She had more _perceverance_ of the Hebrues law.--LANGLEY’S
_Polidore Vergile_ (see _N. and Q._)
For his dyet he [Ariosto] was verie temperate, and a great
enemie of excesse and surfetting, and so carelesse of delicates
as though he had no _perseverance_ in the tast of meates.--Sir
J. HARINGTON, _Life of Ariosto_, p. 418.
He [Æmilius Paulus] suddenly fell into a raving (without
any _perseverance_ of sickness spied in him before, or any
change or alteration in him [πρὶν αἰσθέσθαι καὶ νοῆσαι τὴν
μεταβολήν]), and his wits went from him in such sort that he
died three days after.--NORTH, _Plutarch’s Lives_, p. 221.
=PERSON.= We have forfeited the full force of the statement, ‘God is
no respecter of _persons_;’ from the fact that ‘person’ does not mean
for us now all that it once meant. ‘Person,’ from ‘persona,’ the mask
constantly worn by the actor of antiquity, is by natural transfer the
part or _rôle_ in the play which each sustains, as πρόσωπον is in
Greek. In the great tragi-comedy of life each sustains a ‘person;’
one that of a king, another that of a peasant; one must play Dives,
another Lazarus. This ‘person’ God, for whom the question is not _what_
‘person’ each sustains, but _how_ he sustains it, does not respect.
_King._ What, rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison
The immediate heir of England! was this easy?
May this be washed in Lethe, and forgotten?
_Chief Justice._ I then did use the _person_ of your father;
The image of his power lay then in me.
SHAKESPEARE, _2 Henry IV._, act v. sc. 2.
Cæsar also is brought in by Julian attributing to himself the
honour (if it were at all an honour to that _person_ which he
sustained), of being the first that left his ship and took
land.--MILTON, _History of England_, b. ii.
Her gifts
Were such as under government well seemed;
Unseemly to bear rule, which was thy part
And _person_, hadst thou known thyself aright.
Id., _Paradise Lost_, x. 153.
Certain it is, that no man can long put on a _person_ and act a
part but his evil manners will peep through the corners of his
white robe, and God will bring a hypocrite to shame even in the
eyes of men.--Bishop TAYLOR, _Apples of Sodom_.
=PERSPECTIVE.= ‘Telescope’ and ‘microscope’ are both as old as Milton;
but for a long while ‘perspective’ (glass being sometimes understood,
and sometimes expressed) did the work of these. It is sometimes
written ‘prospective.’ Our present use of ‘perspective’ hardly dates
farther back than Dryden.
A guilty conscience
Is a black register, wherein is writ
All our good deeds and bad, a _perspective_
That shows us hell.
WEBSTER, _Duchess of Malfi_, act iv. sc. 2.
While we look for incorruption in the heavens, we find
they are but like the earth, durable in their main bodies,
alterable in their parts; whereof, beside comets and new
stars, _perspectives_ begin to tell tales; and the spots that
wander about the sun, with Phaeton’s favour, would make clear
conviction.--Sir T. BROWNE, _Hydriotaphia_.
Look through faith’s _perspective_ with the magnifying
end on invisibles (for such is its frame, it lesseneth
visibles), and thou wilt see sights not more strange than
satisfying.--WHITLOCK, _Zootomia_, p. 535.
A tiny mite, which we can scarcely see
Without a _perspective_.
OLDHAM, _Eighth Satire of M. Boileau_.
=PERT.= This word had once the meaning of brisk, lively, nimble; now it
is this with a very distinct subaudition of sauciness and impertinence
as well.
Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;
Awake the _pert_ and nimble spirit of youth.
SHAKESPEARE, _Midsummer Night’s Dream_, act i. sc. 1.
And on the tawny sands and shelves
Trip the _pert_ faeries and the dapper elves.
MILTON, _Comus_, 117.
=PESTER.= There is no greater discomfort or annoyance than extreme
straitness or narrowness of room; out of which in Greek the
word στενοχωρία, signifying this, has come to have a secondary
signification of trouble or anguish. [In English, ‘to pester’ bears
witness to the same fact, having first the meaning of to encumber or
clog, then the second meaning of painfully cooping-up in a narrow and
confined space, and lastly the meaning of to vex or annoy, which sense
it still retains.]
Now because the most part of the people might not possibly have
a sight of him, they gat up all at once into the theatre, and
_pestered_ it quite full.--HOLLAND, _Livy_, p. 1055.
They within, though _pestered_ with their own numbers, stood to
it like men resolved, and in a narrow compass did remarkable
deeds.--MILTON, _History of England_, b. ii.
The calendar is filled, not to say _pestered_ with them [that
is, with Saints’ Days], jostling one another for room, many
holding the same day in copartnership of festivity.--FULLER,
_Worthies of England_, c. 3.
=PHYSICAL=, }
PHYSICALLY. }
Though ‘physical’ has not dissociated itself from ‘physics,’ it has
from ‘physic’ and ‘physician,’ being used now as simply the equivalent
for ‘natural’ which the Greek language has supplied us; but it was not
always so.
Is Brutus sick? and is it _physical_
To walk unbracéd and suck up the humours
Of the dank morning?
SHAKESPEARE, _Julius Cæsar_, act ii. sc. 1.
Attalus, surnamed Philometer (to say, lover of his mother),
would plant and set _physical_ herbs, as helleborum.--NORTH,
_Plutarch’s Lives_, p. 739.
And for physic, he [Lord Bacon] did indeed live
_physically_,[21] but not miserably.--RAWLEY, _Life of Lord
Bacon_.
=PLACARD.= Formerly used often in the sense of a license or permission,
the ‘placard’ being properly the broad tablet or board on which this,
as well as other edicts and ordinances, was exposed.
Then for my voice I must (no choice)
Away of force, like posting horse,
For sundry men had _placards_ then
Such child to take.
TUSSER, _Author’s Life_.
Others are of the contrary opinion, and that Christianity gives
us a _placard_ to use these sports; and that man’s charter of
dominion over the creatures enables him to employ them as well
for pleasure as necessity.--FULLER, _Holy State_, b. iii. c. 13.
=PLANTATION.= We still ‘plant’ a colony, but a ‘plantation’ is now of
trees only; and not of men. There was a time when ‘The Plantations’
was the standing name by which our transatlantic colonies were known.
One of Bacon’s state-papers has this title, ‘Certain Considerations
touching the _Plantation_ in Ireland.’
It is a shameful and unblessed thing to take the scum of people
and wicked condemned men to be the people with whom you plant:
and not only so, but it spoileth the _plantation_.--Lord BACON,
_Essays_, 33.
_Plantations_ make mankind broader, as generation makes it
thicker.--FULLER, _Holy State_, b. iii. c. 16.
=PLATFORM.= This word has lost much of its meaning, that is in
England; for it is very far from having so done in America. The only
‘platforms’ which we know of here are structures of boards erected to
serve a temporary need. But a ‘platform’ was once a scheme or pattern
on which, as on a ground-plan, other things, moral or material, might
be disposed. Statesmen had their ‘platform’ of policy; Churches their
‘platform’ of doctrine and discipline; and so is it still in America,
where the word is in constant use.
They, [the courtiers of Dionysius] were every one occupied
about drawing the _platform_ of Sicilia, telling the nature
of the Sicilian Sea, and reckoning up the havens and places
looking towards Africk.--NORTH, _Plutarch’s Lives_, p. 456.
The _platform_ of this Tabernacle was by God delivered to
Moses on the Mount, with a strict charge to make all things
conformable thereunto.--FULLER, _A Pisgah Sight of Palestine_,
b. iv. c. 4.
=PLAUSIBLE=, }
PLAUSIBLY, }
PLAUSIBILITY. }
That is ‘plausible’ now which presents itself as worthy of applause;
yet always with a subaudition, or at least a suggestion, that it is
not so really; it was once that which obtained applause, with at least
the _primâ facie_ likelihood that the applause which it obtained was
deserved.
This John Bishop of Constantinople, that assumed to himself
the title of Universal Bishop or Patriarch, was a good man,
given greatly to alms and fasting, but too much addicted to
advance the title of his see; which made a _plausible_ bishop
seem to be Antichrist to Gregory the Great.--HACKET, _Life of
Archbishop Williams_, part ii. p. 66.
The Romans _plausibly_ did give consent
For Tarquin’s everlasting banishment.
SHAKESPEARE, _Lucrece_, 1854.
He was no sooner in sight than every one received him
_plausibly_, and with great submission and reverence.--STUBBES,
_Anatomy of Abuses_, p. 17.
Being placed in the upper part of the world, [he] carried on
his dignity with that justice, modesty, integrity, fidelity,
and other gracious _plausibilities_, that in a place of
trust he contented those whom he could not satisfy, and in
a place of envy procured the love of those who emulated his
greatness.--VAUGHAN, _Life and Death of Dr. Jackson_.
