=OUGHT.= Of the two perfects of the verb ‘to owe’ (see Morris, _English
Accidence_, p. 189; and Earle, _Philology of the English Tongue_, §
289), namely ‘ought’ and ‘owed,’ the former has come now to be used
of a moral owing or obligation only, never of a material; but it was
not always so. In the passage from Spenser ‘ought’ is used in the sense
of ‘possessed.’ Among the many tacit alterations which our Authorized
Version has at various times undergone, the substitution in many places
of ‘owed’ for ‘ought’ is one.
But th’ Elfin knight which _ought_ that warlike wage,
Disdaind to loose the meed he wonne in fray.
SPENSER, _Fairy Queen_, i. 4, 39.
There was a certain creditor, who had two debtors. The one
_ought_ five hundred pence, and the other fifty.--_Luke_ vii.
41. (A. V.)
Also we forgive the oversights and faults committed against
us, and the crown-tax that ye _ought_ us.--_1 Macc._ xiii. 39.
Geneva Version.
=OVERTURE.= Not now an aperture or opening, in the literal and primary
sense of the word, as formerly it was; but always in some secondary and
derived.
The squirrels also foresee a tempest coming; and look in what
corner the wind is like to stand, on that side they stop up the
mouth of their holes, and make an _overture_ on the other side
against it.--HOLLAND, _Pliny_, b. viii. c. 38.
=PAINFUL=, }
PAINFULNESS, }
PAINFULLY. }
‘Painful’ is now feeling pain, or inflicting it; it was once taking
pains. Many things would not be so ‘painful’ in the present sense of
the word, if they had been more ‘painful’ in the earlier,--as perhaps
some sermons.
Within fourteen generations, the royal blood of the kings
of Judah ran in the veins of plain Joseph, a _painful_
carpenter.--FULLER, _Holy War_, b. v. c. 29.
I think we have some as _painful_ magistrates as ever was in
England.--LATIMER, _Sermons_, p. 142.
_Painfulness_ by feeble means shall be able to gain that which
in the plenty of more forcible instruments is through sloth and
negligence lost.--HOOKER, _Ecclesiastical Polity_, b. v. § 22.
O the holiness of their living, and _painfulness_ of their
preaching!--FULLER, _Holy State_, b. ii. c. 6.
Whoever would be truly thankful, let him live in some
honest vocation, and therein bestow himself faithfully and
_painfully_.--SANDERSON, _Sermons_, vol. i. p. 251.
=PALESTINE.= This is now a name for the entire Holy Land; but in the
Authorized Version ‘Palestine,’ or ‘Palestina,’ as it is written
three times out of the four on which it occurs, is used in a far more
restricted sense, namely, as equivalent to Philistia, that narrow strip
of coast occupied by the Philistines. This a close examination of the
several passages (see Wright’s _Dictionary of the Bible_) will make
abundantly clear. And it is also invariably so employed by Milton; thus
see, besides the passage quoted below, _Samson Agonistes_, 144, and _On
the Nativity_, 199.
Rejoice not thou, whole _Palestina_, because the rod of him
that smote thee is broken.--_Isai._ xiv. 29. (A.V.)
Such their [the Philistines’] puissance, that from them the
Greeks and Latins called all this land _Palestina_, because the
Philistines lived on the sea coast, most obvious to the notice
of foreigners.--FULLER, _A Pisgah Sight of Palestine_, ii. 10,
23.
Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward man
And downward fish: yet had his temple high
Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast
Of _Palestine_, in Gath and Ascalon,
And Accaron, and Gaza’s frontier bounds.
MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, i. 462.
=PALLIATE=, }
PALLIATION. }
‘To palliate’ is at this day to extenuate a fault through the setting
out of whatever will best serve to diminish the estimate of its
gravity; and does not imply any endeavour wholly to deny it; nay,
implies rather a certain recognition and admission of the fault itself.
Truer to its etymology once, it expressed the _cloking_ of it, the
attempt, successful or otherwise, entirely to conceal and cover it. Eve
‘palliates’ her fault in the modern sense of the word (_Gen._ iii. 13),
Gehazi in the earlier (_2 Kin._ v. 25).
You cannot _palliate_ mischief, but it will
Through all the fairest coverings of deceit
Be always seen.
DANIEL, _The Tragedy of Philotas_, act iv. sc. 2.
