For alchymy, though’t make a glorious gloss,
Compared with gold is _bullion_ or base dross.
WILLIAM HODGSON, _Verses on Ben Jonson_.
Words, whilom flourishing,
Pass now no more, but, banished from the court,
Dwell with disgrace among the vulgar sort;
And those which eld’s strict doom did disallow,
And damn for _bullion_, go for current now.
SYLVESTER, _Du Bartas’ Weeks, Babylon_.
Nigh on the plain, in many cells prepared,
That underneath had veins of liquid fire
Sluiced from the lake, a second multitude
With wondrous art founded the massy ore,
Severing each kind, and scummed the _bullion_ dross.
MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, i. 699.
=BURIAL.= This designates now the act, but formerly the place, of
interment, being the O.E. _byrgels_, a tomb, see N.E.D. (s. v.
_buriels_).
And the kyng seide, What is this _biriel_ which Y se? And the
citeseyns of that citee answerèd ento him, It is the sepulcre
of the man of God that cam fro Juda.--_2 Kin._ xxiii. 17.
WICLIF.
And _birielis_ weren openyd, and many bodies of seyntis
that hadden slepte rysen up, and thei yeden out of her
_birielis_.--_Matt._ xxvii. 51, 52. WICLIF.
It happed after that upon the _buryels_ grewe a right fayr
flourdelis.--CAXTON, _Legenda Aurea_, 151. 2.
=BUTCHERY.= Now a massacre where there is little or no resistance on
the part of those who are its victims. It was used once as the place
where animals were slaughtered. [But see N.E.D. for modern quotations
of the word in this latter sense.]
Al thing that is seld in the _bocherie_ ete ye, axynge nothing
for conscience.--_1 Cor._ x. 25. WICLIF.
Whence came it that they call the shambles or _butcherie_ at
Rome where flesh is to be sold, macellum?--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s
Morals_, p. 869.
=BUXOM.= The modern spelling of ‘buxom’ (it was somewhat, though
not much better, when it was spelt ‘bucksome’) has quite hidden its
identity with the German ‘biegsam,’ ‘beugsam,’ bendable, pliable, and
so obedient. Ignorant of the history of the word, and trusting to the
feeling and impression which it conveyed to their minds, men spoke
of ‘_buxom_ health’ and the like, meaning by this, having a cheerful
comeliness. The epithet in this application is Gray’s, and Johnson
justly finds fault with it. [See N.E.D. for the two quotations.]
Milton, when he joins ‘buxom’ with ‘blithe and debonair,’ and Crashaw,
in his otherwise beautiful line,
‘I am born
Again a fresh child of the _buxom_ morn,’
show that already for them the true meaning of the word, common enough
in our earlier writers, was passing away; yet Milton still uses it in
its proper sense in _Paradise Lost_,--‘winnowing the _buxom_ air,’ that
is, the _yielding_ air.
I submit myself unto this holy Church of Christ, to be ever
_buxom_ and obedient to the ordinance of it, after my knowledge
and power, by the help of God.--FOXE, _Book of Martyrs;
Examination of William Thorpe_.
_Buxom_, kind, tractable, and pliable one to the
other.--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s Morals_, 316.
[Love] tyrannizeth in the bitter smarts
Of them that to him _buxome_ are and prone.
SPENSER, _Fairy Queen_, iii. 2, 23.
=BY.= The first clause in the quotation which follows from the
Authorized Version of the Bible must often either fail to convey any
meaning, or must convey a wrong meaning, to the English reader of the
present day. The ‘nil conscire sibi’ is what the Apostle would claim
for himself; and the other passages quoted show that this idiomatic
use of ‘by,’ as equivalent to ‘concerning’ (it is probably related to
ἀμφὶ), but with also a suggestion of ‘against,’ was not peculiar to our
Translators.
I think S. Paul spake these words [‘who mind earthly things’]
_by_ the clergymen that will take upon them the spiritual
office of preaching, and yet meddle in worldly matters too,
contrary to their calling.--LATIMER, _Sermons_, p. 529.
Thou hast spoken evil words _by_ the Queen.
No man living upon earth can prove any such things _by_ me.
FOXE, _Book of Martyrs; Examination of Elizabeth
Young by Martin Hussie_.
This angry prior told the archbishop to his face, in a good
audience, concerning what he had preached of the bishop of
Rome’s vices, that he knew no vices _by_ none of the bishops of
Rome.--STRYPE, _Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer_, b. i. c. 8.
For all the wealth that ever I did see,
I would not have him know so much _by_ me.
SHAKESPEARE, _Love’s Labour’s Lost_, act iv. sc. 3.