=POACH=, }
POACHER. }
A ‘poacher’ is strictly speaking an intruder; one who intrudes or
‘poaches’ into land where he has no business; the fact that he does so
with intention of spoiling the game is superadded, not lying in the
word.
Pocher le labeur d’autruy. To _poch_ into, or incroach upon
another man’s imployment, practise or trade.--COTGRAVE.
So that, to speak truly, they [the Spaniards] have rather
_poached_ and offered at a number of enterprises, than
maintained any constantly.--Lord BACON, _Notes of a Speech
concerning a War with Spain_.
It is ill conversing with an ensnarer, delving into the
bottom of your mind, to know what is hid in it. I would ask
a casuist if it were not lawful for me not only to hide my
mind, but to cast something that is not true before such a
_poacher_.--HACKET, _Life of Archbishop Williams_, part ii. p.
113.
=POLITE=, }
POLITELY. }
Between ‘polite’ and ‘polished’ this much of difference has now grown
up and established itself, that ‘polite’ is always employed in a
secondary and tropical sense, having reference to the polish of the
mind, while it is free to use ‘polished’ in the literal and figurative
sense alike.
_Polite_ bodies, as looking-glasses.--CUDWORTH, _Intellectual
System_, p. 731.
_Polite_; well-polished, neat.--PHILLIPS, _New World of Words_.
In things artificial seldom any elegance is wrought without a
superfluous waste and refuse in the transaction. No marble
statue can be _politely_ carved, no fair edifice built, without
almost as much rubbish and sweeping.--MILTON, _Reason of Church
Government_, b. i. c. 7.
=POLITICS=, }
POLITICIAN. }
At the present ‘politics’ are always _things_, but were sometimes
_persons_ as well in times past. ‘Politician’ too had an evil
subaudition. One so named was a trickster or underhand self-seeker and
schemer in politics, or it might be, as it is throughout in the sermon
of South, quoted below, in the ordinary affairs of life. Fuller calls
his Life of the wicked usurper Andronicus, ‘The Unfortunate Politician.’
It did in particular exasperate Tacitus, and other _politicks_
of his temper, to see so many natural Romans renounce their
name and country for maintenance of Jewish religion.--JACKSON,
_The Eternal Truth of Scriptures_, b. i. c. 20.
Let them [spiritual persons] have the diligence and craft
of fishers, the watchfulness and the care of shepherds, the
prudence of _politics_, the tenderness of parents.--Bishop
TAYLOR, _Life of Christ_, part ii. § 12.
If this arch-_politician_ [the Devil] find in his pupils any
remorse, any feeling or fear of God’s future judgment, he
persuades them that God hath so great need of men’s souls that
He will accept them at any time and upon any conditions.--Sir
W. RALEIGH, _History of the World_, b. i. c. 7, § 9.
Why, look you, I am whipped and scourged with rods,
Nettled and stung with pismires, when I hear
Of this vile _politician_ Bolingbroke.
SHAKESPEARE, _1 Henry IV._, act i. sc. 3.
A _politician_ is the devil’s quilted anvil;
He fashions all sins on him and the blows
Are never heard.
WEBSTER, _Duchess of Malfi_, act iii. sc. 2.
The _politician_, whose very essence lies in this, that he
is a person ready to do anything that he apprehends for his
advantage, must first of all be sure to put himself in a state
of liberty, as free and large as his principles, and so to
provide elbow-room enough for his conscience to lay about it,
and have its full play in.--SOUTH, _Sermons_, 1744, vol. i. p.
324.
=POMP=, }
POMPOUS, }
POMPOUSLY. }
‘Pomp’ is one of the many words which Milton employs with a strict
classical accuracy, so that he is only to be perfectly understood when
we keep in mind that a ‘pomp’ with him is always πομπή, a procession.
He is not, however, singular here, as he often is, in the stricter
use of a word. It is easy to perceive how ‘pomp’ obtained its wider
application. There is no such favourable opportunity for the display of
state and magnificence as a procession; this is almost the inevitable
form which they take; and thus the word first applied to the most
frequent display of these, came afterwards to be transferred to every
display. In respect to ‘pompous’ and ‘pompously’ there is something
else to note. There is in them always now the suggestion of that which
is more in show than in substance, or, at any rate, of a magnificence
which, if real, is yet vaingloriously and ostentatiously displayed.
But they did not convey, and were not intended to convey, any such
impression once.
[Antiochus] also provided a great number of bulls with gilt
horns, the which he conducted himself with a goodly _pomp_
and procession to the very gate of the city [ἄχρι τῶν πυλῶν
ἐπόμπευσε].--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 417.
With goddess-like demeanour forth she went,
Not unattended; for on her, as queen,
A _pomp_ of winning Graces waited still.
MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, viii. 59.
The planets in their stations listening stood,
While the bright _pomp_ ascended jubilant.
Id., _ib._ vii. 563.
What _pompous_ powers of ravishment were here,[22]
What delicate extremities of pleasure.
BEAUMONT, _Psyche_, can. xv. st. 299.
All expresses related that the entertainment [of Prince Charles
at Madrid] was very _pompous_ and kingly.--HACKET, _Life of
Archbishop Williams_, part i. p. 119.
He [Hardecnute] gave his sister Gunildis, a virgin of rare
beauty, in marriage to Henry the Alman Emperor; and to send her
forth _pompously_, all the nobility contributed their jewels
and richest ornaments.--MILTON, _History of England_, b. vi.
=POPULAR=, }
POPULARITY. }
He was ‘popular’ once, not who had acquired, but who was laying himself
out to acquire, the favour of the people. ‘Popularity’ was the wooing,
not, as now, the having won, that favour; exactly the Latin ‘ambitio.’
The word, which is passive now, was active then.
Of a senator he [Manlius] became _popular_, and began to break
his mind and impart his designs unto the magistrates of the
commons, finding fault with the nobility.--HOLLAND, _Livy_, 224.
And oft in vain his name they closely bite,
As _popular_ and flatterer accusing.
P. FLETCHER, _Purple Island_, c. 10.
Divers were of opinion that he [Caius Gracchus] was more
_popular_ and desirous of the common people’s good will and
favour than his brother had been before him. But indeed he was
clean contrary.--NORTH, _Plutarch’s Lives_, p 690.
Cato the Younger charged Muræna, and indited him in open court
for _popularity_ and ambition.--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s Morals_,
p. 243.
Harold, lifted up in mind, and forgetting now his former
shows of _popularity_, defrauded his soldiers their due and
well-deserved share of the spoils.--MILTON, _History of
England_, b. vi.
=PORTLY=, }
PORTLINESS. }
There lies in ‘portly’ a certain sense of dignity of demeanour still,
but always connoted with this a cumbrousness and weight, such as
Spenser in his noble _Epithalamion_ (see below) would never have
ascribed to his bride, nor Shakespeare to the swift-footed Achilles
(_Troilus and Cressida_, act iv. sc. 5), or to the youthful Romeo.
The chief and most _portly_ person of them all was one
Hasdrubal [_Insignis_ tamen inter ceteros Hasdrubal
erat].--HOLLAND, _Livy_, p. 7.
He [Romeo] bears him like a _portly_ gentleman.
SHAKESPEARE, _Romeo and Juliet_, act i. sc. 5.
Rudely thou wrongest my deare hart’s desire,
In finding fault with her too _portly_ pride;
For in those lofty lookes is close implide
Scorn of base things and ’sdeigne of foule dishonor,
Such pride is praise; such _portlinesse_ is honor.
SPENSER, _Sonnet 5_.
=PRAGMATICAL.= This is always employed at the present in an ill sense;
the ‘pragmatical’ man is not merely busy, but over-busy, officious,
meddling; nay, more than this, with an assumption of bustling
self-importance. The word’s etymology does not require this ill sense,
which is merely superinduced upon it, and from which it was not indeed
always, but often free in its earlier use.
It may appear at the first a new and unwonted argument, to
teach men how to raise and make their fortune; but the handling
thereof concerneth learning greatly both in honour and in
substance. In honour, because _pragmatical_ men may not go
away with an opinion that learning is like a lark, that can
mount and sing and please herself, and nothing else; but may
know that she holdeth as well of the hawk, that can soar
aloft, and also descend and strike upon the prey.--Lord BACON,
_Advancement of Learning_, b. ii.
We cannot always be contemplative or _pragmatical_ abroad;
but have need of some delightful intermissions wherein the
enlarged soul may leave off her severe schooling.--MILTON,
_Tetrachordon_.
=PREPOSTEROUS=, }
PREPOSTEROUSLY. }
A word nearly or quite unserviceable now, being merely an ungraceful
and slipshod synonym for absurd. But restore and confine it to its old
use and to one peculiar branch of absurdity, the reversing of the true
order and method of things, the putting of the last first, and the
first last, and of what excellent service it would be capable!
