish drut, darling) was common from the 
13th through the 15th century; Chaucer 
in SIR THOPAS (1386) says: Of ladies love 
and druerie Anon I wol you tele. In SIR 

GAWAYNE AND THE GRENE KNIGHT (1360) 

the Green Knight's lady tempted Sir 
Gawain: The lady loutes adoun And com- 
lyly kisses his face; Much speche thay ther 
expoun Of druries greme and grace. 

drat. See drury. 

dryad. A wood nymph, a spirit that in- 
habits trees. Greek dry as, plural dryades; 
drys, dryos, tree. Hence also dryadic. By 
transference, a sylvan maiden, a denizen 
of the woods. Young Health, said Warton 
in BATHING (1790) , a dryad-maid in ves- 
ture green. In bathing, one is more likely 
to meet a neread, q.v. 

duan. A poem; a canto of a long poem. 
A Gaelic word, first used in English by 
Macpherson in OSSIAN (1765) . Burns and 
Byron followed him. 



duke 

dub (noun). A pool of water, especially, 
a muddy pool, as of rain water on a dirt 
road; also, a deep pool in a shallow 
stream. Used from the 16th century; still 
in Scotland. Burns uses it in TAM O'SHAN- 
TER (1790): Stevenson in KIDNAPPED (1886) 
has: 'Here's a dub for ye to jump.' 

duckingstool. A chair on the end of a 
plank, for plunging scolds, dishonest 
tradesmen, and other offenders, into water 
and public obloquy. One on wheels, so 
that the offender might be more widely 
exhibited, was called a ducking-tumbrel 
See cuckingstool. 

dudgeon. (1) A kind of wood used for 
handles, as of knives; probably boxwood. 
Hence, a hilt made of this wood; Shake- 
speare has in Macbeth 1605 I see ... on 
thy blade and dudgeon, gouts of blood. 
Hence, from dudgeon-dagger, shortened 
to dudgeon, a dagger. (2) Perhaps the 
same word, from "looking daggers'* (?), 
came to mean resentment, anger. Scott in 
THE ANTIQUARY (1816) says They often 
parted in deep dudgeon but usually the 
preceding adjective is high no one has 
ever been seen in low dudgeon. See couth; 
clapperdudgeon. 

duke. (1) As a verb, to behave like a 
duke (with an implication of ostentation); 
Shakespeare in MEASURE FOR MEASURE 
(1603) says: Lord Angelo Dukes it well in 
his absence. (2) The castle in chess. A 
17th century term, explained by Mid- 
dleton in A GAME AT CHESS (1624) : E, 
There's the full number of the game; 
Kings, and their pawns, queen, bishops, 
knights, and dukes. J. Dukesf they're 
called rooks by some. E. Corruptively. Le 
roch, the word, custodi& de la roch, The 
keeper of the forts. (3) In phrases. To 
dine with Duke Humphrey, to go dinner- 
less. Supposed to have arisen in the 17th 



227 



dulcarnon 



dungeonable 



century, from Sir Humphrey's Walk in. 
old St. Paul's, London, where persons 
would loiter in hopes of an invitation 
to dinner; if they received none, they 
dined with Duke Humphrey. Also 17th 
century, the Duke of Exeter's daughter, 
a rack-like instrument of torture, used in 
the Tower of London, supposedly in- 
vented by the Duke. Similarly, Scavenger's 
daughter, invented by Sir W. Skevington, 
Lieutenant of the Tower. The gunner's 
daughter, cannon to which a seaman was 
lashed, to be flogged. There was also 
Madame Guillotine. 

dulcaraon. A dilemma; a person per- 
plexed. The phrase at dulcarnon, at one's 
wit's end. Chaucer in TROYLUS AND 
CRISEYDE (1374), "Crisseide" remarks: / 
am, til god me bettre minde sende, At 
dulcarnon, right at my wittes ende. 

dulcet. See doucet. Dulcet survives as an 
adjective, meaning sweet, agreeable to 
sight, sound, or taste. Earlier forms in- 
clude dulce (noun and adjective) ; dul- 
cean; dulceous; dulcid, sweet; dulcifluous, 
sweetly flowing; dulciloquent, with hon- 
eyed words; and of course the dulcimer, 
on which the damsel played in Coleridge's 
KUBLA KHAN. The dulcimer occurs earlier, 
in Pepys* DIARY (23 May, 1662) and 
Milton's PARADISE LOST (1667), and is 
the earliest prototype of the piano. 

dulcify. To sweeten (in taste or disposi- 
tion) ; to mollify, to appease. Cp. dulcet; 
edulcorate. Hence also dulcity, dulcitude, 
sweetness. And dulcoamare, bitter-sweet. 
Dulcify was also used, in the 19th century, 
to mean to speak sweetly or in bland 
tones. In alchemy, it was used of washing 
soluble acids out of a substance; Subtle 
asks, in Jonson's THE ALCHEMIST (1610) : 
Can you sublime, and dulcefie? Lamb's 
famous essay on roast pig in ELIA (1822) 



rejoices in intenerating and dulcifying a 
substance . . . so mild and dulcet as the 
flesh of young pigs. 

dulcimer. See dulcet. 
dule. See dole. 

dulia. Servitude; used in the Roman 
Catholic religion of the minor type ot 
veneration, of saints and angels, as con- 
trasted with latria, q.v. Greek douleia, 
servitude; doulos, slave. Hence, though 
rarely, dulically and dulian. 

dun. In phrases. A. Dun is in the mire: 
(1) "Everything is at a standstill." (2) A 
Christmas game. A log is brought into the 
room, and the cry is raised that Dun (the 
cart-horse; dun was from the 14th century 
a common name for a horse from the 
color) is stuck in the mire. Two persons 
pretend to be trying vainly to pull Dun 
out; more join them in the play, there 
are "sundry arch contrivances to let the 
ends of it fall on one another's toes" and 
other sources of merriment. Finally, Dun 
is drawn out of the mire, and put on the 
fire. B. Dun is the mouse: "The task is 
done." This is a jesting way of saying 
something is settled, or completed, by a 
nonsense pun on the color of a mouse. 
Shakespeare alludes to both these phrases, 
in the verbal play of ROMEO AND JULIET 
(1592) . Romeo, before the masked ball at 
the Capulets', is aweary: The game was 
nere so* faire, and I am done. Mercutio: 
Tut, dun's the mouse, the constable's 
owne word. If thou art dun, weele draw 
thee from the mire Of this sirreverence 
love wherein thou stick'st Up to the ears. 

dungeonable. Shrewd, "deep." In the 
17th and 18th centuries. From the figura- 
tive use of the noun, as applied to a per- 
son of profound learning. Boswell in his 

JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES 



228 



dup 

(1773) tells us: Lady Lochbury said 'He 
was a dungeon of wit.' 

dup. To open (as a gate or door). So 
the O.E.D.; Edward's WORDS, FACTS, AND 
PHRASES (1912) as plausibly says, to fasten. 
The word dup is a contraction of do up, 
Shakespeare has, in HAMLET (1602) : Then 
up he rose, and don'd his clothes, and 
dupt the chamber door. The slang dub 
meant either to open or to fasten; it is a 
corrupt form of dup, which may also have 
had either meaning. Formed in the same 
way were don, do on; doff, do off; dout, 
q.v. 

durance. Continuation, duration. The 
noun of the verb dure, q.v. Also durancy; 
superseded by endurance. Hence, a stout, 
durable cloth (16th to 18th century) , used 
figuratively by Cornwallyes in his ESSAYS 
(1601) : / refuse to wear buffe for the last- 
ing, and shall I be content to apparrell my 
braine in durancef The word is dimly 
remembered, from historical romances, in 
the sense of imprisonment, especially in 
durance vile. In this sense it is akin to 
duress (also from Latin durus, hard) , 
which first meant hardness, roughness, 
violence; then firmness; then forcible re- 
straint, imprisonment. Shakespeare in 
HENRY rv, PART TWO (1597) says that Doll 
is in base durance f and contagious [pesti- 
lential] prison. 

dure. (1) An early form of endure, used 
from the 13th through the 17th century. 
The form during, now used as a preposi- 
tion, was originally a participle of dure. 
French durer, to last; Latin durare, to 
harden, be hardened, last; durus, hard. 
Hence also, as an adjective (2) hard. Re- 
lated to dour. Even in the 19th century, 
Bulwer-Lytton (in HAROLD; 1848) wrote: 
In reply to so dure a request. Marlowe 
and Nashe in DIDO (1594) had: / may not 
dure this female drudgery. 



dwale 

durgen. An undersized creature; a dwarf. 
Also durgan. Fielding in THE TRAGEDY OF 
TRAGEDIES; OR TOM THUMB (1730) has a 
character cry: And can my princess such 
a durgen wed! 

dustyfoot. See piepowder. 

duty. That which is due. That which one 
ought from Late Latin debutus, from 
deb ere, debitus, whence also debt, that 
which one owes. Due respect, as in 
Chaucer's THE KNIGHT'S TALE (1386) , That 
good Arcite . . . Departed is with duetee 
and honour Out of this foule prison of 
this life. A slave has obligations (Latin 
ob -f ligare, to bind) ; a free man has 
duties. As Henry Fielding said in 1730: 
When I'm not thanked at all, I'm thanked 
enough; I've done my duty, and I've done 
no more. Thomas Jefferson, whom many 
profess to admire, said in 1789: My great 
wish is to go on in a strict but silent per- 
formance of my duty; to avoid attracting 
notice, and to keep my name out of news- 
papers. The satiric use of the word was 
first emphasized by W. S. Gilbert, who in 
RUDDYGORE (1887) playfully remarks that 
duty must be done and Painful though 
that duty be, To shirk the task were fiddle- 
de-dee. After him, more condescendingly, 
Oscar Wilde remarked: Duty is what one 
expects from others and Bernard Shaw: 
When a stupid man is doing something he 
is ashamed of, he always declares that it 
it his duty. In the wake of these cynical 
remarks (while customs duty is always 
hated) moral duty has been increasingly 
disregarded. The word, if used today, 
often arouses a surprised distaste. O tem- 
poral 

dwale. (1) Delusion; deceit; a deceiver, 
a transgressor; a heretic. Used in these 
senses from the 10th through the 13th 
century. (2) A soporific drink; a stupefy- 



229 



dwell 

ing dose (as of the juice or an infusion of 
belladonna). Chaucer in THE REEVE'S 
TALE (1386) says: Hem needed no dwale. 
Thus, 14th-18th century. The verb dwale 
had as alternate forms dwole, dwell. It 
first meant to confuse, to lead into error; 
to stun, stupefy. Thence, to remain for a 
time, in a condition or a place. Hence the 
meaning in which the form dwell has sur- 
vived. Chaucer also used dwale to mean 
the deadly nightshade, the plant from 
which belladonna and atropine are ex- 
tracted, the most sinister of all the witches' 
brew. 



dyspathy 



dwell. See dwale. 
dwole. See dwale. 



dya. See dia. 

dyslogistic. Expressing dispraise. The op- 
posite of eulogistic. THE SPECTATOR of 2 
July, 1887, speaks of the dyslogistic names 
by which it pleases each side to denomi- 
nate its opponents. 

dyspathy. Aversion. The opposite of sym- 
pathy. Hence, dyspathetic. Also dispathy. 
Lowell in a letter of 1886 remarks: What 
you say of Carlyle is . . . not dyspathetic. 



230 



eagre. A tidal wave; especially, the high 
crest of the tide's rushing up a narrowing 
estuary as in the Humber, Trent, and 
Severn rivers. Also eager, higra, hyger, 
eger, egre; agar, q.v.; aegir, eygre, and 
more. Sir Francis Palgrave (1851) wrote 
it eau-guerre, as though 'warring waters/ 
Drayton in POLYOLBION (1612) wrote: 
with whose tumultuous waves Shut up in 
narrower bounds, the higre wildly raves. 
Dryden in a THRENODY of 1685 wrote that 
His manly heart . . . like an eagre rode in 
triumph oer the tide. 

ean. To bring forth lambs, to yean. Also 
eanian, enen, enye, eyne. Thus eaned, 
born (used of a lamb) ; eanling, a young 
lamb. Shakespeare in THE MERCHANT OF 
VENICE (1596) tells of all the eanelings 
which were streakt and pied. Dire as a 
smiting haile f said Daniel in an ECLOGUE 
(1648) , to new-ean f d lambs. 

ear. See unear*d. Also earer, a plowman, 
in Wyclif's BIBLE (1382; ISAIAH) . 

ear-bussing. See buss. 
earik. See eric. 
earling. See aiding. 

easement. (1) Relief from pain or an- 
noyance. Chaucer has, in THE REEVE'S TALE 
(1386) : Some esement has lawe yshapen 
us. Hence, stool of easement, toilet; dogs 
of easement, a second string to relieve 
tired dogs on a hunt. (2) Refreshment, 
comfortable board and lodging. So re- 



vived by Scott in THE MONASTERY (1820) . 
(3) Advantage, comfort, enjoyment. Also 
revived by Scott, in THE HEART OF MID- 
LOTHIAN (1818). (4) The right to use 
something not one's own, as a roadway 
through a neighbor's ground, or water 
from his spring as a legal term, this is 
still current. 

eath. Easy, smooth; gentle, ready, sus- 
ceptible; comfortable, at ease. Also eith, 
eth, eethy and the like. Hence ethi modes, 
gentle of mood, from which came edmod, 
gentle, humble, meek; also edmede, ath- 
mod, admod, edmodi. Into the 13th cen- 
tury, edmede was also used as a noun, 
meaning gentleness, humility; so edmod- 
ness. Eathly, easy; hence, trifling, of short 
duration; of low station, mean nature, 
little worth. Eaths, easily; also, uneaths, 
with difficulty. THE ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE 
(1400) well observes: A foole is eith to 
bigyle [beguile]. An old Scotch proverb, 
with less general truth, declares: God's 
bairns are eath to lear pear n= teach]. 

ebberman. One that fishes below bridge, 
commonly at ebbing water. From ebb + 
er, one who + man. Also hebberrnan, 
Used in the 18th century, along the lower 
Thames. 

ebriety. Drunkenness. Habitual drunk- 
enness is ebriosity. Ebrious, tipsy; copi- 
ously drunk, ebriose. Latin ebrius, drunk. 
Note that inebriety and inebrious are not 
negatives; the in- is intensifying. Cp. 



231 



ebuccinate 



eckle 



couth. See comessation. Ebriety from wine 
is for the pleasure of the journey; from 
whisky, for the relaxing after the trip. 
From beer? That must have a reason, too. 

ebuccinate. To trumpet forth. Hence 
e buccinator; as Becon declared in NEWS 
OUT OF HEAVEN (1541) : The ebuccinator, 
shewer, and declarer of these news, I have 
made Gabriel. See abuccinate. 

ebulum. Elderberry wine. From the name 
of the (dwarf) elderberry tree. An Eng- 
lish recipe of 171 3 suggests making a white 
ebulum with pale malt and white elder- 
berries. Apparently a countryside favorite 
in the 18th century; red ebulum is still 
common, home-made, in the United 
States. 

eccaleobion. An aid to the coming of 
life. Greek ekkaleo bion, I evoke life. 
Pronounced in six syllables, accent on the 
by. Thus, applied in 1839 to an egg-hatch- 
ing apparatus invented by O.W. Bucknell. 
Also used figuratively, as in HARPER'S MAG- 
AZINE (1880) : Willies HOME JOURNAL was 
at one time a very eccaleobion for young 
writers. 

ecce. Behold. Latin, used in phrases, es- 
pecially Ecce Homo (THE BIBLE: JOHN 
19) ; hence, a representation of Christ 
with the crown of thorns. Ecce signum, 
behold the sign; Shakespeare in HENRY 
iv, PART ONE (1596) has Falstaff (after 
his rout at the misfired robbery at Gad- 
shill, when he 'lards the lean earth as he 
walks along') telling of his fierce battle 
and his miraculous escape, declare: I am 
eight times thrust through the doublet, 
four through the hose; my buckler cut 
through and through; my sword hacked 
like a handsaw ecce signum! Hence also 
ecceity, the quality of being present (used 
mainly in the 16th century) . 



ecdysiast. See abarcy. 

eche. Eche and eke are very common 
English words, Old English ecan, Old 
Teutonic form auk j an, related to Latin 
augere, auxum (whence English auxiliary) 
and to Greek auxanein, to increase. As a 
verb, eche (ich, eke, ayke, eak, etc.) meant 
to increase, to add, to prolong, to supple- 
ment (eke out) , as Shakespeare in the 
Prologue to HENRY v (1599) asks the audi- 
ence to still be kind And eech out our 
performance with your mind. As a noun, 
eche (eke) meant something added, es- 
pecially, an extra piece on a bell rope. 
To eken meant to the bargain, in addi- 
tion, as did also on eke and eke (as an 
adverb) : in addition, moreover, also; as 
Sterne said in TRISTRAM SHANDY (1759) : 
Supposing the wax good, and eke the 
thimble. As an adjective eche also meant 
everlasting; in eche, forever. An eke-name 
was an added name (like Plato, Broad- 
shouldered; Oedipus, Swell-foot) ; folk- 
etymology transferred the n, making it 
a neke-name, whence nickname. Cp. 
napron. The act of enlarging or adding 
was eking, as when Spenser laments in 
THE SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR (1579) : But 
such eeking hath made my heart sore 
but eking is also used as that which serves 
to eke out, as by D'Israeli in QUARRELS OF 
AUTHORS (1814) : Suppressed invectives 
and eking rhymes could but ill appease so 
fierce a mastiff. Enough of this eking! By 
way of reverse English, note that an eker, 
water-sprite, is a 14th century mistake for 
a niker f a water-sprite, mermaid, a com- 
mon Teutonic form related to Sanskrit 
nij-, to wash. Other forms, for water-elf, 
mermaid, are nix, nixie. Kingsley in 
HYPATIA (1853) elucidates: 'What is a 
nicor, Agilmund?' 'A sea-devil who eats 
sailors.' 



eccle. See ettle. 



eckle. See ettle. 
232 



edipol 

edipol. A mild oath; an inkhorn as- 
severation. Originally itself an oath: 
Latin edepol, ex, out -f deus, god 4- Pol- 
lux; By Pollux! Dekker in THE GENTLE 
CRAFT (1600) draws it from obscurity for 
humorous use: Away with your piskery 
pashery, your pols and your edipols! 

editrix. The feminine form of editor, 
usually applied in scorn, as by THE LONDON 
QUARTERLY REVIEW (September, 1847), 
discussing the novels of George Sand, 
semivir obscoenus, and claiming that 
these works if translated, and an attempt 
is now being made by an English editrix 
will help bring on that new religion which 
is to recognize virtue and vice as develop- 
ments of human nature equally respec- 
table that moral code of which adultery 
and incest are to be the cardinal virtues, 
and marriage the unpardonable sin 
when that glorious consummation is 
reached, we shall have something to sub- 
stitute for the anile dogmas and outworn 
precepts of the Gospel. 

edmede. Also edmod. See eath. 

edulcorate. To sweeten; to soften. Latin 
e, out -f dulcor, sweetness, whence also 
dulcify q.v., to make sweet, as coffee or 
one's disposition. In THE CHARACTER OF 
ITALY (1660) we read: We will allay 
the bitterness of this potion with the 
edulcorating ingredients of their virtues. 
Hence edulcorator, one who or that which 
sweetens. Swines dung, farmers were told 
by Worlige in 1669, is supposed to be a 
great edulcorator of fruit 

effable* That can be (or lawfully may 
be) put into words. Used in the 17th 
century; later (as by Longfellow in THE 
DIVINE TRAGEDY, 1871) only in contrast 
with ineffable. 



effervency. See deferve. 



egest 

eft. (1) A second time, again; after, A 
common word from the 9th to the 16th 
century. Used also in combinations: eft- 
castle, the after-part of a ship, opposite of 
forecastle; eftsith, eftsithes, once more, 
from time to time; eftsoon, eftersoon, eft- 
soons, a second time, afterwards, or (in 
modern archaic use, as in Coleridge's THE 
ANCIENT MARINER, 1798) immediately. 
Shakespeare, in PERICLES (1608) : Eftsoons 
I'll tell thee why. (2) Perhaps as a cor- 
ruption of deft; used in this manner only 
by Dogberry in Shakespeare's MUCH ADO 
ABOUT NOTHING (1599) : Yea, marry, that's 
the eftest way. Dogberry is an ancestor of 
Mrs. Malaprop. (3) An ewt, or a newt. 
CELIA'S ARBOUR (1878) by Besant and Rice 
says: We used to hunt as boys for . . . 
the little ewet, the alligator of Great 
Britain. But Lyly earlier (EUPHUES, 1580) 
warned: All things that breed in the mud 
are not efts. 

eftsoons. See eft. In Spenser's PROTHALA- 
MION (1596) Eftsoons the nymphs, which 
now had flowers their fill, ran all in 
haste . . . 

egelidate. To thaw; to render liquid. 
Latin e, out 4- gelidus, frozen. Davies, in 
THE HOLY ROODE (1609) : Then should my 
teares egelidate his gore. 

egest. To expel; especially from the 
body, by perspiration, bowel-evacuation, 
etc. Hence egestion, which follows diges- 
tion. Latin e, out 4- gerere, gestum, to 
carry. The waste materials are the egesta. 
T. Adams in his EXPOSITION (1633) of the 
SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER queries: What 
[is the] rich apparel, which man takes up 
in pride, but that the worm hath egested 
in scorn? Note, however, that egestuose, 
egestuous means needy, extremely poor; 
egestuosity (Latin egestas) , poverty. THE 
BRITISH APOLLO of 1709 (No. 64) spoke 



233 



egestuosity 



elatrate 



of clothing the egestuosity of your matter 
with pompous epithets. 

egestuosity. See egesL 

eggment. Instigation, inciting, egging on. 
The verb to egg, to incite, urge on, was 
used from the 13th century; another form 
from the same Teuton root is edge; to 
edge on was used in the I6th and 17th 
centuries in the same sense. In his CHRONI- 
CLES (1577), Holinshed stated: He ac- 
cused the moonks of manie things, and 
did therewith so edge the king against 
them. Also egger, egger on, an instigator. 
Chaucer in THE MAN OF LAWES TALE (1386) 
declared: Sothe is that through womman- 
nes eggement Mankind was lorn and 
damned aye to die. 

egredouce. (1) A piquant sauce. Liter- 
ally, sharp-sweet. (2) A dish; the recipe 
is in THE FORME OF CURY (1390) : Take 
conynges [rabbits] or kydde, and smyte 
hem on pecys rawe, and frye hem in white 
grece. Take raysons or coraunce, and fry 
hem, take oynouns, parboile hem, and 
hewe hem smalle, and fry hem. Take rede 
wyne, sugar, with powdor of pepor, of 
gynger, of canel; salt, and cast thereto; 
and let it seeth with a good quantite of 
white grece, and serve it forth. 

egritude. Sickness. Also aegritude; Latin 
aeger; aegrotus t sick; cp. egrote. R. Baron 
in THE CYPRIAN ACADEMY (1647) wrote: 
Now, now we symbolize in egritude And 
simpathize in Cupid's malady. An aegro- 
tant was a sick person. Also aeger, a note 
certifying that a student is sick, used in 
the 19th century at English universities; 
aegrotat (literally, he is sick) , a certificate 
that a student is too ill to go to class or 
examination. 



syllable, this word, found in 18th cen- 
tury dictionaries, might well find place in 
current speech. 

eirack. A hen of the first year. Also 
earack, erock. 

eirenicon. A proposal intended to make 
peace; an attempt to clear away differ- 
ences. Greek eirene, peace, whence the 
name Irene. Hence also eirenic, irenic, 
pertaining, or tending, to peace. An eire- 
narch was an ancient officer correspond- 
ing to justice of the peace. We wait with 
interest, said THE PALL MALL GAZETTE of 
19 June, 1886, to see Mr. Chamberlain's 
response to the new eirenicon. In the sus- 
picious atmosphere of today, an eirenicon 
is called a 'peace offensive/ 

eirmonger. An egg-dealer. Middle Eng- 
lish eiren, eggs. Used in the 13th and 14th 
centuries. 

eisel. Vinegar. Via French from Late 
Latin acetillum, diminutive of acetum, 
vinegar. Also eisell, aisille, ascill, eysell, 
aysell, and more. Used in HAMLET; see 
woot. 

eke. See eche; cp. eyas. 

elaboratory. A 17th and 18th century 
form of laboratory* Every great person, 
said Evelyn in ST. FRANCE (1652) , pretends 
to his elaboratory and library. 

elamp. To shine forth. Giles Fletcher in 
CHRIST'S VICTORY (1610) tells us The 
cheerful sun, clamping wide, Glads all the 
world with his uprising ray. 

elaqueate. To disentangle. From Latin 
elaqueare, e, out 4- laqueus, snare, noose. 
Found in dictionaries from the 17th cen- 
tury. 



egrote. To feign sickness. From Latin elatrate. To call out, to speak violently. 
aegrotus, sick. Accented on the second From Latin e, out + latrare, to bark; 

234 



elder-gun 

hence to rant, roar, bluster. A 17th cen- 
tury dictionary word. 

elder-gun. A pop-gun; a toy gun made of 
the hollow shoot of an elder, the young 
branches of which are pithy. Shakespeare 
in HENRY v (1599) : That's a perilous shot 
out of an elder gunne. Note also, in his 

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, heart of 

elder, faint heart, in humorous contrasting 
allusion to heart of oak, stout heart. 

eldritch. Weird, ghostly; frightful, hide- 
ous. Also elphrish, probably derived from 
elf. And eldritch, elraige, eldrich, and the 
like. James I in his ESSAY ON POESIE (1585) 
spoke of the King of Fary . . . with many 
elrage incubus rydant. Elf is a common 
Teuton form, used by extension of a 
child or other diminutive creature. Shake- 
speare in KING LEAR uses it as a verb 
lie . . . elfe all my haires in knots to 
twist, to tangle, as might a mischievous 
elf; hence, elf-locks (ROMEO AND JULIET), 
tangled hair. Also elf-skin (HENRY iv, PART 
ONE) , a small thin fellow. 

elenge. See alange. 

eleutherian. Pertaining to freedom; as a 
noun, a deliverer. Greek eleutheros, free. 
Eleutherian Jove, Jove (Zeus) as the pro- 
tector of freedom. Hence eleutherism, a 
zeal for freedom; W. Taylor in 1802 
spoke of a Miltonic swell of diction and 
eleutherism of sentiment. When excessive, 
this is called eleutheromania. Carlyle in 
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1837) says: 
Eleutheromaniac philosophedom grows 
ever more clamorous . . . nothing but in- 
subordination, eleutheromania, confused, 
unlimited opposition in their heads. "If 
there's a government," as the Irish rebel 
roared, "I'm agin it!" 

elf. See eldritch. 



ellingness. See alange. 



emball 

ellops. A serpent. In ancient times Greek 
ellops, elops was applied to either a fish 
or a serpent. Milton in PARADISE LOST 
(1667) includes it in a catalogue of horrid 
snakes: Dreadful was the din Of hissing 
through the hall, thick swarming now 
With complicated monsters, head and tail, 
Scorpion and asp and amphisbaena dire, 
Cerastes horned, hydrus, and ellops drear 
And dipsas . . . 

elsewhen. See anywhen. 
elucidate. See crepuscular. 

elucubration. Studying or composing by 
candle-light or burning the midnight oil; 
the product of such activity, a literary 
work (with emphasis on the work; cp. 
ergasy) . Also elucubrate, to compose in 
the late hours; elucubrationary; elucu- 
brator. Latin ex, out + lucubrare, to work 
at night; lucubrum, signal fire; lux, lucem, 
light: Fiat lux! Note that lucubrate and 
lucubration were also used in English; 
the ex did not change the meaning. 
Painter in THE PALACE OF PLEASURE (1566) 
spoke of Histories, chronicles, and monu- 
mentes, by the first authors and elucubra- 
tors. 

emacity. An itch to be buying. Latin 
emere, to buy; Caveat emptor f Let the 
buyer be ware! Everyman's wife, in Amer- 
ica, is noted for her emacity. Also emp- 
twnal, that may be purchased but o a 
person, emptitious, venal, open to a price. 
A market place was an emptory; as in 
Ray's FLORA (1665) : The flower-market, 
the common emptory of trash and refuse. 

emball. To wrap up; to make a bundle 
of. Thus Hakluyt in his VOYAGES (1599) : 
The marchandize . . . they emball it well 
with oxe hides. More literally, to put 
inside a ball or sphere; but in this sense 



235 



embarquement 



emmew 



used figuratively, as by Browning in 
ARISTOPHANES' APOLOGY (1875) : As lark 
emb ailed by its own crystal song. Shake- 
speare uses emballing in HENRY vin (1613), 
the O.E.D. states "Probably used in in- 
delicate sense; explained by commentators 
as 'investing with the ball as the emblem 
of royalty/ " Commentator G.B. Harrison 
explains the meaning as 'assault.' The 
context makes it clear that, while a Vic- 
torian might call it indelicate, Shakespeare 
is punning on the scepter and sex. An 
old lady of the court is speaking to Anne 
Bullen, who says she does not wish to be 
a queen. The lady says: // your back can- 
not vouchsafe this burden, 'tis too weak 
Ever to get a boy. Anne: How you do 
talk! I swear again I would not be a 
queen For all the world. Lady: In faith, 
for little England You'd venture an em- 
balling. I myself Would for Carnarvon- 
shire. 

embarquement. The act of placing under 
embargo (Italian imbargo; Latin in + 
barra, bar) . Also imbargement, embarge- 
menL Shakespeare in CORIOLANUS (1607) 
uses the word in the sense of hindrances, 
prohibitions: Nor sleep nor sanctuary . . , 
The prayers of priests nor times of sacri- 
fice, Embarquements all of fury, shall lift 
up Their rotten privilege and custom 
'gainst My hate to Marcius. 

emblaze. To set forth by coat-of-arms, 
banner, or other heraldic devices. Thus 
Shakespeare in HENRY vi, PART TWO (1590): 
Thou shalt weare it as a herald's coat, To 
emblaze the honor that thy master got. 
Also emblazon, to portray conspicuously; 
to celebrate, make illustrious. Hence, em- 
blazonry, heraldic devices, symbolic orna- 
ment; gorgeous colorful display; colorful 
(sometimes verbal) embellishment; em- 
blazure. Milton preferred the form im~ 
blazonry; for quotation, see horrent. 



embracer. Bashful at first, said Sir. W. 
Jones in a song of 1794, she smiles at 
length on her embracer. This meaning is 
quite common; it comes via French em- 
brasser (bras, arm) from Latin in, in 4- 
bracchium, arm. The forgotten word em- 
bracer is from French embraser, to set on 
fire, hence to entice, of Teutonic origin; 
and from the 15th through the 18th cen- 
tury an embracer was one who sought cor- 
ruptly to influence a jury. Henry VII 
passed laws in 1487 against embracery; 
400 years later THE TIMES (31 March 1887) 
mentioned a case in which the plaintiff . . . 
was charged . . . with the offence of em- 
bracery. THE TIMES was referring to an 
attempt to influence a verdict. Cp. bracery. 

embrew. See imbrue. 

erne. An uncle; originally, a mother's 
brother; more loosely, an elderly friend. 
From BEOWULF to the mid-1 8th century; 
Dray ton in POLYOLBION (1612) mentions 
Henry Hotspur and his eame the Earl of 
Rochester. Scott revived the word in THE 
HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN (1818) . Erne is also 
a variant form of ant, emmet. 

emeute. A riot or uprising of the people. 
Directly from the French; from dmouvoir, 
to agitate, rouse. Gilbert in THE PIRATES 
OF PENZANCE (1880) pictures the police- 
men threatened with emeutes. 

emicadon. A shining forth, as the glory 
of the Lord, Also, the sparkling out of 
carbonaceous and certain other liquors. 
From Latin e, out -f micare, to vibrate; 
to gleam, flash, shine. The verb emicate 
is also used in the sense of to spring forth, 
to appear, as when Motteux in his trans- 
lation (1708) of Rabelais heavily speaks 
of the studious cupidity, that so demon- 
stratively emicates at your external organs. 

emmew. See enew. Emmew is also a vari- 



236 



emollient 

ant of immeW) to put into a mew; see 
mews. 

emollient. Something that softens or 
soothes. Latin e, with intensive force + 
mollire, to soften; mollis, soft. Also an 
emollitive; emollition, the act of soften- 
ing; emolliment, softening, assuaging, 
soothing. The forms are not to be con- 
fused with emolument, benefit, reward, 
salary; Latin emolimentum, profit; prob- 
ably from emoliri, to bring out by effort; 
e, out 4- moliri, to strive, to toil. Gilbert 
in the apostrophe in THE PIRATES OF 
PENZANCE (1880) addresses Poetry as 
Divine emollient! 

emphyteusis. A hereditary lease; perpet- 
ual right in property belonging to an- 
other. Medieval (from Roman) law; the 
word is from Greek emphyteusis, implant- 
ing. The tenant on such land was called 
emphyteuta, emphyteuciary, emphyteuti- 
cary. For quotation, see stillicide. What a 
man is likely to do when a place is his 
'for keeps* may be judged from Blount's 
definition (1656) of an emphyteuticary: 
he that maketh a thing better than it was 
when he received it. May your life so 
render you! 

empiricutic. A one-time variation of em- 
piric, empirical, based on trial only; by 
extension, quack. Also, in the Folios, 
emperickqutique; empericktic; hence some 
editors print empirictic. Shakespeare, in 
CORIOLANUS (1607) , The most soveraigne 
prescription in Galen is but empiricutic; 
and to this preservative, of no better re- 
port then a horse-drench. 

emptitious. See emacity* 

emulous. Desirous of imitating; jealous, 
envious; (of things) closely resembling. 
Also, filled with the spirit of rivalry; 



enacture 

greedy for praise or power. Shakespeare 
in TROILUS AND CRESSiDA (1606) says: He is 
not emulous, as Achilles is. Also emula- 
tory; of the nature of fond imitation; 
emulable, worthy of being used as a 
model, Shakespeare in HAMLET: Pricked 
on by a most emulate pride. Hence emu- 
lator, a rival; a zealous imitator; used in 
the Douay BIBLE (1609)) of God God is 
an emulator: one that brooks no rival. 
Feminine forms were emulatress, emula- 
trix. An early meaning of the verb was 
to vie with, rival; Shakespeare in THE 
MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR has: / see how 
thine eye would emulate the diamond. 

en-. This prefix is most common, with 
several uses. (1) To place in or on, as 
enambush; encouch; Shakespeare in RICH- 
ARD ii (1593: Within my mouth you have 
engaol'd my tongue); enlabyrinth; enstage; 
enzone, to engirdle. (2) To put on or 
cover with, as endiadem; Drummond of 
Hawthornden in a poem of 1630 pictures 
the encharioted sun making gold the 
world: Phoebus in his chair Ensaffroning 
the sea and air. enspell, to cast a spell 
upon; enstomach, to give courage to; en- 
wood, to cover with trees. (3) To make, 
or bring to a condition or state: encalm, 
becalm; endrudge, to enslave (oneself); 
enfamous; Shakespeare has in LOVE'S 
LABOUR'S LOST (1588) enfreedoming thy 
person; engarboil, to throw into confusion 
or commotion; enwoman. (4) As an in- 
intensive, for emphasis (sometimes with 
the added idea of in) : en dazzle; endiaper f 
to variegate, dapple; enwed; enwisen, to 
make wise. 

enacture. Behavior; act; performance. 
Shakespeare in HAMLET (1604) has The 
violence of either grief or joy Their own 
enactures with themselves destroy, Where 
joy most revels, grief doth most lament; 
Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident. 