You see the Devil could fetch up nothing of Samuel at
the request of Saul, but a shadow and a resemblance, his
countenance and his mantle, which yet was not enough to cover
the cheat, or to _palliate_ the illusion.--SOUTH, _Sermon on
Easter Day_.
The generality of Christians make the external frame of
religion but a _palliation_ for sin.--H. MORE, _Grand Mystery
of Godliness_, p. ix.
=PANTOMIME.=--Now the mimic show itself, but at the first introduction
of the word (Bacon’s constant use of ‘pantomimus’ and ‘pantomimi,’
and Ben Jonson’s as well, testify that it was new in their time), the
player who presented the show.
I would our _pantomimes_ also and stage-players would examine
themselves and their callings by this rule.--SANDERSON, _Sermon
on 1 Cor._ vii. 24.
The hypocrite cometh forth in a disguise, and acteth his part,
and because men applaud him, thinketh God is of their mind,
as the _pantomime_ in Seneca, who observing the people well
pleased with his dancing, did every day go up into the Capitol
and dance before Jupiter, and was persuaded that he was also
delighted in him.--FARINGDON, _Sermon 10_.
Not that I think those _pantomimes_,
Who vary actions with the times,
Are less ingenious in their art
Than those who dully act one part.
BUTLER, _Hudibras_, p. 3, can. 2.
=PATHETIC=, }
PATHETICAL, }
PATHETICALLY. }
The ‘pathetic’ is now only _one_ kind of the passionate, that which,
feeling _pity_, is itself capable of stirring it; but ‘pathetic’ or
‘pathetical’ and ‘passionate’ were once of an equal reach. When in a
language like ours two words, derived from two different languages, as
in this case from the Greek and from the Latin, exist side by side,
being at the same time identical in signification, the desynonymizing
process which we may note here, continually comes into play.
He [Hiel, cf. _Josh._ vi. 26 and _1 Kings_ xvi. 34] mistood
Joshua’s curse rather for a _pathetical_ expression than
prophetical prediction.--FULLER, _A Pisgah Sight of Palestine_,
b. ii. c. 12.
Whatever word enhanceth Joseph’s praise,
Her echo doubles it, and doth supply
Some more _pathetic_ and transcendant phrase
To raise his merit.
BEAUMONT, _Psyche_, c. i. st. 148.
For Truth, I know not how, hath this unhappiness fatal to
her, ere she can come to the trial and inspection of the
understanding; being to pass through many little wards and
limits of the several affections and desires, she cannot
shift it, but must put on such colours and attire as those
_pathetical_ handmaids of the soul please to lead her in to
their queen.--MILTON, _Reason of Church Government_, b. ii. c.
3.
But the principal point whereon our apostle pitcheth for
evincing the priesthood of Christ to be far more excellent than
the Levitical priesthood was, was reserved to the last, and
_pathetically_ though briefly avouched, ver. 20 [_Heb._ vii.
20].--JACKSON, _Of the Divine Essence and Attributes_, b. ix. §
2.
=PATTERN.= One is at first tempted to accuse our Translators of an
inaccuracy at _Heb._ ix. 23, since, whatever ὑπόδειγμα may mean
elsewhere, it is impossible that it can there mean ‘pattern,’ in our
sense of exemplar or original from which a copy or sketch is derived,
‘patron’ upon whom the client forms and fashions himself. This is
inconsistent with, and would indeed entirely defeat, the whole argument
of the Apostle. The ὑποδείγματα there can be only the earthly copies
and imitations of the heavenly and archetypal originals, ἀντίτυπα τῶν
ἀληθινῶν. A passage, however, in the _Homilies_ entirely relieves
them from any charge of error. All that can be said is that they have
employed ‘pattern’ in a somewhat unusual sense, but one which an
analogous use of ‘copy’ in our own day sufficiently explains.
Which priests serve unto the _patron_ [ὑποδείγματι] and shadow
of heavenly things.--_Heb._ viii. 5. Geneva.
It was therefore necessary that the _patterns_ of things in the
heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things
themselves with better sacrifices than these.--_Heb._ ix. 23.
(A.V.)