It is a _preposterous_ order to teach first, and to learn
after.--_The Translators_ [_of the Bible_, 1611] _to the Reader._
King Asa justly received little benefit by them [physicians],
because of his preposterous addressing himself to them before
he went to God (_2 Chron._ xvi. 12).--FULLER, _Worthies of
England_, c. ix.
To reason thus, I am of the elect, I therefore have saving
faith, and the rest of the sanctifying qualities, therefore
that which I do is good: thus I say to reason is very
_preposterous_. We must go a quite contrary course, and thus
reason: my life is good ... I therefore have the gifts of
sanctification, and therefore am of God’s elect.--HALES,
_Sermon on St. Peter’s Fall_.
Some indeed _preposterously_ misplace these, and make us
partake of the benefit of Christ’s priestly office in the
forgiveness of our sins and our reconcilement to God, before
we are brought under the sceptre of his kingly office by our
obedience.--SOUTH, _Sermons_, 1744, vol. xi. p. 3.
=PRETEND=, }
PRETENCE, }
PRETENSION. }
To charge one with ‘pretending’ anything is now a much more serious
charge than it was once. Indeed it was not necessarily, and only by
accident, a charge at all. That was ‘pretended’ which one stretched out
before himself and in face of others: but whether it was the thing it
affirmed itself to be, or, as at present, only a deceitful resemblance
of this, the word did not decide. While it was thus with ‘to pretend,’
there was as yet no distinction recognized between ‘pretence’ and
‘pretension;’ they both signified the act of ‘pretending,’ or the
thing ‘pretended;’ but whether truly or falsely it was left to the
context, or to the judgment of the reader, to decide. ‘Pretence’ has
since followed the fortunes of ‘pretend,’ and has fallen with it; while
‘pretension’ has disengaged itself from being a merely useless synonym
of ‘pretence,’ and, retaining its relation to the earlier uses of the
verb, now signifies a claim put forward which may or may not be valid,
the word leaving this for other considerations to determine. Louis
Napoleon assumed the dictatorship under the ‘pretence’ of resisting
anarchy; the House of Orleans had ‘pretensions’ to the throne of
France. But these distinctions are quite modern.
Being preferred by King James to the bishopric of Chichester,
and _pretending_ his own imperfectness and insufficiency to
undergo such a charge, he caused to be engraven about the seal
of his bishopric, those words of St. Paul, Et ad hæc quis
idoneus?--ISAACSON, _Life and Death of Lancelot Andrewes_.
[The Sabbath] is rather hominis gratiâ quam Dei; and
though God’s honour is mainly _pretended_ in it, yet it is
man’s happiness that is really intended by it, even of God
Himself.--H. MORE, _Grand Mystery of Godliness_, b. viii. c. 13.
I come no enemy, but to set free
From out this dark and dismal house of pain
Both him and thee, and all the heavenly host
Of Spirits, that, in our just _pretences_ armed,
Fell with us from on high.
MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, ii. 822; cf. vi. 421.
This is the tree whose leaves were intended for the healing of
the nations, not for a _pretence_ and palliation for sin.--H.
MORE, _Grand Mystery of Godliness_, b. viii. c. 1.
He [the Earl of Pembroke] was exceedingly beloved in the Court,
because he never desired to get that for himself which others
laboured for; but was still ready to promote the _pretences_ of
worthy men.--CLARENDON, _History of the Rebellion_, b. i. c.
121.
It is either secret pride, or base faintness of heart, or dull
sloth, or some other thing, and not true modesty in us if
being excellently gifted for some weighty employment in every
other man’s judgment, we yet withdraw ourselves from it with
_pretensions_ of unsufficiency.--SANDERSON, _Sermons_, 1671, p.
208.
=PREVARICATE=, }
PREVARICATION. }
This verb, often now very loosely used, had once a very definite
meaning of its own. ‘To prevaricate’ is to betray the cause which
one affects to sustain, the prevaricator is the feint pleader, as he
used to be called, and, so far as I know, the words are always so
used by our early writers. We have inherited the word from the Latin
law-courts, which borrowed it from the life. The ‘prævaricator’ being
one who halted on two unequal legs, the name was transferred to him
who, affecting to prosecute a charge, was in secret collusion with
the opposite party, and so managed the cause as to ensure his escape.
Observe in the two following passages the accuracy of use which so
habitually distinguishes our writers of the seventeenth century as
compared with too many of the nineteenth.
I proceed now to do the same service for the divines of
England; whom you question first in point of learning and
sufficiency, and then in point of conscience and honesty,
as _prevaricating_ in the religion which they profess, and
inclining to Popery.--CHILLINGWORTH, _Religion of Protestants_,
Preface, p. 11.
If we be not all enemies to God in this kind [in a direct
opposition], yet in adhering to the enemy we are enemies; in
our _prevarications_, and easy betrayings and surrendering
of ourselves to the enemy of his kingdom, Satan, we are his
enemies.--DONNE, _On the Nativity_. Sermon 7.
=PREVENT=, }
PREVENTION. }
One may reach a point before another to help or to hinder him there;
may anticipate his arrival either with the purpose of keeping it _for_
him, or keeping it _against_ him. ‘To prevent’ has slipped by very
gradual degrees, which it would not be difficult to trace, from the
sense of keeping _for_ to that of keeping _against_, from the sense of
arriving first with the intention of helping, to that of arriving first
with the intention of hindering, and then generally from helping to
hindering.
So it is, that if Titus had not _prevented_ the whole multitude
of people which came to see him, and if he had not got him away
betimes, before the games were ended, he had hardly escaped
from being stifled amongst them.--NORTH, _Plutarch’s Lives_, p.
321.
Gentlemen that were brought low, not by their vices, but
by misfortune, poveri vergognosi as the Tuscan calls them,
bashful, and could not crave though they perished, he
_prevented_ their modesty, and would heartily thank those that
discovered their commiserable condition to him.--HACKET, _Life
of Archbishop Williams_, part i. p. 201.
That poor man had waited thirty and eight years [at the pool
of Bethesda], and still was _prevented_ by some other.--Bishop
TAYLOR, _Life of Christ_, part iii. § 13.
There he beheld how humbly diligent
New Adulation was to be at hand;
How ready Falsehood stept; how nimbly went
Base pick-thank Flattery, and _prevents_ command.
DANIEL, _Civil Wars_, b. ii. st. 56.
Half way he met
His daring foe, at this _prevention_ more
Incensed.
MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, vi. 129.
=PROBABLE.= Already in the best classical Latin ‘probabilis’ had
passed over into the secondary meaning of ‘probatus;’ thus ‘probabilis
orator’ (Cicero) is an approved orator. ‘Probable’ is often so used by
our scholarly writers of the seventeenth century; though we now use
it only in its original sense of ‘likely.’ On the distinction between
‘probable’ and ‘likely,’ ‘probability’ and ‘likelihood,’ see Garden,
_Dictionary of Philosophical Terms_.
The Lord Bacon would have rewards given to those men who in
the quest of natural experiments make _probable_ mistakes.
An ingenious miss is of more credit than a bungling casual
hit.--FULLER, _Mixt Contemplations_, i. 26.
S. Ambrose, who was a good _probable_ doctor, and one as fit to
be relied on as any man else, hath these words.--Bishop TAYLOR,
_Doctrine and Practice of Repentance_, Preface.
=PROBATION.= This is strictly speaking = δοκιμή, the process of
proving; as ‘proof’ is = δοκίμιον or δοκιμεῖον, that by which this
proving is carried out; thus toil is the δοκίμιον of soldiers
(Herodian); and we now very properly keep the words apart according to
this rule; but formerly this was not so.
He, sir, was lapped
In a most curious mantle, wrought by the hand
Of his queen-mother, which for more _probation_
I can with ease produce.
SHAKESPEARE, _Cymbeline_, act v. sc. 5.
Also Philip the Evangelist had three daughters. Neither can it
help to say that these children were born before his election;
for this is but a simple saying, and no _probation_.--FRITH,
_Works_, 1572, p. 325.
=PRODIGIOUS.= This notes little now but magnitude. Truer to its
etymology once (from ‘prodigium’ = prōd + agium from ajo, see Brugmann,
§ 509), it signified the ominous or ominously prophetic.
Blood shall put out your torches, and instead
Of gaudy flowers about your wanton necks,
An axe shall hang, like a _prodigious_ meteor,
Ready to crop your loves’ sweets.
BEAUMONT and FLETCHER, _Philaster_, act v. sc. 1.
Without this comely ornament of hair, their [women’s] most
glorious beauty appears as deformed, as the sun would be
_prodigious_ without beams.--FULLER, _The Profane State_, b. v.
c. 5.
I began to reflect on the whole life of this _prodigious_
man.--COWLEY, _On the Government of Oliver Cromwell_.