237 



enascent 

enascent. Just coming into being. E. 
Darwin in his poem THE BOTANIC GARDEN 
(1791) spoke of enascent leaves; also, The 
new annals of enascent time. 

enatation. Escape by swimming; swim- 
ming out. Also enatant, coming to the 
surface. Rare words, of the 17th and 18th 
centuries. 

enaunter. Lest by chance. A variant of 
on aunter, French en aventure. Similar 
to if per adventure. Cp. aunters. Spenser 
in THE SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR (1597; FEBRU- 
ARY) says: Anger nould [would not] let 
him speake to the tree, Enaunter his rage 
mought cooled be. 

encheason. See anchesoun. 

enchiridion. A handbook, a concise 
guide. Greek en, in -f- cheir, hand + 
-idion, a diminutive suffix. Coverdale in 
his translation (1541) of THE OLD FAITH., 
states that Moses made an enchiridion 
and sum of all the acts of his time. Bailey 
in his 1751 DICTIONARY defines enchiridion 
as 'a small portable pocket book,' and the 
term indeed fits the pocket-size books of 
today. 

endiablee. To put the devil into, to pos- 
sess with Satan. Via French diable, devil, 
from Greek diabolos, devil (the chief 
slanderer) ; diabole, slander; dia, across 
+ hallo, to throw: to throw across, to 
accuse, to slander. Also endiablement, pos- 
session by the devil. North in THE EX- 
AMINER of 1734 spoke of such an one as 
might best endiablee the rabble, and set 
them abawling against Popery. More di- 
rectly from the Greek come the too cur- 
rently diabolic things, and such less fa- 
miliar forms as diablotin, a little devil, 
imp of Satan; diabolarch, diabolarchy (ac- 
cents on the ab) , chief of the devils, rule 
of the devil, diabolify, diabolize. A di- 



energumen 

abolifuge is something to drive away the 
devil. A dialogue of (or talk about) 
devils is a diabologue. The doctrine of 
the devil, or devil lore, is diabology, more 
formally diabolology. In several of these 
forms, the o after b may be omitted; 
thus diablifuge, diablogue. These words 
were used in the 17th, 18th, or 19th cen- 
tury, when diablodoxy, if not diaboloc- 
racy, was more prevalent. As that diab- 
olish (accent on the ab) authority 
Baudelaire remarked: "The cleverest ruse 
of the devil is to persuade us he doesn't 
exist/' 

endore. See hastlet. 

enemious. Hostile. Also enmious; en- 
emiable, with the feelings of an enemy. 
Thus enemicitious, inimicitious, inimi- 
dtial, inimicous, mainly 17th century 
forms replaced by inimical. Sterne in 
TRISTRAM SHANDY (1761) spoke of driving 
the gall from the gall-bladder . . . of his 
Majesty's subjects, with all the mimiciti- 
ous passions which belong to them. More 

in THE HISTORIE OF KYNG RYCHARDE THE 

THIRDE (1513) spoke of an action as no 
warning, but an enemious scorne. 

energumen. One wrought upon or pos- 
sessed by a devil; hence, a fanatical dev- 
otee. Latin energumenus; Greek ener- 
goumenos, past participle of energeein, 
to work upon; en, in + ergon, work. 
Accent on the gyu. Used in the 17th and 
early 18th centuries; renewed by Scott 
and others in the 19th. Morley in MAC- 
MILLAN'S MAGAZINE of February 1885, 
spoke of the seeming peril to which price- 
less moral elements of human character 
were exposed by the energumens of 
progress. Also energumenist, one possessed 
by devils; Gaule in SELECT CASES OF CON- 
SCIENCE, CONCERNING WITCHES AND WITCH- 
CRAFT (1646) sought to discriminate: The 



238 



enew 



ensconce 



meerly passive be simply deemoniacks, 
but not energumenists. 

enew. To plunge into the water. Also, to 
drive into the water, as a bird of prey would 
another bird. French en, in + eau, water; 
Provencal aigua; Latin aqua, as in aqua- 
tics. Used from the 15th into the 17th 
century; in Shakespeare (MEASURE FOR 
MEASURE; 1603) it has been misprinted 
emmew and enmew, explained by some 
commentators as 'keep in the coop* the 
bird fears to come out. Shakespeare says: 
This outward-sainted deputie Whose set- 
tled visage and deliberate word Nips 
youth i } the head,, and follies doth enmew 
As falcon doth the fowle, is yet a devil, 
The BOOK OF ST. ALBANS (1486) made the 
sense clear: Yowre hawke hath ennewed 
the fowle in to the ryver. 

enfeoff. To put a person in possession 
of a fief, land and*other property held 
under a feudal lord. Also, to give over as 
a fief; hence, to surrender, to give up 
(something) . Also enfeffe, enfief, infeoff, 
and the like. Used figuratively in both 
senses; in the second, when Henry IV 
(in Shakespeare's play; 1596) warns his 
son, Prince Hal, against the dangers of 
too great familiarity with the people; by 
instancing his own predecessor: The skip- 
ping King, he ambled up and down . , . 
Mingled his royalty with capering fools 
. . . Grew a companion to the common 
streets, Enfeoff d himself to popularitie. 

engastrimyth. A ventriloquist From 
Greek engastrimythos; en, in + gastri, of 
the belly -f mythos, speech. Also, in 17th 
century dictionaries, engastromich. Sylves- 
ter in his translation (1598) of Du Bartas 
has: Al incenst, the pale engastromith . . . 
speakes in his wombe. Urquhart, in his 
translation (1693) of Rabelais, speaks of 
the engastrimythian prophetess. The word 



was used occasionally in the 19th century, 
but by then had been largely supplanted 
by ventriloquist, from Latin ventri, of the 
belly + loquor, to speak whence also 
eloquent and a flood of words, 

engraff. To graft in; an early form of 
engraft. Used since the 15th century. Also 
ingraff. Used by Swinburne (ATALANTA IN 
CALYDON; 1864) meaning to beget. Shake- 
speare used it in the passive voice, mean- 
ing to be closely attached: HENRY iv, PART 
TWO (1597) : You have beene so lewde, 
and so much ingraffed to Falstaff. 

ennead. "The first square of an odd 
number'* 17th century. Three syllables. 
Greek enneas, enneados, nine. Hence, a 
set of nine persons or things; Porphyry, 
who studied under Plotinus in Rome (262 
A.D.) divided the works of his teacher 
into six enneads. Also enneatic, occurring 
once in nine days, months, throws of 
dice, etc. The enneatical year, every ninth 
year of life. Nine was, in many periods 
(especially as three contained in itself), 
deemed the perfect number. 

ennoyous. See annoyous. 

enow. A variant of enough. Also ynoghe, 
anowe, ynowe, etc. Enow was the Middle 
English plural of enough; thus one might 
have sugar or coal enough; but men, 
ships, slips enow. Today the two are in- 
terchangeable, save that enow is archaic 
or poetic, as in Ah, wilderness were para- 
dise enow. 

ensconce. To furnish with sconces, to 
fortify; to shelter; to hide; to get into a 
place for security or concealment. From 
en, into + sconce, small fortification, 
earthwork; Old French esconse, shelter, 
hiding-place. Shakespeare in THE COMEDY 
OF ERRORS (1590) says: / must get a 
sconce for my head and insconce it too; 



239 



ensear 

in THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR: / Will 

ensconce mee behinde the arras. Butler in 
HUDIBRAS (1678) described A fort of error 
to ensconce Absurdity and ignorance. 

ensear. To dry up. The en is intensive 
f sear, sere, dry. Shakespeare in TIMON 
OF ATHENS (1607) has: Ensear thy fertile 
and conceptions wombe. 

enseygnedL See admonish. 

ensiferous. Bearing a sword. From Latin 
ensis, sword 4- ferre, to carry. In diction- 
aries from the 17th century. More fre- 
quent in use is ensiform f sword-shaped, 
which is used scientifically of leaves, 
cartilage (appended to the breast-bone), 
and antennae. 

ensorcelL To enchant. Used by Wyatt in 
1541; revived by Meredith in the amusing 

THE SHAVING OF SHAGPAT (1855) : a SOT- 

ceress ensorcelled, and used by both Payne 
(1883) and Burton (1886) in their trans- 
lations Of THE ARABIAN NIGHTS, that prime 

collection of ensorcellings. 

entach. To spot; to stain, defile; to 
imbue with (good or evil quality). Used by 
Chaucer. Also entech, entatch; Old French 
en, in 4- tache t spot, trait of character; 
Latin tangere, tacturn, to touch (related 
to attach] whence also tangent, contact f 
intact, tactless; integrity, entire (Latin 
integer, not touched, whole). Skelton 
(WORKS; 1489) declared: Of elephantis 
tethe were the palace gatis, Enlosenged 
with many goodly platis Of golde, en- 
tachid with many a precyous stone. 

enucleation. Clarification, explanation, 
getting out the 'kernel' of the matter. 
Latin enudeare, enucleatum; e, out + 
nucleus, kernel whence the nucleus of 
an atom or an idea. The converse of giv- 
ing some one 'the story, in a nutshell/ 
Also enucleate, to make clear, explain. 



Ephesian 

Butler in HUDIBRAS (1678) exclaimed: 
Oh! that I could enucleate And solve the 
problem of my fate. 

eoan. Pertaining to the dawn; eastern. 
Greek eos, dawn. Shelley in LIBERTY (1822) 
says: The morning-star Beckons the sun 
from the eoan wave. 

eotand. A variant of eten, q.v. 

eowte. A dish; the recipe is given in 
THE FORME OF CURY (1390) : Eowtes of 
flessh. Take borage, cool, langdebef [beef 
tongue] persel, betes, orage, avance, violet, 
sawray, and fennel, and when they buth 
soden, presse hem wel smale, cast hem in 
gode broth, and seeth hem, and serve hem 
forth. 

epact. (1) The number of days from 
the new moon at the beginning of the 
calendar year. (2) The extra, intercalated 
day in Leap Year; the extra days in any 
calendar, as the ancient Egyptian, which 
had twelve months of thirty days and five 
epacts. From Greek epaktos; epagein f to 
intercalate, from epi, on -f agein, to 
bring. There were special gods to be 
worshiped and rites to be performed on 
these epagom'.nic days. 

Ephesian. A boon companion, a royster- 
er. Shakespeare in THE MERRY WIVES OF 
WINDSOR (1598) has: It is thine host, 
thine Ephesian, calls. Brewer in THE DIC- 
TIONARY OF PHRASE AND FABLE Suggests 

that this contains a pun on pheeze, to 
flatter: a-pheeze-ian; cp. feeze (5). Ephesian 
letters are magic characters; many of the 
people of Ephesus, at the admonition of 
Paul, burnt their books of magic so many 
books that (BIBLE; ACTS, 19) "they counted 
the price of them, and found it fifty thou- 
sand pieces of silver." And there was a 
great riot at the theatre and the temple 
of Diana, on whose fair statue Ephesian 
letters were wrought. 



240 



ephestian 



epicrisis 



ephestian. Domestic, not foreign. Greek epicaricacy. Rejoicing at, or taking joy 



ephestios, of the family; epi, upon ^ 
hestia, the hearth. A rare word, used in 
the 17th century. 

ephialtes. Nightmare; a demon that 
leaps upon people and causes nightmare. 
A 17th century term, probably from Greek 
epi, upon + allesthai, to leap. A demon 
in female form, supposedly having carnal 
intercourse with men in their sleep, was 
a succubus; from Latin sub, under + cub-, 
root of cumber e f to lie. In the feminine 
forms succube (two syllables) and suc- 
cuba, the word also meant a strumpet; 
Jonson in THE ALCHEMIST (1610) has: / 
walked naked between my succubae. The 
forms were quite common from the 14th 
century. C.K. Sharpe in the Preface to 
Law's MEMORIALS (1818) tells us that 
Benedict of Berne for forty years . . . had 
kept up an amatory commerce with a 
succubus called Hermeline. This, despite 
the fact that in 1797 the ENCYCLOPEDIA 
BRITANNICA had assured its readers: The 
truth is, the succubus is only a species of 
the nightmare. Barham in THE INGOLDSBY 
LEGENDS (1838) cries: Oh! happy the slip 
from his succubine grip That saved the 
Lord Abbott. The demon that sought 
carnal intercourse with women in their 
sleep was the incubus; Latin in, upon -f 
cumbere, to lie. There were civil and 
ecclesiastical laws concerning incubi t in 
the Middle Ages. The incubus also con- 
sorted with witches, who had a pet term 
for it, incuby. In the 17th century, incubus 
began also to be used of any great burden, 
hanging on one like a nightmare. A miser, 
brooding over his wealth, was called (17th 
century) an incubo. From the same Latin 
source come the brooding terms relating 
to incubation. One possessed by an ephi- 
altes was sometimes said to have gone 
witch-riding. 



in, die misfortunes of others. From Greek 
epi, upon -f chara, joy + kakon, evil. 
Bailey's DICTIONARY (1751) spells it epi- 
charikaky; the accent falls on the tcL 
The O.E.D. (1933) ignores the word, but 
alas! the feeling is not so easily set aside. 

epicene. Partaking of the characteristics 
of both sexes; adapted to, used by, both 
sexes; by extension, effeminate. Also as 
a noun, one that has characteristics of 
both sexes. Greek epi, upon -f koinos, 
common used in Latin and Greek gram- 
mar of nouns that (without change of 
gender) may denote either sex. Fuller in 

his WORTHIES OF ENGLAND (1661) Spoke 

of those epicoene and hermaphrodite con- 
vents, wherein monks and nuns lived to- 
gether. Jonson wrote a play (1609), 
Epicoene; or, The Silent Woman the 
'woman' turns out to be a man. Referring 
to the fact that male actors performed 
the female parts, ERASER'S MAGAZINE in 
1850 said: Even Shakespeare sometimes 
slides into the temptation which this epi- 
cenism presents to unlicensed wit. Shake- 
speare took advantage of all conditions of 
the theatre of his day; of this 'epicenism*, 
in the frequency with which his women 
(played by males) disguise themselves 
as men; Rosalind plays on the condition 
in the Epilogue to AS YOU LIKE IT. 

epicrisis. Critical appreciation of liter- 
ature. The O.E.D. (Supplement) gives 
only the specific meaning: an appendix to 
each book of the OLD TESTAMENT, giving 
for that book the number of letters, verses, 
and chapters, and the middle sentence. 
Hence also epicritic, a learned critic of 
literature. As an adjective, epicritic was 
suggested by H. Head (in BRAIN, 1905) to 
designate recently developed, finer sensa- 
tions of touch opposed to the earlier 



241 



epideictic 

protopathic. Many, however, have ques- 
tioned such a distinction. 

epideictic. Adapted for display; used to 
show off; especially, among the ancients, 
of orations to display one's ability. Also 
epideiktic, epideictical; Greek epideikti- 
kos; epi f upon; deiknunai, to show. Farrar 
in THE LIFE OF CHRIST (1874) said: He 
would not work any epideictic miracle at 
their bidding. 

epiky. Reasonableness, equity as op- 
posed to rigid law, to the strict 
letter. Greek epi, according to 4- eikos, 
likely, reasonable. Also epicay, epicheia. 
La timer in a Sermon of 1549 declared: 
For avoydyng disturbance in the com- 
munewealth, such an epiky and moder- 
ation may be used. 

epithalamic. Related to a wedding, or 
to a nuptial song. Also epithalamial From 
epithalamium, epithalamy, epithalmie, a 
song or poem in praise of the bride and 
groom, with a prayer for their well-being. 
Greek epithalamion; epi, upon 4- thala- 
mos, bridal chamber. Hence epithalamize, 
to compose a nuptial song; the composer 
is an epithalamiast. Spenser in 1595 wrote 
an epithalamion. Stockton in his noted 
story THE LADY OR THE TIGER (1884 and 
still no one knows which!) pictured danc- 
ing maidens treading an epithalamic 
measure. 

equiparate. To reduce to a level; to 
level, raze. Latin aequiparare } aequipara- 
tum f to put on an equality; compare; 
aequus, equal + par, like. Hence equipar- 
able, equiparant; equiparate (adjective),, 
equivalent, of equal importance. Equtpa- 
rance, equivalence; equiparation, the act 
of placing on an equal footing; the act 
of comparing; a comparison. All save 
equiparable and equiparation accent on 
quip; all were used mainly in the 18th 



eremite 

century, as in Vicars' translation (1632) 
of THE AENEID: King Latines throne this 
day Tie ruinate And houses tops to th 3 
ground aequiparate. 

erayne. See arain. 

erbolat. A dish of herbs and eggs; recipe 
in THE FORME OF CURY (1590) : Take 
parsel, myntes, saverey, and sauge, tansey, 
vervayn, clarry, rewe } ditayn, fenel, south- 
renwode; hewe hem, and grinde hem 
smale; medle hem up with ayren. Do 
butter in a trape, and do the fars thereto, 
and bake, and messe it forth. 

erbowle. A dessert or compote; recipe in 
THE FORME OF CURY (1390) : Take bolas 
[bullace: a wild plum] and scald hem with 
wyne, and drawe hem with a styomor. Do 
hem in a pot. Clarity hony, and do 
thereto, with powdor fort, and floer of 
rys. Salt it, and florish with white aneys, 
and serve it forth. 

erding. An abode, a dwelling. Also eard- 
ing. Thus erding-stow, dwelling-place. 
Used from the 10th to the 14th century. 
From erd (earth), land where one dwells, 
one's country, erd-folk, people of the land. 
Used from BEOWULF to the 14th century. 
Old English eard, land; Old Saxon ard } 
dwelling; Old High German art, plough- 
ing; Old Norse orth, harvest. Also a verb, 
erde, to live, to inhabit; to exist in a place 
or condition. Erde is also an old form 
of earth. 

erede. Lacking counsel. Also etrede. 

erege. A heretic. Spanish herege; Old 
French erege; Latin haereticus; Greek 
hairesis, a sect. Also erite (12th century; 
erege is a I4th century form). 

eremite. An early form of hermit, linger- 
ing in poetry and for archaic effect. Greek 
eremites; eremia, a desert; eremos, unin- 



242 



erendrake 



eric 



habited. The eremite (from the 3d cen- 
tury) was a Christian solitary, distin- 
guished from the coenobite, cenobite 
(Greek koinos, common -f bios, life), who 
was withdrawn from the world but lived in 
a religious community. The two types are 
included in the anchoret (anchorite, an- 
corite, anachorete)', Greek ana, back -f 
chore ein, to withdraw), one that has with- 
drawn from the world. In a SONNET (1616) 
Drummond of Hawthornden has: Framed 
for mishap, th* anachorit of love. Milton 
in PARADISE LOST (1671) used eremite with 
suggestion of its literal sense: Thou spirit 
who ledst this glorious eremite Into the 
desert] Bulwer-Lytton in EUGENE ARAM 
(1832) speaks of the twilight eremites of 
books and closets. Also eremitage, ere- 
miteship, eremitism; eremital, eremitary, 
eremitic, eremitical, eremitish; and eremic 
(accent on the ree) , pertaining to the 
desert. 

erendrake. A messenger; ambassador. 
Used from the 9th to the 13th century. 
Also aerendwreca, erndraca, aerndrache, 
herindrak, and more. Old English aerende, 
errand -f- wrecan, to tell. 

crept. To snatch away, to carry off. 
Hence ereption. Latin eripere, ereptum; 
e, out -f rapere, to snatch. Bishop Joseph 
Hall in A PLAINE AND FAMILIAR EXPLICA- 
TION (BY WAY OF PARAPHRASE) OF ALL THE 

HARD TEXTS OF THE WHOLE DIVINE SCRIP- 
TURE (1633) noted The suddaine and in- 
expected ereption of Isaac from his im- 
minent and intended death. THE ATH- 
ENAEUM of 1865 (No. 1951) went to 
pagan mythology to observe: Pluto erepts 
Proserpine. 

erer. Former; before. Also aerra, earre, 
erur, earar, and the like. Used from the 
9th into the 15th century; as an adverb, 
erer was replaced by ere. 



erf. Cattle. Hence, erfe-blood f blood of 
animals; erf-kin, the race of animals, 
cattle. As cattle originally meant capital, 
goods, so erf originally mean inheritance; 
Old Norse arfr; it is related to Greek 
orphanos, English orphan', Latin orbus, 
bereft. Thus words tell us of early ways. 
Erf was used until the 14th century. 
[There is a 19th century form erf, from 
the Dutch also originally meaning in- 
heritance used in South Africa for a 
garden plot, usually of about half an acre.] 

ergasy. A literary production, an elucu- 
bration. Greek ergasia; ergon, work* R. 
Humphrey in his translation (1637) of 
St. Ambrose spoke of ending the whole 
ergasie or tractate with it. 

ergotize. To quibble; to wrangle. Also 
ergot, ergoteer. From Latin ergo, there- 
fore, used in English to introduce the con- 
clusion of a syllogism. The combinations, 
from this frequent use in argument, came 
to be applied to those that liked to dis- 
pute, or disputed sophistically. Thus 
ergoteer, ergoteerer, ergoteur, a wrangler, 
a disputatious fellow; ergotism, arguing, 
quibbling; ergotic, sophistical, jumping to 
conclusions; ergotist y a quibbler, a pedan- 
tic reasoner. Urquhart in his translation 
(1653) of Rabelais said: After they had 
well ergoted pro and con, they concluded 
. . . THE NINETEENTH CENTURY (September, 
1881) stated that Mr. Gladstone and this 
famous ergoteur are the only -people living 
who have boundless faith in reasoning. 
More today render it at least lip-service. 

eric. A pecuniary payment, as compensa- 
tion for murder or other violent crime, 
accepted in Ireland into the 17th century. 
Also eriach, earike, erycke, earik; Irish 
eiric. Spenser noted it, in THE STATE OF 
IRELAND (1596) : In the case of murder 
. . . the malefactor shall give unto them 
[the friends] or to the child, or wife of 



24B 



ermgo 

him that is slain a recompence, which they 
call an eriach. R. Bagwell commented on 

it, in IRELAND UNDER THE TUDORS (1885): 

This blood-fine, called an eric, was an 
utter abomination to the English of the 
sixteenth century. 

eringo. See eryngo. 
erite. See erege. 
errant. See arrant. 

errhine. A medicine (not snuff) that 
causes sneezing. Greek errhinon; en, in + 
rhin, nostril, whence also rhinosceros. Cp. 
sternutation. Also, a plug of lint put into 
the nose, steeped in such a medicine. 

erst* Formerly. Also erest; arst, earst, 
earest, and more. The superlative of ere, 
before: the most before, i.e., the first, 
earliest, soonest, not erst y not before, on 
erst, in the first place, then at erst, then 
at the earliest. Spenser uses at erst, to 
mean at once, right now. A very common 
word, beginning to grow old in Shake- 
speare's time (it occurs in his early plays, 

HENRY VI, PART TWO, 1590; AS YOU LIKE IT), 

but lingering in poetry. 

erubescent. Blushing. From Latin e, out 
+ rubescere, to grow red; rub ere, to be 
red; ruber, red. In 18th century diction- 
aries. Thackeray in PENDENNIS (1849) says: 
The Major erubescent confounded the 
impudence of the young folks. 

eryngo. The root of the sea holly, can- 
died, eaten as a sweetmeat, supposed to 
have aphrodisiac properties. Also the 
Latin form eryngium; and eringo, ringo. 
In Shakespeare's THE MERRY WIVES OF 
WINDSOR (1598) Falstaff exclaims: Let the 
sky rain potatoes, let it thunder to the 
tune of 'Green Sleeves,' hail kissing-com- 
fits, and snow eryngoes; let there come a 
tempest of provocation, I will shelter me 



esemplastic 

here then he embraces Mistress Ford. 
Colchester, said Evelyn in his MEMOIRS 
(1656) , is also famous for oysters and 
eringo root. 

esbatement. Amusement, diversion. Ap- 
parently applied originally to boxing and 
wrestling; esbatement comes via Old 
French from Latin ex, out + batter e, to 
beat. Used in the 15th and 16th cen- 
turies, 

esbrandill. To shake. Old French es- 
brandeler (modern ebranler) from a Teu- 
tonic stem brant, to quiver (like fire) , to 
burn. Hence the brand in the burning. 
Queen Elizabeth, in a letter of 1588, de- 
clared emphatically: Never shall dread of 
any mans behavior cause me doo aught 
that may esbrandill the seat that so well 
is settled. 

escal. Fit to eat; pertaining to food. 
From Latin esca, food; whence also escu- 
lent, good to eat, as the esculent snail. 
Escal is found only in 17th and 18th cen- 
tury dictionaries; esculency is slightly 
more common. 

esclavage. A necklace of several rows of 
gold links, named from its resemblance 
to the chains of a slave. French esclavage, 
slavery. By extension, any similar adorn- 
ment, as triple rows of beads or jewels. 
Colman and Garrick in THE CLANDESTINE 
MARRIAGE (1766) inquire: How d'ye like 
the style of this esclavage? A time nearer 
to our own affected the slave anklet, which 
for a while transferred the application 
from the physical resemblance to the idea, 
and was worn as a sign that one's affec- 
tions were in bondage. 

esculent. See escal. 

esemplastic. Unifying; molding into a 
unity. Also esemplasy (accent on the em) , 
the unifying power of the imagination. 



244 



eslargish 

Greek es t into + en, eis, one 4- plastikos; 
plassein, to mold. The words were first 
used by Coleridge (BIOGRAPHIA UTTER- 
ARIA; 1817), probably a transmutation 
into Greek forms of Schilling's German 
term ineinsbildung, forming into one. The 
words are almost always used in conscious 
echo of Coleridge. 

eslargish. To extend the range or scope 
of; to set (oneself) at large, free. A 15th 
century word; replaced by enlarge. Cax- 
ton in his translation (1483) of GEOFFROI 

DE LA TOUR I/ANDRI WTOte that God 

moveth him self to pyte and eslargyssheth 
his misericorde. 

esmay. An earlier form of dismay. From 
Old French esmaier, to trouble; ex, out 
4- a Teutonic root; magan, to be able. 
Gower said, in CONFESSIO AMANTIS (1393): 
I am . . . so distempred and esmaied. 

esne. An Old English slave. Pronounced 
eznie. From a Tetuonic root, asnjo-, har- 
vester; asano-, harvest. Revived by Scott 
in IVANHOE (1820) : Esne art thou no 
longer. 

esoteric. See acroamatic. 

espadon. A long two-handed sword. 
Spanish espadon, augmentative form of 
espada, sword. Used 15th, 1 6th, and 17th 
centuries. BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGA- 
ZINE (May, 1881) recorded the horseman's 
huge espadon of six feet long. 

esprlngal, A medieval catapult, for hurl- 
ing heavy missiles. Also spnngald; es- 
pringold. Some lighter ones shot winged 
arrows of brass. Springal, sprynhold, 
springold, etc., also were very commonly 
uesd from 1450 to 1650, to mean an up- 
standing youth. Thus Beaumont and 
Fletcher in THE KNIGHT OF THE BURNING 
PESTLE (1613) exclaim: Sure the devil, 
God bless us, is in this springald. Scott in 



estovers 

OLD MORTALITY (1816) and IVANHOE (1819: 
This same springal, who conceals his name 
. . . hath already gained one prize) revived 
the word; Byron and others followed. 

essexed. Well rounded in the calf of the 
leg. Originally, Essex calf, a calf grown 
in Essex county; then used contemptu- 
ously of a native of the country. By pun- 
ning practice, Essex-growth, development 
of the calf of the leg; You would wish, 
we read in the play LADY ALIMONY (1659), 
that his puny baker-legs had more Essex 
growth in them. A good legge, said the 
Water Poet (WORKS; 1630) is a great grace 
if it be discreetly essex'd in the calfe, and 
not too much spindled in the small Then 
this was a man's; now, rather a woman's, 
concern. 

essoin. To offer excuse for non-appear- 
ance in court; to accept an excuse, to let 
off. Also, as a noun, an excuse; the offer- 
ing of an excuse. Day of essoin, essoin- 
day, first day of court term, when excuses 
may be submitted. An essoin might be 
for illness, king's service, holy pilgrimage, 
and the like. The word was common 
from the 14th century, also essoyne, as- 
soine, essonyie; via Old French essoignie*: 
Medieval Latin ex, out + sonia, sunnis, 
lawful excuse; Gothic sunja, truth. Hence 
essoiner, one that presents the excuse for 
the absentee; essoinee, one excused; es~ 
soinment Spenser in THE FAERIE QUEENE 
(1590) has: From everie worke he chal- 
enged essoyne, For contemplation sake. In 
THE UNIVERSAL REVIEW (November, 1889) 
we read: In the high court of night Be 
thou essoiner for us unto death. Death 
grants no long essoining. 

estive. See aestivate. 

estovers. Necessaries allowed by law. Old 
French estovotr, est a avoir, it is to have, 
it is needed. Specifically (13th to 18th 



245 



estre 



etna 



century) : wood a tenant may take from 
his landlord's estate for essential repairs; 
alimony; maintenance for an imprisoned 
felon. Cp. hereyeld. 

estre. Condition, way of life; state of 
things. Also eastre, ester, hester, esture, 
aistre; Old French estre, to be. Hence, a 
place, a region where one is; an estate. 
In the plural, dwellings; quarters; inner 
rooms; paths in a garden, and the like. 
Used from the 13th to the 16th century 
(Lydgate; Gower; Chaucer). 

eten. A giant Also ettin, eont, eotand, 
eotend, eatand, yhoten, etayne, eitin, and 
the like. Hence etenish, gigantic. From 
the 13th century, when giants were com- 
mon although it's in 1549, in the 
COMPLAYNT OF scoTLANDE, that we glimpse 
the taiyl of the reyde eythyn witht the 
three heydis into the 17th century. Beau- 
mont and Fletcher remark in THE KNIGHT 
OF THE BURNING PESTLE (1611) : They say 
the King of Portugal cannot sit at his 
meate but . . . the ettins will come and 
snatch it from him. The opposite of an 
eten was a droich, a dwarf. Also droigh; 
perhaps altered from duerch, duergh, 
variant forms of dwarf. Used especially in 
Scotland, 16th and 17th centuries. Also 
droichy, dwarfish. The BANNATYNE MANU- 
SCRIPT (1568) contains Ane little Inter- 
lud, of the droichis part of the play. This 
begins: Hiry, hary, hubbilschow. In it the 
dwarf (representing Plenty) complains 
that for eild [age] he has dwindled from 
the size of his ancestors, the giants Her- 
cules, Fin Ma Cowl, Gog Magog each 
such a one as wold apoun his tais [toes] 
up stand And tak the starnis [stars] down 
with his hand And sett thame in a gold 
garland Aboif his wyvis hair. Similarly, 
the dwarf that teased Gulliver in Brob- 
dingnag was only thirty feet tall. 



eth. Also (Spenser, THE SHEPHERD'S 
CALENDAR, 1579) ethe. See eath. 

ethnagogue. A leader of a nation with 
some of the same implication of charla- 
tanry or self-seeking as in demagogue, 
literally, a leader of the people. Greek 
ethnos, nation (whence ethnic) + agogos, 
leader. Also ethnarch (Greek archos, 
ruler), ruler of a people, also used in 
ancient times for the governor of a 
province (as in the Roman Empire, 
where a province held a people) . 

ethology. (1) The portrayal of charac- 
ter by mimicry. Only in 17th and 18th 
century dictionaries. (2) The science of 
ethics. (3) Used by J. S. Mill (1843) and 
since, as the science of character-forma- 
tion. From Greek ethos, character + logos, 
a talker. A mimic, thus, is an ethologist. 

ethopoetlc. Representing character or 
manners. Greek ethos, character -\-poieti- 
kos; poieein, to make, represent. Hence 
eihopoeia, delineation of character; moral 
portraiture. Urquhart in THE JEWEL (1652) 
spoke of a man pranking, with a flourish 
of mimick and ethopoetick gestures. 

etiolation. The action or process of be- 
coming, or the state of being, pale or 
colorless. The verb is etiolate or etiolize; 
from Norman etieuler, ultimately from 
Latin stipula, straw. Used in the 18th and 
19th century; by scientists to refer to 
plants; but Charlotte Bronte in JANE 
EYRE (1848) has: I ... left a bullet in 
one of his poor etiolated arms, and THE 
NORTH BRITISH REVIEW of 1844 said that 
Newton smoked himself into a state of 
absolute etiolation. 

etna. A spirit-lamp; especially, one 
shaped like an inverted cone on a saucer, 
used in the 19th century for heating a 
small amount of liquid. Also aetna. 