I know nothing _by_ myself [οὐδὲν ἐμαυτῷ σύνοιδα]; yet am I not
hereby justified; but He that judgeth me is the Lord.--_1 Cor._
iv. 4 (A. V.) R. V. has here ‘_against_ myself.’
God is said to be greater than our hearts, and knoweth all
things. He knows more _by_ us than we _by_ ourselves.--GURNALL,
_The Christian in Complete Armour_, iii. 2, 8.
=BY AND BY.= Now a future more or less remote; but when our Version
of the Bible was made, the nearest possible future. The inveterate
procrastination of men has put ‘by and by’ farther and farther off.
Already in Barrow’s time it had acquired its present meaning.
And some counselled the archbishop to burn me _by and by_,
and some other counselled him to drown me in the sea, for it
is near hand there.--FOXE, _Book of Martyrs; Examination of
William Thorpe_.
Give me _by and by_ [ἐξαυτῆς] in a charger the head of John the
Baptist.--_Mark_ vi. 25 (A.V.) [R. V. has _forthwith_.]
These things must first come to pass; but the end is not
_by and by_ [εὐθέως].--_Luke_ xxi. 9 (A.V.) [R. V. has
_immediately_.]
When Demophantus fell to the ground, his soldiers fled _by and
by_ [εὐθὺς ἔφυγον] upon it.--NORTH, _Plutarch’s Lives_, p. 308.
[=CAITIFF.= According to present usage the word expresses contempt,
often involving strong moral disapprobation. It means a base, mean,
despicable wretch, a contemptible villain. In the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries the word has often a tinge of pity, meaning a
wretched, miserable person. Originally _caitiff_ meant a captive,
a prisoner, being in fact the same word as _captive_, the latter
being derived directly from the Latin _captivus_, while _caitiff_
is its Anglo-Norman form _caitif_, used in the sense of captive,
weak, miserable; cp. It. _cattivo_, captive, lewd, bad, and Mod. Fr.
_chétif_, of little value, wretched, miserable.]
Aristark, myne evene _caytyf_ [concaptivus meus, Vulg.],
greetith you wel.--_Col._ iv. 10. WICLIF (earlier version).
The riche Cresus, _caytif_ in servage.
CHAUCER, _The Knightes Tale_.
Avarice doth tyrannize over her _caitiff_ and slave, not
suffering him to use what she commanded him to win.--HOLLAND,
_Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 208.
Alas, poore _Caitiffe_.
SHAKESPEARE, _Othello_, act iv. sc. 1.
=CAPITULATE.= There is no reason why the reducing of any agreement to
certain heads or ‘capitula’ should not be called to ‘capitulate,’ the
victor thus ‘capitulating’ as well as the vanquished; and the present
limitation of the word’s use, by which it means to surrender on certain
specified terms, is quite of modern introduction.
Gelon the tyrant, after he had defeated the Carthaginians
near to the city Himera, when he made peace with them,
_capitulated_, among other articles of treaty, that they should
no more sacrifice any infants to Saturn.--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s
Morals_, p. 405.
He [the Emperor Charles V.] makes a voyage into England,
and there _capitulates_ with the King, among other things,
to take to wife his daughter Mary.--HEYLIN, _History of the
Reformation_.
Wonder He will condescend to it! To _capitulate_ with dust and
ashes! To article with his own creature, with whom He may do
what He will!--HOWE, _The Redeemer’s Dominion_, &c.
=CAPTIVATE.= This is not used any longer in a literal, but always in a
more or less allegorical sense.
They that are wise had rather have their judgments at liberty
in differences of readings, than to be _captivated_ to the one
when it may be the other.--_The Translators [of the Authorized
Version] to the Reader._
How ill beseeming is it in thy sex
To triumph, like an Amazonian trull,
Upon their woes whom Fortune _captivates_.
SHAKESPEARE, _3 Henry VI._ act i. sc. 4.
O tame my heart:
It is thy highest art
To _captivate_ strongholds to Thee.
HERBERT, _The Temple_.
=CAREFUL=, }
CAREFULNESS. }
Now, full of diligence and attention; but once of anxiety.
The stretes of Sion mourn; her priests make lamentacions,
her maydens are _carefull_, and she herself is in great
hevynesse.--_Lament._ i. 4. COVERDALE.
He shall be as a tree planted by the waters, ... and shall not
be _careful_ in the year of drought.--_Jer._ xvii. 8. (A.V.)
Pale as he is, here lay him down,
Oh, lay his cold head on my pillow;
Take off, take off, these bridal weeds,
And crown my _careful_ head with willow.
HAMILTON, _The Braes of Yarrow_.
This petition is a remedy against this wicked _carefulness_ of
men when they seek how to get their livings, in such wise like
as if there was no God at all.--LATIMER, _Sermons_, p. 400.