=PROMOTE=, }
PROMOTER, }
PROMOTION. }
‘To promote,’ that is, to further or set forward, a ‘promoter,’ a
furtherer, are now words of harmless, often of quite an honourable,
signification. They were once terms of extremest scorn; a ‘promoter’
being a common informer, and so called because he ‘promoted’ charges
and accusations against men (promotor litium: Skinner).
There lack men to _promote_ the king’s officers when they do
amiss, and to _promote_ all offenders.--LATIMER, _Last Sermon
before Edward VI._
Thou, Linus, that lov’st still to be _promoting_,
Because I sport about King Henry’s marriage,
Think’st this will prove a matter worth the carriage.
Sir J. HARINGTON, _Epigrams_, ii. 98.
Aristogiton the sycophant, or false _promoter_, was condemned
to death for troubling men with wrongful imputations.--HOLLAND,
_Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 421.
His eyes be _promoters_, some trespass to spy.
TUSSER, _Of an envious and haughty Neighbour_.
_Promoters_ be those which in popular and penal actions do
defer the names or complain of offenders, having part of the
profit for their reward.--COWELL, _The Interpreter_, s. v.
Covetousness and _promotion_ and such like are that right hand
and right eye which must be cut off and plucked out, that the
whole man perish not.--TYNDALE, _Exposition of the Sixth Chap.
of Matthew_.
=PROPRIETY.= All ‘propriety’ is now mental or moral; where material
things are concerned, we employ ‘property,’ at the first no more than a
different spelling or slightly different form of the same word.
But some man haply will say, That where private _propriety_ is
in place, public community is turned out of doors. HOLLAND,
_Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 680.
He [the good servant] provides good bounds and sufficient
fences betwixt his own and his master’s estate (Jacob, _Gen._
xxx. 36, set his flock three days’ journey from Laban’s),
that no quarrel may arise about their _propriety_, nor
suspicion that his remnant hath eaten up his master’s whole
cloth.--FULLER, _The Holy State_, b. i. c. 8.
Hail, wedded love, mysterious law, true source
Of human offspring, sole _propriety_
In Paradise of all things common else.
MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, iv. 751.
A _propriety_ is nothing else but _jus ad rem_, when a man
doth claim such a thing as his own, and has a power to use
it and dispose of it in a lawful way for his own benefit and
advantage.--STRONG, _Of the Two Covenants_, b. iii. c. 1.
=PROSE=, }
PROSER. }
‘To prose’ is now to talk or to write heavily, tediously, without
spirit and without animation; but ‘to prose’ was once the antithesis
of to versify, and a ‘proser’ of a writer in metre. In the tacit
assumption that vigour, animation, rapid movement, with all the
precipitation of the spirit, belong to verse rather than to prose, lies
the explanation of the changed uses of the words.
It was found that whether ought was imposed me by them that
had the overlooking, or betaken to of mine own choice in
English or other tongue, _prosing_ or versing, but chiefly this
latter, the style, by certain vital signs it had, was likely to
live.--MILTON, _Reason of Church Government_, b. ii.
And surely Nash, though he a _proser_ were,
A branch of laurel yet deserves to bear.
DRAYTON, _On Poets and Poesy_.
=PRUNE.= At present we only ‘prune’ trees; but our earlier authors use
the word where we should use ‘preen,’ which indeed is but another form
of the word. With us only birds ‘preen’ their feathers, while women, as
in the example which follows, might ‘prune’ themselves of old.
A husband that loveth to trim and pamper his body, causeth his
wife by that means to study nothing else but the tricking and
_pruning_ of herself.--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 318.
=PUBLICAN.= Formerly one who gathered the taxes, and paid them into the
_publicum_ or treasury; but now--though, as Johnson assures us, ‘in low
language’--a man that keeps a house of public entertainment.
The late king’s extorting _publicans_ (whereof Ranolf
Flambard, Bishop of Durham, the principal) were closely
imprisoned.--FULLER, _Church History_, ii. 3, 13.
They would not suffer him to take that money out of the
treasury which was pressed and ready for him, but assigned
and ordained certain moneys from the _publicans_ and farmers
of the city’s customs and revenues to furnish him.--HOLLAND,
_Plutarch_, p. 435.
=PULPIT.= We distinguish now between the ‘pulpit’ and the rostrum; our
ancestors did not so.
I will myself into the _pulpit_ first,
And show the reason of our Cæsar’s death.
SHAKESPEARE, _Julius Cæsar_, act iii. sc. 1.
He [Cicero] said that those orators who used to strain their
voices and cry aloud in the _pulpit_ were privy to their own
weakness and insufficience otherwise.--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s
Morals_, p. 439.
=PUNCTUAL=, }
PUNCTUALLY. }
‘This word is now confined to the meagre denoting of accuracy in
respect to time--fidelity to the precise moment of an appointment.
But originally it was just as often and just as reasonably applied to
space as to time. Nor only was it applied to time and space, but it had
a large and very elegant figurative use’ (De Quincey, _Note Book_).
Thus a ‘punctual’ narration was a narration which entered into minuter
_points_ of detail.
The stars that seem to roll
... merely to officiate light
Round this opacous earth, this _punctual_ spot.
MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, viii. 19-23.
Truly I thought I could not be too _punctual_ in describing
the animal life, it being so serviceable for our better
understanding the divine.--H. MORE, _Grand Mystery of
Godliness_, Preface, p. x.
All curious solicitude about riches smells of avarice; even
the very disposing of it with a too _punctual_ and artificial
liberality is not worth a painful solicitude.--COTTON,
_Montaigne’s Essays_, b. iii. c. 9.
Every one is to give a reason of his faith; but priests or
ministers more _punctually_ than any.--H. MORE, _Grand Mystery
of Godliness_, b. x. c. 12.
=PUNY.= The present use of ‘puny,’ as that which is at once weak and
small, is only secondary and inferential. ‘Puny’ or ‘puisne’ (puis né)
is born after another, therefore younger; and only by inference smaller
and weaker.
It were a sign of ignorant arrogancy, if _punies_ or freshmen
should reject the axioms and principles of Aristotle, usual
in the schools, because they have some reasons against them
which themselves cannot answer.--JACKSON, _The Eternal Truth of
Scriptures_, c. i.
[The worthy soldier] had rather others should make a ladder of
his dead corpse to scale a city by it, than a bridge of him
whilst alive for his _punies_ to give him the go-by, and pass
over him to preferment.--FULLER, _Holy State_, b. iv. c. 17.
He is dead and buried, and by this time no _puny_ among the
mighty nations of the dead; for though he left this world not
very many days past, yet every hour, you know, addeth largely
unto that dark society.--Sir T. BROWNE, _Letter to a Friend_,
p. 1.
=PURCHASE.= Now always to acquire in exchange for money, to buy; but
much oftener in our old writers simply to acquire, being properly to
hunt, ‘pourchasser;’ and then to take in hunting; then to acquire; and
then, as the commonest way of acquiring is by giving money in exchange,
to buy. The word occurs six times in our Version of the New Testament,
_Acts_ i. 18; viii. 10; xx. 28; _Ephes._ i. 14; _1 Tim._ iii. 13; _1
Pet._ ii. 9, margin; in none of these is the notion of buying involved.
At _Acts_ i. 18, this is especially noteworthy. It is there said: ‘This
man _purchased_ a field with the reward of iniquity.’ There will always
remain certain difficulties in reconciling the different records of
the death of Judas; but if St. Peter had here affirmed that Judas had
_bought_ this field of blood, these difficulties would be seriously
increased, for the chief priests were the actual buyers (_Matt._ xxvii.
7). He affirms no such thing, neither did our Translators understand
him to do so, but simply that Judas made that ominous potter’s field
his own (ἐκτήσατο). The Revised Version has ‘obtained.’
And therefore true consideration of estate can hardly find
what to reject, in matter of territory, in any empire, except
it be some glorious acquists obtained sometime in the bravery
of wars, which cannot be kept without excessive charge and
trouble, of which kind were the _purchases_ of King Henry
VIII., that of Tournay, and that of Bologne.--BACON, _History
of King Henry VII._
The _purchases_ of our own industry are joined commonly with
labour and strife.--Id., _Colours of Good and Evil_, 9.
Meditation considers anything that may best make us to avoid
the place and to quit a vicious habit, or master and rectify
an untoward inclination, or _purchase_ a virtue or exercise
one.--Bishop TAYLOR, _Life of Christ_, part i. § 5.
[Men] will repent, but not restore; they will say _Nollem
factum_, they wish they had never done it; but since it
is done, you must give them leave to rejoice in their
_purchase_.--Id., _Sermon preached to the University of Dublin_.
As it is a happiness for us to _purchase_ friends, so is
it misery to lose them.--REYNOLDS, _God’s Revenge against
Murther_, b. v. hist. 21.
=PURSUER.= ‘Pursue’ and ‘pursuer’ are older words in the language than
‘persecute’ and ‘persecutor’--earlier adoptions of ‘persequor’ and
‘persecutor,’ through Old French and not immediately from the Latin.