246 



ettercap 

Named from the volcano, Mt. Etna. THE 
ENGLISH MECHANIC of 18 March, 1870, an- 
nounced an etna with which I can pro- 
duce a pint of boiling water in eight 
minutes. 

ettercap. See alter. 

ettle. To intend, to purpose; to ordain, 
destine; to aim, direct; direct one's course; 
to arrange, set in order, prepare. Also to 
guess, conjecture. A common word from 
the 12th century; after the 14th mainly 
in northern dialects. Among its forms 
were atlien, attle, ahtil 3 atthill, eitle, attile, 
ettelle. Hampole in THE PRICKE OF CON- 
SCIENCE (1340) mentioned a daughter 
the whilk he luved specialy and eghtild to 
mak hir qwene of worshepe. Hence ettle, 
ettling, ettlement, intention; endeavor 
ettle was also used (18th century) to 
mean opportunity; ettling (13th century) 
to mean conjecture; withouten eni et- 
lunge, without any guessing, unquestion- 
ably. Ettler, a schemer; an aspirant. Scott 
in THE MONASTERY (1820), reviving the 
word, said: They that ettle at the top of 
a ladder will at least get up some rounds. 

euchologion. A prayer-book. Greek euche, 
prayer + log', legein, to say. Also eucho- 
logue, euchology. Used in the 17th and 
18th centuries; the first form, mainly in 
reference to the Greek Church. Lingard 
in his study (1844) of THE ANGLO-SAXON 
CHURCH refers to the liturgical and eucho- 
logical forms of her worship. Hence also 
euctical, relating to prayer; supplicatory. 

euciliast. See abarcy. 

euclionism. Miseijiness; stinginess. From 
Euclio, the miser, in Plautus* AULULARIA, 
THE POT OF GOLD. Nashe, in LENTEN STUFFE 
(1599), declared: Those grey beard hud- 
dleduddles . . . were strooke with such 
stinging remorse of their miserable eucli- 
onisme and snudgery. 



euonymous 

eucrasy. A sound mixture of qualities; 
health, well-being. Greek eukrasia, good 
temperature; eukratos, well-tempered; eu y 
good -f kra-, kerannunai, to mix. Hence 
eucratic, happily blended of a drink or 
a person's characteristics. Used in the 17th 
and 18th centuries. 

euctical. See euchologion. 

eudemordc. Conducive to happiness; 
eudemonics, devices or appliances that 
increase comfort or happiness. Also eudae- 
manic; Greek eudaimonikos; eudaimonia, 
happiness; en, good 4- daimon, guardian, 
spirit. Hence eudemon, eudaemon, a good 
angel which strictly should be called an 
agathodemon; Greek agathos, good. M. 
Conway in DEMONOLOGY (1879) observed: 
The Japanese are careful to distinguish 
this serpent from a dragon, with them an 
agathodemon. Also agatho demonic. The 
notion 'composed of good and evil' is 
caught in the term agathokakological 
(Greek kakos, bad) ; Sou they in THE DOC- 
TOR (1843) says that indeed upon the 
agathokakological globe there are opposite 
qualities always to be found. In the same 
work he says: The simple appendage of 
a tail will cacodemonize the eudaemon. 
Hence eudemony (accent on the dem) , 
happiness, prosperity; Martineau in TYPES 
OF ETHICAL THEORY (1885) observes that 
the best defence of the invariable eudae- 
mony of virtue proceeds from Shaftesbury. 
May you bury the shafts of misfortune in 
spreading eudemony! 

Eumenides. See diraL 
eumorphous. Well-shaped. 

eunomy. Good government; good laws 
well-administered. 

anonymous. Well named; appropriately 
named. To call the plant spindletree 
(prickwood) euonymus, as the ancients 



247 



euripe 

did, was probably a euphemism, for Pliny 
notes that its flowering was a presage of 
pestilence. Cp. diral (Eumenides) . THE 
SATURDAY REVIEW in 1864 grew facetious 
over The Peace Society and its euonymous 
president, Mr. Pease. An American col- 
umnist used to print euonyms, under the 
label aptronymics. 

euripe. A variant of euripus, a channel 
of violent and uncertain currents. Origi- 
nally a proper name, of the channel be- 
tween Negropont and the mainland. Used, 
often figuratively, in the 17th, 18th, and 
19th centuries; thus Drummond of Haw- 
thornden asked, in 1649: What euripe . . . 
doth change as often as man? And THE 
PALL MALL GAZETTE of 16 February, 1884, 
remarked: Although all nations are now- 
adays more or less unquiet, Paris seems 
to lie in a very euripus of change. Plus ga 
change . . . 

evagation. Wandering of one's thoughts: 
listed in the 15th century as a 'branch' 
of accidia, one of the seven deadly sins. 
See accidie. In the 17th century, evagation 
was used of a more literal wandering, as 
of clouds or (they feared) of planets. It 
was also then applied to a digression (in 
speech or writing) and to a (pleasant) de- 
parture from propriety, as when Walton 
(1638) remarked: You married men are 
deprived of these evagations. 

eventration. The act of cutting open the 
abdomen. Via French from Latin ex, out 
+ ventrem, belly. Also used more gen- 
erally; in FALSE BEASTS (1875) Frances 
Cobbe refers to the camel and the animal's 
provision of water, which his master could 
always reach . . . by the simple process of 
eventration. To eventrate', to draw (as 
when one was hanged, drawn, and quar- 
tered) ; cp. exenteration. Also eventric- 
ness, eventriqueness, great corpulence; 



eviternal 
used figuratively by Waterhouse in A 

SHORT NARRATIVE OF THE LATE DREADFUL 

FIRE IN LONDON (1667) , when he said that 
if London must be borne with till its 
humors be sweetened, and its eventrique- 
ness be reduced . . . then to no purpose 
is this waste of rage. 

everose. Rose water. Also everrose. Used 
in cosmetics and cookery; for an instance 
of the latter, see bardolf. 

evisceration. See exenteration. 

evitable. See couth; evite. A. Walker, in 
BEAUTY IN WOMEN (1836) pronounces the 
obiter dictum: The scarcely evitable con- 
sequence of great fortune . . . will ever be 
the ruin of the rich. 

evitate. See evite. 

Evite. A woman wearing little clothing. 
Humorously derived from Eve. Our bath- 
ing beaches had antecedents; Addison in 
THE GUARDIAN (1713) remarked (No. 134) 
on there being so many in all public 
places, who show so great an inclination 
to be Evites; and again (No. 142) said 
that the Evites daily increase, and that 
fig-leaves are shortly coming into fashion. 

evite. To avoid. From Latin e, out -f 
vitare, to shun. Common in 16th and 
17th centuries; thereafter used mainly in 
Scotland. A less common form was evitate 
(used by Florio in his translation, 1603, 
of the ESSAYS of Montaigne; by Shake- 
speare in THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, 

1598: She doth evitate and shun A thou- 
sand irreligious cursed hours) with the 
noun evitation and the adjective evitable 
(surviving in the negative, inevitable). 

eviternal. The early form of eternal; 
Latin aeviternus, from aevum, age, was 
shortened to aeternus. Johnson in 1755 
defined eviternal as "of duration not in- 



248 



evoe 



excrement 



finitely but indefinitely long"; but the use 
of the word does not justify his limitation. 
He was seeking a distinction where there 
was no difference. The basic form of the 
word is aeviternal, q.v. 

evoe. The exclamation of the orgiac Bac- 
chanalian celebrants. From Greek evoi. 
Shelley in PROMETHEUS UNBOUND (1819) 
says: Like maenads who cry loud Evoe! 
Evoe! Carlyle wrote in his MISCELLANIES 
(1830) : The earth is giddy with their 
clangour, their evohes. 

ewry. See chaundrye. 

exallotriote. Fetched from a foreign 
land. Coined by Bulwer-Lytton (THE CAX- 
TONS; 1849) : O planeticose and exallotri- 
ote spirit as from Greek ex, out 4- 
allotrios, foreign; allos, other. 

exaration. Tracing characters upon wax 
or stone; hence, writing. Also, a written 
work. From Latin ex, out + arare, to 
plough, applied figuratively to digging 
(characters) into wax. W. H. Morley said 
(1840) in his discussion of THE ARABIAN 
NIGHTS: The story in the Persian MS . . , 
is written in three different hands. The 
first part . . . has been apparently added 
since the exaration of the other two. 

exaugurate. (1) To render unhallow, 
cancel the inauguration. (2) To augur 
ill fortune. 

excaraation. (1) The separation of the 
soul from the body; opposite of incarna- 
tion (Latin carnis, flesh). (2) Stripping 
off the fleshy parts; growing lean. The verb 
is excarnate; excarnous, without flesh. Ex- 
carnificate is to butcher, to torture, to cut 
to pieces (Latin carnifex, executioner; 
carnifex was used as an English word in 
the 16th and 17th centuries, and revived 
by Scott in THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL, 1823. 
J. Martineau, 1882, mentions the chief 



carnifex undertaking the high-born folks.) 
Evelyn in SYLVA (1664) advises sowing 
black cherry stones in beds immediately 
after they are excarnated. See carnation. 

excecation. Putting out the eyes; blind- 
ing literally and figuratively. Hall in his 
CHRONICLES of 1540 said that the people 
of Scotland . . . is utterly excecated. A fre- 
quent word in 17th century sermons, as 
(1588) of Pharoah's obduration and ex- 
cecation in wilful wickedness. Latin caecus, 
without light; blind. Appius Claudius 
(Roman consul, 307 B.C., builder of the 
Appian Way) was given the agnomen 
Caecus ? blind; whence (diminutive) Cecil, 
feminine Cecile, Cecilia as in St. Cecila 
(died 230) patron saint of music, cele- 
brated in Dryden's Ode for St. Cecilia's 
Day. 

excerebrate. (1) To clear out of the 
mind. From Latin ex } out 4- cerebrum, 
brain. S. Ward, in THE LIFE OF FAITH 
(1621) asks whether faith hath not 
soveraigne virtue in it to excerebrate all 
cares, expectorate all fears and griefs'? (2) 
To beat out die brains of. Thus in 17th 
and 18th century dictionaries. Hence, ex- 
cerebrated, brainless, witless. 

excrement. That which grows out, as 
hair, nails, feathers. By extension, an ex- 
cessive outgrowth, as when Warner in 
ALBION'S ENGLAND (1606) says that wit so 
is wisedomes excrement. Shakespeare uses 
the word in THE COMEDY OF ERRORS: Why 
is Time such a niggard of hair, being as 
it is so plentiful an excrement? and in 
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST (1588) : It will please 
his grace to dallie with my excrement, 
with my mustachio. The word is from 
Latin excrementum*, ex, out 4- crescere, 
to grow; it has been replaced by ex- 
crescence. The excrement that survives 
is from Latin ex 4- cernere, cretum, to 



249 



excubant 



exhibition 



sift, whence also secrete, secret, secretary, 
secretion; concern, discern, and the fre- 
quent indiscretion. 

excubant. Keeping watch. From Latin 
ex, out + cubare, to lie down; cumbere, 
to lie; cp. succubus. An excubitor is a 
sentinel; G. White observed, in 1775, that 
the swallow is the excubitor to the house- 
martins . . . announcing the approach of 
birds of prey. 

exculcate. To trample out, to eradicate. 
From Latin ex, out 4- calcare, to stamp; 
calc-, heel. The opposite of inculcate; 
what many 'modern* parents do with good 
manners in their offspring. 

excuss. (1) To shake off, get rid of (as 
dust, or undesired qualities) . (2) To 
shake out the contents; hence, to in- 
vestigate; to probe the truth from some- 
one. (3) In 18th century law, to shake 
out one's property, i.e., to take a man's 
goods for debt. From Latin excutere, ex- 
cussus; ex, out + quatere, to shake. (In 
Latin the verb also meant to search by 
shaking one's robe.) The word was often 
in religious mouths, especially in the 17th 
century, as when Bishop Hall (1620) 
spoke of the just excussion of that servile 
yoke. 

exenteration. The act of removing the 
entrails, disemboweling. Exenterate is 
from Latin ex, out + a Late Latin verb 
from Greek enter on, intestine. When a 
man was condemned to be hanged, drawn, 
and quartered, the drawing was exentera- 
tion. Cp. eventration. The word was also 
used figuratively, as in Lamb's praise 
(1808) of Ford's play THE BROKEN HEART: 
I do not know where to find, in any play, 
a catastrophe so grand, so solemn, so> sur- 
prising, as in this . . . The fortitude of 
the Spartan boy who let a beast gnaw out 
his bowels till he died, without expressing 



a groan, is a faint bodily image of this 
dilaceration of the spirit, and exentera- 
tion of the inmost mind, which Calantha, 
with a holy violence against her nature, 
keeps closely covered till the last duties 
of a wife and queen are fulfilled. A slightly 
more familiar word is evisceration (Latin 
<?-, out H- viscera, the internal organs) . 
This was used both literally and figura- 
tively, as to eviscerate one's brains; in the 
17th century it was frequently applied in 
an image of the spider, which 'eviscerates 
itself to weave its web. Coleridge in 
TABLE-TALK, 27 October, 1831, wonders 
if a certain latitude in examining wit- 
nesses is ... a necessary mean towards the 
evisceration of truth. Back in 1636, W. 
Ambrose was suggesting that writers might 
thrive if they exenterate old stories; his 
advice has been well taken. 

exhibition. Maintenance, support; espe- 
cially, an allowance of money for one's 
support; a gift; a prize-sum or scholar- 
ship at a university. Used from the 15th 
century. The verb to exhibit had the same 
range of meaning; to grant; provide, 
furnish; defray (expenses) . Latin ex, out 
4- habere, to have, to hold. Shakespeare 
in OTHELLO (1604), speaking of being 
false to one's husband, has Desdemona ask: 
Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the 
world? and her servant Emilia reply: 
Marry, I would not do such a thing for a 
joint ring, nor for measures of lawn, nor 
for gowns, petticoats, nor caps, nor any 
petty exhibition; but for the whole world 
why, who would not make her husband 
a cuckold to make him a monarch? I 
should venture Purgatory foft. In TWO 
GENTLEMEN OF VERONA he declares: What 
maintenance he from his friends receives, 
Like exhibition thou shalt have from me. 
King Lear complained that his daughters 
put him on a set allowance: he was con- 



250 



exilient 



exornation 



fin'd to exhibition. The current sense of 
the word developed in the 17th century. 

exilient. Exulting; bounding; alert, ac- 
tive. From Latin exilire; ex, out + satire, 
to leap (like the saltimbancos who leapt 
on a bench to sell their wares; saltimbanco 
has been used since the 17th century for 
a quack) . Hence exilience, rapture, ex- 
ultation; exiliency has this meaning, but 
also any outburst; Heylin in CYPRIANUS 
ANGLICUS (1662) speaks of some exiliency 
of human frailty. 

exility. Thinness, meagreness; poverty. 
Also fineness of texture; hence, subtlety. 
The adjective exile was used from the 
15th into the 19th century to mean 
meagre, shrunken, thin, as when Bacon in 
SYLVA (1626) speaks of a voice made ex- 
treme sharp and exile, like the voice of 
puppets. An exile theory is fine-spun, 
subtle. The words are from Latin exilis, 
thin, scanty; ex., out -f agilis from the root 
<2g-, weigh. (To exile, to banish, is from 
ex 4- satire, to leap; cp. exilient.) 

eximious. Choice, excellent, distin- 
guished. From Latin eximere, exempts; 
ex, out + emere, to take (whence also 
exempt, which first meant taken out, re- 
moved, then removed out of obligation, 
or influence, etc.) In the 16th and 17th 
centuries, eximious was frequently used; 
since then, it has been mainly humorous 
or satiric, as in Carlyle's FREDERICK THE 
GREAT (1865) : Oh ye wigs, and eximious 
wig-blocks, called right-honourable! (A 
wig-block was a block of wood shaped like 
a head, on which a wig rested when not in 
use; its like may be seen in many shops 
and, in the Carlylean sense, parlors 
of today.) 

exinanite. To void, deprive of force; to 
reduce to emptiness, to humble. Accent 
on the in. Latin ex, out + inanis, empty, 



whence inane. The BIBLE (PHILIPPIANS, 2; 
1582) said that Jesus, being in the form 
of God, exinanite d himself; the King 
James Version (1611) says "made him- 
selfe of no reputation." Also, in the 17th 
century, exinanitiate, and the noun ex- 
inanition. Donne in an Essay of 1631 
spoke of the Lord's replenishing the 
world after that great exinanition by the 
generall deluge; he also used the word 
referring to emptying oneself of pride 
thus meaning abasement, humiliation 
in a Sermon of 1627: This exinanition of 
ourselves is acceptable in the sight of God. 

exion. Action. A blunder of Mistress 
Quickly, in a legal matter, in Shakespeare's 
HENRY iv, PART TWO (1597) : I pray ye, 
since my exion is entered . . . let him be 
brought in to his answer. 

exitial. Destructive, ruinous, fatal. That 
is, resulting in one's exit; from Latin 
exire, exitus; ex, out -I- ire, to go. Other 
forms, used 16th-18th centuries, are exiti- 
able, exitiose, exitious. Other forms for 
exit were exitus, exition, exiture (the last 
also used in medicine, of a running sore 
or abscess) . Mushrooms, said Evelyn in 

his ACETARIA, OR A DISCOURSE OF SALLETS 

(1699) are malignant, exitial, mortal, 
and deleterious. 

exoculation. The action of putting out 
the eyes; blinding often as part of a 
torturing or (an early) judicial sentence. 
Cp. abacinate. Southey in RODERICK, THE 
LAST OF THE GOTHS (1814) has a note: 
The history of Europe during the dark 
ages abounds with examples of exocula- 
tion. There are instances of it in the Eliza- 
bethan drama, including the exoculation of 
old Gloucester in Shakespeare's KING LEAR. 

exoneration. See oner. 

exomation. Adornment, Used mainly by 
16th and 17th century rhetoricians, as T. 



251 



exosculation 



exprobration 



Wilson in THE ARTE OF RHETORIQUE (155B): 
Exornacion is a gorgiousse beautifiynge 
of the tongue with borowed wordes. From 
Latin ex (with intensive effect) + ornare, 
to embellish. Exorn, exourn, exornate 
were verbs, largely supplanted after the 
17th century by adorn. 

exosculation. A 'smack,' a hearty kiss. 
Latin ex (with intensive force) 4- oscu- 
lari, to kiss; osculum, a little mouth, os, 
mouth. Cp. bass; osculation. Used in the 
16th and 17th centuries. The verb exoscu- 
late, to kiss heartily, is hopefully in the 
dictionaries, but found no literary use. 

exoteric. See acroamatic. 

expeccadon. Removal of sin or of guilt. 
From Latin ex, away -f peccare, to sin. 
Used (only) by Donne in a Sermon of 
1631: It is . . . this expeccation . . . this 
taking away of sins formerly committed, 
that restores me. 

expergefacient. Rousing; that which 
causes one to awake. The noun was used 
in THE MECHANIC'S MAGAZINE of 1823, of 
an early alarm clock: The newly invented 
hydraulic expergef actor rings a bell at 
the time when a person wishes to rise. 
From Latin expergefacere; expergere, to 
arouse + facere, to make. Ex is used as 
an intensive; so is per in pergere, to make 
haste, continue; regere, to lead straight, 
to guide. The action of awakening some- 
one, or the state of being aroused, is 
expergef action. Used since the 17th cen- 
tury; Howell in THE PARLEY OF BEASTS 
(1660) says that he, after such a long 
noctivagation . . . returned to my perfect 
expergef action. R. North, in his LIVES 
(1734) coined a new form: / should per- 
ceive a plain expergiscence though I had 
no sense of drowsiness. 

experiment. Experience; practical knowl- 
edge. Also, practical proof; a specimen. 



Both experience and experiment are from 
Latin experiri, expertum, to try. Experi- 
ence first (14th century) meant putting 
to the test; to make experience of, to 
make trial of. Once one is experienced, 
however, the trial (experiment) is over; 
one has become expert. Thus Bacon, in 
the most compact of all English essays 
(1598) , says that expert men can execute, 
and perhaps judge of particulars, one by 
one; but the general counsels, and the 
plots and marshalling of affairs, come best 
from those that are learned. Caxton in 
POLYCRONICON (1482) recommends history 
to yong men . . . and to old men, to 
whome long lyf hath mynystred expery- 
mentes of dyverse thynges. 

expetible. Desirable. Latin ex, out + 
petere, to seek. Used in 16th, 17th, and 
18th centuries. 

expiscation. Investigation; "fishing out." 
From Latin ex, out + piscari, to fish; 
piscis, fish. Chapman uses the verb ex- 
piscate in his translation (1611) of THE 
ILIAD; his own poem (1605) on Jonson's 
SEJANUS speaks of the Castalian head: In 
expiscation of whose mysteries Our nets 
must still be clogd with heavy lead. An 
investigator is, hence, an exptscator, 
though this form is rare. But indeed those 
that can expiscate the truth walk not on 
every highway, 

exprobration. Speaking reproachfully; a 
scolding. Also, to exprobrate, exprobate, 
to reproach; to make clear (to one's 
shame) . Latin ex, out of 4- probrum, 
shameful action. The second form of the 
verb came by association with to repro- 
bate. Reprobation, reprove are from Latin 
reprobare, reprobatum, to reject; re, back 
-h probare, to esteem, approve; probus, 
good, honest, whence probity. Reproach 
(French proche, near) is via French from 



252 



exsibilate 

Late Latin repropiare, to bring near 
again; re, again + prope, near; applied 
figuratively to bringing a fault back to 
one's attention. Norton in his preface to 
Grafton's CHRONICLE AT LARGE (1569) says 
he will refrain from listing Grafton's good 
deeds, because the rehear sail in particu- 
laritie cannot but have some affinitie 
with exprobration. 

exsibilate. To reject scornfully; to hiss 
off the stage. From Latin ex, out 4- sibi- 
lare, to hiss. Thus Bishop Barlow de- 
clared, in 1601: Cardinal Allen hath long 
since exibilated this rash illation. Ameri- 
can audiences are quite restrained, and 
sit suffering before plays that deserve 
swift exsibilation. 

extispice. See aeromancy. Urquhart in 
his translation (1693) of Rabelais, uses 
the form extispicine; Bailey (1751) has 
extispice; the most frequent form is 
extispicy. One that inspected the entrails 
of the sacrificial victims was an extispex, 
from Latin exta (used also in English), 
entrails -f specere, spex-, to look at. 

extraneize. To make extraneous, i.e., to 
remove. Four syllables, accent on the 
strain. Urquhart, in his translation (165S) 
of Rabelais: To extraneize the blasting 
mists and whirlwinds upon our vines; H. 
Clarke, in SCHOOL CANDIDATES (1788) : To 
extraneize the blasting mists and whirl- 
wind of immorality upon the minds of 
youth. Omit one e, and extranize has 
present values. Thus also extranate (Latin 
natus, born) , originating from outside, as 
opposed to innate. Originating from out- 
side was the first meaning of extraneous, 
which is current in the sense of outside, 
irrelevant; earlier forms are extraneal, 
extranean, extranear. I desist (said T. 
Gainsford in 1618; few since have fol- 
lowed him!) from all extraneal and super- 
fluous discourses. 



exustion 

extravagate. To wander, figuratively: 
away from; into; at will; beyond proper 
bounds. Latin extra, beyond, outside -f 
vagari, to wander, whence vagrant. Also 
the current extravagance, a spending be- 
yond proper bounds. Also extravage, to 
go beyond the sphere of duty; to talk off 
the subject, to ramble; used in the 17th 
and 18th centuries, Wordsworth in THE 
PRELUDE (1805) speaks of schemes In 
which his youth did first extravagate. 

extravasate. To force out of its proper 
container; to escape. Accent on the trav. 
Used from the 17th century (Latin extra, 
out -t- vas, vessel), mainly in chemistry 
and physiology; but De Foe in his HISTORY 
OF THE DEVIL (1726) said: // he be not in 
the inside ... 1 have so mean an opinion 
of his extravasated powers . . . 

extund. To drive out or away. Not used 
in English in the literal sense, to hammer 
out, from Latin ex, out + tundere, to 
hammer. 

exturb. To hustle off, get rid of. Latin 
ex, out + turbare, to agitate; turba, 
tumult; whence also disturb. Whence also 
exturbation, removal, hustling away (of 
someone) . 

extil. An early form of exile, used, e.g., 
in Spenser's COLIN CLOUTS COME HOME 
AGAIN (1595) . An exulant is one living in 
exile. Cp. exility. 

exungulation. Paring the nails. Latin ex, 
out +ungula, diminutive of unguis, claw. 
Exungulated (of animals) , with the hoofs 
pulled or cut off. To exungulate is also 
(in preparing food, perfume, or medicinal 
prescriptions) to cut off the white part of 
rose petals. 

exustion. Burning up. S. Parker, speak- 
ing (1720) of the burning of Sodom and 
Gomorrah, said: The frightful effects 

253 



exuviae 

which this exustion left are still remain- 
ing. Some think the wrathful divine ex- 
ustion has begun again. The verb exust, 
to burn up, was used into the 19th cen- 
tury; the form exust was also used as an 
adjective, burnt or dried up. From Latin 
ex> out -f- urere, ustum, to burn; whence 
also combustion. Also exustible, capable 
of being consumed by fire. 

exuviae. Cast skins, shells and other cov- 
erings of animals; figuratively, cast-off 
articles of apparel. Thackeray in CATH- 
ERINE (1840) looks at the old-clothes man 
and wonders at the load of exuvial coats 
and breeches under which he staggers. 
FRASER'S MAGAZINE in 1855: Crabs of 
mature age and full size cease to exuviate. 
Huxley in 1880: The young crayfish exuvi- 
ate two or three times in the course of the 
first year. Ah, youth, youth! 

eyas. A young hawk, taken for training; 
a nestling. This is an altered form of nyas 
(a nyas became an yas, from oral mis- 
understanding, as a nadder became an 
adder, nickname shows the converse 
error; cp. eke) ; French niais (which is 
used to mean childish, foolish) ; Latin 



eyren 

Sj nest. The spelling eyas as influ- 
enced by Middle English ey, egg, and 
also by eyry (aery, airie; a hawk's nest) . 
The word was used figuratively, usually in 
scorn, of young men. Thus Rosencrantz 
in Shakespeare's HAMLET (1602) : An ayrie 
of children, little yases, that crye out on 
the top of question in allusion to the 
boy actors of the Blackfriars, for a time 
serious rivals of Shakespeare's company. 
Thus ey as-thoughts j unfledged, inexperi- 
enced thoughts; eyas wings, untried wings. 
Of a lively youngster Shakespeare inquires 
(MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR) : How now, 
my eyas-musket, what newes with you? 
[A musket was the male of a sparrow- 
hawk; the word is a diminutive of Ro- 
manic mosca, Latin musca, fly; Latin 
muscus, musk. The gun took its name 
from the bird, as did the falcon, etc.] 

eymery. An old form of ember, ashes. 
Also eymbre, eymbery. 

eyot. A small island. Also ait. Hence 
eyoty, like an island. 

eyren. An old plural of egg: eggs. Also 
eyrone, eyroun; ayren. 



254 



fabaceous. Like a bean. Latin faba, 
bean. Used in the 1 8th century. Figura- 
tively, lanky, 'skinny/ 

fablan. See cunctation. Propertius used 
the phrase licens Fabius of the Fabian 
priests of Pan, who had the privilege of 
licentious conduct at the Lupercalia; 
hence late 16th century references (Florio; 
Nashe) to a flaunting fabian, a roisterer. 

fabulose. Fond of fables and myths, like 
Moritz Jagendorf. A 17th century term 
modern folklorists could use. 

facete. See inficete. 

faclent. One that does, acts, performs. 
Latin fadentem, present participle of 
facerej to do, to make. Bishop Hacket in 

his MEMORIAL TO ARCHBISHOP WILLIAMS 

OF YORK (1670) inquired: Is sin in the 
fact, or in the mind of the facientf The 
word fills a gap in current speech. 

facinerious. A variant of fadnorous, q.v. 
The variation occurred in Latin; fad- 
norem or fadnerem. 

facinorous. Extremely wicked, infamous; 
grossly criminal. The word, naturally, is 
accented on the sin. From Latin fadnoro- 
suSj full of bad deeds; fadnus, a (bad) 
deed; facere, to do. Also fadnerose (in 
the dictionaries) , fadnerious, fadnorious, 
as in Shakespeare's ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS 
WELL (1601) : He's of a most fadnerious 
spirit. 



fackins. See fegs. 

fact. A deed, a thing done. Latin facere, 
factum, to do. Hence, used of a noble 
deed or exploit (earlier fait; this sense 
survives in feat) ; also as an evil deed, a 
crime. The last was the most common 
meaning in the 16th and 17th centuries; 
it survives in the phrases accessory after 
(before) the fact. In the very fact f in the 
very act. The current sense, of a thing that 
is so, developed in the 17th century. Fact 
was also, more rarely, used to mean guilt, 
as when Massinger in THE EMPEROR OF 
THE EAST (1632) said: Great Julius would 
not rest satisfied that his wife was free 
from fact, but, only for suspidon of a 
crime, sued a divorce. 

facund. Eloquent; also a noun, elo- 
quence; facundity. Latin facundus. Hence 
facundious, fluent, glib, facundate, to 
make eloquent (a 17th century term; not 
to be confused with fecundate; Latin 
fecundus, fruitful) . The words are from 
a form of Latin /or, fari, faturn, to speak; 
whence also the forum and one's fate: 
that which has been spoken. Lord Beraers 
(Sir John Bourchier) in his early 16th 
century translations used simple terms, 
apologizing for not using fresshe ornate 
polysshed Englysshe on the ground that 
he was unequipped with the facondyoiis 
arte of rethoryke. Warner in ALBION'S ENG- 
LAND (1606) knew how often eloquence 
displays but facundious fooles* 



255 



faddity 



fagot 



faddity. An oddity that is the moment's Its origin is unknown, though its meaning 



fad. A late 19th century word. 

fadge. A very common verb, from the 
late 16th century. (1) To fit, be suitable, 
to fit in with; to get along well with. (2) 
To agree; to fit together; to piece together 
(fadge up) . (3) To fit in with; hence, to 
get along, thrive. It won't fadge, it won't 
succeed. Fadging, well matched, well 
suited, fitting. There is also a noun fadge , 
with the basic sense of something flat: a 
fiat bundle (of pieces of leather, etc.) ; a 
large flat loaf; a dumpy person. Hence 
fadgy, unwieldy; corpulent. Fuller in THE 

HISTORY OF THE WORTHIES OF ENGLAND 

(1661) : The study of the law did not 
fadge well with him; Milton, in the Pref- 
ace (1643) to his treatise on DIVORCE: 
They shall . . . be made, spight of anti- 
pathy, to fadge together; Wycherley in 
THE COUNTRY WIFE (1675) : Well } sir, how 
fadges the new design? 

fading. See dildo. The word is possibly 
from Irish feadan, pipe, whistle; but in 
Cornish fade meant to dance from town 
to country, a sort of morris, q.v. 

faex. See fegs. 

fage. To coax, to flatter. Common in 
the Hth and 15th centuries. Also f aging, 
flattery; fager, flatterer. A fage, a deceit; 
in Bailey (1751) defined as 'a merry 
tale/ 

fagtoli. Beans; kidney beans. From the 
Italian. Jonson in CYNTHIA'S REVELS (1600) 
says: He doth learn to make strange 
sauces, to eat anchovies, macaroni, bovoli, 
fagioli, caviare. Bovoli are periwinkles, 
snails. 

fagot. Still occasionally in use, meaning 
a bundle of sticks, tied together for fire- 
wood, fagot had various other meanings. 



is similar to Latin fasds, which in the 
plural, fasces, was applied to the bundle 
of rods with an axe in the middle, carried 
before the highest magistrate as a symbol 
of his authority, the revival of which in 
modern Italy gave name to the Fascist 
Party. In England faggot is the preferred 
spelling; other forms were faggat, faget, 
fag(g)ald. Forgotten meanings include: 
An embroidered figure of a bundle of 
firewood, which recanted heretics had to 
wear on their sleeve, as a sign of what 
they had deserved. Similarly, to fry a fag- 
got, to be burnt alive; fire and faggot, the 
stake, burning alive; to bear a faggot, to 
carry a faggot, to have renounced heresy. 
Fagot was also used of bundles of other 
things, in general. Also (from the shape) 
a rolled cake of chopped liver and lights, 
mixed with gravy and stuffed into a 
sausage-skin (19th century) . From the 
16th into the 19th century, a term of abuse 
for a woman; Lodge in CATHAROS (1591) 
tells us: A filbert is better than a faggot, 
except it be an Athenian she handfull. 
(Filbert, a term rather of endearment, 
after the color and comparatively low 
height of the hazel tree.) In the 17th cen- 
tury, fagot came to be used of a man 
quickly hired to answer "Here!" in a 
shortage of soldiers at mustertime; hence, 
one used to fill a deficiency; also, a 
dummy. From this came the 19th century 
use faggot, faggot-vote, one manufactured 
to help carry an election, as by temporarily 
transferring to persons not otherwise 
qualified enough property to entitle them 
to vote. Thus in the DAILY NEWS of 16 
April, 1879, a candidate averred that he 
had not the slightest doubt he would win, 
unless he were to be swamped by faggots. 
Bishop Montagu, in one of his DIATRIBES 
(1621) cried out: You deserved to fry a 
fagot! 