=CARP.= The _Promptorium_ gives ‘fabulor,’ ‘confabulor,’ ‘garrulo’ as
Latin equivalents; nor do we anywhere before the sixteenth century
find the subaudition of fault-finding or detraction, which now is ever
implied in the word.
Ac to _carpe_ moore of Cryst, and how He come to that name
Faithly for to speke, his firste name of Iesus.
_Piers Plowman_, B Passus, xix. 65 (Skeat).
Now we leven the kyng, and of Joseph _carpen_.--_Joseph of
Arimathie_, 212.
So gone thei forthe, _carpende_ fast
On this, on that.
GOWER, _Confessio Amantis_, 1.
=CARPET.= The covering of floors only at present, but once of tables as
well. It was in this sense that a matter was ‘on the carpet’ (i.e. of
the council-table). For the etymology see N.E.D.
In the fray one of their spurs engaged into a _carpet_ upon
which stood a very fair looking-glass and two noble pieces of
porcelain, drew all to the ground, broke the glass.--_Harleian
Miscellany_, vol. x. p. 189.
Private men’s halls were hung with altar-cloths; their
_tables_ and beds covered with copes, instead of _carpets_ and
coverlets.--FULLER, _Church History of Britain_, b. vii. § 2, 1.
And might not these [copes] be handsomely converted into
private uses, to serve as _carpets_ for their tables, coverlids
to their beds, or cushions to their chairs or windows?--HEYLIN,
_History of the Reformation_, To the Reader.
=CARRIAGE.= Now, that which carries, or the act of carrying; but once,
that which was carried, and thus baggage. From ignorance of this, the
Authorized Translation, at Acts xxi. 15, has been often found fault
with, but unjustly.
Spartacus charged his [Lentulus’] lieutenants that led the
army, gave them battle, overthrew them, and took all their
_carriage_ [τὴν ἀποσκευὴν ἅπασαν, LXX.].--NORTH, _Plutarch’s
Lives_, p. 470.
And David left his _carriage_ [τὰ σκεύη αὐτοῦ, LXX.] in the
hand of the keeper of the _carriage_.--_1 Sam._ xvii. 22 (A.V.)
An index is a necessary implement, and no impediment of a
book, except in the same sense in which the _carriages_ of an
army are termed _impedimenta_.--FULLER, _Worthies of England:
Norfolk_.
[=CATTLE.= This and ‘chattel’ are only different forms of the same
word. In Middle English as in Old French the forms _catel_ and _chatel_
are dialectal variants of the same Late Latin original _capitale_, the
word in all its forms meaning simply capital, principal, property,
substance, wealth. In the time of Chaucer and Wiclif _catel_ was still
used in the sense of wealth, substance generally, whereas now its
equivalent _cattle_ is only used to express property in living animals,
the form _chattel_ being reserved for non-living personal property. It
may be here noted that we have in the word _fee_ another interesting
instance of the intimate connexion between the ideas of property
generally and of cattle (live stock). The word _fee_ means now a reward
or payment in money, in Middle English it meant property in general,
including money and live stock; the Old English _feoh_, the phonetic
equivalent of the Latin _pecus_, meant originally cattle, live stock;
see Kluge, s. v. _vieh_.]
Though a man give al the _catel_ of his hous [omnem
_substantiam_, domûs suæ, Vulg.] for love, he schal despise
that _catel_ as nought.--_Cant._ viii. 7. WICLIF.
A womman that hadde a flux of blood twelve yeer, and hadde
spendid all hir _catel_ [omnem _substantiam_ suam, Vulg.] in
leechis.--_Luke_ viii. 43, 44. WICLIF.
The avarous man hath more hope in his _catel_ than in Jhesu
Crist.--CHAUCER, _The Persones Tale_ (Morris, p. 330).
=CENSURE.= It speaks ill for the charity of men’s judgments, that
‘censure,’ which designated once favourable and unfavourable judgments
alike, is now restricted to unfavourable; for it must be that the
latter, being by far the most frequent, have in this way appropriated
the word exclusively to themselves.
Take each man’s _censure_, but reserve thy judgment.
SHAKESPEARE, _Hamlet_, act i. sc. 3.
His [Richard, Earl of Cornwall’s] voyage was variously
_censured_; the Templars, who consented not to the peace,
flouted thereat, as if all this while he had laboured about a
difficult nothing; others thought he had abundantly satisfied
any rational expectation.--FULLER, _Holy War_, b. iv. c. 8.
Which could not be past over without this _censure_; for it is
an ill thrift to be parsimonious in the praise of that which is
very good.--HACKET, _Life of Archbishop Williams_, part ii. p.
13.
=CHAFFER.= Once, simply to buy, to make a bargain, now to higgle or
dispute about the making of a bargain.