Where most rebellions and rebels be, there is the express
similitude of hell, and the rebels themselves are the
very figures of fiends and devils; and their captain, the
ungracious _pattern_ of Lucifer and Satan, the prince of
darkness.--_Homilies, Against Wilful Rebellion._
=PEEVISH=, }
PEEVISHNESS. }
By ‘peevishness’ we now understand a small but constantly fretting
ill-temper; yet no one can read our old authors, with whom ‘peevish’
and ‘peevishness’ are of constant recurrence, without feeling
that their use of them is different from ours; although precisely
to determine what their use was is anything but easy. Gifford
(_Massinger_, vol. i. p. 71) says confidently, ‘peevish is foolish;’
but upon induction from an insufficient number of passages. ‘Peevish’
is rather self-willed, obstinate. That in a world like ours those who
refuse to give up their own wills should be continually crossed, and
thus should become fretful, and ‘peevish’ in our modern sense of the
word, is inevitable; and here is the history of the change of meaning
which it has undergone.
_Valentine._ Cannot your grace win her to fancy him?
_Duke._ No, trust me; she is _peevish_, sullen, froward,
Proud, disobedient, stubborn, lacking duty.
SHAKESPEARE, _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, act iii. sc. 1.
We provoke, rail, scoff, calumniate, challenge, hate, abuse
(hard-hearted, implacable, malicious, _peevish_, inexorable
as we are), to satisfy our lust or private spleen.--BURTON,
_Anatomy of Melancholy_, part iii. § 1.
_Pertinax_ hominum genus, a _peevish_ generation of men.--Id.,
_ib._, part iii. § 4.
That grand document of keeping to the light within us they
[the Quakers] borrow out of St. John’s Gospel; and yet they
are so frantic and _peevish_, that they would fling away the
staff without which they are not able to make one step in
religion.--H. MORE, _Grand Mystery of Godliness_, b. viii. c.
12.
In case the Romans, upon an inbred _peevishness_ and engraffed
pertinacity of theirs, should not hear reason, but refuse an
indifferent end, then both God and man shall be witness as well
of the moderation of Perseus, as of their pride and insolent
frowardness.--HOLLAND, _Livy_, p. 1152.
We must carefully distinguish continuance in opinion from
obstinacy, confidence of understanding from _peevishness_ of
affection, a not being convinced from a resolution never to be
convinced.--Bishop TAYLOR, _Liberty of Prophesying_, § ii. 10.
=PENCIL.= The distinction between ‘pencil’ and paint-brush is quite
modern. The older use of ‘pencil’ (‘penecillus,’ or little tail) was
etymologically more correct than the modern; the brush being so called
because it hung and drooped as does that.
Heaven knows, they were besmeared and overstained
With slaughter’s _pencil_, where revenge did paint
The fearful difference of incensed kings.
SHAKESPEARE, _King John_, act iii. sc. 1.
Learning is necessary to him [the heretic], if he trades in
a critical error; but if he only broaches dregs, and deals
in some dull sottish opinion, a trowel will serve as well as
a _pencil_ to daub on such thick coarse colours.--FULLER,
_Profane State_, b. v. c. 10.
The first thing she did after rising was to have recourse to
the _red-pot_, out of which she laid it on very thick with a
_pencil_, not only on her cheeks, chin, under the nose, above
the eyebrows and edges of the ears, but also on the inside of
her hands, her fingers, and shoulders.--_The Lady’s Travels
into Spain_, Letter 8.
=PENITENTIARY.= It is curious that this word has possessed three
entirely independent meanings, namely penitent, ordainer of penances in
the Church, and place for penitents; only the last is current now.
So Manasseh in the beginning and middle of his reign filled the
city with innocent blood, and died a _penitentiary_.--JACKSON,
_Christ’s Session at God’s Right Hand_, b. ii. c. 42.
’Twas a French friar’s conceit that courtiers were of
all men the likeliest to forsake the world and turn
_penitentiaries_.--HAMMOND, _The Seventh Sermon_, _Works_, vol.
iv. p. 517.
_Penitentiary_, a priest that imposes upon an offender what
penance he thinks fit.--PHILLIPS, _New World of Words_.
=PENSIVE=, }
PENSIVENESS. }
He is ‘pensive,’ according to our present estimate of the word, in
whom a certain mild and meditative sadness finds place; and in thus
attaching to the word this meaning of a thoughtful sadness we are truer
to its etymology than were our ancestors, when they used it, as they
often did, to express the sharpest anguish of grief. Thus, in my first
quotation, by ‘the pensive court’ is meant the Court of David, which
has just received tidings of the slaughter by Absalom of all the king’s
sons.
The _pensive_ court in doleful dumps did rue
This dismal case.