256 



fain 

fain. Glad, well-pleased. Also fagen, fein, 
fayen, feene, vein, vayn, fyene, feign and 
more. Full fain, glad and fain. In the 
phrase fain to, glad to; then, content to, 
as the lesser of two evils; hence, neces- 
sitated, obliged, as when Disraeli in THE 
AMENITIES OF LITERATURE (1841) remarks 
that Ascham, indeed, was fain to apologise 
for having written in English. Also apt, 
wont; favorable, well-disposed; Spenser, 
in THE FAERIE QUEENE (1596) : Whose 
steadie hand was -fain his steed to guyde; 
Rossetti, in DANTE AND HIS CIRCLE (1850): 
/ . . . saw Love coming towards me, fair 
and fain. I would (had) fain, I would 
gladly . . . Fain was also a verb, to be 
glad (of, on) ; to make glad, hence to 
welcome; to rejoice in. There was an old 
proverb (echoed by Scott) : Fair promys 
maketh fools fain. 

faintise. Deceit, pretence. Also feeble- 
ness, cowardice. From faint, feint Also 
feintise, feyntise, fayntes, fantise, fayntise* 
In the first sense, THE DESTRUCTION OF 
TROY (1400) has: Ere he fain any faintes; 
in the second, Harding's CHRONICLE (1470) 
states: They fought without feyntise. 

fairing. A present on the occasion of a 
fair; hence, any complimentary gift; es- 
pecially, fairings, sweets or cakes sold at 
a fair. Also, to go af airing, to go for a 
good time to the fair. A day after the fair 
(1 6th century) , too late. To give (get) 
one's fairing, to give (get) one's just 
deserts. Deloney in JACK OF NEWBERIE 
(1597) has the widow watching her servant 
John (Jack) , whom she hoped to marry, 
till at last it was her lucke upon a Barthol- 
omew day (having a fayre in the towne) 
to spie her man John give a pair of gloves 
to a proper maide for a fayring, which 
the maiden with a bashfull modesty kindly 
accepted, and requited it with a kisse, 
which kindled in her an inward jealousie. 



fanger 

Shakespeare, in LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST 
(1588) : We shall be rich ere we depart, 
If fairings come thus plentifully in. 

fait. See fact; cp. fay tour. 

falbala. A trimming for petticoats and 
other garments; a flounce. Also falbeloe, 
fallbullow; furbelow. (Origin unknown; 
not from a fur trimming, fur below.) In 
the plural, furbelows, it came to be used 
(in the 18th century) of overdecorative, 
showy trimming or ornaments; hence 
figuratively, rhetorical furbelows. NEW 
CRAZY TALES (1783) lists things to be 
found in London's second-hand shops, on 
Monmouth Street: The rags of peasants, 
and the spoils of beaus, Mix'd with hoop- 
petticoats and falbeloes . . . Here on one 
hook I oftentimes have seen The warrior's 
scarlet and the footman's green; And near 
a broken gamester's old roqu'laure The 
tatter' d pawn of some ill-fated whore; 
Hats, bonnets, scarves, sad arguments of 
woe, Beavroys and riding-hoods make up 
the show. 

f ambles. See pedlers French. 

famular. A domestic servant. So Bailey 
(1751). Hence famulary, relating to serv- 
ants; famulate, to serve; famulative, suit- 
able for service; serving. The Latin 
famulus, servant (plural, famuli) is used 
in English of the helper of a scholar or a 
magician; thus Carlyle in THE FRENCH 
REVOLUTION (1837) states that the ma- 
gician's famulus got hold of the forbidden 
book, and summoned a goblin; Thackeray 
in HENRY ESMOND (1852) notes that faith- 
ful little famuli see all and say nothing. 
Such, a century later, are hard to find. 

fanger, (1) A guardian. One who takes 
(hold) care of another. The first meaning 
of to fang was to lay hold of. (2) One 
who captures. (3) That with which one 



257 



fangle 

captures (e.g., a claw, a tooth; but often 
figurative) . Dekker in IF IT BE NOT GOOD, 
THE DEVIL is IN IT (1612) said: All the 
craft in that great head of yours cannot 
get it out of my fangers. 

fangle. A fashion, especially in the phrase 
new fangle, always contemptuous. By 
extension, a silly piece of foppery or fuss; 
a fantastic contrivance. Lyly in EUPHUES 
(1579) speaks of A pedlers packe of new 
f angles. Originally new fangle was applied 
to a person, meaning eager for novelty. 
Hence the verbs: to new fangle, to dress 
in new fashion; to -jangle, to fashion, to 
trick out. Also fanglement, the act of 
fashioning; a contrivance (usually in 
scorn). Shakespeare in CYMBELINE (1611) 
says: Be not, as is our fangled world, a 
garment Nobler than that it covers. 

fantastic. A person full of absurdities, 
fancies, whimsies. Shakespeare in ROMEO 
AND JULIET (1597) speaks of limping 
antique affecting fantasticoes. 

lap. Drunk, 'tight/ Shakespeare in THE 
MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR (1598) has Bar- 
dolph exclaim: I my the gentleman had 
drunk himself out of his five sentences 
Evans corrects him: It is his five senses. 
Fie, what the ignorance is! Bardolph goes 
blithely on: And being fap, sir, was, as 
they say, casheered. 

farandman. A faring-man; a traveler. 
From farand, an old participle of fare + 
man. In many cases, the stranger (vaga- 
bond or pedlar) had little help from the 
law, but in Scotland (15th- 18th century) 
the Law of Farandman provided that a 
pedlar could bring a townsman to trial 
for theft or felony 'within the third flow- 
ing and ebbing of the sea.* 

farce* See fastuous. 

fanL (1) Motion, impetus; hence, a vi- 
olent onset. Related to fare; used 16th- 



farrago 

18th century. (2) Paint for the face, es- 
pecially a white paint. F. Barrett in UNDER 
STRANGE MASK (1889) spoke of the enamels 
and fards employed to conceal the mark 
of Time's finger; Sir G. Mackenzie in THE 
RELIGIOUS STOIC (1663) used the word fig- 
uratively: the fard of eloquence. Also, to 
fard, to paint the face; hence, to embel- 
lish, to gloss over, as in Scott's OLD MOR- 
TALITY (1816) : Nor will my conscience 
permit me to fard or daub over the causes 
of divine wrath. In the 15th century, 
painting the face or the effect thereof 
was called far dry. Fardry today (as Hamlet 
protested to Ophelia) is common practice. 

fardel. (1) A bundle; a collection (as 
a fardel of myths) ; a burden. Also, some- 
thing to wrap things in. Via Old French 
and Spanish (fardo) , possibly from Arabic 
fardah. Hence also fardellage, a package 
(I5th-16th centuries) ; fardlet, a little 
bundle (15th- 17th centuries) . There are 
two other words spelled fardel. (2) A 
fourth part of anything. From fourth -f- 
deal. Hence, plural, quarters, pieces, frag- 
ments. (3) Profit. A form of fore-deal. 
Carew, in his translation (1594) of 
Huarte's EXAMINATION OF MEN'S WITS, says: 
I have always held it an err our, to hear 
many lessons of divers matters, and to 
carry them all home far died up together. 
One fardel at a time! But there is always 
Shakespeare: (1602) Hamlet, in his great- 
est soliloquy, asks Who would fardels 
bear? and in THE WINTER'S TALE (1611) we 
find: There lies such secrets in this farthel 
and box, which none must know but the 
King. 

farrago. A confused agglomeration, a 
hodgepodge. Latin farrago, mixed fodder 
for cattle; farrem, grain, corn. By the 
16th century, the form farrage was used 
for fodder. Canning in his POETICAL WORKS 
(1827) said: No longer we want This 



258 



farthingale 

farrago of cowardice, cunning, and cant. 
Hence farraginary (16th century) and, 
more frequently since 1600, farraginous. 
Southey in THE DOCTOR (1845) spoke of 
farraginous notes; Reade in ALL THE YEAR 
ROUND for 3 October, 1863, declared that 
Bailey was one of the farraginous fools 
of the unscientific science. 

farthingale. A framework of hoops, usu- 
ally of whalebone, worn under ladies' 
dresses to spread them wide; the petti- 
coat under a hoop-skirt. Via Old French 
vertugalle from Spanish verdugato, a 
farthingale, from verdugo, rod. Bailey's 
DICTIONARY (1751), however, suggests the 
word is a corruption of French "vertu 
gard, i.e., the Guard of Virtue, because 
young women, by hiding their great bel- 
lies, preserve the reputation of their 
chastity." The farthingale was worn from 
the mid- 15th well into the 19th century. 
Dekker in WESTWARD HOE (1607) tells 
that women must learn how to wear a 
Scotch farthingale. Evidently the women 
learned; J. G. Strutt in SYLVA BRITANNICA 
(1830) informs us that the maids of 
honour had just stripped off their farth- 
ingales. Others preferred to die in them; 
Rhoda Broughton in NANCY (1873) re- 
calls the faithful, ruffed and farthingaled 
wife on the fifteenth century tomb. 

farthingdeal. See thirdendeal. 

fastigiate. To make pointed at the top; 
to taper to a point; to form into or with 
gables. Rarely, fastigate. Latin fastigare, 
to sharpen. Hence fastigium, a gable 
point; the upper ridge of a roof; a peak 
or summit. Also, as an adjective, fastigiate, 
tapered up to a point, fastigious, gabled; 
figuratively, pompous, pretentious; G. H. 
in his translation (1670) of G. Leti's HIS- 
TORY OF THE CARDINALS wrote: They 
thought the title too eminent and too 
fastigious for them. 



fathom 

fastrede. Firm in purpose; steadfast Old 
English faest, fast + raed, counsel, pur- 
pose. From the 8th into the 14th century, 
as in THE OWL AND THE NIGHTINGALE 
(1250) : He is nu ripe and -fastrede. 

fastuous. Haughty; pretentious, ostenta- 
tious. From Latin fastuosus, full of pride, 
fastus (farstus), arrogance, haughty con- 
tempt. This is probably (meaning 
"puffed up" with pride) akin to Latin 
farcire, fartus, to stuff, whence English 
farce, which first meant stuffing. [Then 
the word -farce was applied to the extra 
words "stuffed in'* between kyrie and 
eleison in church singing; later to inter- 
polated 'gags* and buffoonery.] Collier in 
1707 attacked a pompous display of a 
fastuous learning; many in the 17th cen- 
tury objected to fastuosity. 

fate. See fatuate. 

fathom. The embracing arms (in the 
plural; in the singular, bosom) . Hence, 
one to be embraced, the 'wife of thy 
bosom'; Dekker in SATIROMASTIX (1602) 
speaks of thy bride . . . She that is now thy 
fadom. Also, to make a fathom, to stretch 
the arms to their full extent From this 
come the meanings of measurement, 
whether it be physical (Shakespeare, THE 
WINTER'S TALE, 1611): the profound seas 
hides In unknowne fadomes or the stretch 
of one's comprehension (Shakespeare, 
OTHELLO) : Another of his fadome, they 
have none. Fathom was so used from the 
8th century, the meaning of fathoms deep 
coming toward the end of the I5th. In 
the same range of meanings, from the 
15th century, fathom has been used as a 
verb, to encircle with extended arms 
trees, wrote Scott in his JOURNAL for 1828, 
so thick that a man could not fathom 
them; to embrace, also to fathom together 
lascivious Delilahs, said Thomas Adams 



259 



faticane 



favel 



(WORKS; 1629), {adorned him in the arms 
of lust; to measure (17th century) ; to get 
to the bottom of, see through, thoroughly 
understand (17th century, and still cur- 
rent) . 

faticane. A prophet; especially one in 
verse. Latin fatum, fati f fate 4- canere, to 
sing. A rare 17th century word, used by 
John Gaule in THE MAGASTROMANCER 
(1651) : What fatuous thing is fate, then, 
that is so obvious . . . as for the faticanes 
to foretell? More frequent were the com- 
pounds with Latin dicere, to speak: fati- 
dic, concerning prophecy; fatidical, gifted 
with prophetic power; fatidicate, to 
prophesy; fatidicency, divination (accents 
on the tid) . There is also the rare com- 
pound with Latin ferre, to bring: fatifer- 
ous, bringing on one's fate, deadly, mortal. 
NOTES AND QUERIES for 1864 mentions 
those -fatidical women, who . . . ruled 
the destinies of the nation. 

fatidical. See faticane. 
fatiferous. See faticane. 
fatigate. See couth. 

fatuate. To act foolishly, to be silly. A 
verb in the 17th and 18th centuries. Other 
forms were fatuant, behaving foolishly; 
fatuate (as an adjective, in Jonson's THE 
POETASTER, 1601) , fatuated, silly; these 
have been replaced by fatuous; the form 
survives in infatuated. The forms are 
ultimately from Latin fatuus, speaking 
by inspiration, hence insane, simple, silly; 
fari, fatum, to speak, fatum, spoken, hence 
the utterance of an oracle, hence destiny 
whence English fate. If you look silly, 
it may be the fat you ate but that need 
not be your fate! 

faunic. Wild; of the woodland; rude; 
relating to a faun. Also faunaL Fauna 
was a countryside goddess, sister of 



Faunus. Linnaeus used her name for his 
book Fauna Suecica (1746) sequel to his 
Flora Suecica (1745) ; hence the current 
meaning, the animal life of a region. 
Faunus was the Greek Pan (Greek-Ro- 
man p became Teutonic /, as pod, Eng- 
lish podiatry, foot) . Hence a faun, a 
demigod of the countryside; for one of 
his bits of mischief, see areed; feminine, 
fauness. But a faunist is a student of the 
fauna of a region, faunship, state of being 
a faun; used by Hawthorne in THE 

MARBLE FAUN (1860) . 

faunt. A child. Also fauntekin, fauntelet, 
a little child, an infant. Hence fauntelte, 
childishness. Shortened from Old French 
enfaunt; French enfant; English infant; 
Latin in, not + fantem, speaking; fari, 
fatum, to speak; cp. fatuate. The English 
forms were used in the 1 4th century, but 
may have faint echo in Little Lord 
Fauntleroy (literally, the King-child) . 

faust. Happy; lucky. Faustus (as in Mar- 
lowe's play, 1588) is Latin for favored, 
from favere, faustus, to favor. E. Johnson 

in THE RISE OF CHRISTENDOM (1890) pic- 

tures the Emperor . . . ascending the 
Capitol amidst faust acclamations in the 
Hebrew, Greek and Latin tongues. Faust- 
ity, faustitude, good luck. Hence also 
fauterer, fautor, a favorer, abettor, par- 
tisan; fautive (of, to) , favorable. 

favel. The color, fallow, of a horse; 
hence, a fallow horse. Also favell. Then 
the favel (horse) was taken as a symbol of 
deceit and cunning; R. Edwards in the 

PARADISE OF DAINTY DEVICES (1576) CX- 

claims Oh favell false! Hence, favel, flat- 
tery; to curry favel, to use insincere flattery 
to win favor. Hence, a curry-favel, a flat- 
terer to win favor corrupted by folk 
etymology (as early as 1500) to curry 
favor. Wyatt (OF THE COURTIERS LIFE; 



260 



favonian 

1536) speaks of cloaking a vice with the 
nearest virtue, As dronkenes, good fel- 
lowshippe to call . . . And say that favell 
hath a goodly grace In eloquence; and 
crueltie to name Zele of justice. 

favonian. Favorable, propitious, gentle. 
Latin Favonius, the west wind. From 1650. 
Keats (1821) : Softly tell her not to fear 
Such calm favonian burial. 

fax. The hair of the human head. Also 
feax, facts, faix, vaex, vax. From BEOWULF 
to 1600; survives in names, as Halifax, 
Fairfax. A faxed star is a comet, its tail 
being likened to hair. Holland in THE 
COURT OF VENUS (1560) has: With counti- 
nance and facts virginall. 

fay. See fegs. Fay, as short for faith, was 
common from 1300 to 1600; used by 
Chaucer and Spenser. Fay, as short for 
fairy, was common from 1350 to 1750, 
used by Gower, 1393; Collins, 1746, and 
is still used for archaic flavor. 

fayned. A variant form of feigned. Pro- 
nounced in two syllables. One of Wyatt's 
best sonnets (1540) begins: Unstable 
dreme according to the place Be steadfast 
ons, or else at leist be true: By tasted 
sweetenes make me not to rue The sud- 
den losse of thy false fayned grace. 

fayring. See fairing. 

faytour. An impostor; especially, a va- 
grant who pretends to be ill or to tell 
fortunes. Also faitor, fayter; Old French 
faitor, doer; Latin factor, from facere, 
factum, to do. (A thing done is a fact, 
q.v.) There was also a 14th and 15th cen- 
tury verb fait, to act or speak falsely, to 
beg on false pretence; to lead astray. 
Spenser (the gloss explains the word as 
Vagabonds') in THE SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR 
(1579; MAY) says: Those faytours little 
re gar den their charge. Scott uses the word 



feat 

often, as in THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH 
(1828) : Yonder stands the faitour, rejoic- 
ing at the mischief he has done. 

feague. (1) To whip. A 17th century 
word; the 16th century has the term bum- 
feage, to spank. Etheredge in SHE WOULD 
IE SHE COULD (1668) says: Let us even go 
into an arbour, and then feague Mr. 
Rakehell (2,) To finish off, 'do for'; Wy- 
cherley in LOVE IN A WOOD (1672) plans 
a sly intrigue That must at length the 
jilting widow fegue. To feague a horse 
was (1785, Grose's DICTIONARY) "to put 
ginger up a horse's fundament, to make 
him lively and carry his tail well." (3) To 
feague away, to set in brisk motion (as 
violins) ; to stir in one's thoughts. To 
feague it away, to work at full power, as 
Villiers in THE REHEARSAL (1672) : When 
a knotty point comes f 1 lay my head close 
to it . . . and then 1 fegue it away i f 
faith. Feague (also feak, q.v.) as a noun, 
was used of a slattern, a sluttish woman. 

feak. A dangling curl of hair. Marston, 

in THE METAMORPHOSIS OF PIGMALIONS 

IMAGE (1598) speaks of a man that Can 
dally with his mistress dangling feake, 
And wish that he were it. Feak is also 
a variant form of feague, q.v. Also, in 
falconry, feak, to wipe the beak after feed- 
ing. Also (16th into 19th century) to 
twitch, to pull (as one's vest) ; to fidget, 
busy oneself with trifles. 

fease. See feeze. 

feat. As an adjective, common from the 
14th to the 18th century. Fit; apt; dexter- 
ous; becoming; neat (sometimes exag- 
geratedly; hence, affected, over-fastidious). 
Via Old French fait from Latin factum t 
made; facere, to make. Shakespeare in THE 
TEMPEST (1610) says: Looke how well my 
garments sit upon me, Much f eater than 
before. Hence feateous, featous, q.v. Also 



261 



feateous 



feeze 



featish (rare, 19th century), elegant; in 
good condition or health, featless, clumsy, 
inept, foolish (16th century) . An an- 
onymous epigram (SONGES AND SONETTES; 
1557) Of a new marled student runs: A 
student at his boke so plast That welth he 
might have wonne, From boke to wife did 
flete in hast, From wealth to wo to runne. 
Now, who hath plated a feater cast Since 
jugling first begonnef In knitting of him- 
self so fast Him selfe he hath undonne. 

feateous. See featous. The nymphs in 
Spenser's PROTHALAMION (1596) with fine 
fingers cropi full feateously The tender 
stalks on high. 

featous. Well formed; artistically fash- 
ioned; elegant. In the Prologue to THE 
CANTERBURY TALES (1386) Chaucer says 
Full fetise was her cloak. Featous is via 
Old French fetis from Late Latin facticius, 
made, well made. It was understood in 
the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, how- 
ever, as from feat (Old French fait, Latin 
factum, made, well made) plus an ad- 
jective ending, hence various adjective 
forms developed: featly, feateous, featish, 
featuous. Cp. feat. Featly, fitly, nimbly, 
deftly, precisely Shakespeare in THE WIN- 
TER'S TALE (1611) has She dances featly 
has not wholly lapsed from use. 

feces. Preferably faeces. Also faecal, faeci- 
cal. Hence fecula, less often faecula, sedi- 
ment; plural feculae. See fegs. 

fecula. See feces. 

fedifragous. Faithless; treaty-breaking. 
From Latin foedus, compact, whence also 
federation, -f frag-, frangere, fractum, to 
break, whence also fragile, fraction, frac- 
ture, and the like. Fedifragous (accent on 
the if) is a 17th century word, as also the 
rarer noun, fedifraction, breach of faith or 
covenant. Vicars* translation (1632) of 



Virgil said: And let great Jove heare thus, 
whose thunders great Do truces tie, fright 
the fedifragous. We could use Jove today. 

fedity. Foulness, loathsomeness, material 
or spiritual. Also feditee, foedity; Latin 
foeditatem, from foedus, foul. Fotherby in 
ATHEOMASTIX (1619) states: All these 
delicacies . . . when they come into the 
belly, they are wrapped up together in 
one and the same foedity. The word was 
common in 16th and 17th century ser- 
mons. 

fee-simple. Land held by the owner and 
his heirs forever, without restriction as to 
the heirs. In fee-simple, in absolute posses- 
sion. Fee (Old Teutonic fehu; Old Aryan 
peku; Latin pecunia, money) meant prop- 
erty, wealth, hence cattle (wild fee, deer) ; 
then (by 900 A.D.) money. Fee-simple 
meant pure, absolute property, as opposed 
to fee-tail, property entailed, restricted to 
a specific class of heirs (Old French tail- 
Her, to cut, to fit, to limit; whence tailor) . 
Shakespeare in HENRY vi, PART TWO (1593) 
says: Heere's the Lord of the soile come to 
seize me for a stray, for entering his fee- 
simple without leave. The word was ex- 
tended to apply to anything held perma- 
nently or absolutely, also used figuratively, 
as by Burton (1621); Cowper (1781); 
also Shakespeare, in ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS 
WELL: He will sell the fee-simple of his 
salvation, also in THE MERRY WIVES OF 
WINDSOR: // the devil have him not in 
fee-simple. 

feeze. As a noun: a rush, a swift impetus; 
a violent impact. Thus Chaucer (THE 
KNIGHT'S TALE, 1386) . In a feeze, in a state 
of alarm or perturbation. Also pheese; 
fese, fesyn, veeze, fease, feaze. Lowell in 
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY (December, 1855) 
said: / am in a feeze half the time. From 
the literal meaning come two phrases: to 



262 



fegary 

fetch (take) one's -feeze, to take a short 
run before leaping; to take one's full feeze, 
to start at top speed. As a verb: (1) to 
drive, drive away, put to flight. (2) to 
impel, urge on. (3) in threats, to 'fix/ to 
beat, to finish off; Shakespeare in the In- 
duction to THE TAMING OF THE SHREW 
(1596) says Tl pheeze you infaith. (4) to 
twist, to turn as a screw. (5) to insinuate 
into good graces, to flatter, be obsequious. 

fegary. An early variant of vagary. Also 
figary, fleegary. Richardson in CLARISSA 
HARLOWE (1748) says: The world must 
stand still for their figaries. The word was 
also used to mean gewgaws, trifling 
fineries of dress, as in Tennant's drama 
CARDINAL BEATON (1823) : As braw a hizzie, 
with her fardingales and her fleegaries, as 
ony. 

fegs. A corruption of fay, faith, used in 
exclamations and as a mild form of swear- 
ing. Also i 9 fegs, q.v. Sometimes in forms 
with -kin, a diminutive (as in odds bod- 
kins, a corrupt euphemism for God's body- 
kin) . Many variants have been used, es- 
pecially by the playwrights: Jonson (1598, 
EVERY MAN IN HIS HUMOUR) : By my fac- 
kinsl (1610, THE ALCHEMIST) : How! Swear 
by your facf Heywood (1600, EDWARD i, 
PART ONE) : No, by my feckins! Middle- 
ton: By my facks, sir! Vanbrugh: No, by 
good feggings. Also faiks, faix, fecks, fags. 
These forms led to confusion with faex, 
fex, dregs, excrement (Latin faex, faecem; 
the plural of which, faeces, is the form that 
has survived in English), faeces, feces, 
which may also have been in the minds of 
the playwrights. 

felicide. See stillicide. Latin feles, felis, 
cat. Note that Latin felix, felicem means 
happy, which gives us many English forms, 
including felicitate (as a verb, to make 
happy; to congratulate) , used as an ad- 



feng 

jective in Shakespeare's KING LEAR (1605) : 
/ am alone felicitate In your deere High- 
ness e love. 

felicitate. See felicide. 

fell. (1) The skin or hide of an animal; 
the human skin (as in the phrase flesh 
and fell); sometimes, the flesh just be- 
neath the skin. Also, a fleece; thick, mat- 
ted hah- (a fell of hair) . Shakespeare in 
AS YOU LIKE IT (1600) has: We are still 
handling our ewes and their fels you know 
are greasie. A common Teuton word, re- 
lated to film; also to Greek pella, English 
pelt, skin. (2) A high hill; a stony stretch 
of high land; a field atop a hill. From the 
Scandinavian; used from the 14th to the 
18th century. In the 16th and I7th cen- 
turies used of marshy land, as in Drayton's 
POLYOLBION (1612). (3) Rarely, from 
Latin fell, fel, gall, fell was used in the 
sense of bitterness, rancor, as in Spenser's 
THE FAERIE QUEENE (1590) : Untroubled of 
vile fear or bitter fell Gp. firth. 

femetary. An early variant of fumitory, 
q.v. Also femetorie. 

femicide. See stillicide. 

fenage. Hay crop. Via French from Latin 
faenum, hay. Used in the 17th century. 

fencible. See defensum. 
fend. See forfend* 

fenerate. To lend money at interest. 
Latin faenerare, faeneratum; faenus, in- 
terest. Hence, generation, lending money 
at interest; usury. Also feneratitious, given 
to usury; feneratorial, pertaining to usury; 
fenerator, a money-lender, usurer. Barck- 
ley in his DISCOURSE OF THE FELICTTIE OF 
MAN (1598) declared that true love hath 
respect only to his friends necessitie, with- 
out merchandize or generation. 

feng. An early (12th and 13th century) 
form of fang. See f anger. 



263 



fennel 



fere 



fennel. A plant, with fragrant yellow 
flowers. From it a sauce was made, eaten 
especially with salmon or eel; in earlier 
times, as a cure for overweight. Henry 
VIII used it; Falstaff refers to it as one 
reason for Prince Henry's liking Poins: 
he eats conger with fennel. The word 
fennel is from Latin foenum, hay: hay- 
scented. Fennel was also a symbol of 
flattery; mad Ophelia gave a sprig of it 
to Claudius who had flattered his way to 
the throne. The seed was taken for the 
hiccough; it was used, boiled in wine, for 
snakebite, as effectively as most other 
remedies of the time. In ancient Greece, 
fennel was also used to take off weight; 
the Greeks called it marathon, that which 
makes thin; and Browning in PHEIDIPPIDES 
(1880) sets the battle of Marathon on the 
fennel-field. Fennel was also thought good 
for the eyesight; we are told that serpents 
rubbed it on, to clear their vision. The 
corpulent might try it as a sauce; if the 
fennel doesn't reduce their weight, the 
fish diet may. 

fenow. A variant of finew, q.v. For an 
instance of its use, see panary. 

feracious. Prolific, bearing abundantly. 
From Latin ferax, feracis; ferre, to bear. 
From the 1 7th century; Carlyle in PAST 
AND PRESENT (1843) wonders at the world 
so f gracious, teeming with endless results. 
(This is not a misprint for ferocious.) 
Hence, feracity, fruitfulness; also (of per- 
sons) , profit. 

feral. (1) Deadly, fatal; pertaining to the 
dead; funereal, gloomy. Latin feralis, per- 
taining to funeral rites. A feral sign in 
astrology portended doom. The EIKON 
BASILIKON (1648) spoke of such a degree 
of splendour, as those ferall birds shall be 
grieved to behold. (2) Wild, uncultivated 
applied often to domesticated plants or 



animals that have reverted to a wild state. 
Hence brutal, savage; BLACKWOOD'S EDIN- 
BURGH MAGAZINE in 1838 spoke of a potent 
charm which converts the feral into the 
human being. 

ferblet. Effeminate. Old English forblete, 
to make soft; blete, soft. Used in the 13th 
and 14th centuries. 

ferd. (1) A military expedition. The 
word is used in this sense in Old English 
only; it is related to fare, journey. By 
extension, an army; a host; a great num- 
ber; a troop, a band. Hence ferdfare, pay- 
ment for exemption from military service 
(10th to 14th century) ; ferdwit, payment 
(in lieu of punishment) for murder com- 
mitted in the army. (The Irish extended 
this privilege to civilians; cp. eric.) (2) 
Fear, terror. A noun use, in the 14th and 
15th centuries, of ferd, feared. Hence also 
ferdlac, ferdlayk, terror; ferdful, fearful, 
dreadful; afraid, wary. Chaucer pictures 
a state of panic in THE HOUS OF FAME 
(1384) : He for ferde lost hys wyt. 

fere. As a noun. A companion (one that 
fares with another) as a meatfere, play- 
fere, suckingf ere. Hence, to choose, have, 
take, unto (one's) fere. Hence, a spouse, a 
mate; an equal. Thus without fere, with- 
out equal; in fere, yfere, together; al in 
fere, all together, altogether. By extension, 
companionship; a company, a party; also, 
ability, health. As an adjective, healthy 
(able to fare) , strong; often in the phrase 
whole and fere. As a verb. (1) To fare, to 
journey, proceed, go on; behave; take 
place, happen. (2) To be proper, to be 
fit. (3) To be a companion to, accompany; 
to join, unite; to join together, provide 
with a consort. Fere was also a variant 
form of far, fear, feer (fierce), ferry, and 
fire. Other forms of the word were vere, 
fer, feare, phere, phear. Venus, Chapman 



264 



ferial 



festinate 



reminds us in his translation (1611) of 
the ILIAD, which kept Keats awake 
Venus was the nuptial fere Of famous 
Vulcan. Coleridge took up the word for 
THE ANCIENT MARINER (1798) : Are these 
two all . . . That woman and her fleshless 
pheeref Southwell (POEMS, 1595) using 
the form to mean companion, punned: 
Feares now are my pheares. 

ferial. This word has had odd shifts of 
sense. Latin feria, holiday, was originally 
applied, in ecclesiastical English, to week- 
days (as opposed to the Sabbath) that 
called for certain observances, as Ash 
Wednesday. Hence, a weekday; then, a 
weekday on which no holy day or holiday 
falls. Thus ferial, pertaining to a weekday, 
as opposed to a festival. But there also 
continued in use the sense of a weekday 
to be especially observed; hence ferial, 
pertaining to a holiday; from the 15th 
through the 17th century, a ferial day, 
ferial time meant that the law courts 
were closed; Mrs. Byrne in UNDERCURRENTS 
OVERLOOKED (1860) said that Admiral 
Mackan ordered that all works in the 
navy should be suspended on ferial days. 
Hence feriate, feriot, vacation, holiday; 
also ferie; in his THRE LA WES (15S8) Bale 
spoke of Sondayes and other feryes. And 
the rare verb ferie, fery, to keep holiday; 
To abuse the sabbothe, cried Hooper in 

A DECLARATION OF THE TEN HOLY COM- 

MAUNDEMENTES (1548) , zs as mouche as to 
fery unto god, and work to the devill. 
Also feriation, cessation of work, holiday 
taking. Sir Thomas Browne in PSEUDO- 
DOXIA EPIDEMICA (1646) exclaimed scorn- 
fully: As though there were any feriation 
in nature! 

ferk. See firk. 

ferly. Here is one word, four parts of 
speech. As an adjective (from the 9th cen- 



tury) , sudden, unexpected; frightful, ter- 
rible; strange, wonderful; wonderfully 
great. The same, as an adverb. As a noun, 
a marvel, a wonder; wonder, astonish- 
ment. What ferly, what wonder! As a 
verb, to wonder; to amaze. The noun and 
the verb do not occur before the 13th 
century. Ferly is from Old English faer, 
whence fear + lie, like, -ly. Also ferlich, 
ferrely, farley, fearely, ferley. Cp. forferly. 
Chaucer in THE REEVE'S TALE (1386) asks: 
Who heard ever swilke a ferlie thing? 