Besides the meaning which they still retain, they once also covered
the meanings which these later words have, since their introduction,
appropriated as exclusively their own. In Scotch law the prosecutor is
the ‘pursuer,’ ὁ διώκων.
That first was a blaspheme and _pursuere_.--_1 Tim._ i. 13.
WICLIF.
If God leave them in this hardness of heart, they may prove as
desperate opposites and _pursuers_ of all grace, of Christ and
Christians, as the most horrible open swine, as we see in Saul
and Julian.--ROGERS, _Naaman the Syrian_, p. 106.
=QUAINT=, }
QUAINTLY. }
In ‘quaint,’ which is the Middle English ‘quaynt,’ ‘queynt,’ ‘coint,’
Old French ‘cointe,’ the same word as the Latin ‘cognitum,’ there lies
always now the notion of a certain curiosity and oddness, however
these may be subordinated to ends of beauty and grace, and indeed
may themselves be made to contribute to these ends: pretty after some
bygone standard of prettiness; but all this is of late introduction
into the word, which had once simply the meaning of neat, graceful,
skilful, subtle, knowing.
O britel joye, O sweete venym _queynte_,
O monstre that so subtily canst peynte
Thyn giftes, under hiew of stedfastnesse,
That thou desceyuest bothe more and lesse.
CHAUCER, _The Marchaundes Tale_ (Morris, ii. p. 343).
I grant, my Lord, the damsel is as fair
As simple Suffolk’s homely towns can yield,
But in the court be _quainter_ dames than she.
GREENE, _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_, sc. 1.
But you, my lord, were glad to be employed,
To show how _quaint_ an orator you are.
SHAKESPEARE, _2 Henry VI._, act iii. sc. 2.
Whom evere I schal kisse, he it is; holde ye him, and lede ye
warli, or _queyntly_.--_Mark_ xiv. 44. WICLIF (earlier version).
A ladder quaintly made of cords.
SHAKESPEARE, _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, act iii. sc. 1.
=QUERULOUS.= Not formerly, as now, addicted to the making of
complaints, but quarrelsome.
There inhabit these regions a kind of people, rude, warlike,
ready to fight, _querulous_, and mischievous.--HOLLAND,
_Camden’s Scotland_, p. 39.
Not _querulous_, or clamorous in his discourse; ‘He shall not
_strive_ nor cry, neither shall any hear his voice in the
streets;’ but meek and quiet.--FULLER, _A Pisgah Sight of
Palestine_, b. iii. c. 6.
=RACE.= Formerly ‘race,’ the Old French ‘raïs,’ the same word as the
Latin ‘radicem,’ was used in the sense of a root.
A _race_ of ginger.--SHAKESPEARE, _Winter’s Tale_, act iv. sc.
3.
=RAISIN.= It is conveniently agreed now that ‘raisin’ shall be employed
only of the _dried_ grape, but this does not lie in ‘racemus,’ of
which ‘raisin’ is the French equivalent, nor yet in its earlier uses;
indeed, ‘raisins _of the sun_’ (Sir J. Harington) was a phrase commonly
employed when the dried fruit was intended.
Nether in the vyneyerd thou schalt gadere _reysyns_ and greynes
fallynge doun, but thou schalt leeve to be gaderid of pore men
and pilgryms.--_Lev._ xix. 10. WICLIF.
=RASCAL=, }
RASCALITY. }
The lean unseasonable members of the herd of deer were formerly so
called; then the common people, the _plebs_ as distinguished from
the _populus_; it is only in comparatively modern English that the
word is one of moral contempt. [In Anglo-French the word ‘rascaille’
was used in the sense of a rabble; for references and etymology see
Mayhew-Skeat, _Dict. of Middle English_.]
And he smoot of the puple seventi men, and fifti thousandis
of the _raskeyl_ [Et percussit de populo septuaginta viros et
quinquaginta millia _plebis_ (Vulg.)].--_1 Kin._ vi. 19. WICLIF.
The common priests be not so obedient unto their ordinaryes
that they will pay money except they know why. Now it is not
expedient that every _rascal_ should know the secretes of
the very true cause, for many considerations.--TYNDALE, _The
Practice of Popishe Prelates_.
Now shall I tel you which ben bestes of chace;
And ye shall, my dere sones, other bestes all,
Whereso ye hem finde, _rascall_ hem call.
JULIANA BERNERS, _The Book of St. Albans_.
As one should in reproach say to a poor man, Thou _raskall_
knave, where _raskall_ is properly the hunter’s term
given to young deer, lean and out of season, and not to
people.--PUTTENHAM, _Art of English Poesy_, 1811, p. 150.
Both sorts of seasoned deer,
Here walk the stately red, the freckled fallow there;
The bucks and lusty stags among the _rascals_ strewed,
As sometimes gallant spirits amongst the multitude.
DRAYTON, _Polyolbion_, song 13.
The report which these roving hunters had made to their
countrymen of that pleasant land, did invite the chief heads of
their clans, with their several _rascalities_, to flock into
Europe, like beggars dismissed out of prison, invited to a
solemn banquet.--JACKSON, _A Treatise on the Divine Essence_,
b. vi. c. 25, § 6.
=RATHER.= This survives for us now only as an adverb, but meets us
often in Middle English as an adjective, as the comparative of ‘rathe,’
quick, swift, early.
This is he that Y seide of, aftir me is comun a man, which was
maad bifor me; for he was _rather_ than Y [quia _prior_ me
erat, Vulg.].--_John_ i. 30. WICLIF.
If the world hatith you, wite ye that it hadde me in
hate _rather_ than you [me _priorem_ vobis odio habuit,
Vulg.].--_John_ xv. 18. WICLIF.
The Sarazines maden another cytie more far from the see, and
clepeden it the newe Damyete, so that now no man dwellethe at
the _rathere_ town of Damyete.--Sir JOHN MANDEVILLE, _Voyage
and Travaile_, p. 46, Halliwell’s edition.
Whatsoever thou or such other say, I say that the pilgrimage
that now is used is to them that do it, a praisable and a good
mean to come the _rather_ to grace.--FOXE, _Book of Martyrs;
Examination of William Thorpe_.
The _rather_ lambs been starved with cold.
SPENSER, _The Shepherd’s Calendar, February_.
=RECEIPT.= At this present the act of receiving, or acknowledgment
of having received; but not seldom once the place for receiving, or
receptacle.
To conclude, his house was a common _receipt_ for all those
that came from Greece to Rome.--NORTH, _Plutarch’s Lives_, p.
446.
Fountains I intend to be of two natures, the one that
sprinkleth or spouteth water, the other a fair _receipt_ of
water, of some thirty or forty foot square, but without fish,
or slime, or mud.--BACON, _Essays_, 46.
=RECLAIM.= A ‘reclamation’ is still sometimes a calling _out against_;
but ‘to reclaim’ is never, I think, anything now but to call _back
again_; never to disclaim.
Herod, instead of _reclaiming_ what they exclaimed [_Acts_ xii.
22], embraced and hugged their praises as proper to himself,
and thereupon an angel and worms, the best and basest of
creatures, met in his punishment, the one smiting, the other
eating him up.--FULLER, _A Pisgah Sight of Palestine_, b. ii.
c. 8.
=RECOGNIZE.= This verb means now to revive our knowledge of a person or
thing; to reacquaint oneself with it; but in earlier usage to review,
as in my first quotation, to reconnoitre, as in my second.
In _recognizing_ this history I have employed a little more
labour, partly to enlarge the argument which I took in hand,
partly also to assay, whether by any painstaking I might pacify
the stomachs, or to satisfy the judgments of these importune
quarrellers.--FOXE, _Book of Martyrs; Epistle Dedicatory [of
the Second Edition] to the Queen’s Majesty_.
In quartering either in village, field, or city, he [a
commander] ought himself to _recognize_ all avenues, whereby
his enemies may come to him.--MONRO, _His Expedition_, p. 9.
=REDUCE.= That which is ‘reduced’ now is brought back to narrower
limits, or lower terms, or more subject conditions, than those under
which it subsisted before. But nothing of this lies of necessity in the
word, nor yet in the earlier uses of it. According to these, that was
‘reduced’ which was brought back to its former estate, an estate that
might be, and in all the following examples is, an ampler, larger, or
more prosperous one than that which it superseded.
The drift of the Roman armies and forces was not to bring free
states into servitude, but contrariwise, to _reduce_ those that
were in bondage to liberty.--HOLLAND, _Livy_, p. 1211.
There remained only Britain [_i.e._ Britany] to be reunited,
and so the monarchy of France to be _reduced_ to the ancient
terms and bounds.--BACON, _History of King Henry VII._
That he might have these keys to open the heavenly Hades to
_reduced_ apostates, to penitent, believing, self-devoting
sinners, for this it was necessary He should put on man, become
obedient to death, even that servile punishment, the death of
the cross.--HOWE, _The Redeemer’s Dominion over the Invisible
World_.
Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord,
That would _reduce_ these bloody days again.
SHAKESPEARE, _Richard III._, act v. sc. 5.
=REIGN.= This is now in the abstract what ‘kingdom’ is in the concrete,
but there was no such distinction once between them.
And for a litel glorie veigne,
They lesen God, and eke his _reigne_.
_Romaunt of the Rose_, 448.
=REJOICE.= Formerly used in the sense of to enjoy.
Then was mad pes on this manere, that he and his puple
schuld frely _rejoyce_ all the lond of the other side of
Seyne.--CAPGRAVE, _Chronicle of England_, p. 112.
In special he [Constantine] assigned and bequathe the lordschip
of the west parte, which was Rome, to his eeldist sone
Constantyn, which sone _rejoiced_ the same parte so to him
devysid, and that thorugh al his liif.--PECOCK, _Repressor_, c.
xiii.
=RELIGION=, }
RELIGIOUS. }
Not, as too often now, used as equivalent for godliness; but like
θρησκεία, for which it stands _Jam._ i. 27, it expressed the outer form
and embodiment which the inward spirit of a true or a false devotion
assumed. In the Middle Ages a ‘religion’ was a monastic Order, and they
were ‘religious’ who had entered into one of these.
We would admit and grant them, that images used for no
_religion_, or superstition rather, we mean of none
worshipped, nor in danger to be worshipped of any, may be
suffered.--_Homilies; Against Peril of Idolatry._
By falsities and lies the greatest part
Of mankind they corrupted to forsake
God their Creator, and the invisible
Glory of Him that made them to transform
Oft to the image of a brute, adorned
With gay _religions_ full of pomp and gold.
MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, i. 367.
_Religiouse_ folk ben fulle covert,
Seculer folk ben more appert,
But natheles I wole not blame
_Religious_ folk, ne hem diffame,
In what habit that ever thei go;
_Religioun_ umble and trewe also
Wole I not blame, ne dispise;
But I nyl love it in no wise.
I mene of fals _religious_,
That stoute ben and malicious,
That wolen in an abit goo,
And setten not her herte therto.
_Romaunt of the Rose_, 6152.
And thus when that thei were counseilled,
In black clothes thei them clothe,
The daughter and the lady both,
And yolde hem to _religion_.
GOWER, _Confessio Amantis_, b. viii.
=REMARK.= There are no ‘remarks’ now but verbal ones. ‘To remark’ was
once to point out, to designate.
They [the publicans and harlots] are moved by shame, and
punished by disgrace, and _remarked_ by punishments, and
frighted by the circumstances and notices of all the world,
and separated from sober persons by laws and an intolerable
character.--Bishop TAYLOR, _Of Lukewarmness and Zeal_, Serm.
13, part ii.
_Officer._ Hebrews, the prisoner Samson here I seek.
_Chorus._ His manacles _remark_ him; there he sits.
MILTON, _Samson Agonistes_, 1308.
=REMONSTRATE=, }
REMONSTRANCE. }
Its present sense, namely to expostulate, was only at a late date
superinduced on the word. ‘To remonstrate’ is properly to make _any_
show or representation in regard to some step that has been taken. It
is now only such show or representation as _protests against_ this
step; and always assumes this step to have been distasteful; but this
limitation lies not of necessity in the word.
Properties of a faithful servant: a sedulous eye, to observe
all occasions within or without, tending to _remonstrate_ the
habit within.--ROGERS, _Naaman the Syrian_, p. 309.
It [the death of Lady Carbery] was not (in all appearance) of
so much trouble as two fits of a common ague; so careful was
God to _remonstrate_ to all that stood in that sad attendance
that this soul was dear to Him.--Bishop TAYLOR, _Funeral Sermon
on Lady Carbery_.
I consider that in two very great instances it was
_remonstrated_ that Christianity was the greatest persecution
of natural justice and equality in the whole world.--Id., _Life
of Christ_, Preface, § 32.
When Sir Francis Cottington returned with our king’s oath,
plighted to the annexed conditions for the ease of the Roman
Catholics, the Spaniards made no _remonstrance_ of joy, or
of an ordinary liking of it.--HACKET, _Life of Archbishop
Williams_, part i. p. 145.
No; the atheist is too wise in his generation to make
_remonstrances_ and declarations of what he thinks. It is his
heart and the little council that is held there, that is only
privy to his monstrous opinions.--SOUTH, _Sermons_, 1744, vol.
ix. p. 78.
=REMORSE=, }
REMORSEFUL. }
In ‘remorseless’ and in the phrase ‘without remorse,’ we retain a
sense of ‘remorse’ as equivalent with pity, which otherwise has quite
passed away from it. It may thus have acquired this meaning. There is
nothing which is followed in natures not absolutely devilish with so
swift revulsion of mind as acts of cruelty. Nowhere does the conscience
so quickly sting the guilty actor as in and after these; and thus
‘remorse,’ which is the penitence of the natural man, the penitence
not wrought by the spirit of grace, while it means the revulsion of
the mind and conscience against any evil which has been done, came to
mean predominantly revulsion against acts of cruelty, the pity which
followed close on these; and thus pity in general, and not only as in
this way called out.
King Richard by his own experience grew sensible of the
miseries which merchants and mariners at sea underwent.
Wherefore, now touched with _remorse_ of their pitiful case, he
resolved to revoke the law of wrecks.--FULLER, _Holy War_, b.
iii. c. 7.
His helmet, justice, judgment, and _remorse_.
MIDDLETON, _Wisdom of Solomon_, c. v. 17.
O Eglamour, thou art a gentleman,
Valiant, wise, _remorseful_, well accomplished.
SHAKESPEARE, _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, act iv. sc. 2.
=REPEAL.= ‘To repeal’ (compare Old French ‘rapeler’) is to recall, and
seldom or never applied now except to some statute or law, but formerly
of far wider use.
I will _repeal_ thee, or, be well assured,
Adventure to be banishèd myself.
SHAKESPEARE, _2 Henry VI._, act iii. sc. 2.
Whence Adam soon _repealed_
The doubts that in his heart arose.
MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, vii. 59.
Or else Nepenthe, enemy to sadness,
Repelling sorrows, and _repealing_ gladness.
SYLVESTER, _Du Bartas, Eden, The Second Week_.
=REPROVE.= Now ‘to rebuke,’ but once equivalent to ‘disprove,’ and
convertible with it.
As it [the Apology] has been well allowed of and liked of the
learned and godly, so hath it not hitherto, for ought that
may appear, been anywhere openly _reproved_ either in Latin
or otherwise, either by any one man’s private writing, or by
the public authority of any nation.--JEWEL, _Defence of the
Apology_.
_Reprove_ my allegation if you can;
Or else conclude my words effectual.
SHAKESPEARE, _2 Henry VI._, act iii. sc. 1.
=REQUIRE.= This has now something almost imperative in it; being less
to request or to entreat than to command; but it was not so always.
We do instantly _require_ and desire the Blessed Virgin Mary
with all the holy company of heaven, continually to pray for
us.--_Will of Henry VIII._
Lord of his fortune he salutes thee, and
_Requires_ to live in Egypt.
SHAKESPEARE, _Antony and Cleopatra_, act iii. sc. 12.
=RESENT=, }
RESENTMENT. }
When first introduced into the language (this was in the seventeenth
century; ‘vox nova in nostrâ linguâ:’ Junius), ‘to resent’ meant to
have a sense or feeling of that which had been done to us; but whether
a sense of gratitude for the good, or of enmity for the evil, the word
itself did not decide, and was employed in both meanings. It has fared
not otherwise with ‘ressentiment’ in French. Of this Génin, _La Langue
de Molière_, writes, ‘Ce mot, dont l’usage a déterminé l’acception en
mauvaise part, ne signifiait jadis que _sentiment_ avec plus de force.’
Must we conclude from the fact that the latter is now the exclusive
employment of it, that our sense of injuries is much stronger and more
lasting than our sense of benefits?
’Tis by my touch alone that you _resent_
What objects yield delight, what discontent.
BEAUMONT, _Psyche_, can. iv. st. 156.
Perchance as vultures are said to smell the earthliness of
a dying corpse; so this bird of prey [the evil Spirit which
personated Samuel] _resented_ a worse than earthly savour in
the soul of Saul, an evidence of his death at hand.--FULLER,
_The Profane State_, b. v. c. 4.
The judicious prelate will prefer a drop of the sincere milk
of the word before vessels full of traditionary pottage,
_resenting_ of the wild gourd of human invention.--Id., _A
Pisgah Sight of Palestine_, b. iii. c. 1.
I _resented_ as I ought the news of my mother-in-law’s
death.--SANCROFT, _Variorum Shakespeare_, vol. i. p. 518.
Sadness does in some cases become a Christian, as being an
index of a pious mind, of compassion, and a wise, proper
_resentment_ of things.--Bishop TAYLOR, _Sermon 23_, part ii.