That no man overgo, nethir disseyve his brothir in _chaffaring_
[in negotio, Vulg.].--_1 Thess._ iv. 6. WICLIF.
He comaundide his servauntis to be clepid, to whiche he
hadde yive monei; to wite hou myche ech hadde wonne bi
_chaffaryng_.--_Luke_ xix. 15. WICLIF.
Where is the fayre flocke thou was wont to leade?
Or bene they _chaffred_, or at mischiefe dead?
SPENSER, _Shepherd’s Calendar_, September.
=CHAOS.= The earliest meaning of χάος in Greek, of ‘chaos’ in Latin,
was empty infinite space, the _yawning_ kingdom of darkness; only a
secondary, that which we have now adopted, namely, the rude, confused,
indigested, unorganized matter out of which the universe according to
the heathen cosmogony was formed. But the primary use of ‘chaos’ was
not strange to the scholars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Beside all these things, between us and you there is fixed a
great _chaos_, that they which will pass from hence to you may
not.--_Luke_ xvi. 26. RHEIMS.
And look what other thing soever besides cometh within the
_chaos_ of this monster’s mouth, be it beast, boat, or stone,
down it goeth incontinently that foul great swallow of
his.--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 975.
To the brow of heaven
Pursuing, drive them out from God and bliss
Into their place of punishment, the gulf
Of Tartarus, which ready opens wide
His fiery _chaos_ to receive their fall.
MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, vi. 51.
=CHEAT=, }
CHEATER. }
The steps by which ‘escheat’ has yielded ‘cheat,’ and ‘escheatour’
‘cheater,’ are interesting to trace. The ‘escheatour’ was an officer in
each county who took notice of fines and forfeitures technically called
‘escheats’ on the royal manors, which had _fallen in_ to the Crown, and
certified these to the Exchequer. But he had commonly such a reputation
for fraud and extortion in the execution of his office, that by an only
too natural transition the ‘escheatour’ passed into the ‘cheater,’
and ‘escheat’ into ‘cheat.’ The quotation from Gurnall is curious as
marking the word in the very act of this transition.
And yet the taking off these vessels was not the best and
goodliest _cheat_ of their victory; but this passed all, that
with one light skirmish they became lords of all the sea along
those coasts.--HOLLAND, _Livy_, p. 444.
This man who otherwise beforetime was but poor and needy,
by these windfalls and unexpected _cheats_ became very
wealthy.--Id. _Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 1237.
_Falstaff._ Here’s another letter to her. She bears the purse
too; she is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty. I will
be _cheaters_ to them both, and they shall be exchequers to
me.--SHAKESPEARE, _Merry Wives of Windsor_, act i. sc. 2.
By this impudence they may abuse credulous souls into a
belief of what they say, as a _cheater_ may pick the purses
of innocent people, by showing them something like the King’s
broad seal, which was indeed his own forgery.--GURNALL, _The
Christian in Complete Armour_, 1639, vol. ii. p. 201.
=CHEER.= Cicero, who loves to bring out superiorities, where he can
find them, of the Latin language over the Greek, urges this as one,
that the Greek has no equivalent to the Latin ‘vultus’ (_Leg._ i. 9,
27); the countenance, that is, ethically regarded, as the ever-varying
index and exponent of the sentiments and emotions of the soul (‘imago
animi vultus est,’ _De Orat._ iii. 59, 221). Perhaps it may be charged
on the English, that it too is now without such a word. But ‘cheer,’ in
its earlier uses, of which vestiges still survive, was exactly such.
In swoot of thi _cheer_ thou schalt ete thi breed, till thou
turne ayen in to the erthe of which thou art takun.--_Gen._
iii. 19. WICLIF.
And Cayn was wrooth greetli, and his _cheer_ felde
doun.--_Gen._ iv. 5. WICLIF.
Each froward threatening _cheer_ of fortune makes us plain;
And every pleasant show revives our woful hearts again.
SURREY, _Ecclesiastes_, c. 3.
=CHEMIST=, }
CHEMISTRY. }
The distinction between the alchemist and the ‘chemist,’ that the first
is the fond searcher after the philosopher’s stone or the elixir vitæ,
the other the follower of a true and scientific method in a particular
region of nature, is of comparatively recent introduction into the
language. ‘Chemist’ is = ‘alchemist’ in the quotations which follow.
Five sorts of persones he [Sir Edward Coke] used to
foredesign to misery and poverty; _chemists_, monopolizers,
concealers,[10] promoters, and rythming poets.--FULLER,
_Worthies of England: Norfolk_.
I have observed generally of _chymists_ and theosophists, as
of several other men more palpably mad, that their thoughts
are carried much to astrology.--H. MORE, _A Brief Discourse of
Enthusiasm_, sect. 45.