SIR GA WAYNE AND THE GRENE KNIGHT (1360) 

said that Mo ferlies on this folde han 
fallen here oft Then in any other that I 
wot. Longland's VISION OF PIERS PLOWMAN 
(1377) opens invitingly: In a somer seson 
whan soft was the sonne I shope me in 
shroudes as I a shepe were, In habite as a 
heremite unholy of workes, Went wyde in 
this world wondres to here. Ac on a May 
mornynge on Malverne hulles Me byfel a 
ferly . . . 

fescue. A twig, a small piece of straw 
sometimes used in allusion to the Biblical 
mote in one's neighbor's eys. Hence, a 
small stick or pointer used to help chil- 
dren learn. Common 14th through 17th 
century. Also as a verb, fescue, to guide 
in reading, with a stick (which may be 
a pointer or used to rap one over the 
knuckles) ; Milton in ANIMADVERSIONS 
. . . SMECTYMNUS (1641) speaks of a child 
fescu'd to a formal injunction of his rote- 
lesson. 

festinate. Hasty. From Latin festinare, 
to hurry; festinus, in haste, quick. Shake- 
speare in KING LEAR (1605) has Admse the 
Duke where you are going, to a most 
festinate preparation. Festinate is also a 
verb, to hasten mainly of the 17th cen- 
tury, but used by Shelley in a letter of 
1812. Shakespeare also uses the adverb, 
in LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST (1588) : Bring 



265 



fet 

him festinatly hither. To Suetonius we owe 
the caution Festina lente, make haste 
slowly, also rendered The more haste, the 
less speed. Noun forms are festinance, 
festinancy, Destination, haste as when one 
proceeds with festination towards one's 
destination* 

fet. An early form, replaced by fetch. 
Also in phrases: to fet again, to bring to, 
restore to consciousness. To fet in, to take 
in a supply of. To fet off, to pick off (as 
a marksman does) , to kill. In fine fet, 
short for fettle, q.v. Used from Beowulf; 
in the 15th and 16th centuries, mainly 
in the past forms. Chaucer, in THE SQMP- 
NER'S TALE (1386) : Forth he goth . . . and 
fat his felaw. Udall, in RALPH ROYSTER 
DOYSTER (1553) : Shall I go fet our goosef 

fettle. As a verb. To gird up, make 
ready, put in order; to get ready, to busy 
oneself; to fuss. Old English fetel, root 
fat, to hold. As a noun, a basket-handle; a 
girdle, a bandage. From the idea of being 
readied, fettle came by the 18th century 
to mean condition, state, trim, especially 
in the phrases in good fettle 3 in high 
fettle and surviving because of the al- 
literation in fine fettle. No one, how- 
ever, seems to be in foul fettle, although 
Holmes in THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAK- 
FAST-TABLE (1859) remarks that the young 
man John is in frustrate fettle. I hope that 
yours is fine! 

feuage. See focage. 

feud. Also feudum. See allodium. 

feu de joie. A bonfire; especially, one 
for a celebration or merrymaking. Direct 
from the French; literally, fire of joy. 
Used from the 16th century. Also (19th 
century) , a military salute, consisting of 
guns fixed in quick succession down one 
rank and up the next, so as to make a 
long continuous sound. 



fidious 

feuillantine. A small tart, filled with 
sweetmeats; an 18th century delicacy. The 
Feuillantines were French nuns, in the 
convent of whose order the pastry was 
probably first concocted. 

feuillemort. See filemot. 

feverfew. A plant, also called feverfoylie; 
fettertoe; featherfew, featherfoy, feather- 
foil (the leaves are a little like feathers). 
It was supposed to allay fever; the name is 
Late Latin febrifugal Latin febris, fever 
+ fugare, to drive away, whence also 
fugitive. Feverfew was the main ingredient 
in Henry VIII's Medyicine for the pesti- 
lence', but in the year of America's first 
blow for independence Adam Smith cal- 
culated that half of England's working 
class never reached maturity, cut down in 
the main by fevers, in spite of feverfew. 

fever-lurden. The disease commonly 
called laziness. The name is coined in 
imitation of other disease-names; see lur- 
dan. Also feverlurgan, feverlurgy, fever 
lordeyn. Jamieson (1808) explains fever- 
largie: two stomachs to eat, and none to 
work. 

fex. See fegs. 
feymise. See faintise. 

fico. See fig. The Italian form is fico; 
Latin ficus, fig. 

fidge. See fig. 

fidimplicitary. Putting full trust in an- 
other. Church Latin fides implicita, im- 
plicit faith. Urquhart in THE JEWEL (1652) 
speaks o fidimplicitary gown-men . . . 
satisfied with their predecessors' contri- 
vances. For another instance of its use, 
see quisquilious. 

fidious. Short for perfidious. Thus used 
in Shirley's ARCADIA (1640) : Oh! fidious 
rascal! I thought there was some roguery. 



266 



fig 

fig. In addition to the delicious fruit 
(in the north, usually dried and often 
pressed), fig, figge, fygge, fico, has had 
several other meanings. (1) A poisoned 
fig to get rid of a person; also Spanish fig, 
Italian fig; thus Gascoigne in HERBES 
(1577) warned lest thou suppe sometimes 
with a magnified, And have a fico foysted 
in thy dish. To fig away, to get rid of 
with a poisoned fig, as in early Renais- 
sance Italy: Pope Sixtus Quintus (died 
1590) . (2) Anything small, mean, or 
contemptible; also a figs end, a dried fig. 
Never a fig, not the tiniest bit. Shake- 
speare in OTHELLO (1604) says: Virtue? A 
figge; 'tis in ourselves that we are thus, or 
thus. And in THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR: 
A fico for the phrase. This moves toward 
(3) a contemptuous gesture: putting the 
thumb between the next two fingers, or 
into the mouth. Hence, to give the fig f 
to make this gesture; to hold in con- 
tempt. (There is an obscene allusion in 
Italian fica.) To fig, to insult with this 
gesture. For the insulting uses, fig, figo, 
fico were the preferred forms. There were 
other uses of fig, not derived from the 
fruit. (4) To fig (16th to 18th century), 
to move briskly, to jog about. This is 
a variant of fike, fidge, and the surviving 
fidget. Middleton in A CHAST MAYD IN 
CHEAPE-SIDE (1620) wrote: Their short 
figging little shittlecock [shuttlecock] feet; 
Urquhart in his translation (1693) of 
Rabelais: their . . . figging itch, wrigling 
mordicancy. (5) To fig (19th century) 
to feague, to make lively or spirited, to 
fig up. Also to fig out, to dress smartly. 
In full fig (possibly here fig is an abbrevi- 
ation of figure), all dressed up; De 
Quincey (1839) : All belted and plumed, 
and in full military fig. (6) To fig (16th 
to 18th century) , to pick pockets. Figboy, 
a pickpocket Figging law, the art of pick- 



filbert 

pocketry. Figger, a boy lifted to a window 
to filch the display. 

figary. See fegary. 

figee. A dish of sour milk and fish, eaten 
in the 14th century. Also fygey; Old 
French figg, a dish of curds; figer, to 
curdle. The name was soon confused with 
that of the fruit fig, and in the 15th cen- 
tury figee (now also ffygey, fygee, figge) 
was described as figs boiled in wine, or 
other forms of cooked figs. 

figo. See fig. 

figure-flinger. A figure-caster, an astrolo- 
ger. Figure-casting, said Archbishop Abbot 
in his EXPOSITION UPON THE PROPHET 
JONAH (1600) , to judge of nativities . . . 
is a lying vanity. Figure-flinger is a term 
of contempt for one who indulges in such 
practices; it was used from the 16th into 
the 18th century. Hearne in his REMI- 
NISCENCES (1723) stated: Being much ad- 
dicted to astrology, he gave over his trade 
and set up the trade of figure-flinging 
and publishing of almanacs. Both terms 
were also applied (figure-casting by Swin- 
burne in his STUDIES OF SHAKESPEARE, 1880) 
to persons that took a literal view of the 
world, 'casting/ calculating, with numeri- 
cal figures only. 

fike. (1) To move restlessly, to fidget. 
See fig. A very common word from the 
13th century, still used in the 19th. The 
Scandinavian forms meant to move briskly, 
eagerly; and fike with this implication is 
probably the source of our most frequently 
unprinted four-letter word. (2) To flatter, 
to fawn; to deceive. Also fyke. Old Eng- 
lish gefic, deceit, probably related to faken, 
deceit, whence (perhaps) fake. Hence 
also fikeling, flattery, in the CHRONICLE 
of Robert of Gloucester (1 3th century) ; 
fikenung, deceit (I2th century) . 

filbert. See fagot 



267 



fildor 



findal 



fildor. Gold thread. Directly from French 
fil, thread + d'or, of gold. Also fildore, 
fyldor. Used into the 14th century, as in 

GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT: Folden in 

wyth fildore about the fayre grene. 

file. As a verb. In addition to the usual 
senses, to march in line; to rub smooth 
with a file (by extension, to polish, to 
perfect; Shakespeare in SONNET 85, 1600: 
Precious phrase by all the Muses fil'd) , 
file in this sense related to foul was 
from the 14th to the 17th century (later, 
as 'file) used as an early form of defile. 
Shakespeare in MACBETH has: For Ban- 
quo's issue have I fil'd my mind. As a 
noun. (1) A girl; especially, a concubine, 
a whore. Used in the 14th century. Old 
French file; Latin filia, daughter. (2) A 
worthless person of either sex. 14th and 
15th centuries; related to foul. (3) File, 
foyl, foyl-cloy, file-cloy, a pickpocket (17th 
and 18th century) . In the Motteux trans- 
lation (1708) of Rabelais: Pickpockets, 
divers, buttocking-foiles: the last word is 
explained in Bailey's DICTIONARY (1721) : 
Bulk and file is, when one jostles you 
while another picks your pocket. (4) The 
word fie, meaning a line or rank, origi- 
nally meant a thread; French ftl, Latin 
filum, thread; filare, to spin, draw out 
threads. Hence, the thread of life; Sidney's 
OURANIA (N. Baxter, 1606): The fatall 
sisters would not cut her file. Also, the 
thread or tenor of a story; a catalogue, 
list. To accept the files, to open one's 
ranks for a charging enemy to enter, so as 
then to close upon him. The common file, 
the 'common herd'; Shakespeare in CORI- 
OLANUS: The common file a plague! 
Tribunes for them! The mouse ne'er 
shunn'd the cat as they did budge From 
rascals worse then they. Tourneur in THE 
REVENGER'S TRAGEDY (1607) spoke A word 
that I abhorre to file my lips with. 



filemot. The color of a dead leaf. The 
word is a 17th century corruption of 
French feuille morte, dead leaf. Also in 
the forms feuillemort, fillemort, foHomort, 
philemort, philamot. Browning in SOR- 
DELLO (1840) says: Let Vidal change . . . 
His murrey-coloured robe for philamot, 
And crop his hair. 

films ante patrem. See coltsfoot. 
filoplume. See filoselle. 

filoselle. A kind of floss silk, used in the 
17th century; a cloth made of silk and 
wool. Also filosella, philizella, philosella; 
influenced by Latin filum, thread; but 
more directly via Italian from Late Latin 
follicellus, cocoon; follis, bag, whence also 
English follicle. The long thin feather of 
some birds, with an almost invisible stem, 
is called a filoplume, literally, thread- 
feather. 

fimashmg. See furnishing. 

fimble. (l)"Hemp early ripe"; so Bailey, 
1751. A corruption of French femelle, 
female; in popular terminology, the fe- 
male hemp. Actually, what is called the 
fimble is the male plant of hemp, which 
yields a shorter and weaker fibre than the 
carl hemp or female plant. Popularly, the 
weaker fibres were called female, fimble; 
the stronger, carl, male. (2) A ring for 
fastening a gate. (3) (As a verb) to touch 
lightly and frequently with the tips of 
the fingers, as a woman may fimble a 
jewel at her breast; to move over or 
through without harming, as a scythe may 
fimble (i.e., not cut) the grass. 

fimetic. See furnishing. 

findal. That which is found, treasure- 
trove. By transference (what the mind 
lights upon) , an invention. From 10th to 
17th century. Used in the plural, findals, 
of goods from wrecked ships. The law does 



268 



fine 



firrnitude 



not quite concur in the olden claim Find- her own center; Fletcher, RULE A WIFE 



ers keepers. 

fine. A a verb. Among lapsed uses are: 
To pay for the privilege of not holding, 
or running for, an office. Pepys in his 
DIARY for 1 December, 1663, noted that 
Mr. Crow hath fined for alderman. From 
the noun, which is from Latin finem, end 
(settlement) . To make pure, to refine; to 
grow clear; to make beautiful, to fine up. 
From the adjective, which is from Latin 
finire, finitum, finish (whence also in- 
finite) , in the sense of putting a finish or 
polish on a thing. Mukaster in THE EL- 
EMENTARIE (First Part; 1582) spoke of 
use and custom having the help of so long 
time and continuance wherein to fine our 
tung. 

finew. Mouldiness; mould. Also as a 
verb, to grow mouldy, to make mouldy. 
Finewy, finewed, mouldy. The last form 
existed (16th-18th century) in many vari- 
ations: fenowed, finnowed, vynued, vine- 
wed; vinnowed, vinnied, whinid; Shake- 
speare in TROILUS AND CRESSIDA (1606) has: 
Speake then you whinid'st leaven, speake! 

finitor. Horizon. A translation of Greek 
horizon; Latin finitor from finire t to 
bound, finis, boundary, end. Used in 16th 
and 17th century astronomy. 

firk. This was a very common word from 
the 10th into the 19th century. Also ferk; 
in some senses related to fare; a variant 
of fike, q.v. Among the meanings were: 
(1) To bring, to help on the way, to 
urge along; (2) to drive, to drive away; 
(3) to rouse (firk up) ; (4) to speed along, 
to move quickly or suddenly; to draw (a 
sword) hastily (firk out) ; (5) to beat, 
whip; (6) to raise (money) , to cheat, to 
rob. Used in many 17th century plays: 
Jonson, THE ALCHEMIST (1610) : He . . . 
puffs his coals Till he firke nature up, in 



AND HAVE A WIFE (1624) : These five years 
she has firkt a pretty living; Shakespeare, 
Henry V (1599) : Boy: He says his name 
is Monsieur Per. Pistol: Monsieur Per, 
I'll fer him, and firke him, and ferret him. 
The word was often used with sexual im- 
plications. In the 17th century, firk was 
also used as a noun, meaning a sudden 
blow (with a whip or a sword) ; a prank, 
caprice; a trick, subterfuge. 

firman. Passport, license, permit. Origi- 
nally an order issued by the Sultan of 
Turkey or other near-Eastern potentate; 
Persian ferman, Sanskrit pramana, com- 
mand. Used literally in 17th and 18th 
centuries, more widely in the 19th, as in 
Barham's INGOLDSBY LEGENDS (1840) : a 
German . . . Paid his court to her father, 
conceiving his firman Would soon make 
her bend. 

firmance. See firmitude. 

firmitude. Steadfastness of purpose; the 
state of being firm. Also firmity though 
at least once (in Audelay's POEMS; 1426) 
firmity was used as a short form of in- 
firmity: To succour ham, in here fyremete. 
Other forgotten forms from firm include: 
firmation, the action of making firm, but 
also ratification, confirmation. To firmify, 
to make firm; to become firm; it would be 
a surprise to behold 'Casper Milquetoast* 
firmify. Also firmance, the holding firm; 
confinement; especially to keep (put) in 
firmance, but to make firmance to was 
to pledge loyalty to; thus Bellenden in his 
translation (1536) of Boece's HISTORY 

AND CHRONICLES OF SCOTLAND: Als SOOne 

as Gillus was maid kyng . . . to stabil the 
realme to him with sickir [surer] firmance f 
he tuk the aithis [oaths] of his pepiL 
Robert Copland in his translation (1542) 

Of the FOURTH BOKE OF THE TERAPEUTYKE 



269 



firth 

[Therapeutic] OR METHODE CURATYFE OF 
CLAUDE GALYEN remarked: They do use 
these names, dyspathies, metasyncrises, 
imbecyllitees, fyrmytudes, and sondry 
other such names. Here dyspathy, q.v., the 
opposite of sympathy, is used to mean an- 
tagonism (lack of susceptibility) to a dis- 
ease; metasyncrisis is a medical term, ex- 
plained later by Copland as "mutacyon 
of the state of pores and smal conduites." 
Further discussion must be dismissed with 
firmitude. 

firth. A variant of -frith, q.v. Firth, in 
the sense of grove, was the preferred form 
in the frequent phrases, in alliterative 
verse, firth and fell, firth and field, firth 
and fold. 

fisking. Bustling, frisking, scampering. 
From the verb, to fisk. Usually scornful, 
as when the DICTIONARY OF THE CANTING 
CREW (1700) defines gadding-gossips: way- 
going women, fidging and fisking every- 
where. Even more so, in Harvey's PIERCES 
SUPEREROGATION (1593) , against Nashe: 
He hath little witt, less learning, lest 
judgement, no discretion, vanity enough, 
stomacke at will, superabundance of selfe- 
conceit, outward liking of fewe, inward 
affection to none ... no reverence to his 
patrons, no respect to his superiors, no 
regard to any but in contemptuous or 
censorious sort, hatred or disdaine to the 
rest, continuall quarrels with one or other 
(not such an other mutterer or murmurer, 
even against his familiarest acquaintance), 
an evergrudging and repining mind, a 
ravenous throte, a gluttonous mawe, a 
dronken head, a blasphemous tongue, a 
fisking will, a shittle nature, a revolting 
and rennegate disposition, a broking and 
huckstering penne, store of rascall phrases, 
some little of a brabling scholar, more of 
a raving scould, most of a roisterly serving- 
man, nothing of a gentleman, lesse then 



fizgig 

nothing of a fine or cleanly artist [Shittle 
means fickle, flighty, unstable; also shittle- 
brained, shittle-witted. It is another form 
of shuttle, as in shuttlecock; cp. batler.] 
The Rules of Civility (1675) in THE 
ANTIQUARY stated: Fisking and pr ailing 
are but ill ways to please. 

fitchet-pie. A pie made with apples, 
onions, and bacon. A North of England 
favorite. 

fitchew. A polecat. Also fitch, fitchet, 
fitcher, fitchole, fitchock. The first and last 
forms were applied to persons, in con- 
tempt ("the skunkl") ; Shakespeare in 
OTHELLO (1604) , when Bianca, the prosti- 
tute, enters, Cassio exclaims: 'Tis such 
another fitchew! Marry, a perfumed one. 
(In the mating season, the polecat is ex- 
ceedingly demonstrative and odorous.) 

fitment. A making fit, preparation; that 
which is fit; one's duty. Used only in 
Shakespeare before the 19th century; then 
(often in the plural, fitments, fittings) , in 
the sense of furniture, furnishings. In 
Shakespeare's CYMBELINE (1611) : 'Twas 
a fitment for The purpose I then followed; 
in PERICLES the Bawd complains of the 
consistently virtuous Marina: We must 
either get her ravished or get rid of her. 
When she should do for clients her fit- 
ment and do me the kindness of our pro- 
fession, she has me her quirks, her reasons, 
her master reasons, her prayers, her knees; 
that she would make a puritan of the 
devil, if he should cheapen [bargain for] 
a kiss of her. 

fizgig. An emphatic form of gig, which 
to Chaucer meant a frivolous person; to 
Shakespeare, a whipping-top. Hence fiz- 
gig (also fisgfg, fisguigge, fizzgig) , a gad- 
about woman; a top or whirligig; espe- 
cially, one that makes a whizzing sound as 
it spins. Also, a hissing kind of firework, 



270 



flabel 



flam 



sometimes called a serpent. Also possibly 
another word, from Spanish fisga, harpoon, 
gar, spear fizgig, a harpoon; this was 
corrupted into fishgig. From the sound of 
the word, fizgig was later (19th century) 
used in the sense of a gim-crack, a piece 
of tawdry finery, a silly notion, an ab- 
surdity, as Southey in THE QUARTERLY RE- 
VIEW of 1822 spoke of the banderoles, the 
humgigs, and fizzgigs of superstition, A 
gig (also giglot, gixy, q,v.) meant also a 
giddy, frivolous girl; THE PLOWMAN'S TALE 
(1395) said: Some spend their good upon 
their gigges, And finden them of greet 
aray. Also (from the 16th century) a 
fancy, joke, whim; (from the 18th) fun, 
glee; in high gig, on the (high) gig, hav- 
ing lots of fun. Rogers in NAAMAN (1642) 
spoke of any idle tale, or gigge of a geer- 
ing, gibing wit. 

flabel. A fan. The Latin flabellum, fan, 
is used as an English word for a fan 
carried in religious ceremonies or courtly 
procedure; The bishop's pastoral staff, 
William Maskell notes, in IVORIES ANCIENT 
AND MEDIAEVAL (1875), has not dropped 
out of use like . . . the flabellum. Flabel- 
lum is the diminutive of flabrum, a gust 
of wind; flare, flatum, to blow, whence an 
inflated tire or ego. Flabel is also used as 
a verb flabbell'd by the north winds, 
says Urquhart in his translation (1653) of 
Rabelais. Hence flabellation, fanning. The 
botanists and zoologists ring the changes, 
with flabelliform, flabellifoliate, and the 
like. In music, wind-instruments were in 
the 18th century referred to as ftabile. 

fladtet. A bottle or vessel. The 1539 
BIBLE (SAMSON) says: Isai toke an asse 
laden with breed, and a flacket of wyne. 
Also (possibly from the shape) a puff or 
bunch of hair, such as might hang on each 
side from beneath a lady's cap (16th and 
17th centuries) . 



lag-fallen. Unemployed. Used first (16th 
and 17th centuries) of actors; the play- 
house flag was lowered where there was 
no performance. Rowley in the appropri- 
ately entitled THE SEARCH FOR MONEY 
(1609) included foure or five flag-falne 
platers, poore harmlesse merrie knaves, 
that were neither lords nor ladies, but 
honestly wore their owne clothes. 

flagitate. To importune, to demand earn- 
estly. From the 17th century. Hence, 
flagitation, an earnest or passionate re- 
quest. (Occasionally flagitation has been 
used in error for flagellation.) Latin flag- 
itare, to demand earnestly; flagitium, 
eagerness; hence, a passionate deed, a 
burning shame, an outrage. This shift in 
meaning was carried over into English. 
flagitious, extremely wicked, villainous; 
flagition, flagitiousness, villainy, burning 
shame. Riches, said J. Keeper in 1598, are 
the infamous offspring of covetousness, 
and guilty even of the same flagition. 

flagon. A large bottle for holding wine 
or inferior liquors; especially a metal one 
(carried by pilgrims before scoffiaws) with 
a screw top. Urquhart in his translation 
(1653) of Rabelais points out that the 
bottle is stopped . . with a stoppel, but 
the flaggon with a vice. Also, a large bottle 
for use at table, usually with a handle, 
a spout, and a lid. Scott, in THE FAIR 
MAID OF PERTH (1828) , says: He set the 
flagon on the table, and sat down. A right 
good start! 

flam. Possibly a shortened form of flim- 
flam or flamfew. (1) Flim-flam. A redupli- 
cation expressing contempt, common from 
the 16th century: idle talk; a cheap trick 
or petty attempt to deceive; nonsense. 
Probably from the Scandinavian; Old 
Norse ftim, a lampoon; ftimska, mockery. 
Hence ftambuginous, sham, nonsensical, 



271 



flamfew 



fiawn 



as in the SPORTING MAGAZINE of 1813: The 
flambuginous sea-monster, known by the 
name of the Non-Descript. (2) Flamfew. 
A trifle, a gew-gaw; a gaudily dressed 
woman. Also flamefew, flamfoo. This word 
is a corruption of French fanfelue; Medi- 
eval Latin famfaluca, a bubble, a lie. 
(3) Hence flam (from the 17th century) : 
a fanciful notion, a whim; a sham story, 
a deception, a cheap trick; humbug, flat- 
tery. Common, in these senses, in the 
dramatists, as in Fletcher's THE HUMOUR- 
OUS LIEUTENANT (1625) : Presently, with 
some new flam or other . . . she takes her 
chamber. There are three other words 
with the form flam, (a) Flam (from the 
sound) , a signal on a drum: a quick beat, 
each stick just once, in rapid succession, 
(b) A watery, rushy place, where the 
flambe (blue flag, iris) grows, (c) A 
torch; short for flambeau. Flam is also a 
verb, to mock, to deceive; as when Ford 

in THE WITCH OF EDMONTON (1658) COm- 

plains: And then flam me off with an 
old witch. 

flamfew. See flam. 

flampoint. A pie with pointed pieces of 
pastry as ornaments. Also flaumpeyn> 
flampett, ftampoynte. A recipe for pork 
flampoint is given in THE FORME OF CURY 
(1390) : Take gode enturlarded porke, and 
sethe hit, and hewe hit, and grinde it 
smalle; and do therto gode fat chese 
grated, and sugur, and gode ponder; then 
take and make coffyns of thre ynche depe, 
and do al this therin; and make a thynne 
foyle of paste, and cut oute thereof smale 
pointeSj and frie horn in grese, and stike 
horn in the farse, and bake hit, and serve 
hit forthe. 

flattings. Flat on the ground; (of a blow) 
with the flat side; (of motion) horizon- 
tally, on level ground. Also flailing; (16th 



and 17th centuries) flatlong. THE MIROUR 
OF SALVACIOUN (1450) said: The knyghtes 
upon the grounde laide then the crosse 
flailing. Scott revived the word in IVAN- 
HOE (1820) : His sword turned in his 
hand, so that the blade struck me flattings; 
so also Morris in THE EARTHLY PARADISE 
(1868). 

flaun. See flawn. Stubbes in THE AN- 
ATOMIE OF ABUSES (1583) listed some 
custardes, some cracknels, some cakes, 
some flaunes, some tartes . . . 

flaw. (1) A detached piece. Old Norse 
flaga, related to flag as in flagstone, and 
to flake. Thus: a snowflake; a spark. A 
fragment; especially, the point of a horse- 
shoe nail broken off by the smith after it 
has gone through the hoof. Hence, not 
worth a flaw. Thus also, a broken piece; 
a break, a faulty place whence the still 
current meaning, a fault. Shakespeare 
uses it figuratively in ANTHONY AND CLEO- 
PATRA (1606) : Observe how Anthony be- 
comes his flaw. 2) A sudden gust or burst 
of wind; a short spell of bad weather 
(rain or snow and wild wind) . Hence, a 
sudden onset, a burst of passion; a sudden 
tumult. Thus Shakespeare in MACBETH: 
O, these flawes and starts . . . would well 
become A woman's story. From its stirring 
in the wind was named the flaw-flower, 
a delicate plant also called the anemone 
(Greek anemos, the wind) . Most piteously 
we read, in Shakespeare's KING LEAR: This 
heart shall break into a hundred thousand 
flawes. 

flawn. A sort of custard or cheese-cake, 
made flat. Old High German flado, flat 
cake; West German form flap on; English 
flapjack. Perhaps related to Greek pla~ 
thanon, cake-mold; platys, broad whence 
the platypus and the philosopher Plato. 
Common, 14th to 18th century, as in the 



272 



flayflint 

saying flat as a flawn. Also flaun. Scott re- 
vived the word, wisely remarking in THE 
ABBOTT (1820) : He that is hanged in May 
will eat no flaunes in Midsummer. Dekker, 
in SATIROMASTIX (1602) , applies the word 
to a flat hat: Cast off that blue coat, 
away with that flawne! 

flayflint. One so mean that he would 
flay a flint if he could, to profit by it. 
An earlier form of skinflint (which dates 
from 1700). Flay was often spelled flea, 
as tea and tay were interchanged, all with 
the long a sound; Shadwell in THE MISER 
(1672) cried: A pox on this damn'd flea- 
flint! 

fleam. (1) A river. Especially applied, 
14th- 16th century, to the Jordan: the 
flem Jordan. Also, an artificial channel, 
such as a mill-stream; in this sense the 
word survives in dialects. Also as a verb, 
fleam, to flow; thus R. Buchanan wrote in 
1863: As the vapours fleam' d away, be- 
hold! I saw . . . a nymph. (2) In medical 
use, a blood-letting instrument, a lancet. 
Via French and Latin from Greek phlebo- 
tomon; phleb-, vein + temnein, to cut. 

fleawort. A plant the seeds of which were 
used to inspire prophecy. Its name comes 
from its supposed virtue in destroying 
fleas; the ancients, more literal-minded, 
named it Latin pulicaria (puttcem, flea) , 
Greek pyllion, because the seeds resembled 
fleas. In the 16th and 17th centuries, it 
was used for ulcers, and (Lloyd, THE 
TREASURIE OF HEALTH; 1550) a bath made 
of the decoction of flewort taketh away 
all goutes. In Henry VIII's herb garden, 
fleawort and fennel (q.v.) were favorite 
plants. 

flebile. Mournful (especially of literary 
or oratorical style) . Used in the 17th and 
18th centuries. The verb fieble (14th cen- 
tury) meant to grow weak. The two forms 



fleshment 

are from Latin flebilis, deplorable, to be 
wept over; flere, to weep, to lament. By 
way of Old French fleible, fieble, this gave 
us the still common English word feeble, 
pitiable, weak. 

fleegary. See fegary. 

fleer. A mocking look or speech; "a de- 
ceitful grin of civility" (Johnson) . As a 
verb, to laugh in a coarse or impudent 
manner, to sneer; to smile fawningly. 
Common from the 17th century; Shake- 
speare in OTHELLO (1604) has: Mark the 
fteeres, the gybes and notable scornes 
That dwell in every region of his face. 
Carlyle in his REMINISCENCES (1866) gives 
us the one use of the word in a pleasant 
sense, an innocent fleer of merriment. 

flemaflare. See fleme. 

fleme. Exile, flight; a fugitive, an out- 
law; to put to flight, chase, outlaw, 
banish. Common from the 9th to the 16th 
century; the early noun form from the 
verb to flee-, replaced by flight, from to 
fly. Hence several Old English words, in- 
cluding (1) flemaflare., the right to forfeit 
an outlaw's property (in Bailey's DICTION- 
ARY, 1751) ; (2) ftemens firth, the enter- 
taining of a banished person; hence, a 
penalty exacted by the king for such 
entertainment. Old English flymena 
fyrmth, entertainment of fugitives. Old 
charters give this in many forms, as 
flemenfremith, flemenejerd, flemenefenda. 

flemensfirth. See fleme. 

fleshment. Excitement from a first suc- 
cess. From the verb to flesh, which in the 
16th and 17th centuries meant to give a 
hawk (falcon, hound) some of the flesh 
of the first game killed, to excite it to 
further hunting. Hence, to initiate or 
harden to warfare; to harden (as in a 
course of evil); to incite; to inflame by 



273 



flet 

extension, to gratify (rage or lust) ; Shake- 
speare has, in ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL 
(1601) : This night he fleshes his will in 
the spoyle of her honour. Swift wrote, in 
A TALE OF A TUB (1704) : Fleshed at these 
smaller sports, like young wolves, they 
grew up in time to be nimble. In Shake- 
speare's KING LEAR Oswald complains that 
Kent beat him And in the fleshment of 
this dread exploit Drew on me here again. 

flet. The floor or ground beneath one's 
feet. A common Teutonic form; flato, 
fiat Hence, a place, a hall, the inner part 
of a house; a storey of a house, a suite of 
rooms on one floor, an apartment in this 
sense Scotch until the mid- 19th century; 
now a flat Especially in the phrase fire 
and flet (sometimes fleet) , fire and house- 
room, often used in wills, as one of 1533: 
to fynd the said wife . . . mete and drink, 
fyer and flet. 

fletcher. A maker of arrows; a dealer in 
bows and arrows. By extension (rarely), 
an archer. From French fteche, arrow. A 
common word until the 19th century; it 
survives as a name, 

fieuron. A puff of pastry, for garnishing. 
So Bailey's DICTIONARY (1751) . Also, from 
the shape (French fleur, flower) , a flower- 
shaped ornament in architecture, print- 
ing, numismatics. 

Sexammous. Persuasive, affecting; hav- 
ing power to bend the mind. From Latin 
ftectere, flexus, to bend (whence genuflect, 
reflect^ flexible) -f- animus, mind. Used 
in the 37th century, mainly in religious 
contexts, as when T. Adams (1633) speaks 
of that flexanimous Preacher whose pulpit 
is in heaven. 



floccify 

was ftibbergib; then flebergebet, ftiber- 
degibek, and many more. Harsnet, in his 

DECLARATION OF EGREGIOUS POPISH IM- 
POSTURES (1603) said that Prater etto, 
Fliberdigibbet, Hoberdidance, Tocobatto 
were four devils of the round, or Morrice; 
hence Shakespeare took the foule Flibber- 
tigibbet of KING LEAR (1605) . Scott in 
KENILWORTH (1821) called the boy Dickie 
Sludge flibbertigibbet; hence, a mischie- 
vous, impish-looking urchin; a restless 
and grotesque person. Also flibberty gib- 
ber ty, flighty, frivolous. 



See fraight. 
flim-flam. See flam. 

ffiimmer. To burn unsteadily, as though 
near to dying out. An echoic word, sug- 
gesting quiet, or slight continuing or 
lessening action; thus simmer, shimmer, 
glimmer, dimmer. Per contra, rapid and 
violent movement is suggested by such 
words as bash, dash, gash, hash, clash, 
lash, flash, plash, splash, slash, mash, 
smash, gnash, crash, thrash. And as horror 
tends to constrict the throat, so ghost, 
ghoul, ghastly, aghast. The sound may 
be an echo to the sense. 

flirt-gill. A light or loose woman. Also 
flirt-gillian; gill-flirt. Gill (Remember 
Jack and Jill) is a pet form of Juliana. 
Not in print before Shakespeare, who in 
ROMEO AND JULIET (1592) cries: Scurvy 
knave, I am none of his fturt-gils; Beau- 
mont and Fletcher, in THE KNIGHT OF THE 
BURNING PESTLE (1613) : You heard him 
take me up like a flirt gill, and sing bawdy 
songs upon me. 