The Council taking notice of the many good services performed
by Mr. John Milton, their Secretary for foreign languages,
particularly for his book in vindication of the Parliament
and people of England against the calumnies and invectives of
Salmasius, have thought fit to declare their _resentment_ and
good acceptance of the same, and that the thanks of the Council
be returned to Mr. Milton.--_Extract from ‘The Council Book,’_
1651, June 18.
=RESIDENCE=, }
RESIDENT. }
It will be seen from the quotations which follow that ‘residence’ in
the seventeenth century meant something quite different from ordinary
place of habitation, which is all the meaning which now it has.
Separation in it is wrought by weight, as in the ordinary
_residence_ or settlement of liquors.--BACON, _Natural
History_, § 302.
Of waters of a muddy _residence_ we may make good use and
quench our thirst, if we do not trouble them; yet upon any
ungentle disturbance we drink down mud, instead of a clear
stream.--Bishop TAYLOR, _Sermon on the Gunpowder Treason_.
The inexperienced Christian shrieks out whenever his vessel
shakes, thinking it always a danger that the watery pavement is
not stable and _resident_ like a rock.--Id., _Sermon 11_, part
3.
=RESTIVE=, }
RESTIVENESS. }
Any one now invited to define a ‘restive’ horse would certainly put
into his definition that it was one with _too much_ motion; but in
obedience to its etymology ‘restive’ would have once meant one with
_too little_; determined to stand still when it ought to go forward.
[It is the Old French _restif_, stubborn, drawing backward (see
Cotgrave), from _rester_, Latin _restare_, to stand still.] Immobile,
lazy, stubborn, are the three stages of meaning which the word went
through, before it reached the fourth and present.
Bishops or presbyters we know, and deacons we know, but what
are chaplains? In state perhaps they may be listed among the
upper serving-men of some great man’s household, the yeoman
ushers of devotion, where the master is too _resty_ or too rich
to say his own prayers, or to bless his own table.--MILTON,
_Iconoclastes_, c. xxiv.
_Restive_, or _Resty_, drawing back instead of going forward,
as some horses do.--PHILLIPS, _New World of Words_.
Nothing hindereth men’s fortunes so much as this: Idem manebat,
neque idem decebat; men are where they were, when occasions
turn. From whatsoever root or cause this _restiveness_ of
mind proceedeth, it is a thing most prejudicial.--BACON,
_Advancement of Learning_, b. ii.
The snake, by _restiness_ and lying still all winter, hath a
certain membrane or film growing over the whole body.--HOLLAND,
_Pliny_, part i. p. 210.
=RETALIATE=, }
RETALIATION. }
It has fared with ‘retaliate’ and ‘retaliation’ as it has with
‘resent’ and ‘resentment,’ that whereas men could once speak of the
‘retaliation’ of benefits as well as of wrongs, they only ‘retaliate’
injuries now.
Our captain would not salute the city, except they would
_retaliate_.--_Diary of Henry Teonge_, Aug. 1, 1675.
[The king] expects a return in specie from them [the
Dissenters], that the kindness which he has graciously
shown them may be _retaliated_ on those of his own
persuasion.--DRYDEN, _The Hind and the Panther_, Preface.
His majesty caused directions to be sent for the enlargement
of the Roman priests, in _retaliation_ for the prisoners that
were set at liberty in Spain to congratulate the prince’s
welcome.--HACKET, _Life of Archbishop Williams_, part i. p. 166.
=REVOKE.= This has now a much narrower range of meaning than the Latin
‘revocare;’ but some took for granted once that wherever the one word
could have been used in Latin, the other might be used in English.
The wolf, who would not be
_Revokëd_ from the slaughter for the sweetness of the blood,
Persisted sharp and eager still, until that as he stood,
Fast biting on a bullock’s neck, she turned him into stone.
GOLDING, _Ovid’s Metamorphosis_, b. xi.
Her knees _revoked_ their first strength, and her feet
Were borne above the ground with wings to greet
The long-grieved queen with news her king was come.
CHAPMAN, _The Odyssey of Homer_, b. xxiii. l. 5.
=RIG.= A somewhat vulgar word, with the present use of which, however,
we are probably all familiar from its occurrence in _John Gilpin_:
‘He little guessed when he set out
Of running such a _rig_.’
But a ‘rig’ in its earlier use was not so often a strange uncomely
_feat_, as a wanton uncomely _person_.
Let none condemn them [the girls] for _rigs_ because thus
hoyting with the boys, seeing the simplicity of their age was
a patent to privilege any innocent pastime.--FULLER, _A Pisgah
Sight of Palestine_, b. iv. 6.
[=RIPPLE.= It is now in literary English a poetical word, and nothing
is ‘rippled’ but the surface of the water. This is probably a distinct
word from the ‘ripple’ of the Whitby dialect, which means to scratch
slightly as with a pin upon the skin (see Robinson’s ‘Glossary,’
English Dialect Society, 1876). This is precisely the meaning of
‘ripple’ in the citation from Holland below. For cognates of this
‘ripple’ to scratch see Skeat’s ‘Dictionary’ (_s. v._ ‘rip’).]
On a sudden an horseman’s javelin, having slightly _rippled_
the skin of his [Julian’s] left arm, pierced within his short
ribs, and stuck fast in the nether lappet or fillet of his
liver.--HOLLAND, _Ammianus_, p. 264.
=ROGUE.= There was a time when ‘rogue’ meant no more than wandering
mendicant. What of dishonesty is implied now in the word was afterwards
superinduced upon it; as has also been the case with ‘tramp’ and
‘vagabond.’
Mine enemy’s dog,
Though he had bit me, should have stood that night
Against my fire; and wast thou fain, poor father,
To hovel thee with swine and _rogues_ forlorn
In short and musty straw?
SHAKESPEARE, _King Lear_, act iv. sc. 7.
_Rogue_ signifieth with us an idle sturdy beggar, that,
wandering from place to place without passport, after he hath
been by justices bestowed upon some certain place of abode,
or offered to be bestowed, is condemned to be so called; who
for the first offence is called a _rogue_ of the first degree,
and punished by whipping, and boring through the gristle of
the right ear with a hot iron an inch in compass, and for
the second offence is called a _rogue_ of the second degree,
and put to death as a felon, if he be above eighteen years
old.--COWELL, _The Interpreter_, s. v.
The third sort of those that live unprofitably and without a
calling are our idle sturdy _rogues_ and vagrant towns-end
beggars. I mean such as are able to work, yet rather choose to
wander abroad the country, and to spend their days in a most
base and ungodly course of life.--SANDERSON, _Sermons_, 1671,
vol. i. p. 197.
=ROMANTIC.= It is much rarer to find words which in lapse of time have
mended their position than those which have seen theirs grow worse. But
such there are, and this is one of them. Who would have expected two
centuries ago that ‘romantic’ would have held the place of honour which
now it does; would have divided with ‘classical’ the whole world of
modern literature?
Can anything in nature be imagined more profane and impious,
more absurd, and indeed _romantic_, than such a persuasion
[namely that whenever in Scripture the Covenant is mentioned,
the Scotch Covenant was intended]? and yet, as impious and
absurd as it was, it bore down all before it, and overturned
the equallest and best framed government in the world.--SOUTH,
_Sermons_, 1737, vol. vi. p. 42.
=ROOM.= In certain connexions we still employ ‘room’ for place, but in
many more it obtains this meaning no longer. Thus one who accepts the
words, ‘When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in
the highest _room_’ (_Luke_ xiv. 8), according to the present use of
‘room,’ will probably imagine to himself guests assembling in various
apartments, some more honourable than other; and not, as indeed the
meaning is, taking higher or lower _places_ at one and the same table.
In Clarence, Henry, and his son, young Edward,
And all the unlooked-for issue of their bodies,
To take their _rooms_, ere I can place myself?
SHAKESPEARE, _3 Henry VI._, act iii. sc. 2.
If he have but twelve pence in’s purse, he will give it for
the best room in a playhouse.--Sir T. OVERBURY, _Characters: A
Proud Man_.
=RUFFIAN=, }
RUFFIANLY. }
The Old French ‘ruffien,’ the Italian ‘ruffiano,’ the Spanish ‘rufian,’
all signify the setter-forward of an infamous traffic between the
sexes; nor will the passages quoted below leave any doubt that this
is the proper meaning of ‘ruffian’ in English, others being secondary
and derived from it. At the same time the ‘ruffian’ is not merely the
‘leno,’ he is the ‘amasius’ as well. For some instructive English uses
of the word, see Ascham’s _Scholemaster_, Wright’s edit. pp. 44, 215.
Let young men consider the precious value of their time, and
waste it not in idleness, in jollity, in gaming, in banqueting,
in _ruffians’_ company.--_Homilies; Against Idleness._
Xenocrates, casting but his eye upon Polemon, who was come into
his school like a _ruffian_, by his very look only redeemed him
from his loose life.--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 112.