Visions and inspirations some expect,
Their course here to direct;
Like senseless _chemists_ their own wealth destroy,
Imaginary wealth to enjoy.
COWLEY, _Use of Reason in Divine Matters_.
Hence the fool’s paradise, the statesman’s scheme,
The air-built castle, and the golden dream,
The maid’s romantic wish, the _chemist’s_ flame,
The poet’s vision of eternal fame.
POPE, _The Dunciad_, b. iii. 9-12.
He that follows _chemistry_ must have riches to throw away upon
the study of it; whatever he gets by it, those furnaces must be
fed with gold.--SOUTH, _Sermons_, 1644, vol. ix. p. 277.
=CHEST.= I am not aware that ‘cista’ was ever used in the sense of
a coffin, but ‘chest’ is continually so used in our early English;
and ‘to chest,’ for to place in a coffin, occurs in the heading of
a chapter in our Bibles, _Gen._ l. 26: ‘He [Joseph] dieth, and is
_chested_.’
He is now deed and nayled in his _chest_.
CHAUCER, _The Clerkes Prologue_.
Your body is now wrapt in _chest_,
I pray to God to give your soul good rest.
HAWES, _Pastime of Pleasure_, cap. 14.
=CHIMNEY.= This, which means now the gorge or vent of a furnace or
fire, was once in frequent use for the furnace itself: in this more
true to its origin; being derived from the Greek κάμινος, a furnace, as
it passed into the Latin ‘caminus,’ whence the Late Latin _caminata_,
a room with a stove, the French ‘cheminée.’ The fact that it is the
‘chimney,’ in the modern use of the word, which, creating a draught,
alone gives activity or fierceness to the flame, probably explains the
present limitation of the meaning of the word. In Scotland ‘chimney’
still is, or lately was, ‘the grate, or iron frame that holds the fire’
(_Scoticisms_, Edinburgh, 1787).
And hise feet [were] lijk to latoun as in a brennynge
_chymney_.--_Rev._ i. 15. WICLIF.
The Son of Man shall send his angels, and shall gather
all hindrances out of his kingdom and all that worketh
unlawfulness, and shall cast them into the _chimney_ of
fire.--_Matt._ xiii. 50. Sir JOHN CHEKE.
=CHIVALRY.= It is a striking evidence of the extent to which in the
feudal times the men-at-arms, the mounted knights, were esteemed
as the army, while the footmen were regarded as little better than
a supernumerary rabble,--another record of this contempt probably
surviving at the other end in the word ‘infantry,’--that ‘chivalry,’
which of course is but a doublet of ‘cavalry,’ could once be used as
convertible with army. It needed more than one Agincourt to teach that
this was so no longer. ‘Knighthood’ in like manner is continually used
by Wiclif as a rendering of ‘exercitus;’ thus Gen. xxi. 33.
Abymalach forsothe aroos, and Phicol, the prince of his
_chyvalrye_ [princeps _exercitûs_ ejus, Vulg.], and turneden
ayen into the loond of Palestynes.--_Gen._ xxi. 33. WICLIF.
Sobach, the prynce of _chyvalrye_ [principem _militiæ_].--_2
Kings_ x. 18. WICLIF.
=CHOUSE.= The history of the introduction of this word into the
popular, or at all events the schoolboy, language of England, and
the quarter from whence derived, are now sufficiently well known. A
‘chiaus,’ or interpreter, attached to the Turkish Embassy, in 1609
succeeded in defrauding the Turkish and Persian merchants resident
in England of 4,000_l._ From the vast dimensions of the fraud, vast,
that is, as men counted fraudulent vastness then, and the notoriety
it acquired, a ‘chiaus’ (presently spelt ‘chouse’ to look more
English) became equivalent to a swindler, and somewhat later to the
act of swindling.[11] It is curious that a correspondent of Skinner
(_Etymologicon_, 1671), though quite ignorant of this story, suggests a
connexion between ‘chouse’ and the Turkish ‘chiaus.’ The quotation from
Ben Jonson gives us the word in its passage from the old meaning to the
new; while the ‘errant chouse’ in Butler’s _Hudibras_, iii. 1, 1249, is
rather the cheated than the cheater.
About this time the Turks proposed at the instigation of the
French ambassador to send a _chiaus_ into France, England, and
Holland, to acquaint those princes with the advancement of
Sultan Solyman to the throne.--RYCAUT, _History of the Turks_,
vol. iii. p. 261.
_Dapper._ What do you think of me,
That I am a _chiaus_?
_Face._ What’s that?
_Dapper._ The Turk was here;
As one would say, do you think I am a Turk?
BEN JONSON, _The Alchemist_, act i. sc. 1.