Bite. Also flitte, flight, flyt, flyte, fleyte. 
See fly ting. 



iibbeitigibbet. A gossipy or frivolous floccify. To consider worthless. From the 
woman; a devil. The first form (in a Latin floccus, a lock (of hair) + facere, 
1549 sermon of Latimer; in the first sense) to make, especially in the negative; nee 

274 



floccinaucinihilipilification 



flyting 



tamen flocci facio, 1 do not care a straw. 
Floccify is a 17th and 18th century dic- 
tionary word; floccipend, to regard as of 
no account (pendere, to weigh, esteem) 
was somewhat more frequently used, as 
by W. Thomson, who observed in 1882 
that the Bacon-Shakespeare field was one 
prone to floccipend odd locks of thought 
from woolly-headed thinkers. Floccinauci- 
cal means inconsequential; floccinancity, 
a matter of little consequence. These 
forms are shortened from floccinaucini- 
hilipilification, the habit of estimating 
things as worthless. This is a humorous 
combination of words linked in a rule of 
the widely used Eton Latin Grammar; 
Southey (1816) and Scott (1829) bor- 
rowed it from Shenstone, who in a letter 
of 1741 said: I loved him for nothing so 
much as his flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication 
of money. 

floccinaucinihilipilification. See floccify. 

florentine. A pie; especially, a meat pie 
with crust on top only. Various florentine 
recipes have survived. One is for apple 
florentine: baking apples, sugar, and 
lemon, under a crust. One of 1700 calls 
for minced meats, currans, spice, eggs, etc., 
baked. THE QUEEN'S ROYAL COOKERY of 
1713 gives more detailed directions: Take 
a leg of mutton or veal, shave it into thin 
slices, and mingle it with some sweet 
herbs, as sweet marjoram, thyme, savory, 
parsley, and rosemary, being minced very 
small, a clove of garlick, some beaten nut- 
meg, pepper, a minced onion, some grated 
manchet, and three or four yolks of raw 
eggs, mix all together, with a little salt, 
some thin slices of interlarded bacon, and 
some oister-liquor, lay the meat round the 
dish on a sheet of paste, bake it, and 
being baked, stick bay leaves round the 
dish. 



florilegium. An anthology. From Latin 
flos, floris, flower + legere, to choose, 
gather. A translation into Latin of the 
Greek anthologion; the Greeks had a word 
for it that survived. 

fluctuous. Full of, or resembling, waves. 
Latin fluctus, wave. Used literally and 
figuratively, since the 16th century. Leigh 
Hunt in his AUTOBIOGRAPHY (1850) sug- 
gests a classification: waves, wavelets, bil- 
lows, fluctuosities, etc. 

flummery. A food: from this small oat- 
meal, by oft steeping it in water and 
cleansing it, and then boiling it to a thicke 
and stiff e jelly, is made that excellent dish 
of meat which is so esteemed in the West 
parts of this Kingdome, which they call 
wash-brew, and in Chesheire and Lan- 
kasheire they call it flamerie or ftumerie. 
So Markham in THE ENGLISH HUSWIFE 
(1615) . The word is from Welsh llymru, 
the ft being the English attempt to capture 
the sound of Welsh double /. Goldsmith 
in A CITIZEN OF THE WORLD (1760) speaks 
of supping on wild ducks and flummery. 
A common London street cry in the 18th 
century was Flummery! Buy my flummery! 

flurch. A multitude, a great many; spoken 
of things, not of persons, as a flurch of 
strawberries. So Bailey, 1751, listing it as 
"North Country." It is not in the O.EJD. 
(1933), though anyone that will ignore a 
flurch of strawberries will turn from Izaak 
Walton and hunt red herrings in the 
wood. 

flyting. Wrangling, contention; scolding; 
a reproach; abusive speech. Also fitting; 
flyte, flite; these two also were used as a 
verb, to wrangle; strive; scold. Used from 
the 10th century. Since the 1 5th century, 
also, a scolding-match; especially, in 
Scotch poetry, an invective in whidi each 
of two persons alternately abuses the 



275 



fnast 



foison 



other in tirades of vituperative verse. 
Hence fli ting-free, unrestrained in rebuke 
or abusive speech. Also filter, flyter, one 
that disputes; a scold. The words were 
rarely used, except in dialect, after the 
16th century, until revived in the his- 
torical novels of Scott (OLD MORTALITY, 
1816; THE ANTIQUARY). THE PARLEMENT 
OF THE THREE AGES (1350) remarked: Pole 
is that with foles delys [deals with fools]. 
Flyte we no lengare! Cp. rouncival. 

fnast. To pant, snort. Also a noun, 
breath. Used from the 10th to the 14th 
century. Also fnest; related to Greek 
pneuma, air, breath. Also fnese, to sneeze; 
to snort; Chaucer, in THE MANCIPLE'S PRO- 
LOGUE (1386) : He speketh in his nose and 
fneseth faste. Wyclif in his translation of 
the BIBLE (JEREMIAH; 1382) wrote: Fro 
Dan is herd the f nesting of his hors. 

fob. To cheat. Used since the late 16th 
century; German foppen, to deceive. 
Hence also fop; cp. cudden. Also, to bring 
in, or palm off, by trickery. To fob off, 
to put off by a trick or with a cheap sub- 
stitute. Shakespeare, in HENRY iv, PART 
TWO (1597) : I have been fub'd off and 
fub'd-off, from this day to that day; 
CORIOLANUS (1607) : You must not think 
To fobbe off our disgrace with a tale. A 
very common word, to the late 19th cen- 
tury; THE TIMES of 25 July, 1895, re- 
marked that if a . . . novel cannot be 
fobbed off upon the . . . people of London 
. . , it is rusticated. Hence jobbery, a 
sham, deceit. From fob, a small pocket 
(German fuppen, to pocket stealthily) 
comes the verb to fob, to pocket, with im- 
plication of thievery or deceit; Lover in 
HANDY ANDY (1842) notes that The gentle- 
men in black silk stockings . . . have been 
fobbing fees for three weeks. A watch 
fob is a ribbon, with metal or other such 
ornament, by which the watch can be 



lifted (usually, by the wearer) from the 
small pocket (fob) in the front of the 
trousers. 

focage. Hearth-money, a tax (12-pence) 
upon every hearth-fire, exacted at times 
in medieval England. Latin focus, hearth. 
Also feuage, fuage, from French feu, fire. 
While there is no call for a revival of 
this, the modern fireplace might restore to 
use the word focary, one who tends the 
hearth-fire. 

focillate. See refocillate. 
foedity. See fedity. 

foin. (1) The beech-marten, or the fur 
of this animal. Via French fouine from 
Latin fagum, beech-tree; the animal feeds 
on beech-mast. Also foyn. A foins-bachelor 
was one that (16th and 17th century) 
wore a gown trimmed with joins in the 
London civic processions. (2) A thrust 
or push with a pointed weapon. To cast 
a foin at, to make a thrust at. This sense 
came via Old French fouine, fouisne, 
from Latin fuscina, a fish-spear. It was 
more common as a verb, to thrust, from 
the 14th to the 17th century; revived 
by Scott, as in WOODSTOCK (1826) : The 
fellow foins well. Shakespeare uses foin 
twice in HENRY iv, PART TWO (1597) with 
sexual significance, as when Doll Tear- 
sheet asks Falstaff: When wilt thou leave 
fighting o r days and foining o' nights? 

foison. Abundance; plentiful harvest; 
nourishment; hence, vigor, vitality; in 
the plural, resources. Also foyson, fusioun, 
fuzzen, fizon, fizzen, and the like. Old 
French fuison, Latin fusionem; fundere, 
fusum, to pour. Hence foisonable, pro- 
ductive; foisonous, full of energy, fruitful; 
foisonless, weak, lacking nourishing prop- 
erties. Shakespeare in THE TEMPEST (1610) 
hails Earths increase, foison plenty, Barns 



276 



foliomancy 

and garners never empty. Thomas Walk- 
ington, in THE OPTICK GLASS OF HUMORS 
(1607) used the word figuratively: The 
foison of our best phantasies. Lamb, in 
his FAREWELL TO TOBACCO (1810) cried: 
Africa, that brags her foison, breeds no 
such prodigious poison. Perhaps that fate- 
ful rhyme explains why the word foison 
passed from favor; tobacco grows more 
tardily obsolete. 

foliomancy. See aeromancy. 

follify. To jest, to play the fool. Also 
(Keats in ENDYMION; 1818) to jolly* to act 
foolishly. Thus follery was an old form 
for foolery; folliness, foolishness. Via Old 
French fol, fool (also folt, q.v.) from 
Latin follis, bellows, puffed cheeks, pos- 
sibly from the idea of being blown about 
by every wind or whimsy. Gilbert in THE 

YEOMEN OF THE GUARD (1888) WTOte: 

Here's a man of jollity, Jibe, joke, jollify! 
Give us of your quality; Come, fool, 
follify! 

folt. A fool. Also folet, foult. Hence 
folthead, foltry, folly. Cp . follify. In the 
14th and 15th centuries; also as a verb, 
to folt, to act like a fool; folted, foltish, 
foolish. Drant in his translation (1566) of 
Horace's SATIRES wrote of the foolishe 
frantycke foultes* 

foltron. An herb mixture, steeped; and 
the liquid strained therefrom, drunk in 
the 18th century. Wesley (WORKS; 1748) 
advised: Try foltron, a mixture of herbs 
to be had at many grocers, far healthier, 
as well as cheaper, than tea. Most awe- 
some of such mixtures are blended by the 
Chinese. 

fon. As a noun, a fool. Spenser in 
COLIN CLOUT'S COME HOME AGAIN (1595) 
has: Ah! Cuddy (then quoth Colin) thous 
a fon. From the 13th century. As an ad- 



fontange 

jective, silly. Also fonly, fonnish. As a 
verb, to lose savour, become insipid. In 
this sense, the word is found only in the 
past participle, fond. By extension, to be 
foolish or infatuated, to be silly. From 
this springs the current fond. Also, to 
make a fool of; then more mildly, to 
fondle, to toy with. From this sense came 
the verb, to fun, to cheat, to hoax, to 
make fun of, which lapsed in the 15th 
century, but left the current noun, as in 
Life may still be fun. 

fond. Also fondnes, foolishness. Wilson 
in THE ARTE OF RHETORiQUE (1553) de- 
clared that the occasion of laughter, and 
the meane that maketh us merie . . . is 
the fondnes, the filthines, the deformitee, 
and all suche evill behavior, as we see 
to bee in other. The hunched back; the 
slipped-on banana peel. See fon. 

fonnell. A 14th century dish; recipe in 
THE FORME OF CURY (1390): Take al~ 
mandes unblanched, grynde hem and 
drawe hem up with a gode broth. Take a 
lombe, or a kidde, and half rost hym, or 
the thridde part. Smyte hym in gobbettes, 
and cast hym to the mylke. Take smale 
briddes yfested and ystyned, and do 
thereto sugar, powder of canell, and salt; 
take yolkes of ayren harde ysode, and 
cleeve atwo, and ypanced with floer of 
canell, and florish the seme above. Take 
alkenet fryed and yfondred, and droppe 
above with a feather, and messe it forth. 

fontange. A tall head-dress; a knot of 
ribbon on a lady's head-dress. Worn in the 
17th and 18th centuries. Named from a 
mistress of Louis XIV of France. Addi- 
son in THE SPECTATOR (1711; No. 98) ob- 
served: These old-fashioned fontanges rose 
an ell above the head; they were pointed 
like steeples, and had long loose pieces 
of crape, which were fringed, and hung 



277 



foolometer 



forficulate 



down their backs. Tate's THE CUCKOLDS 
HAVEN (1685) spoke of fontanges of seven 
stories. Cp. commode. 

foolometer. A standard for measuring 
folly. (Accent on the om.) The term was 
coined by Sydney Smith in a letter of 
1837; the device to be used as a test of 
public opinion. THE LONDON QUARTERLY 
REVIEW (June, 1847) remarked, of the 
court jester: The foolometer of a Euro- 
pean king in the middle ages was em- 
ployed to mark the temperature of the 
public mind in an age of hypocrisy and 
terrorism . . . Anxiety to hear the truth, 
coupled with a wish to represent it as 
a folly, is the real causation of court 
jesters. Our age has its various systems 
of opinion polls. 

fop. See cudden. Hood in MISS KILMANS- 
EGG AND HER SILVER LEG (1845) announced: 
There's Bardus, a six-foot column of fop, 
A lighthouse without any light on top. 

forcible feeble. A weak person who 
makes great show of strength (physical 
or moral). Shakespeare first used the ex- 
pression as a play on a name, in HENRY 
iv, PART TWO (1597) ; Shallow calls: 
Francis Feeblel but Falstaff rejects him as 
a recruit: Let that suffice, most forcible 
Feeble. The term came into wider use in 
the 19th century, as in Disraeli's CON- 
INGSBY (1844) : Italics, that last resort of 
the forcible feebles. 

foredeal. An advantage. See afterdeal. 

forfare. To pass away, decay, perish; to 
destroy. The past participle, forfare, for- 
fard, meant worn out (as with labor, 
travel, age) ; Gower in CONFESSIO AMANTIS 
(139B) wrote: As it were a man forfare 
Unto the woode 1 gan to fare. Thong 
Castle, said the CHRONICLE of Fabyan 
(1494) is now forfaryn. 



forfend. To forbid, prohibit; to avert, 
prevent. Shakespeare cried, of Joan of 
Arc, in HENRY vi, PART ONE (1591: Now 
heaven forfend, the holy maid with childf 
In KING LEAR, Regan asks the double- 
dealing Edmund, who has been making 
advances to her sister: But have you never 
found my brother's way To the forf ended 
place? Adam and Eve syne den, said Wyclif 
in a sermon of 1380, by etyng of the for- 
fendid appul. Forfend is from for, with 
the sense of prohibition or opposition (to 
forsay is to renounce) + fend, to defend, 
to strive. Hence, to fend (off, back), to 
ward off; to fend for, to provide for, look 
after. The phrase to fend and prove 
meant to quarrel, wrangle; Vanbrugh 
said, in THE FALSE FRIEND (1702) : Instead 
of fending and proving with his mistress, 
he should come to . . . parrying and 
thrusting with you. The prestis, said Wy- 
clif in his BIBLE translation (1382; 2 
KINGS) , ben forfendid to eny more takyn 
monee of the peeple. 

forferly. To astonish greatly. From ferly, 
q.v. Used in the 13th and 14th centuries, 
only in the past participle; CURSOR MUNDI 
(1300) has: Ful forfarled then war thai. 

forfex. A pair of scissors. The Late Latin 
word, used humorously in English, as in 

Pope's THE RAPE OF THE LOCK (1714) , The 

peer now spreads the glittering forfex 
wide, To inclose the lock. Note also for- 
ficate, shaped like a pair of scissors, and 
forficulate: (1) shaped like a small pair 
of scissors; (2) as a verb, to feel a creep- 
ing sensation, as though a forficula (ear- 
wig) were crawling over one's skin; Bul- 
wer-Lytton said in THE CAXTONS (1849) : 
There is not a part of me that has not . . . 
crept, crawled, and forficulated ever since. 

forficulate. See forfex. 



278 



forfret ____________ 

forfret. Gnaw, corrode, devour. Hence 
forfretten, wasted away, destroyed, as in 
the translation (1440) of Palladius ON 
HUSBANDRIE^ when he declares there is no 
help can save the long endurid, old, for- 
freton vine. 

forgetive. Inventive, creative. Coined by 
Shakespeare, in HENRY rv, PART TWO (1597), 
of the brain: A good sherris-sack . . . 
makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, 
full of nimble, fierie, and delectable 
shapes. Not related to forget; probably 
from forge (via Old Trench from Latin 
fabricare, to make; whence fabrications) , 
meaning good at forging. Writers after 
Shakespeare have used the word, as Gary 
in his translation (1814) of Dante's PUR- 
GATORY: O quick and forgetive power! 

forhele. To hide. Old English helan, to 
hide. Past participle, forholen. Used by 
King Alfred, and into the 1 5th century, 
as in THE BABEES BOOKS (1430) : Schewe 
[show] it to thy freendis, and forhile thou 
it not. 

formication. A feeling as though ants 
were crawling over one's skin. Latin 
formica, ant. Hence formicate, to crawl 
like ants; by extension, to swarm with 
living beings; Lowell, in his JOURNAL 
(1854) of his trip to Italy, speaks of an 
open space, which formicated with 
peasantry. In 'modern* city households of 
the 1940's, a formicary (ant-hill enclosed 
in glass) was almost as common as an 
aquarium of tropical fish. Zeus, noted for 
his amorous transformations, turned into 
a swarm of ants to woo the nymph Kly- 
toris, a formidable formicatory approach. 

forsary. A galley-slave. Via Old French 
forsaire from Latin forcia, fortia, from 
fortis, strong (by force). King Henry VIII 
freed some forsares in 1546; but Strype 

in his ECCLESIASTICAL MEMORIALS (1721) 



forswat 

of Henry's reign refers to a proclamation 
. . . that . . . every such author . . . be 
committed into the galleys, there to row 
in chains, as a slave or forsary. Also forsar, 
and forsado, from the Spanish galleys, 
which doubtless for some years held many 
English forsaries. 

forsay. See forfend. 

forsooth. In truth. Old English for + 
sooth, truth. See sooth. Very common, 
9th through 16th century; also in phrases 
forsooth and forsooth; forsooth and God; 
forsooth to say. From the 17th century, 
used almost always as a mark of irony or 
derision, as in Pepy's DIARY for 25 March, 
1667: By and by comes Mr. Lowther and 
his wife and mine, and into a box for- 
sooth, neither of them being dressed. 
Also humorously or disdainfully: a for- 
sooth, an affected speaker (Jonson, 1604: 
a forsooth of the city); to forsooth, to 
treat with (mock) ceremony, also in 
Pepy's DIARY, 1661. Bailey, in 1751, in- 
dicates a current style of address: "/ or ~ 
sooth, a title of respect and submission 
used by a servant to a mistress, etc." 
"Please close the window/' "Forsooth," 

forspend. To spend completely, to ex- 
haust; hence, to wear out. Since Anglo- 
Saxon times rarely used except in the past 
participle. Thus Sackville in THE INDUC- 
TION (1563) tO THE MIRROR FOR. MAGIS- 
TRATE: Her body small so withered and 
forspent. Lamb in Ms essay on VALENTINE'S 
DAY (1821) speaks of the weary and all 
forspent postman. Lanier, in A BALLAD 

OF TREES AND THE MASTER (1884) fondles 

the word: Into the woods my Master 
went, Clean forspent, forspent. Into the 
woods my Master came, Forspent with 
love and shame. 

forswat. Covered with sweat Very com- 
mon, I4th-16th century; even the King, 



279 



forthink 



foutre 



said Barbour in his BRUCE (1375), was 
wery forswat. Sidney in his ARCADIA (1580) 
speaks of a couple of forswat metiers. 

forthink. (1) From Old English for, 
away, off 4- thyncan, to seem. To dis- 
please, cause regret to; to be sorry for. 
Thus Chaucer in TROYLUS AND CRISEYDE 
(1374) : a thing that might thee forthenke. 
(2) From Old English for + thencan, to 
think. To despise; to be reluctant; to 
regret; to change one's mind. One of Hey- 
wood's PROVERBS (1562) is Better foresee 
than forthink. 

forthy. For this reason, therefore. Also 
forthi, for the. Thus Henryson in his 

MORALL FABILLJS OF ESOPE (1480) Said: 

The morning mild, my mirth was more 
forthy. Also notforthy, nought for thy, 
nevertheless; Barbour in his BRUCE (1375): 
Undir the mantill nochtforthi He suld 
be armyt prevaly [privily, secretly]. Also 
what forthy, what of that? And forthy 
the, forthy that, because; Maundeville 
relates, in 1400: Thare also great King 
Nabugodonosor putte the three childer 
in the fyre, forthi that they held the right 
beleve. 

forwander. To weary oneself with wan- 
dering; to wander far and wide. Spenser 
pictures, in THE FAERIE QUEENE (1590) a 
weary wight forwandring by the way. 

forwean. To pamper, spoil by over-in- 
dulgence. Hence, forweaned, insolent. 
The word is from the 14th century, the 
act is perennial. 



act is perennial. 



f other. A load, a cart-load; hence, a lot, 
a great quantity. Chaucer in THE KNIGHT'S 
TALE (1386) speaks of something That 
coste largely of gold a f other. To fall as 
a f other was used of a crushing blow. In 
the 18th and 19th centuries, there was a 
verb to fother, meaning to cover a sail 



with oakum, etc., to stuff a leak; also, to 
stop a leak in this way. A NAVAL CHRONI- 
CLE of 1800 said: By foddering, and those 
excellent pumps, we kept her above water. 

fouch. The fork of the legs; especially, 
the hind quarters of a deer. To fouch, to 
cut (a deer) into quarters. Also furch. 
Old French fourche, fork. Other English 
forms were forche, fourche, fowche. Urqu- 
hart in his translation (1693) of Rabelais 
has: My heart like the furch of a hart in 
rut do the beat within my breast. 

fouldre. A thunderbolt. Also, foudre. 
Old French fouldre; Latin fulgur, light- 
ning flash. Hence to foulder, to flash or 
thunder forth; fouldering, fouldring. 
Chaucer in THE HOUS OF FAME (1384) 
speaks of That thing that men call foudre 
That smoot sometime a tower to powdre. 

foumart. The polecat, skunk. Old Eng- 
lish ful, foul 4* mearth, martin. Also fol- 
marde, fulmerde, foulmart, and the like. 
Applied to a man as a term of contempt; 
Jonson in A TALE OF A TUB (1633) : Was 
ever such a fulmart for an huisher To a 
great worshipful lady, as myself! 

fourteener. A line of fourteen syllables; 
later often printed in two lines of four 
and three iambic feet respectively; two 
such broken lines constituted the standard 
ballad form. See himpnes. 

foutre. "A word of contempt, equivalent 
to f A fig for you!' " So Toone, in 1834. 
Used in the phrases A foutre for; I care 
not a foutre. Old French foutre, Latin 
futuere, to have intercourse. Also foutra, 
fouter, fowtre, foutree, foutir. Used in 
English since the 16th century; some- 
times contemptuously applied to a person. 
Shakespeare, in HENRY iv, PART TWO (1597) 
cries A footra for the world, and world- 
lings base. Marryat has, in PETER SIMPLE 



280 



foxship 

(1833) : O'Brien declared that he was a 
liar and a cowardly foutre. 

foxship. The character of a fox; astute- 
ness, cunning. Sometimes used mockingly 
as a title. Shakespeare in CORIOLANUS 
(1607) queries: Had'st thou foxship To 
banish him that struck more blows for 
home Than thou hast spoken words? 

foy. (1) Faith, allegiance; also used as 
an exclamation. From French foi, faith. 
(2) A parting drink, entertainment, or 
gift. French voie, way, "on your way." 
Also, a party before a wedding and the 
like; a tip. Richardson says, in PAMELA 
(1741) : Under the notion of my foy, 1 
slid a couple of guineas into the good 
woman's hand. (3) (As a verb) to bring 
provision to ships; to assist ships in dis- 
tress; hence also foy-boat and foyer, one 
who goes to assist those in distress. Not to 
be confused with foyer in a theatre, 
where those in distress go. 

foyn* See foin. 

fracid. Rotten ripe, hoary and putrefied. 
So Bailey, 1751. From Latin fraddus; frax, 
fracis, lees of oil. It was once thought 
that (as in a letter of 1655) insects were 
Natures recreation, which she out of the 
fracid ferment of putrifying bodies doth 
form. 

fraight. A variant form of freight, bur- 
den. Used in the 1 6th century; also 
fraught Originally (15th century) freight 
meant the hire of a vessel to carry goods; 
also, passage-money. To take freight, to 
take passage, as in Be Foe's ROBINSON 
CRUSOE (1719). Southwell in LOSSE IN BE- 
LA YES (1593) advised; Crush the serpent 
in the head, Break ill egges ere they be 
hatched. Kill bad chickens in the tread; 
Fligge [fledged], they hardly can be 
catched. In the rising stifle ill, Least it 



frape 

grow against thy will . . . Single sands 
have little waight, Many make a drowning 
fraight. Tender twigs are bent with ease, 
Aged trees doe breaks with bending; 
Young desires make little prease [pres- 
sure], Growth doth make them past 
amending. 

fraise. See froise. 

frampold. Cross, disagreeable; (of a 
horse) mettlesome, fiery. Also frampard, 
frampull, frampled, frompered (Bunyan, 
1688) . Shakespeare, in THE MERRY WIVES 
OF WINDSOR (1598) remarks: She leads a 
very frampold life with him. 

franion. A person of free or loose be- 
havior; usually applied to a man; but 
Spenser (THE FAERIE QUEENED 1596) speaks 
of a woman as a fair franion. Lamb, in a 
poem of 1810, speaks of Fine merry 
franions, Wanton companions. Also spelled 
fronion, frannion, frannian. The old play 
KING EBWARD iv PART ONE said: He's a frank 
franion, a merry companion, and loves 
a wench well. 

frannian. See franion. 

frape. A mob, the rabble. Also frapaille, 
camp-followers, rabble. Used mainly in 
the 14th and 15th centuries. In the 16th 
and 17th centuries to fraple, to wrangle, 
bluster; frapler, blusterer, bully. The verb 
frap (French frapper) to strike, to whip, 
was common from the 14 th to the 18th 
century, and thereafter in dialects. A friar 
frapart, originally a flagellant Mar, in the 
15th and 16th centuries, especially among 
non-Catholics, meant a libertine monk. 
The whipped confection, a frappg, was 
borrowed more recently from the French. 
Other forms from the same source are 
(17th century) frappish, peevish, and (19th 
century) frappant, striking, impressive. 
In Jonson's CYNTHIA'S REVELS (1599) is 



281 



fream 



fret 



the accusation: Thou art ... a f rapier, 
and base. 

fream. To rage, to roar. We are told 
(through the 16th and 17th centuries) 
that, especially at rutting time, an hart 
bellows, a buck groyns ... a boar f reams. 
Hence frement, roaring; fremescence, a 
rising sound; Carlyle in THE FRENCH REVO- 
LUTION (1837) says: Fremescent clangour 
comes from the armed Nationals . . . Con- 
fused tremor and fremescence, waxing 
into thunderpeals, of fury stirred on by 
fear. 

fremd. See frenne. 
fremescence. See fream. 

frendent. Gnashing the teeth. Latin 
frendentem, present participle of f render e, 
to gnash the teeth. From the root fri, to 
rub, earlier ghri, related to grind, grist. 
Lane in the CONTINUATION OF CHAUCER'S 
SQUIRE'S TALE (1616) wrote of His fren- 
dent horse of manie colors pied f 

frenne. Strange. More commonly, a 
stranger, a foreigner, an enemy. Used in 
the 16th century. Also fren; altered from 
frend, correctly fremd, a common Teuton 
term meaning foreigner, enemy; also as 
an adjective, foreign, wild, hostile, strange, 
unusual. It is related to from. Child's col- 
lection of BALLADS has one that sings: / 
wish I had died on some frem isle, And 
never had come home! Spenser uses 
frenne, foe, in THE SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR 
(1579; APRIL) : So now his friend is 
chaunged for a frenne with a gloss ex- 
plaining that the form of the word was 
influenced by forenne, foreign. 

fret. As a verb. (1) To devour. A com- 
mon Teutonic compound: for + etan t to 
eat; German fressen. Hence, to consume, 
to destroy. Used from BEOWULF to the 



15th century; Chaucer in THE LEGEND OF 
GOOD WOMEN (1385) has: into a prysoun 
. . . cast is he Tyl he should fretyne be. 
The word grew milder, and is still used 
in the senses of to gnaw; to irritate, annoy; 
to worry. (2) To adorn with interlaced 
embroidery, as of silver or gold; to deco- 
rate elaborately. To form a pattern on; 
to variegate. Shakespeare in JULIUS CAESAR 
(1599) states that Yon grey lines That 
fret the clouds, are messengers of day. 
This sense seems to overlap the first, and 
a third, (3) to rub, chafe via Old French 
from Late Latin frectatum; frictare, fric- 
tatum, to rub, frequentative of fricere, 
frictum, to rub, whence much friction. 
Sidney in the ARCADIA (1580) has the 
lover, seeing his mistress in the orchard, 
avow that the apples, me thought, fell 
downe from the trees to do homage to 
the apples of her breast; and he pictures 
a steed milk white but that upon his 
shoulder and withers he was fretned with 
red staines as when a -few strawberies are 
scattered into a dish of creame. Delicious 
sense of imagery in those Arcadians! There 
were also (16th and 17th centuries) two 
verbs of the same forms, fretish, fretize, 
(A) to chill, benumb; from a lengthened 
form of Old French freider (French 
froidir; froid, cold) and (B) a variant of 
fret, to adorn, used especially in architec- 
ture, of the capitals of columns. Urqu- 
harfs translation (1693) of Rabelais 
speaks of frettized and embowed seelings, 
In the 13th century, from the first verb, 
fretewil was used, to mean voracious. And 
in the 17th century, a fretchard was an 
easily irritated, peevish person; the angry 
fretchard, said William Fenner (WORKS; 
1640) praies for patience and meeknesse 
and yet sets downe without it. (There was 
also a verb to fratch, used in the 15th cen- 
tury to mean to squeak, to make a strident 
noise, and in the 18th, to scold, to quarrel. 



282 



fricandeau 



fritiniency 



Hence fratcheous, patchy, frachety, quar- 
relsome; fratcher, a scold.) 

fricandeau. The word is French, the 
recipe is Scotch: thin slices of veal, rolled 
with bacon and stuffed. Also fricandel, 
fricadelle, fricando. An 18th century deli- 
cacy, apparently spoiled by the English, 
for Bulwer-Lytton in DEVEREAUX (1829) 
observed: I think her very like a fri- 
candeau white, soft, and insipid. 

frigerate. To cool. Latin frigerare, fri- 
geratum, to cool; frigidus (adjective), 
cold; frigus, frigoris (noun) , cold. Friger- 
ate, frigeration, frigeratory are in 17th 
century dictionaries; only the noun seems 
to have been used, and all three were 
overlooked in the 20th century wave of 
refrigeration. Other forms forgotten in- 
clude frigidal, frigidious, very cold; frigl- 
ferous, frigorific, producing cold (Shelley, 
1810: A frigorific torpidity of despair 
chilled every sense) ; frtgitate, frigorify, 
to cool, to freeze; frigidize was also used 
figuratively, as when Lady Gower tried 
to frown her down and frigidize her, 
Through the 17th and 18th centuries 
(still debated in the 19th) frigoric was 
supposed to be an imponderable sub- 
stance that made things cold; Rumford 
(Tyndall said in his study of HEAT, 1863) 
maintained with great tenacity the ex- 
istence of 'frigorific rays' And a rare 
19th century use a frigot is a person of 
frigid temperament. 

frim. Vigorous; abundant in sap, juicy; 
plump, full-fleshed. From BEOWULF into 
the 19th century. Thus Drayton in POLY- 
OLBION (1613) : My frim and lusty flank 
Her bravery then displays. 

friskin. One that likes to frisk, a gay, 
lively person. Nashe in HAVE WITH YOU TO 
SAFFRON-WALDKN (1596) said: His wench 
or friskin was footing it aloft on the 



greene. Also, a brisk lively action, en- 
counter, or frolic; a frisking. It was the 
custome of some lascivious queans, said 
Burton in THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY 
(1621), to dance friskin in that fashion. ^ 

frith. (1) Peace; freedom from molesta- 
tion; hence, a game-preserve. From a com- 
mon Old Teutonic root fri-, to love; re- 
lated to friend. (2) (In this and the fol- 
lowing sense, interchangeable with firth, 
q.v.) A stretch of wooded land; land 
covered with underbrush only, or a space 
between woods; hence brushwood, and 
(by extension) a hedge, especially one of 
brushwood; hence also, a fish-weir of 
brushwood. The origin of this word is 
unknown; it may be related to fir. (3) An 
arm of the sea. Used first in Scotland, 
reaching England by 1600; related to 
Scandinavian fjorthr, fjord. These are all 
very common, the first two meanings from 
the 9th century. Frith, peace, was used 
only historically after the 14th century; 
the other two are still to be found, as in 
Tennyson's IN MEMORIAM (1850) : The 
friths that branch and spread Their sleep- 
ing silver thro 9 the hills. In the Middle 
Ages, the frith-stool was a (stone) seat 
near the altar in a church, which gave 
supposedly inviolable protection to one 
seeking sanctuary. 

frith-stool. See frith. 

fritiniency. Twittering; the noise of in- 
sects. Sir Thomas Browne in PSEUDOBOXIA 
EPIDEMICA (1646) says of the cicado that 
its note or fritiniancy is far more shrill 
then that of the locust. Linklater in POET'S 
PUB (1929) records a conversation: 'The 
most significant noise of earth is the sing- 
ing of birds/ said the professor with de- 
termination. 'Fritinancy/ declared the 
young man beside the fire. 