=CHRISTEN=, }
CHRISTENDOM. }
By ‘Christendom’ we now understand that portion of the world which
makes profession of the faith of Christ, as contradistinguished from
all heathen and Mahomedan lands. But it was often used by our early
writers as itself the profession of Christ’s faith, or sometimes
for baptism, inasmuch as in that this profession was made; which
is also the explanation of the use of ‘christen’ as equivalent to
‘christianize’ below. In Shakespeare our present use of ‘Christendom’
very much predominates, but once or twice he uses it in its earlier
sense, as do authors much later than he.
Most part of England in the reigne of King Ethelbert was
_christened_, Kent onely except, which remayned long after in
mysbeliefe and _unchristened_.--E. K., _Glossary to Spenser’s
Shepherd’s Calendar, September_.[12]
Sothli we ben togidere biried with him bi _christendom_ [per
baptismum, Vulg.] in to death.--_Rom._ vi. 4. WICLIF (earlier
version).
He that might have his body wrapped in one of their old
coats at the houre of death, it were as good to him as his
_christendom_.--TYNDALE, _Exposition upon Matthew VI._
They all do come to him with friendly face,
When of his _christendom_ they understand.
Sir J. HARINGTON, _Orlando Furioso_, b. xliii. c. 189.
The draughts of intemperance would wash off the water of my
_christendom_; every unclean lust does as it were bemire and
wipe out my contract with my Lord.--ALLESTREE, _Sermons_, vol.
ii. p. 161.
=CHURCH.= Our Translators are often taxed with an oversight in that
they have allowed ‘robbers of _churches_’ to remain at _Acts_ xix.
37, as the rendering of ἱεροσύλους, sounding, as this does, like
an anachronism on the lips of the town-clerk of Ephesus. Doubtless
‘spoilers of _temples_,’ or some such phrase, would have been
preferable; yet was there not any oversight here. The title of
‘church,’ which we with a fit reverence restrain to a Christian place
of worship, was in earlier English not refused to the Jewish, or, as in
that place, even to a heathen, temple as well.
And, lo, the veil of the _church_ was torn in two parts from
the top downwards.--_Matt._ xxvii. 51. Sir JOHN CHEKE.
To all the gods devoutly she did offer frankincense,
But most above them all the _church_ of Juno she did cense.
GOLDING, _Ovid’s Metamorphosis_, b. xi.
These troops should soon pull down the _church_ of Jove.
MARLOWE, _First Book of Lucan_.
=CIVIL=, }
CIVILITY, }
CIVILIAN. }
The tendency which there is in the meaning of words to run to the
surface, till they lose and leave behind all their deeper significance,
is well exemplified in ‘civil’ and ‘civility’--words of how deep an
import once, how slight and shallow now. A _civil_ man now is one
observant of slight external courtesies in the intercourse of society;
a _civil_ man once was one who fulfilled all the duties and obligations
flowing from his position as a ‘civis,’ and his relations to the other
members of that ‘civitas’ to which he belonged, and ‘civility’ the
condition in which those were recognized and observed. The gradual
departure of all deeper significance from ‘civility’ has obliged the
creation of another word, ‘civilization,’ which only came up toward
the conclusion of the last century. Johnson does not know it in his
Dictionary, except as a technical legal term to express the turning
of a criminal process into a civil one; and, according to Boswell,
altogether disallowed it in the sense which it has now acquired.
A ‘civilian’ in the language of the Puritan divines was one who,
despising the righteousness of Christ, did yet follow after a certain
civil righteousness, a ‘justitia civilis’ of his own.
That wise and _civil_ Roman, Julius Agricola, preferred the
natural wits of Britain before the laboured studies of the
French.--MILTON, _Areopagitica_.
As for the Scythian wandering Nomades, temples sorted
not with their condition, as wanting both _civility_ and
settledness.--FULLER, _The Holy State_, b. iii. c. 24.
Then were the Roman fashions imitated and the gown; after a
while the incitements also and materials of vice and voluptuous
life, proud buildings, baths, and the elegance of banquetings;
which the foolisher sort called _civility_, but was indeed a
secret art to prepare them for bondage.--MILTON, _History of
England_, b. ii.
Let us remember also that _civility_ and fair customs were but
in a narrow circle till the Greeks and Romans beat the world
into better manners.--Bishop TAYLOR, _Ductor Dubitantium_, b.
ii. c. 1, § 19.
The last step in this [spiritual] death is the death of
_civility_. _Civil_ men come nearer the saints of God than
others, they come within a step or two of heaven, and yet are
shut out.--PRESTON, _Of Spiritual Death and Life_, 1636, p. 59.
I proceed to the second, that is to the mere naturalist or
_civilian_; by whom I mean such an one as lives upon dregs, the
very reliques and ruins of the image of God decayed.--ROGERS,
_Naaman the Syrian_, p. 104.