283 



froise 



frustraneous 



froise. A pancake with bacon in it. From 
the 14th century. Ultimately from Latin 
frigere, frictum, to fry. Also f raise f pays, 
etc. Gower in CONFESSIO AMANTIS (1390) 
tells of a man who brustleth as a monkes 
froise When it is throwe into the panne. 
Served, we are told, with a sweet sauce 
the best is maple syrup. Good, too, even 
though (MONTHLY MAGAZINE, 1819) the 
general . . . threw the froize out of the 
window. 

fronion. See franion. 

jErore. Frozen; bitterly cold. Also froren, 
frorne; frory. The old past participle of 
freeze. Used since the 13th century; Spen- 
ser in THE SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR (1579; 
FEBRUARY) uses frorne; Milton in PARADISE 
LOST (1667) : The parching air Burns 
frore, and cold performs th' effect of fire. 

frowze* A lady's wig, probably with 
frizzed hair. Also frowes, fruz, frouze. 
Worn in the 16th and 17th centuries. 
When Lady Jane Grey was on the scaffold, 
as Foxe told in ACTES AND MONUMENTS 
(1563), she untyed her gowne, and the 
hangman pressed upon her to helpe her 
off with it, but she desiring him to let her 
alone, turned towardes her two gentle- 
women, who helped her of therwith^ and 
also with her frowes, past, and necker- 
chefe, geving her a fayre handkerchefe to 
knit about her eyes, [past (paste, payst) 
was an ornamental headdress, probably 
with a pasteboard foundation; Greene in 
his VISION (1592) spoke of the bride very 
finelie dizond in a little cappe, and a fair 
paste.] 

fractuous. See infructuous. Also fructu- 
ate, to bear fruit, literally or figuratively, 
as plans or ideas fluctuate; fructuation, 
fructuosity. Fracture, the use or enjoy- 
ment of the fruits (of a tree or an ac- 
tivity) . 



frumenty. Hulled wheat boiled in milk, 
seasoned with sugar, cinnamon and other 
condiments. Also, a variety of wheat; es- 
pecially, wheat mashed for brewing. 
Other forms of this word, common since 
the 14th century, include furmety, from- 
enty, formety, frummetry, frumentary. 
Latin frumentum, corn; from the root 
frugi-, fruit, produce. Beaumont and 
Fletcher, in BONDUCA (1614) have: He'll 
find you out a food that needs no teeth 
nor stomack; a strange formity will feed 
ye up as fat as hens i* the forehead. Mas- 
singer in THE BONDMAN (1623) pictures a 
man licking his lips Like a spaniel o'er 
a furmenty pot. A person in a dilemma 
(19th century) was said to be in a fru- 
menty sweat. 

trash. To strike; to dash down; to crush. 
Also, to rush violently, to rub violently; 
to break, to be crushed. Also used techni- 
cally: (1) to rub straight the feathers of 
an arrow; (2) to dress a chub; (3) to 
carve a chicken. Via Old French fruissier 
from a popular Latin form frustiare, to 
shiver into pieces; Latin frustum, frag- 
ment. Hence also frushy, brittle, liable to 
break. Also frust, a fragment, as in Sterne's 
TRISTRAM SHANDY (1765): Such a story 
affords more pabulum to the brain than 
all the j rusts, and crusts, and rusts of 
antiquity, which travellers can cook up 
for it. Hence also frustulum, a small frag- 
ment; frustulent, frustulose, consisting of, 
or full of, small pieces. 

frast. See frush. 

frastraneous. Vain, useless, ineffectual. 
Latin frustrari, to disappoint; frustra, in 
vain. The 15th and 16th century verb, 
fruster, has been superseded by frustrate. 
Hence also frustrable, that can be ren- 
dered ineffectual; frustrative, frustratory, 
tending to balk. Frmtratory was used in 



284 



fucatory 

the 1 5th and into the 18th century; frus- 
trative, in the 18th and 19th. Milton in 
his EIKONOKLASTES (1649) scorned a most 
insufficient and frustraneous means. 

fucatory. See infucation. 

fucus, A cosmetic, a coloring for the face. 
Latin fucus (Greek fucos) , rock-lichen, 
used in English of a genus of seaweed. 
The lichen was a source of red dye, used 
as a cosmetic. Hence also figuratively, a 
false coloring, pretense, as when Young 
cries, in NIGHT THOUGHTS (1742) : Of for- 
tune's fucus strip them, yet alive. Hence 
fucation, painting the face, dissembling; 
cp. infucation. Adjectives are fucal, fucate, 
fucatious, fucose, fucous, painted, fair- 
seeming, falsified, deceitful. All especially 
in the 17th century, which gives us also 
the statement: Frequent are fuco'd cheeks, 
H. Hutton in FOLLIES ANATOMIE (1619) 
wrote: Joves constant Daphne, timorous, 
perplext, His fucall arguments doth still 
confute. 

fulgor. See fulgurate. 

fulgurate. To flash like lightning. Latin 
fulgere, to lighten. Many English words 
have come from this source: fulgor, ful* 
gour, a dazzling brightness, splendor; 
fulgur, lightning (noun); the fulgural 
science means divination by lightning, and 
the priest that interprets the lightning 
was called the fulgurator. Cp. fulminate. 
Fulgure and fulgurity were other 17th 
century words for lightning. Figurations 
were lightning flashes, but in "chymistry" 
(Bailey, 1751) fulguration is an operation 
by which all metals, except gold and silver, 
are reduced into vapours. Carlyle in his 
essay on Diderot (1833) said that Diderot 
could talk with a fulgorous impetuosity 
almost beyond human. 

fullam. A kind of false die, for cheating 
at dice. Also fulham; cp. langret; bar'd 



fumatory 

cater tra. Probably originally a fullan, a 
full one: loaded at the corner; though the 
O.E.D. also offers the conjecture that it 
may be from Fulham, "once a noted haunt 
of gamesters," an idea Nares (1822) had 
brushed aside: "nor is it very likely that 
gambling should have flourished in so 
quiet a village." A high fulham ensured a 
cast of 4, 5, or 6; a low fulham of 1, 2, 
or B. Shakespeare in THE MERRY WIVES OF 
WINDSOR (1598) cries: Let vultures gripe 
thy guts: for gourd, and fulham holds: 
And high and low beguiles the rich and 
poor. Butler in HUDIBRAS (1664) builds a 
figure with the word: One cut out to pass 
your tricks on With fulhams of poetick 
fiction. 

fulmart. See foumart. 

fulminate. To thunder and lighten; to 
explode; to burst forth into violent or 
condemnatory speech; to denounce vehe- 
mently. The Latin fulmen, a thunderbolt, 
especially one that starts a conflagration, 
is also used as an English word. Other 
English forms are fulminancy; fulmina- 
tory; fulmineous, fulminous. Cp. fulgu- 
rate. Poets are less likely to use the verb 
fulminate than the form fulmine, which 
Spenser used literally, and Milton (fol- 
lowed by Tennyson and echoed by Lowell) 
used of speaking fiercely: fulmined over 
Greece. 

fumacious. Fond of smoking, 

fumade. A smoked herring (pilchard). 
Recommended by Fuller (1661) with oil 
and lemon. Also fumatho, fumado, fair 
maid. Spanish jumado, smoked. 

fumage. "Smoke farthings"; hearth- 
money; a tax paid in Anglo-Saxon times, 
for every chimney in the house. 

fumatory. A place set apart for smoking. 
In these days of lubritoria for automobiles, 



285 



fumets 



furfuration 



and the like, it is surprising that our mo- 
tion-picture palaces do not have fuma- 
tories for the fumacious, q.v. 

fumets. See furnishing. 

fumidity. The state of being vaporous 
or fuming. Latin fumidus, English fumid; 
Latin fumus, fume. Over many factory 
cities (I write on the hottest recorded 
August 31) it isn't the heat, it's the fumi- 
dity. 

furnishing. The excrement of wild ani- 
mals (as the deer) ; also fumet (usually 
plural) . From French fumer, Latin fimare, 
to dung; fimus, dung. Hence also spelled 
fimashing. Also (15th through 17th cen- 
tury) fime, dung. Fimicolous, inhabiting 
dung, is a scientific term applied to half a 
hundred fungi. Also fimetarious, fimetic. 
Ruskin, in THE NINETEENTH CENTURY for 
1880, speaks of the necessary obscurities of 
fimetic Providence ... A deer that's 
famishing will yield little furnishing. 
Fumet (Latin fumus, smoke, fume) was 
also used of the smell of game when high, 
of game flavor, as in Swift's STELLA AT 
WOOD PARK (1728) : A haunch of venison 
made her sweat, Unless it had the right 
fumette. 

fumitory. A plant (Fumaria) often men- 
tioned by medieval and Renaissance 
writers; as fumyterre water, it was rec- 
ommended for leprosy, choler, the itch, 
scurf, and tetters. Also femetary; fume- 
terre, fumitery, femiter, fumiter, and 
more; Latin fumus terrae, smoke of the 
earth, from the way the green-gray herb 
covered the earth. Chaucer lists the herb 
in THE NUN'S PRIEST'S TALE (1386) : Of 
lauriol, centaur e, and fumeterre; Shake- 
speare in HENRY v (1599) : Her fallow 
leas The darnel, hemlock, and ranke 
femetary Doth root upon while that the 



coulter rusts That should deracinate such 
savagery. 

fun. See fon. 

funambulant. A rope-walker. Also fun- 
ambulator, funambule, funambulist (cur- 
rent) , funambulo. A funambulus (plural 
funambuli) was a rope-dancer, as indeed 
they all were, in the measure of their 
ability. Hence also funambulic, funambu- 
lous, funambulatory. Latin funem, rope 
+ ambulare, ambulatum, to walk, whence 
amble, preamble, ambulance (originally 
a "traveling hospital') . To funambule, 
funambulate, to walk on a stretched rope, 
tight or slack. The same words may be 
applied even though the 'rope' is wire. 
Sir Thomas Browne in CHRISTIAN MORALS 
(1682) used the word figuratively: Tread 
softly and circumspectly in this funambu- 
latory track and narrow path of goodness. 

furacity. Thievishness. Also furacious, 
thievish. Latin furari, to steal; furax, fur- 
acem f thievish. The word was used in the 
17th and 18th centuries, then became 
pedantic, then became rare. The attitude 
it denominates has not grown less com- 
mon. 

furbelow. See falbala. 

furca. A gallows. Latin furca, a two- 
pronged fork (whence English furcate, 
forked) ; hence, a fork-shaped prop, a 
triangular brace; hence, from that sup- 
port, a gallows. Bailey (1751) speaks of a 
13th century law, furca and fossa (Latin 
fossa, ditch) whereby male felons were 
hanged; female, drowned. A furca for youl 
was a fighting curse; though see fig. 

furch. See fouch. 

furfuration. The shedding of the skin 
in small particles like bran (Latin furfur, 
bran); the falling of dandruff when the 
hair is combed, 



furibund 

furibund. Raging with fury. Also fury- 
bound, furebund. Jonson in THE POETAS- 
TER (1601) includes furibund in a list 
of inkhorn words; Carlyle in THE FRENCH 
REVOLUTION (1837) speaks of a waste 
energy as of Hercules not yet furibund. 

furmenty. See frumenty. Spelled fur- 
menty by Mrs. Gaskell and others in the 
19th century. 

furnage. Baking; the price paid for per- 
mission to bake. Also fornage; via French 
from Latin furnus, oven, whence also 
furnace. In feudal days, tenants paid 
furnage to use the lord's oven, or not to 
use it (for permission to have an oven 
of their own) . 

furole. (Bailey, 1751) : "of feu, fire, and 
rouler, to roll, French. A little blaze of 
fire appearing by night on the tops of 
soldiers' lances; or at sea on sailyards, 
which whirls and leaps in a moment from 
place to place: it is sometimes the fore- 
runner of a storm. If there be two, it is 
called Castor and Pollux, and is supposed 
to portend safety, but if but one, it is 
called Helena, and is thought to forebode 
shipwreck." (Helen, sister of the luckier 
twins Castor and Pollux, who were wor- 
shiped as gods, was tangled in the Trojan 
War that brought disaster on both van- 
quished and victor.) Other names for 
furole are corposant, q.v., and St. Elmo's 
fire. 

fuscous. Dusky, swarthy, of sombre hue. 
Latin fuscus, dusky. Used since the 17th 
century. De Quincey in a letter of 31 
July, 1855, wrote: Some confused remem- 
brance I had that we were or ought to be 
in a relation of hostility, though why, I 
could ground upon none but fuscous and 
cloudy reasons. Ivor Brown in i GIVE YOU 
MY WORD adduces an amusing instance 
from a play, THE DEVIL AND THE LADY, 



fustilugs 

that Tennyson wrote at the age of four- 
teen. A character, finding the Devil dis- 
guised as a woman, exclaims: What jejune, 
undigested joke is this, To quilt thy 
fuscous haunches with the flounced 
Frilled, finical delicacy of female dressf 
Hast thou dared to girdle thy brown sides 
And prop thy monstrous vertebrae with 
staysf In technical terms fusco is a com- 
bining form meaning dull, dusky: fusco- 
ferruginous, dull rust-colored; fusco-pice- 
ous, dull reddish-black; fusco-testaceous, 
dull reddish-brown. 

fust. A wine-cask (15th century) ; by ex- 
tension, a smell "as of a mouldy barrel" 
(Johnson, 1755); cp. fustilugs. Hence, to 
fust, to become mouldy, stale-smelling. 
- He that made us, says Shakespeare in 
HAMLET (1604), gave us not That capabi- 
litie and god-like reason To fust in us 
unusd. 

fustigate. To cudgel. Latin fustigare, 
fustigatum, to beat to death; fustis, a 
knobbed stick. Used from the 17th to the 
mid-1 9th century; now only for humorous 
effect. The Earl of Bristol exclaimed, in 
1667: Heaven send him a light hand, to 
whom my fustigation shall belong! Hence 
also fustigator, whipper. 

fustilarian. A term of contempt. Perhaps 
compounded from fustilugs (q.v.) , with 
the ending -arian implying old (as in 
centenarian, etc.) . For an instance of its 
use in Shakespeare, see catastrophe. 

fustilugs. A fat, frowzy woman (fttsty, 
mouldy + lugs, implying heavy) . Burton 

in THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY (1621) 

states that every lover admires his mistress, 
though she be ... a vast virago, or ... 
a fat fustylugs. Fusty (from fust, a wine 
cask, q.v.) was used to mean stale (wine 
too long in the cask) ; then mouldy bread; 
then anything no longer fresh; seedy, dull. 



287 



fusty 

Shakespeare in TROULUS AND CRESSIDA 
(1606) says At this fusty stuff The large 
Achilles . , . laughs out a lowd applause. 
Hence justy -rusty, out-of-date, old-fash- 
ioned; ill-humored. 

fusty. See fustilugs. 
fyke. See fike. 

fylfot. A cross cramponee, a swastika. 
This symbol, sometimes turning clock- 
wise, sometimes counter-clockwise, is found 
in many lands at many times. The Greeks 
formed it by a combination of the letter 
gamma (p) four times at right angles, and 



fylfot 

called it a gammadion. The American In- 
dians had a cross representing the four 
directions; on the end of each limb stood 
the god of the wind, north, east, south, 
west. The figure was often used in series 
as a decoration; hence fylfot, to fill the 
foot of a stained glass or painted window. 
But it also, from prehistoric times, was 
taken as a mystical or magic symbol; 
hence swastika, from Sanskrit svastika, 
well; su, good -f as, to be. Recent use 
has belied the ancient meaning. A fylfot 
(pronounced fill'-fot) was also called the 
cross of Thor. 



288 



gabelle. A tax. Used in the 15th and 
16th centuries as gab el f gable; related to 
gavel> q.v. The word was then forgotten; 
revived as a foreign word (French gabelle), 
referring to Italy and France; especially, 
the tax on salt in France before the 
French Revolution. Dickens, in A TALE OF 
TWO CITIES (1859) calls the farmer-gen- 
eral (tax collector) M. Gabelle. 

gaberdine. A loose upper garment of 
coarse material, as worn by pilgrims, 
hence, by beggars; after Shakespeare in 

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (1596) , applied 

to Jews. In THE TEMPEST Shakespeare has 
Trinculo, come upon Caliban in the 
storm, for protection creep under his 
gaberdine, whence the word is sometimes 
used to mean protection, as when Lord 
Bentinck in the CROKER PAPERS for 8 Sep- 
tember, 1847, said: They have crawled 
into the House of Commons under the 
gabardine of the Whigs. 

gad. See garabee; cp. gadling. 
gadbee. See garabee. 
gadfly. See garabee. 

gadling. Originally, a companion, from 
the Old English gaed, fellowship + ling 
(diminutive personal suffix, as in darling, 
duckling) . Then it was applied to a com- 
panion on a trip; hence, to a traveler, 
and finally to a vagabond. From the sense 
of wanderer, by back-formation came the 
verb to gad., whence also a gadabroad and 



the more frequent gadabout Gadling ap- 
pears from BEOWULF (10th century) 
through the 17th century, as in a poem 
by Wyatt in TotteFs MISCELLANY (1542) : 
The wandring gadling, in the summertide, 
That finds the Adder with his reckless 
foot. 

gaffer. An old man, a "grandfather/* 
Sometimes used as a title or form of ad- 
dress, to a man below the rank of Master, 
as when Scott in THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH 
(1828) says: You have marred my ramble. 
Gaffer Glover. Gaffer was probably a con- 
traction of godfather, with the vowel 
changing to a because of association with 
grandfather. So, for the female, with gam- 
mer, q.v. Occasionally used humorously, 
as when Randolph in HEY FOR HONESTY 
(1651) says: This same gaffer Phoebus is 
a good mountebank and an excellent 
musician. 

gain. An adjective. Used first (10th cen- 
tury) of roads: straight, direct; the gainest 
way, the shortest way. Old Norse gegn, 
straight, favorable, helpful. Hence, ready, 
well-disposed, kindly; available, conve- 
nient, useful. Also geyn, gane, gayne. The 
early form gegn (Modern German gegen) 
meant both directly towards and (as a 
consequence) opposite to, contrary to, 
against. Hence as a prefix, gain- meant 
against, or in return (as a counter-stroke); 
it survives in gainsay; it was used in gain- 
saw, a contradiction; gainspeaker, an op- 
ponent; gainbuy, to redeem, also gain- 



289 



gain- 

buying. Also gaincall, to revoke, withdraw. 
gainchare, a way of returning, means of 
escape, gainshire, the barb of a fishing- 
hook; a barb on the tang of a knife, to 
prevent its coming free of the handle 
(the term is still used in cutlery) . gain- 
stand, opposition, gainstrive, to oppose. 
gainturn, a turning back, evasion. From 
the adjective gain was formed a second 
adjective, gainly, (ganely) , proper, be- 
coming; helpful, gracious; graceful, 
shapely the opposite of the still current 
ungainly. The original sense of gain is 
preserved in the Midland proverb: Round- 
about is sometimes gainest: The longest 
way round is the sweetest way home. 

gain-. See gain. 

gainchar. See chare; cp. gain. 

gainsay. See againsay; gain. 

gaipand. A variant form of gaping. The 
ending -and was frequent for -ing in early 
Northern and Scottish words. In a lyric 
of D unbar (1508) we are reminded that 
Deth followis lyfe with gaipand mowth. 

gair. See gore. 

galage. An early form (in Chaucer; in 
Spenser's THE SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR, 1579) 
of galosh. Also golosh, galoge, galache, 
galoshoes, etc. The galage was a wooden 
shoe or sandal with leather thongs; later 
(17th century) , an overshoe. Spenser's 
gloss explains galage as 'a start-uppe or 
clownish shoe/ clownish meaning peas- 
ant's. 

galantine. See galentine. Chaucer in TO 
RQSEMOUNDE (1400) Nas never pyk wal~ 
wed in galauntyne As I in love am walwed 
and ywounde. The spelling galantine grew 
from folk association with (French) 
galant (cp. gallant), agreeable, pleasing. 

galanty show. A shadow show; shadows 



galentine 

of miniature figures are thrown on a wall 
or screen. Also gallantee, gallanty; accent 
usually on the ant. Performed in the early 
19th century, by 1860 Mayhew declared 

(in LONDON LABOUR AND THE LONDON POOR): 

The galantee show don't answer, because 
magic lanterns are so cheap in the shops. 
It has, however, survived in children's 
play; I saw a lively production of a 
galantee show in a children's camp last 
summer. 

galder. See sigalder. 

gale. (1) A plant, the bog-myrtle, also 
called sweet gale, from the twigs of which 
gale-beer is made. Crabbe in THE BIRTH 
OF FLATTERY (1807) says: Gale from the 
bog shall yield Arabian balm. (2) The 
current sense of a very strong wind was 
long softened, in poetry and figurative dis- 
course, to a gentle breeze. Addison, in 
THE SPECTATOR (No. 56, 1711) : He felt a 
gale of perfumes breathing upon him; 
Massinger, in THE DUKE OF MILAN (1623): 
One gale of your sweet breath will easily 
Disperse these clouds; Marvell in a letter 
of 1669 hopes for some unexpected gaile 
of opportunity. (3) A periodical payment 
of rent, or the rent thus paid. Hanging- 
gale, rent in arrears. Used from the 17th 
into the 19th century; perhaps a contrac- 
tion of gavel, q.v. (4) Singing, a song; 
merriment. This sense is related to Old 
English galen, to sing; Italian (and thence 
English) gala but this sense died in the 
14th century; KYNG ALYSAUNDER in the 
13th century said: The nyghtyngale In 
woode, makith mery gale. 

galentine. A sauce. Also galyntyne; cp. 
galantine. A recipe is given in THE FORME 
OF CURY (1390) : Take crustes of bred, 
and grynde hem smalle. Do thereto 
powdor of galyngale, of canel, gyngyves, 
and salt it. Tempre it with vynegar, and 



290 



galingale 

draw it up thrugh a straynor, and messe it 
forth. Hence, a dish of sopped bread and 
spices. Later used of other dishes, as veal, 
chicken, or other white meat, boned, tied, 
boiled, and served cold in its jelly. 

galingale. A mildly aromatic root of East 
India, used in medicines and in cookery. 
Bailey in 1736 listed as tasty condiments 
cardamums, cloves, cubebs, galangal, 
ginger, mace, and nutmegs. The word is 
via French and Arabic from Chinese Ko- 
liang-kiang, mild ginger from Ko (in 
Canton province) . Also applied to the 
English sedge. Especially, a dish seasoned 
with galingale, as in Beaumont and 
Fletcher's THE BLOODY BROTHER (1616) : 
Put in some of this [poison], the matter's 
ended; dredge you a dish of plovers, 
there's the art on't; or in a galingale, a 
little does it. Tennyson pictured the land 
of the Lotus-Eaters (1833) : Border 3 d with 
palm and many a winding vale, And 
meadow, set with slender galingale. 

galiot. See galliot. 

gallant (verb; accented on the second 
syllable) . To play the gallant; to flirt 
with; to escort. To gallant a fan was to 
break a fan (intentionally, but as though 
by accident) , so as to win permission to 
present a better one. Thus Addison in 
THE SPECTATOR, No. 102 (1711): I teach 
young gentlemen the whole art of gal- 
lanting a fan. NJB. I have several little 
plain fans made for this use, to avoid ex- 
pense. Gallant is related to gala; Old 
French galer, to make merry. Other forms 
are gallantise, courtliness, gallantry; gal- 
lantize, to play the gallant, to court (Urqu- 
hart in his translation, 1693, of Rabelais 
has to gallantrize it) ; to be gallantified 
was used humorously (17th century) 
meaning to be whipped. 

galleon* See galliot 



gallimaufry 
galley. See galliot. 

galliard. As an adjective: valiant, sturdy; 
full of high spirits, lively, gay; spruce, gay 
in looks. Also gaillard, galyeard, gagliard, 
and more. Chaucer in THE COOK'S TALE 
(1386) says: Gaillard he was as goldfinch 
in the shawe. As a noun: (1) A man of 
spirit; a gay fellow, a man of fashion. (2) 
A lively dance, in triple time. Shakespeare 
asks, in TWELFTH NIGHT (1601) : Why dost 
thou not goe to church in a galliard, and 
come home in a carranto? Cp. coranto; 
pavan. Hence galliardise, gaiety, revelry; 
a merry prank. 

galliass. See galliot. 

galligaskin. A kind of tight-buttocked 
wide hose or breeches worn in the 16th 
and 17th centuries; later, it became a term 
of ridicule for breeches wide at the knee. 
French garguesque, from Italian grechesco, 
Greek style (alia grechesca) . Usually 
plural; also gaskins; gallybreeches; gaily- 
slops; gallygaskins, garragascoyne, gali- 
gascon, and more. Also, from its appear- 
ance, the flower the cowslip. Used figura- 
tively in THE POETICAL REGISTER of 1794: 

While in rhyme's galligaskins I enclose 
The broad posteriors of thy brawny prose. 
Sterne says, in TRISTRAM SHANDY (1761): 
His whole thoughts . . . were taken up 
with a transaction which was going for- 
wards . . . within the precincts of his own 
galligaskins. 

gallimaufry. A dish, hashed out of odds 
and ends; hence, a confused or ridiculous 
mixture; a foolish medley. Also, a hap- 
hazardly mixed assemblage, or collection 
of persons; Shakespeare in THE MERRY 
WIVES OF WINDSOR (1598) says: He wooes 
both high and low . . . he loves the gaily- 
mawfry. Occasionally applied in scorn to a 
person, a Jadk-of-all-accomplisliments, a 
fellow of many parts. Thus gallinwufrical, 



291 



galliot 

mixed up; miscellaneous. As a verb, to 
gallimaufry, to confuse, to make mince- 
meat of; also, a gallimaufrier, one who 
messes or mixes things up. Nashe, attack- 
ing Gabriel Harvey in STRANGE NEWES 
(1593; for Harvey's thrust, see bum) , con- 
cluded: From this time forth for ever, 
ever, ever, evermore moist thou be canon- 
ized as the nunparreille of impious epis- 
tles, the short shredder out of Sunday 
sentences without lime, as Quintillian 
tearmed Seneca all lime and no sande; 
all matter and no circumstance; the factor 
for the fairies and night urchins, in sup- 
planting and setting aside the true chil- 
dren -of the English, and suborning inke- 
home changelings in their steade, the gal- 
limafrier of all stiles in one standish, as 
imitating everie one, and having no seper- 
ate forme of thy owne; and to conclude, 
the onely feather-driver of phrases, and 
putter of a good word to it when thou 
hast once got it, that is betwixt this and 
the Alpes. So bee it worlde without ende. 
Chroniclers heare my praiers. This one 
has heard. 

galliot. A small swift boat, propelled by 
sails and oars; especially, one used in 
Mediterranean waters. Hence, a sailor or 
rower on a galley (slave or free) ; by ex- 
tension (15th century) , a pirate. Also 
galiote, galyete, galyote, galleot. Via 
French, and Italian galeotta, diminutive 
of Latin galea, galley* The galley was a 
low, one-deck sea-going vessel, propelled 
by sails and oars; the rowers were usually 
slaves or condemned criminals. The gal- 
liass galleass, galliace, galeaze was larger 
than a galley and used mainly in war. 
The gallivat galleywat, gallevat was 
larger than a galliot; it was used in the 
Eastern seas, and had a triangular sail. 
The galleon was a ship of war, higher but 
shorter than the galley; after the 15th 



gambade 

century, however, galleon was used mainly 
for the large merchantmen with which 
the Spanish carried on trade with their 
possessions in America. Also gallon, 
galeoon, galloon. For a while, because of 
the British privateers 1 raids on Spanish 
shipping, galleon was used to mean a fine 
catch, a prize, as in Farquhar's THE BEAUX 
STRATAGEM (1706) : This prize will be a 
galleon ... 7 warrant you we shall bring 
off three or four thousand pound. 

galp. (1) To yelp. Caxton's translation 

(1481) Of THE HISTORYE OF REYNART THE 

FOXE stated: He mawede and galped so 
lowde that martynet sprang up. Old Saxon 
galpon, to boast; Dutch galpen, to bark, 
yelp; yelp is another form of this word. 
By association with gape, however, galp 
more frequently (14th to 17th century) 
meant to yawn, to gape; to vomit forth; 
also to gape after in desire, as in the 
AENEIS of Stanyhurst (1583), which pic- 
tures Chary bdis with broad jaws greedelye 
galping. Chaucer in THE SQUIRE'S TALE 
(1386) has: With a galpyng mouth them 
alle he keste. 

gambade. One of the forms of gambol; 
also gambad, gambado, gambawd, gam- 
bauld, gambol, gamboil, gambole. Via 
French from Italian gambata y leap; 
gamba, leg English slang speaks of a 
girl's gams; French jambe. The word 
meant first the leap or curvet of a horse; 
then, a leap in dancing or play; then, a 
frolic. Gambado (frequent in the 19th 
century, after Scott's use in THE MONAS- 
TERY, 1820) had the same meanings, but 
from the 17th century was also used of 
leather leggings or, especially, of a boot 
attached to a saddle, to protect the rider's 
leg from wet and cold. Gambol is used 
as both noun and verb; gambade was re- 
vived by Scott as a noun only as a leap: 
QUENTIN DURWARD, 1823, Each fresh gam- 



292 



gammadion 

bade of his unmanageable horse placed 
him in a new and more precarious atti- 
tude of a prank: JOURNAL, 1825, To 
S out hey I wrote . . . touching on ... his 
innocence as to those gambades that may 
have given offence. 

gammadion. See fylfot. 

gammer. An old woman, a "grand- 
mother." A lusty old English comedy is 
Gammer Gurton's Needle (1575) by J. 
StilL Hence, to gammer, to idle, to go 
gossiping about. See gaffer. 

gammon. A ham; the bottom of a flitch 
of bacon, with the hind leg; a smoked 
ham. From pressing one's ham against 
the victim, to give gammon, in 18th cen- 
tury thieves* slang, was used to mean to 
press against a man while a confederate 
picks his pocket. By extension, to distract 
the victim's attention in any way; hence 
gammon, idle talk, chatter; nonsense, 
humbug. In this sense, the word is often 
used as an exclamation, as in Thackeray's 
THE ROSE AND THE RING (1855) : "Gam- 
mon!" exclaimed his Lordship. Also in 
the sense of nonsense, phrases were used 
such as gammon and patter (also mean- 
ing the stock phrases in any field) and 
from what was often served with smoked 
ham, gammon and spinach. Gammon is 
from Old Norman French gambon, ham, 
gambe f leg; modern French jambon; cp. 
gambade. What a world of gammon and 
spinnach it isl says Miss Moucher in DAVID 
COPPERFIELD. Heigh ho! says Anthony 
Rowley. 

ganch. To execute by impaling on stakes 
or hooks. The victim was raised by a pul- 
^ley, then let fall. Women in the Near 
East were drowned; men were ganched. 
Also gaunch. Cp. furca. The word was 
also applied to a boar's gashing with its 



garabee 

tusks. A ganched man might hang for 
several days before he died. Spanish 
gancho, Italian gancio, hook. The noun 
ganch named the apparatus used for such 
execution. 

gangrel. A vagabond. (Middle High 
German gangeln, to walk about ~f the 
ending with depreciative connotations, as 
in mongrel, wastrel, etc.) Used from the 
16th century; by Burns (1785, THE JOLLY 
BEGGARS), Scott (1815, GUY MANNERING), 
Morris (1870, THE EARTHLY PARADISE) . 
Also, by association with gangling, a 
lanky, awkward person. 

gantry. A large four-legged wooden 
stand, for barrels and wine-casks. Also 
gauntry. THE TEA-TABLE MISCELLANY (1724) 
edited by A. Ramsey, says: / . . . paid him 
upon a gantree As hostler wives should 
do; Scott in OLD MORTALITY (1816) shows 
the negation of this practice: The house- 
keeper . . . is neither so young nor so 
handsome as to tempt a man to follow 
her to the gaun trees. 

gar. To do, to make; to cause, to make 
(someone) do (something) as What garres 
thee greetef (##.) in Spenser's THE 
SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR (1579; APRIL), A 
common word from the 13th century; 
later mainly Scotch and dialectal. Burns 
in TAM o' SHANTER (1790) has: He 
screw'd the pipes and gart them skirl; 
Scott in THE ANTIQUARY (1816) : Ye like 
to gar folk look like fools. 

garabee. A 17th century variant of gad- 
bee, which was a stronger term for gadfly, 
horse fly, that bites horses and cattle and 
makes them gad about. To have a gad- 
fly ( in one's cap) is not the same as 
having a bee in one's bonnet, or a flea 
in one's ear; it means to be fond of 
gadding about. Thus Lyly in SAPPHO 
(1591) : My mistresse, I thinke, hath got a 



293 



garboil 

gadfly; never at home, and yet none can 
tell where abroade. Gadfly is also used 
figuratively (1) of a person that gads 
about; (2) of one that worries or torments 
another, as when Irving says in THE SAL- 
MAGUNDI PAPERS (1808) : It is our mis- 
fortune to be frequently pestered . . . by 
certain critical gad-flies. Browning in 
ARTEMIS PROLOGIZES (1842) speaks of A 
noisome lust that, as the gadbee stings, 
Possessed his stepdame. 

garboil. Confusion, tumult; a brawl, a 
hurlyburly. Also a verb, to agitate, disturb. 
The word is via Italian garbuglio; Latin 
bullire, to boil. A common word for a 
common condition in the 16th and 17th 
centuries. Also garboyle, garbroyl, 
and the like. Stanyhurst began his trans- 
lation (1582) of Virgil's AENEID (Arms 
and the man I sing) : Now manhod and 
garbroyls I chaunt; Hood mocks this in 
his sixth SATIRE (1597) : Manhood and 
garboiles shall be chaunt with chaunged 
feete . . . // Jove speake English in a 
thundring cloud, Thwick thwack, and rif 
raf, rores he out aloud. Fie on the forged 
mint that did create New coyne of words 
never articulate. Stanyhurst had said: Of 
ruffe raffe roaring, mens herts with terror 
agrysing. With peale meale ramping, with 
thwick thwack sturdilye thundring. 

gardyloo. A warning cry (especially in 
Edinburgh, 1 8th and 1 9th centuries) be- 
fore throwing slops out of the window. 
From French gare de l'eaul>y error; the 
correct French would be gare I'eau, watch 
out for the water. Also garde loo, jordeloo. 
To make the gardyloo is to throw out the 
slops. Sterne used the word in A SENTI- 
MENTAL JOURNEY (1768) ; Smollett, in 

HUMPHREY CLINKER (1771); Scott both 

literally (She had made the gardyloo out 
of the wrong window) in THE HEART OF 
MIDLOTHIAN (1818) and figuratively: The 



gasconade 

overwhelming cataract of her questions, 
which burst forth with the sublimity of a 
grand gardyloo. City boys on roof tops 
fill bags with various liquids and drop 
them streetward without the caveat of a 
gardyloo. 