=CLERGY.= [The use of _clergy_ in the abstract for learning is quite
obsolete. Strictly speaking, it is not the same word as _clergy_,
the collective name for the ministers of God. _Clergy_ (learning)
represents Old French _clergie_, whereas _clergy_ (ministers) is due to
Old French _clergié_ (now _clergé_) = Late Latin _clericatum_.]
Ne alle the clerkes that ever had witte
Sen the world bigan, ne that lyfes yit,
Couth never telle bi _clergy_ ne arte
Of these payns of helle the thousand parte.
RICHARD ROLLE DE HAMPOLE, _Pricke of Conscience_, 4832.
Was not Aristotle, for all his _clergy_,
For a woman wrapt in love so marvellously
That all his cunning he had soon forgotten?
HAWES, _Pastime of Pleasure_.
Also that every of the said landlords put their second sons
to learn some _clergy_, or some craft, whereby they may live
honestly.--_State Papers, State of Ireland_, 1515, vol. ii. p.
30.
=CLIMATE.= At present the temperature of a region, but once the
region itself, the region, however, contemplated in its _slope_ or
_inclination_ from the equator toward the pole, and therefore, by
involved consequence, in respect of its temperature; which circumstance
is the point of contact between the present meaning of ‘climate’ and
the past. We have derived the word from the mathematical geographers
of antiquity. They were wont to run imaginary parallel lines, or such
at least as they intended should be parallel, to the equator; and
the successive ‘climates’ (κλίματα) of the earth were the spaces and
regions between these lines. See Holland’s _Pliny_, vol. i. p. 150.
The superficialtee of the erthe is departed in 7
parties for the 7 planetes, and tho parties ben clept
_clymates_.--MANDEVILLE, p. 186.
The longitude of a _clymat_ ys a lyne ymagined fro est to west,
illike distant by-twene them alle.--CHAUCER, _Treatise on the
Astrolabe_, 2, 39, 17 (Skeat, _E.E.T.S._ xvi).
Almost five _climates_ henceward to the south,
Between the mainland and the ocean’s mouth
Two islands lie.
_The Funerals of King Edward VI._
When these prodigies
Do so conjointly meet, let not men say,
‘These are their causes--they are natural;’
For, I believe, they are portentous things
Unto the _climate_ that they point upon.
SHAKESPEARE, _Julius Cæsar_, act i. sc. 3.
This _climate_ of Gaul [hanc Galliarum _plagam_] is enclosed
on every side with fences that environ it naturally.--HOLLAND,
_Ammianus_, p. 47.
_Climate_, a portion of the earth contained between two circles
parallel to the equator.--PHILLIPS, _New World of Words_.
=CLUMSY.= Although of no very frequent use in our early literature
(it does not once occur in Shakespeare), this word cannot be said to
be very rare; and where it occurs, it is in a sense going before its
present, namely, in that of stiff, rigid, contracted with cold. It
is familiar to all how ‘clumsy,’ in our modern use of the word, the
fingers are when in this condition, and thus it is easy to trace the
growing of the modern meaning out of the old. On its probable etymology
see Mätzner’s Dictionary (s. v. _clumsen_).
Rigido: Starke, stiffe, or num through cold,
_clumzie_.--FLORIO, _New World of Words_ (A.D. 1611).
Havi de froid: Stiffe, _clumpse_, benummed.--COTGRAVE, _A
French and English Dictionary_.
The Carthaginians followed the enemies in chase as far as
Trebia, and there gave over; and returned into the camp so
_clumsy_ and frozen [ita _torpentes gelu_] as scarcely they
felt the joy of their victory.--HOLLAND, _Livy_, p. 425.
This bloome of budding beauty loves not to be handled by such
nummed and so _clomsie_ hands.--FLORIO, _Montaigne’s Essays_,
b. iii. c. 5, p. 536 (ed. 1603).
=COFFIN.= The Greek κόφινος, the Latin ‘cophinus,’ is not in our early
English, exclusively a funeral chest for the dead, but as often used of
any basket or maund.
And that that lefte to hem of brokun metis was takun up, twelve
_cofyns_.--_Luke_ ix. 17. WICLIF.
Tibin, a baskette or _coffyn_ made of wyckers or bull-rushes,
or barke of a tree; such oone was Moyses put in to by
the daughter of Pharao.--Sir T. ELYOT, quoted in Way’s
_Promptorium_, p. 85.
=COMFORT=, }
COMFORTABLE. }
The verb ‘comfortare,’ not found in classical Latin, but so frequent
in the Vulgate, is first, as is plain from the ‘fortis’ which it
embodies, to make strong, to corroborate, and only in a secondary
sense, to console. We often find it in our early literature employed
in that its proper sense. In the truce between England and Scotland,
in the reign of Richard III., it is provided that neither of the kings
shall maintain, favour, aid, or _comfort_ any rebel or traitor (Hall,
_Richard III._).