gare. See gere; gore. 
garganet. See carcan. 

gargat. The throat. Also gargaz, garget. 
Hence gargarise, gargarism, a gargle; to 
gargarize, gargrise, to gargle. An echoic 
word, from the Greek. Hence also the name 
of Rabelais' large-gulleted voracious giant, 
Gargantua, used in various forms: gar- 
gantuan, enormous (in size and especially 
in appetite) ; a gargantuism, an outlandish 
idea. Chaucer in THE NUN'S PRIEST'S TALE 
(1386) tells that The fox stert up at oones, 
And by the gargat hente Chaunteclere. 

garlic. A lively jig; danced in the 17th 
century. This sense and the surviving 
sense are combined in the word-play of 
R. Tailor's THE HOG HATH LOST HIS PEARLE 
(1614) : Player: That shows your more 
learning, sir. But, I pray you, is that small 
matter done I entrusted you for? Haddit: 
A small matter! You'll find it worth Meg 
of Westminster, although it be but a bare 
jig. Player: O lord! Sir, I wish it had but 
half the taste of garlick. Haddit: Garlick 
stinks to this; if it prove that you have not 
more . . . than e'er garlick had, say I am 
a boaster of my own works; disgrace me 
on the open stage, and bob me off with 
ne'er a penny. Garlic (the vegetable) is 
Old English gar, spear + leac, leek; cp. 
gere. 

garnison. See warison. 

gasconade. Extravagant boasting; a boast- 
ful tale. Also gasconado, gasconnade. 
Gasconade was also used as a verb, to 
boast, to tell tall tales with oneself as 



294 



gast 

hero. A Gascon, from Gascony in south- 
western France, was proverbially a boaster 
specimens of the species are exhibited 
in Rostand's CYRANO DE BERGERAC (1898; 
Cyrano lived 1619-1655) . Smollett in a 
song of 1771 wrote: A peacock in pride , in 
grimace a baboon, In courage a hind, in 
conceit a Gascoon. Hence gasconader, a 
braggart, boaster. 

gast. To terrify; also, to ruin. For gast, 
for fear. Also ghost, gaast. The form gast 
was also a noun, fright, and an adjective, 
terrified. In this sense also agast, surviving 
as aghast; gastly, gastful; gastness. As a 
noun, gast was also an early form of 
ghost. The translation (1422) of SECRETA 
SECRETORUM said: Thou shalte have many 
rynnynge engyns to make horribill sownes 
to gasten thyn enemys. Shakespeare in 
KING LEAR (1605) has: Or whether gasted 
by the noyse I made, Full sodainely he 
fled. In the second sense of the verb, we 
read in Wright's specimens of early 
LYRICAL POETRY: Whet helpeth the, my 
suete lemmon, my lyf thus forte gaste? 
[What good does it do you, my sweet 
mistress, my life thus for to ruin?] 

gastromancy. See aeromancy. 
gastronome. See digastric. 

gaum. (1) (Verb) (a) to handle; es- 
pecially, to fondle or mishandle a female. 
R. Fletcher, translating (1656) the EPI- 
CRAMS of Martial, said: Each lad took his 
lass by the fist and . . . squeezed her and 
gaumed her. Also goam. (b) To smear 
with a sticky substance. Also gome. Hence 
gaumy, daubed, smeary; sticky, (c) To 
stare vacantly, to gawk, to look like a fool. 
All these were common, shading into di- 
alect use, 17th into the 19th century. 
(2) (Noun) (a) heed, attention, notice; 
understanding. More commonly gome 
(13th to 16th century); but the other 



gavel 

spelling lasted into the 19th century in 
compounds: gaumless, stupid, lacking 
sense; gaumlike, with an intelligent air; 
She were a poor, friendless wench, says 
Mrs. Gaskell in SYLVIA'S LOVERS (186S) , 
but honest and gaumlike. (b) Gome, also 
guma, gom, etc., a man. This was a com- 
mon Teuton word, its root ghomon being 
related to Latin homo, hominis, man. It 
survived in poetic use into the 1 6th cen- 
tury, and was the original ending of 
bridegome, wedding man, later corruped 
into bridegroom. 

gaunch. See ganch. 
gauntry. See gantry. 

gavel. The word gavel, meaning first 
a mason's hammer for leveling, then a 
presiding officer's mallet, was first used in 
the United States in the 19th century; its 
origin is unknown. Two earlier words had 
the same form. (1) From Early English 
(Anglo-Saxon) until the 1 6th century, 
gavel meant first tribute, then rent To set 
to gavel was to rent out. This word was 
Old English gafol, related to giefan, to 
give. An especial kind of rent (in Kent, 
in Wales; from the 16th century, more 
widely) gave tenure in gavelkind; namely, 
on the tenant's death the land did not go 
to the eldest son, but was divided equally 
among his sons. [Edwards, in WORDS, 
FACTS, AND PHRASES (1912) stated that 
gavelkind is composed of Saxon grf ael 
hynd, give to all children. Kynd gives us 
kin, and kindred*, also, via the German, 
kindergarten. Edwards was probably 
wrong.] In Ireland, on an occupant's 
death, the land went back to the tribe 
(sept) and was redivided among the 
tribesmen; hence, gavel, a partition of 
land amongst the sept In these various 
uses, gavel was also a verb. A legal action 
against a tenant for Qn-payment of gavel 



295 



gavelkind 

was called gavelet, probably from gafol + 
laetan, to let (hinder). (2) From the 15th 
into the 19th century, gavel was a pile of 
corn cut and lying, waiting to be bound 
into a sheaf. Also javelle. To lie on the 
gavel was to lie unbound. The O.E.D. 
(1931) says the early Old French meaning 
was heap; but note also English gavelock, 
gavelot, javelot (French javelot) , a spear 
for casting, a javelin. The word gavelkind 
has been used figuratively by many writers, 
since Donne's Sermon of 1627: For God 
shall impart to us all a mysterious gavel- 
kind, a mysterious equality of fulness of 
glory to us all: Carew (1639) and Fuller 
(1661) , of God; Hallam (1838) and Lowell 
(1869) of books: All that is worth having 
in them, said the last, is the common 
property of the soul an estate in gavel- 
kind for all the sons of Adam. 

gavelkind. See gavel. 
gavelock. See gavel. 

gaylede. Another delightful dish of 15th 
century England. TWO COOKERY-BOOKES 
(1430) tells how: Take almaunde mylke 
and flowre of rys, and do therto sugre or 
hony f and powder gyngere; then take figys, 
and kerve them ato f or roysonys [raisins] 
yhole, or harde wastel [q.v.] ydicyd and 
coloure it with saunderys [sandalwood] 
and sette it and dresse hem yn. Sawnderys, 
sanders, saundres, and enough more to 
prove its popularity: sandalwood was a 
frequent ingredient of dishes, listed from 
the early 14th century. We find mention 

in THE PILGRIMAGE OF PERFECTION (1526) 

of a precyous tree: whereof the stock is 
saundres, the barke synamon, and the 
fruit nutmygges or maces. A true chefs 
dream! 

gazebo* A turret or lantern on a house- 
top; hence, a raised room overlooking or 
in a garden; a belvedere. Pronounced ga~ 



geek 

zed-bo, the word may be a humorously 
formed imaginary Latin future "I shall 
see/' from gaze, but its earliest uses have 
Oriental allusions (1752: the elevation of 
a Chinese tower or gazebo) and it may 
be a corruption of an eastern word. The 
term belvedere, with the same meaning as 
gazebo, is from Italian belvedere, a beauti- 
ful sight; bel, bello, beautiful + vedere, 
to see. Webster in THE DEVIL'S LAW CASE 
(1623) wrote: They build their palaces 
and belvederes With musical water-works; 
Harvey in a DIALOGUE (1755) in Sou they 's 
COMMONPLACE BOOK observed: Over this 
recess, so pleasingly horrid . . . arose an 
open and airy belvidere. I miss the view 
from the gazebo friends of mine used to 
enjoy in Hillcrest Park. 

geason. Barren, unproductive; by trans- 
ference (scantily produced) rare, scarce, 
uncommon; hence rare, unusual, ex- 
traordinary. A common word (gesne, 
gay son, gesen, etc.), 10th into the 17th 
century. Cp. peason. Also used as a noun 
(16th century) : a rarity. Udall in his 
paraphrase of Erasmus (1548) spoke of 
precious stones that are gayson to be 
found. That charming song of 1584, Fain 
would I have a pretie thing To give unto 
my ladie, has a stanza: Some goe here 
and some go there, wheare gazes be not 
geason, And I goe gaping everywhere 
But still come out of season. A legended 
shield was described, in a verse to Bosse- 
well's ARMORIE (1572) : The siege of 
Thebes, the fall of Troy, in beaten massie 
golde, dan Vulcan hath set out at large, 
full geazon to beholde. 

geek. A simpleton, a dupe; an expres- 
sion or gesture of derision or contempt. 
To get a geek, to be tricked; to give one 
the geek, to mock or to trick one; to geek 
at, to mock or scoff at. The verb geek 
means to mock; to trick, to cheat, but 



296 



gelasin 

also to toss the head as in scorn; to geek 
up the head. Shakespeare uses the noun 
(gecke) in CYMBELINE, also in TWELFTH 
NIGHT (1601), when Malvolio protests: 
Why have you suffered me to be im- 
prison' d . . . And made the most notorious 
gecke and gull That ere invention played 
onf 

gelasin. A dimple in the cheek that 
comes with smiling. Greek gelasinos; 
gelan, to laugh. Sampson Lennard in his 
translation (1612) of Charron's WISDOMS, 
spoke of the cheeks somewhat rising, and 
in the middle the pleasant gelasin. Also 
gelastic, risible, causing or related to 
laughter. Both, naturally, are pronounced 
with a soft g. T. Brown had a prescrip- 
tion: My friendly pill, he said (WORKS; 
1704) causes all complexions to laugh or 
smile . . . which it effects by dilating and 
expanding the gelastic muscles, first of 
all discovered by myself. 

gelastic. See gelasin. 

gelatia. "A whyte precyous stone," said 
John de Trevisa, in his translation (1398) 
of Bartholomeus' DE PROPRIETATIBUS 
RERUM, "shapen as an heyll [hail] stone: 
and it is so calde that it never hetith wyth 
fyre." Also gelacia. Probably from a fusion 
of Latin gelare, to freeze and chalazias, 
Greek chalassa, hail. The gelatia was ad- 
mired into the 17th century; no samples 
of it seem to be in rings or necklaces 
today. 

geloscopy. See aeromancy. 

gemeL Twin; in the plural, gemels, 
twins. Used from the 14th to the 18th 
century, in various forms: gemell } gemmal, 
gemoll, gemmell; also gemew, gimbal, 
gimmal, gimmer. Via French from Latin 
gemellus, diminutive of geminus, twin 
the plural of which was also used in Eng~ 



gemini 

lish; see gemini. Gemew (Old French 
gemeau; French jumeau) also had other 
forms: gemow; gewmew, gymmeWj je- 
mowe, and more; likewise gimball, gim- 
bole, gimble, gimbald; gimmall, girnal, 
gymell, gemoll, gymmal, gimmel all with 
the same variations of meaning. These 
included: a pair of anything, such as a 
double door; a two-part harmony; a hinge 
or other two-part joint or device for 
fastening, as a hook and eye; especially 
(late 15th and the 16th century) a finger- 
ring that could be divided and worn as 
two rings; also gemel-ring, gemowe-ring, 
gimmal-ring. Greene in MENAPHON (1589) 
declared: Twas a good world . . . when a 
ring of rush would tie as much love to- 
gether as a glmmon of gold each lover 
wore one circlet Shakespeare uses the 
word of a two-part driving mechanism in 
clockwork, when the French Reignier de- 
scribes the fighting English in HENRY vi, 
PART ONE (1591): I think by some odd 
gimmors or device Their arms are set like 
clocks, still to strike on, Else ne'er could 
they hold out so as they do. Gimmors, in 
this use, is close to the mid-20th century 
gimmick. 

gemelHparous. Bearing twins. Accent on 
the lip. Latin gemellus, twin 4- parere, 
to bring forth. Cp. gemeL 

gemew. See gemeL 

gemini. In addition to the constellation 
Castor and Pollux (Latin gemini, twins; 
cp. gemel) this form also gemyni, 
gemony, jeminy, geminies, jimminy, and 
more has meant a couple or pair; es- 
pecially, a pair of eyes. Shakespeare in 
THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR (1598) says: 
Else you had look'd through the grate, 
like a geminy of baboones; Quarles in 
EMBLEMES (1635) : He that daily spies 
Twin babies in his mistress* geminis* To 



297 



genethliacs 

play the gemini, to behave like Castor and 
Pollux, who could never both be in the 
same place; i.e., to never be where the 
one looking for you is. Also By Gemini!, 
Oh jiminy!, a mild exclamation o sur- 
prise or displeasure this is perhaps a 
euphemism for Jesu domine, Jesus our 
Lord. 

genethliacs. See aeromancy. 

geniculation. The act of kneeling; geni- 
culate, to kneel, to bend at, or like, the 
knee. Latin geniculum, diminutive of 
genu, knee. Used in the 17th century; 
genuflection, genuflexion, introduced a 
century earlier, proved a hardier term, 
but implies a bending in worship. 

gent. Noble; having the qualities ex- 
pected of those of high birth, gentle, 
courteous, (of ladies) graceful. From 
Latin gentium, past participle of gignere, 
to beget. From meaning born, the Latin 
gentutn came to mean born of Roman 
blood; then well-born; hence, noble in 
conduct. Villiers, in THE REHEARSAL (1672) 
speaks of a man so modest, so gent. 
Spenser, who uses the word 14 times in 
THE FAERIE QUEENE (1590) there says, for 
example, He loved, as was his lot, a lady 
gent. The form gent was supplanted by 
gentle, from French gentil, and by genteel, 
re-adopted from gen til in the late 16th 
century. 

gentylnes. A variant form of gentleness, 
which in the 16th century was used to 
mean kindness, generosity. Among the 

HUNDRED MERRY TALES (1526) IS the StOiy 

of the man who married a dumb wife, 
went to great pains to have her cured, 
then found her so unendingly talkative 
that he had himself made deaf. Rabelais 
refers to this story; Anatole France made 
a play of it. There is also the story of a 
woman who was told that the disease 



gerfalcon 

afflicting her pigs could be charmed away 
with the use of a cuckold's hat. She tries 
to borrow one from her neighbors, but 
is (rather naturally) rebuffed; thereupon 
she determines to arrange to have one of 
her own, from her husband. The story 
has a moral: It is more wysdome for a 
man to trust more to his owne store than 
to his neyghbours gentylnes. 

geomancy. Also gemensye. See aeromancy. 
In China, geomancy flourished under the 
Liang Dynasty (502-566 A.D.) , along 
with the introduction of kites and fire- 
crackers. 

gere. (1) A sudden fit of passion, a 
whim; a wild, changeful mood. By 1600 
gere was replaced by gare, with the same 
meaning; gare lasted a century. Gare- 
brained, heedless, with swift-changing 
moods. Chaucer used gere several times, 
as in THE KNIGHT'S TALE (1386) : Into a 
study he fell suddenly, as doon these 
lovers in their queynte geres. Also gery, 
gerful, capricious, in the same tale: Right 
as the Friday, soothly for to telle, now 
it shyneth, now it rayneth faste, Right 
so can gery Venus overcaste The hertes 
of her folk; right as her day Is gerful, right 
so changeth she array. (Friday is the day 
of Venus; Freya for whom Friday is 
named is the Scandinavian goddess of 
love.) Love indeed is gery! (2) gere, gaer, 
more commonly gare, earlier gar, a spear, 
a javelin; used from BEOWULF into the 
13th century in the 14th century misused 
for a sword. Surviving in the garfish and 
the pungent garlick, the spear leek. 

gerfalcon. A large falcon, such as was 
used to hunt herons. Cp. tercel. Various 
suggestions have been made as to the 
source of the first syllable; in 1188 
Giraldus Cambrensis suggested that it was 
from gyrare, to gyrate, from the circling 



298 



german 

of the bird in air. Greek hieros, sacred, 
has also been suggested; most likely source 
is Old High German gir, vulture; gin, 
greedy. The word has been used in Eng- 
lish since the 14th century, with many 
mentions of a milk white gerfauk. Norton 
in his translation (1891) of Dante's 
INFERNO spoke of Caesar in armor, with 
his gerfalcon eyes. 

german. Full; closely akin. Said of chil- 
dren of brothers and sisters, as sister- 
german, first cousin; loosely used of other 
kinship, as in Shakespeare's TIMON OF 
ATHENS (1607) : Wert thou a leopard, 
thou wert germane to the lion. Also ger- 
main, germeyn, germayne, germane, jar- 
man, jermaine, and the like. Latin ger- 
manus f in the same sense; germen, ger- 
minem, sprig, sprout, bud; also used in 
English to mean germ; by Shakespeare 
first, in MACBETH, and in KING LEAR: And 
thou all-shaking thunder, Strike flat the 
thicke rotundity o' th' world, Crack 
natures moulds, all germaines spill at once 
That makes ingratefull man. Shakespeare 
uses german in HAMLET The phrase 
would be more germaine to the matter, 
If we could carry cannon by our sides 
in the sense of closely connected, per- 
tinent, relevant; this sense has continued, 
usually with the spelling germane. 

gerning. A variant form of girning: grin- 
ning; grumbling. In Marston's THE 

SCOURGE OF VTLLAINEE (SATIRE TEN; 1599) 

we read: But roome for Tuscus, that jest- 
monging youth, Who nere did ope his 
apish gerning mouth But to retails and 
broke anothers wit Broke is to trade in 
it; it survives in the noun broker. Note 
that girn means to grin; but also, to show 
the teeth (as in anger) , to snarl; to com- 
plain constantly. Hence gernative, relat- 
ing to or addicted to complaining; Mid- 
dleton in A TRICK TO CATCH THE OLD ONE 



gerocomy 

(1608) cried: Out, you gernative queane! 
Girn also meant to ensnare, to catch in a 
girn, a noose or trap; it was so used in 
the 14th century (replaced in England by 
gin; but girn survived in Scotland into 
the 19th century) . Gin was short for Old 
French engin, engine, used in English 
since the 12th century. At first gin (q.v.) 
meant skill, artifice; then, an artifice, an 
instance or a product of cleverness; a 
trick, a device, an instrument. Then it 
was specifically applied to various in- 
struments: a snare, a trap, for game; a 
device for torture, as the rack; a crane, 
for lifting weights; a weapon, for casting 
stones; a bolt or bar to fasten a door. 
Hence, to know the gin, to know how to 
open something, or how to get in. Spenser 
in THE FAERIE QUEENE (1590) says Ty- 
phoeus joynts were stretched on a gin. 
Typhoeus may well have been gerning. 

gerocomy. The science of the treatment 
of the aged. A word already existing when 
gerontology (not in the 1931 O.E.D. nor 
the 1953 WEBSTER) was coined for the 
same purpose. Greek geras, old -f komia, 
tending. It would be flattery to suggest 
that the new word was devised because 
the old had an unfortunate adjective 
gerocomical: It is my earnest desire, said 
J. Smith in his 1666 treatise on OLD AGE, 
that physicians would study the gerocomi- 
cal part of physick more than they do. 
The form gerocomian would serve just as 
well. Bailey in 1751 gives the form geron- 
tocomy (accent on the toe) for the noun; 
he also lists gerontocomium, an old-folks* 
home. Note also gerontarchy, gerontoc- 
racy, government by the old. Plants (and 
sometimes persons) native to "the old 
world" (the eastern hemisphere) have 
been called gerontogenous (accent on the 
third syllable, todj). May your years be 
gerocomical! 



299 



gerontology 

gerontology. See gero corny. 

gery. See gere. 

gest. This word, very common from the 
14th century into the 19th, occurred in 
Middle English mainly in the plural, 
meaning deeds, gests, gestes, from Latin 
gesta, exploits, gerere, gestum, to perform. 
Spenser in MOTHER HUBBERD'S TALE (1591) 
speaks of the fond ape . . . into whose 
brest Never crept thought of honor, nor 
brave gest. Hence, a story or romance; 
the English gest, the French gest, metrical 
chronicles of England, of France; hence, 
in gest, in verse, like the metrical ro- 
mances. Later, gest came to mean an idle 
tale; then a satirical remark; in this sense, 
it was supplanted in the 16th century by 
the form jest. By another path, from the 
same Latin gerere, gestum, to act, to per- 
form, gest was used to mean one's car- 
riage, the movement of one's limbs, as 
when Garth in his translation (1717) of 
Ovid's METAMORPHOSES says: The bold 
buffoon . . . Their motion mimics, but 
with gests obscene. In this sense, the word 
has been supplanted (gradually, 16th and 
17th centuries) by gesture. There is an- 
other gest (earlier gist, from Old French 
gist, git, lie; see gist) which meant a 
stopping place, a lodging; then especially 
the stops or stages of a journey, of a royal 
progress; then the time allotted for a stop 
on the journey. In the last sense we see 
the word in Shakespeare's THE WINTER'S 
TALE (1611) : I'll give him my commission 
To let him there a month behind the gest 
Prefixed for*s parting. Gest is also a verb. 
In the expression gested and done it 
means performed; its usual sense is to 
sing or tell tales (like a professional 
gester) . Thus there is the protest in THE 
PARSON'S TALE (1586) of Chaucer: 7 kan 
not geeste, Rum, Ram, Ruf by letter. The 
effects of drinking are quite evident on a 



gibbet 

four-handled cup in the Museum at Salis- 
bury (England) that bears the date 1692 
and the inscription: Here is the gest of 
the barly korne, Glad ham I the did is 
born. 

gesture. See gest. 

gib. (1) A cat, especially a male cat. 
Gib is a pet name of Gilbert. To play fy 
gib, to look or speak threateningly (as 
though scolding Fie! a cat) . To play 
the gib (of a woman) , to be quarrelsome; 
hence gib was used as a term of reproach 
for an old woman; Drayton in HEROIC 
EPISTLES (1598) piles it on: Beldam, gib, 
witch, nightmare, trot. Also your gibship, 
in scorn of a woman. A gib-cat, gib bed- 
cat, a gelded male cat. (2) The form gib 
also (Latin gibba) meant hump used 
from the 15th century; hence gibbous, 
protruberant; gibbose; gibbousness, gib- 
bosity. (3) Also (16th century) gib, a 
hook; gib by or gib by-stick, gib-stick, gib- 
bey, a stick with a hooked or curved 
handle; also a candy in that shape, like 
a peppermint cane. 'Sblood, says Falstaff 
in Shakespeare's HENRY iv, PART ONE 
(1597) , I am as melancholy as a gib-cat. 
In HAMLET, the Prince, bitterly taunting 
his mother, alludes to the King in several 
ways: For who that's but a Queen, fair, 
sober, wise, Would from a paddock, from 
a bat, a gib, Such dear concernings hidef 

gibbet. A hanging-post, gallows. In later 
use the two were distinguished, the gal- 
lows consisting of two uprights and a 
crosspiece; the gibbet, of an upright post 
with projecting arm. Hence, gibbetation, 
hanging. To gibbet, to kill by hanging;- 
to hang so as to hold up to public con- 
tempt; to hold in infamous notoriety. 
Thus Goldsmith in A CITIZEN OF THE 
WORLD (1762) tells of a man that un- 
knowingly gibbeted himself into infamy, 



300 



gibbose 

when he might have otherwise quietly re- 
tired into oblivion. Wickedness, says 
Burke in THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1790) 
walks abroad; it continues its ravages, 
whilst you are gibbeting the carcass, or 
demolishing the tomb. 

gibbose. See gib. 
gig. See fizgig. 

gigant. The early form of giant, 10th 
into the 17th century. Via Latin gigantem, 
from Greek gigas, giganto-. This form of 
the Greek word survives in gigantic, which 
was preceded in English by gigantean and 
gigantal; thus Urquhart in his transla- 
tion (1653) of Rabelais says: This gigantal 
victory being ended, Pantagruel with- 
drew himself to the place of the flaggons* 

gigantomachy. The war of the giants 
against the gods. Also gigantomachia; 
Greek gigas, giganto-, giant + mache, 
battle. Gigantomachize, to rebel as did the 
giants; thus Jonson in EVERY MAN OUT OF 
HIS HUMOUR (1599): the goggle-eyed 
Grumbledories would ha' gigantomackiz'd. 

gigget. See gigot. 

giglot. A wanton woman; rarely, also, a 
dissolute man. Shakespeare in HENRY iv, 
PART ONE says: Young Talbot was not born 
To be the pillage of a giglot wench. The 
influence of the word giggle developed 
the forms giglet, gigglet, and softened the 
meaning (18th and 19th centuries) to a 
laughing, romping girl. Cp . fizgig. Thus 
Shakespeare cries, in MEASURE FOR MEASURE 
(1603) : Away with those giglets, whereas 
in Chambers* JOURNAL OF POPULAR LITER- 
ATURE for 1885 we find the query: Why 
should female clerks in the postal service 
consist of pert giglets hardly out of their 
teens? Hence giggly means prone to giggle, 
but gigly (15th through 17th century) 
meant lascivious. 



gilder 

gigman. A narrow-minded, conventional 
member of the middle class. This was not 
a nobleman, said Carlyle (MISCELLANY, 
1830), or gentleman, or gigman, but 
simply a man! Carlyle, who coined the 
word, explained it by quoting from a trial 
(of Thurtell) : "What do you mean by 
'respectable?" "He always kept a gig." 
[This gig is not *a romping girl/ but 'a 
light two-wheeled one-horse carriage. 1 ] 
Hence, the gigmania of the times; gig- 
manism, the typical middle-class attitude; 
gigmanity, the group that manifests this 
attitude. Mrs. Grundy was a gigwoman. 

gigot. A leg or haunch (of mutton or 
veal) ; a slice; a minced meat or sausage. 
Also, a leg-of-mutton sleeve. From the 
French; also gigget, jigotte, jigget. M. 

Scott in THE CRUISE OF THE MIDGE (1834) 

said that a good practical sermon should 
be like a jigot o' mutton, short in the 
shank and pithy and nutritious. A 1676 
recipe for roast gigget of mutton: Take 
your gigget with cloves and rosemary, lard 
it, roast it, baste it with butter, and save 
the gravy, and put thereto some claret 
wine, with a handful of capers; season it 
with ginger and sugar? when it is boiled 
well, dish up your gigget, and pour on 
your sauce. 

gigour. A musician. Among the many 
meanings of gig, gige, was a noise; also, 
apparently, a high-pitched musical instru- 
ment. The word gigour occurs in the 13th 
century GESTE OF KING HORN: Hi sede hi 
weren harpurs, And sume were gigours. 

gilder. A snare, especially for small ani- 
mals and birds. Also gildire, gylder, giller, 
gildard, gtldert. Hampole, in the PSALTER 
of 1340, said: Godis luv and Godis word 
. . . sail kepe him fra the gildire of the 
devele. A 19th century gtldert, for catch- 
ing birds on snow, was a slip noose of 



301 



gilenyer 

horsehair tied to a line. Bread tempted 
the birds through the loops, which en- 
tangled their legs as they rose to fly off. 
Gilder was also a verb, to ensnare, as in 
CURSOR MUNDI (1300) : Now is man gildred 
in ivels all; His awn sin has made him 
thrall. 

gilenyer. A cheat, a swindler. Old French 
Ghillain, Gilain, a pseudo-name for a 
swindler, related to guile, wile, wily. Also 
gileynour, golinger. Used in the 18th cen- 
tury, mainly in Scotland, Also gilenyie, a 
device, a trick. There is a Scotch proverb 
(mid-1 8th century) : The greedy man and 
the gielainger are well met. Robert of 
Gloucester's CHRONICLE (13th century) has 
gileyspeke ( guilty or guily talk?) , mean- 
, ing a cunning trick. 

gileyspeke* See gilenyer. Too much of 
our current use of words is gileyspeke. 

gill. See jill 

gilliflower. A flower scented like a clove, 
especially the pink. Old French girofle, 
gilofre, clove; via Latin from Greek karyo- 
phyllon; karyon, nut + phyllon, leaf, the 
clove-tree. It was a most popular flower, 
judging by the multiplicity of forms of 
the name, which include gilver, gillifloure, 
gillyflower, gelofer, gyllofyr, gilliver f jil- 
liver, geraftoure, Julyflower, gillowflower, 
References to it abound in the poetry of 
the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. Greene 
in MENAPHON (1589) said: He that grafteth 
jillyflowers upon the nettle, marreth the 
smell The word was also applied to a 
woman: (1797) *g*7/n;er,alight-heerddame'; 
(1855) 'A jilliver, a wanton woman in the 
last stage of her good looks. A July flower, 
or the last rose in summer/ There were 
several sorts of gillofer distinguished by 
Lyte in Ms translation (1578) of Dodoens' 
NIEWE HERBALL, among them the feathered 



girandola 

gillofers, the turkie gillofers, Aphrican 
gillofers, and also the sops-in-wine, q.v. 

gimble. See gemel. 

giramor. See gemel Other early editions 
of HENRY vi have gimmals, gimmers, gim- 
malls. 

gin. Skill, ingenuity; cunning; artifice. 
Quaint of gin, clever in planning; deftly 
contrived. An instance of ingenuity, a 
clever device or stratagem; especially, a 
spring or other trap for catching game. A 
device for torture; a fetter. To know the 
gin, to know how to do something, usually 
(1 6th and 17th centuries) with dishonest 
purpose. Gin is shortened from French 
engin, engine. Cp. gerning; for an instance 
of its use, see woodcock. 

gipon. See smotherlich. 

gipser. A pouch or purse, usually hung 
from the girdle. Also gypcyere, gypsire, 
gipdere and the like. Chaucer, in the 
Prologue to THE CANTERBURY TALES (1386): 
A gipser al of silk Heeng at his girdel 
Planche*'s HISTORY OF BRITISH COSTUME 
(1834) lists A gypsire of purple velvet 
garnished with gold. 

girandola. A revolving wheel from which 
rockets are fired for holiday, or jets of 
water spurt; a series of jets in an orna- 
mental fountain. Via Italian, from Greek 
gyros, circle, whence gyrate. Also gyron- 
dola. Used from the 17th century. By way 
of French came the alternate form giran- 
dole (girondel, gironell) which later de- 
veloped two other meanings: (1) (From 
the 18th century) a branched candlestick, 
especially as a bracket on a wall; (2) 
(19th century) an earring or pendant; 
especially, one with a large stone sur- 
rounded by smaller ones. THE MORNING 
STAR (29 June, 1868) reported a fireworks 



502 



gM 

show: The whole wound up with a giran- 
dole of two thousand rockets. 

gird. See gride. 

girdlestead. The place for the girdle, i.e., 
the waist. Used from the 14th century; 
Chaucer in THE ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE 
(1366) has: Hise shuldris of a large 
brede, And smalish in the girdilstede. 
Swinburne extends it to the lap, in TRIS- 
TRAM OF LYONESSE (1882) : There fell a 
flower into her girdlestead Which laugh- 
ing she shook out. 

girlery. A gathering of girls, girls collec- 
tively. A girleen (Irish), a young girl. 
Note that from the 13th to the 15th cen- 
tury, girl was used for a child of either 
sex; then knave girl was used to mean boy; 
by 1550 girl had become restricted to the 
feminine kind. The origin of the word is 
unknown, but there is a Scotch verb, to 
girl, to thrill, to whirl, to be giddy. Girlie 
is a term of endearment for a little girl, 
but a girling is a young fish (salmon) . 
Meredith says of a character in ONE OF 
OUR CONQUERORS (1891) : The silly girly 
sugary crudity has given way to womanly 
suavity. Yet it's pleasant to watch the ways 
of growing girlery. 

girn. See gerning. 
girondel. See girandola. 

gis. Jesus. A euphemism; also jysse, jis, 
gisse, gys. Used in mild exclamations, as 
in mad Ophelia's song in Shakespeare's 
HAMLET (1602) : By gis and by Saint 
Charity, Alack, and fie for shame! Young 
men will do't f if they come to't; By cock, 
they are to blame. Note that By cock here 
is another euphemism, replacing By God 
with one of the bard's bawdy puns. 

gisarme. A weapon, a spear, says Bailey 
(1751) with two points or pikes; the 



givale 

O.ED. (1931) says it has a long straight 
blade sharpened on both sides. The word 
had many spellings, from the 13th into 
the 16th century, e.g., guisarme, gyssarn, 
giserne, gysyryne (all with a hard g, not 
j) ; Kingsley in THE WATER BABIES (1863), 
by whose time it was an antique, speaks 
of a whole cutler's shop of lances, halberts, 
gisarines. 

gist. See gest. Gist had several meanings; 
it comes from Old French gist, git, from 
gesir, to lie; Latin jacere, iacere, to lie. 
(The current sense, as in the gist of the 
matter, is from gesir en, to lie in, to de- 
pend upon.) The sense of a place to stop 
(for rest and refreshing) was applied to 
the halting-places of migratory birds. By 
extension gist was used to mean refresh- 
ment. Another sense (short for agist, q.v.) 
meant pasturing, or the right to pasture 
cattle; to gist was to take in or put out 
cattle to pasture (at a price) . And that is 
the gist of it. 

gittern. A musical instrument, like the 
guitar, strung with wire. Also ghittern, 
getron, gyterne, guthorne, guiterne; 
guiterre, whence guitar. Also cithern, q.v. 
Used from the 14th to the 17th century; 
revived (the word) by Scott in OLD MOR- 
TALITY (1816). Hence, to gittem; a gi