And the child wexide, and was _coumfortid_ [confortabatur
Vulg.] in spirit.--_Luke_ i. 80. WICLIF.
And there appered an angell unto Hym from heven, _confortynge_
Hym [ἐνισχύων αὐτόν].--_Luke_ xxii. 43. TYNDALE.
O _comfortable_ friar! where is my lord?--SHAKESPEARE, _Romeo_,
act v. sc. 3.
=COMMON SENSE.= The manner is very curious in which the logical,
metaphysical, and theological speculations, to which the busy world
is indifferent, or from which it is entirely averse, do yet in their
results descend to it, and are adopted by it; while it remains quite
unconscious of the source from which they spring, and counts that it
has created them for itself and out of its own resources. Thus, many
would wonder if asked the parentage of this phrase ‘common sense,’
would count it the most natural thing in the world that such a phrase
should have been formed, that it demanded no ingenuity to form it,
that the uses to which it is now put are the same which it has served
from the first. Indeed, neither Reid, Beattie, nor Stewart seems to
have assumed anything else. But in truth this phrase, ‘common sense,’
meant once something very different from that plain wisdom, the common
heritage of men, which now we call by this name; having been bequeathed
to us by a very complex theory of the senses, and of a _sense_ which
was the _common_ bond of them all, and which passed its verdicts on the
reports which they severally made to it. This theory of κοινὸς νοῦς,
familiar to the Greek metaphysicians (see Cicero, _Tusc. Quæst._ i.
20), is sufficiently explained by the interesting quotations from Henry
More and Burton. In Hawes’ _Pastime of Pleasure_ (cap. 24) the relation
between the ‘common wit’ and the ‘five wits’ is at large set forth.
For an interesting history of the phrase, see Sir William Hamilton’s
edition of Reid’s _Works_, appendix A, especially pp. 757, &c.; and
for some classical uses of it Horace, _Sat._ i. 3. 65; Juvenal, 8. 73;
Seneca, _Ep._ 5. 3; 105. 4; _De Benef._ i. 12. 3; Quintilian, i. 2. 20.
The senses receive indifferently, without discretion and
judgement, white and black, sweet and sour, soft and hard;
for their office is only to admit their several objects,
and to carry and refer the judgement thereof to the _common
sense_.--NORTH, _Plutarch’s Lives_, p. 732.
But for fear to exceed the commission of an historian (who
with the outward senses may only bring in the species, and
barely relate facts, not with the _common sense_ pass verdict
or censure on them), I would say they had better have built
in some other place, especially having room enough besides,
and left this floor, where the Temple stood, alone in her
desolations.--FULLER, _Holy War_, b. i. c. 4.
That there is some particular or restrained seat of the _common
sense_ is an opinion that even all philosophers and physicians
are agreed upon. And it is an ordinary comparison amongst them,
that the external senses and the _common sense_ considered
together are like a circle with five lines drawn from the
circumference to the centre. Wherefore, as it has been obvious
for them to find out particular organs for the external senses,
so they have also attempted to assign some distinct part of the
body to be an organ of the _common sense_; that is to say, as
they discovered sight to be seated in the eye, hearing in the
ear, smelling in the nose, &c., so they conceived that there is
some part of the body wherein seeing, hearing, and all other
perceptions meet together, as the lines of a circle in the
centre, and that there the soul does also judge and discern of
the difference of the objects of the outward senses.--H. MORE,
_Immortality of the Soul_, b. iii. c. 13.
Inner senses are three in number, so called because they be
within the brain-pan, as _common sense_, phantasy, memory.
Their objects are not only things present, but they perceive
the sensible species of things to come, past, absent, such as
were before in the sense. This _common sense_ is the judge
or moderator of the rest, by whom we discern all differences
of objects; for by mine eye I do not know that I see, or by
mine ear that I hear, but by my _common sense_, who judgeth
of sounds and colours; they are but the organs to bring the
species to be censured; so that all their objects are his, and
all the offices are his. The fore part of the brain is his
organ or seat.--BURTON, _Anatomy of Melancholy_, part i. sect.
2.
=COMPANION.= This had once the same contemptuous use which its synonym
‘fellow’ still retains (for a curious use of this see _2 Pet._ ii. 14,
Geneva Version), and which ‘gadeling,’ a word of the same meaning,
had, so long as it survived in the language. Clarendon speaks of the
Privy Council as at one time composed of upstarts, factious, indigent
_companions_ (b. iv.). The notion originally involved in companionship,
or accompaniment, would appear to have been rather that of inferiority
than of equality. A companion was an attendant.
What should the wars do with these jigging fools?
_Companion_, hence.