He [her husband] is no sooner abroad than she is instantly at
home, revelling with her _ruffians_.--REYNOLDS, _God’s Revenge
against Murther_, b. iii. hist. 11.
Who in London hath not heard of his [Greene’s] dissolute and
licentious living; his fond disguising of a Master of Art
with _ruffianly_ hair, unseemly apparel, and more unseemly
company?--G. HARVEY, _Four Letters touching Robert Greene_, p.
7.
Some frenchified or outlandish monsieur, who hath nothing
else to make him famous, I should say infamous, but an
effeminate, _ruffianly_, ugly, and deformed lock.--PRYNNE, _The
Unloveliness of Love-locks_, p. 27.
=RUMMAGE.= At present so to look for one thing as in the looking to
overturn and unsettle a great many others. It is a sea-term, and
signified at first to dispose with such orderly method goods in the
hold of a ship that there should be the greatest possible room, or
‘roomage.’ The quotation from Phillips shows the word in the act of
transition from its former use to its present.
And that the masters of the ships do look well to the
_romaging_, for they might bring away a great deal more than
they do, if they would take pain in the _romaging_.--HAKLUYT,
_Voyages_, vol. i. p. 308.
To _rummage_ (sea-term): To remove any goods or luggage from
one place to another, especially to clear the ship’s hold of
any goods or lading, in order to their being handsomely stowed
and placed; whence the word is used upon other occasions, for
to rake into, or to search narrowly.--PHILLIPS, _New World of
Words_.
=SAD=, }
SADLY, }
SADNESS. }
This had once the meaning of earnest, serious, sedate. The passage
from Shakespeare quoted below marks ‘sadly’ and ‘sadness’ in their
transitional state from the old meaning to the new; Benvolio using
‘sadness’ in the old sense, Romeo pretending to understand him in the
new. For the etymology of ‘sad’ see Mayhew-Skeat, _Dict. of Middle
English_.
O dere wif, o gemme of lustyhede,
That were to me so _sade_, and eke so trewe.
CHAUCER, _The Manciples Tale_.
He may have one year, or two at the most, an ancient and _sad_
matron attending on him.--Sir T. ELYOT, _The Governor_, b. i.
c. 6.
For when I thinke how farre this earth doth us divyde,
Alas, mesemes, love throws me down, I fele how that I slide.
But when I think again, Why should I thus mistrust
So sweet a wight, so _sad_ and wise, that is so true and just?
EARL OF SURREY, _The Faithful Lover_, p. 33 (ed. 1717).
In go the sperës _sadly_ in the rest.
CHAUCER, _The Knightes Tale_.
Therfor ye, britheren, bifor witynge kepe you silf, lest ye be
disseyved bi errour of unwise men, and falle awei fro youre
owne _sadness_ [a propriâ _firmitate_, Vulg.].--_2 Pet._ iii.
17. WICLIF.
_Benvolio._ Tell me in _sadness_ who she is you love?
_Romeo._ What, shall I groan, and tell you?
_Ben._ Groan? why, no;
But _sadly_ tell me who?
SHAKESPEARE, _Romeo and Juliet_, act i. sc. 1.
=SAMPLER.= This has now quite dissociated itself in meaning from
‘exemplar,’ of which it is the popular form, as ‘sample’ has done from
‘example;’ not so, however, once.
Job, the _sawmpler_ of pacience.--_Preparatory Epistles of St.
Jerome to Wiclif’s Bible._
=SASH.= At present always a belt or girdle _of the loins_; not so,
however, when first introduced from the East. By the ‘sash,’ or ‘shash’
as it was then always spelt, was understood the roll of silk, fine
linen, or gauze, worn about the head; in fact a turban. The word is of
Persian origin.
_Shash_: Cidaris seu tiara, pileus Turcicus, ut doct. Th. H.
placet, ab It. Sessa, gausapina cujus involucris Turcæ pileos
suos adornant.--SKINNER, _Etymologicon_.
So much for the silk in Judea, called Shesh in Hebrew, whence
haply that fine linen or silk is called _shashes_, worn at this
day about the heads of eastern people.--FULLER, _A Pisgah Sight
of Palestine_, b. ii. c. 14.
He [a Persian merchant] was apparelled in a long robe of cloth
of gold, his head was wreathed with a huge _shash_ or tulipant
of silk and gold.--HERBERT, _Travels_, 1638, p. 191.
=SCARCE=, }
SCARCELY, }
SCARCITY. }
Now expressing the fact that the thing to which this epithet is applied
is rare, not easily to be come by; but in the time of Chaucer, Wiclif,
and Gower, and till a later day, parsimonious or stingy. For the
derivation see Skeat’s _Dictionary_.
Ye schul use the richesses the whiche ye han geten by youre
witte and by youre travaile, in such a maner, that men holde
yow not _skarse_ ne to sparynge ne fool-large; for right
as men blamen an avërous man bycause of his _skarsite_ and
chyncherie, in the same manere is he to blame that spendeth
over largely.--CHAUCER, _The Tale of Melibœus_.
A man is that is maad riche in doynge _scarsli_ [parce agendo,
Vulg.]--_Ecclus._ xi. 18. WICLIF.
For I seie this thing, he that sowith _scarseli_ schal also
repe _scarseli_.--_2 Cor._ ix. 6. Id.
Both free and _scarce_, thou giv’st and tak’st again;
Thy womb, that all doth breed, is tomb to all.
DAVISON, _Poetical Rhapsody_, p. 256.
=SECURE=, }
SECURELY, }
SECURITY. }
In our present English the difference between ‘safe’ and ‘secure’ is
hardly recognized, but once it was otherwise. ‘Secure’ (‘securus,’
from sē- + cura) was _subjective_; it was a man’s own sense, well
grounded or not, of the absence of danger; ‘safe’ was _objective_, the
actual fact of such absence of danger. A man, therefore, might _not_
be ‘safe,’ just because he was ‘secure’ (thus see _Judges_ xviii. 7,
10, 27, and _Paradise Lost_, iv. 791). I may observe that our use of
‘secure’ at _Matt._ xxviii. 14, is in fact this early, though we may
easily read the passage as though it were employed in the modern sense.
‘We will _secure_ you’ of our Version represents _ἀμερίμνους_ ὑμᾶς
ποιήσομεν of the original.
My wanton weakness did herself betray
With too much play.
I was too bold; he never yet stood safe
That stands _secure_.
QUARLES, _Emblems_, ii. 14.
We cannot endure to be disturbed or awakened from our
pleasing lethargy. For we care not to be safe, but to be
_secure_.--Bishop TAYLOR, _Of Slander and Flattery_.
Man may _securely_ sin, but safely never.
BEN JONSON, _The Forest_, xi.
We see the wind sit sore upon our sails,
But yet we strike not, but _securely_ perish.
SHAKESPEARE, _Richard II._, act ii. sc. 1.
He means, my lord, that we are too remiss,
While Bolingbroke, through our _security_,
Grows strong and great in substance and in friends.
Id., _ibid._, act iii. sc. 2.
The last daughter of pride is delicacy, under which is
contained gluttony, luxury, sloth, and _security_.--NASH,
_Christ’s Tears over Jerusalem_, p. 137.
How this man
Bears up in blood; seems fearless! Why ’tis well:
_Security_ some men call the suburbs of hell,
Only a dead wall between.
WEBSTER, _Duchess of Malfi_, act v. sc. 2.
=SEDITION=, }
SEDITIOUS. }
There was an attempt on the part of some scholarly writers at the
beginning of the seventeenth century to keep ‘sedition’ true to its
etymology, and to the meaning which ‘seditio’ bears in the Latin. This
is the explanation of its employment as a rendering of διχοστασίαι,
_Gal._ v. 21, as quoted below; which in our present English would be
more accurately rendered, secessions, dissensions, or divisions; in
exactly which sense ‘seditious’ is there used by our Translators.
So too, when Satan, in the quotation given below, addresses Abdiel
‘seditious Angel,’ this is to find the same explanation, as is clear
from the words which immediately follow. He the one faithful, taking
the Lord’s side, had in so doing divided the ranks of those who adhered
to the fallen Archangel, and separated from them, being therein
‘seditious.’ The quotation from Bishop Andrewes not less evidently
shows how distinct in his mind ‘seditions’ were from those overt acts
of petty treason which we now call by this name; however, they might
often lead to such.
Whom you find thus magnifying of changes and projecting
new plots for the people, be sure they are in the way to
_sedition_. For (mark it) they do _sedire_, that is _seorsim
ire_, go aside; they have their meetings apart about their new
alterations. Now of _sedire_ comes _sedition_, side-going. For
if that be not looked to in time, the next news is, the blowing
of a trumpet, and Sheba’s proclamation, We have no part in
David. It begins in Shimei, it ends in Sheba.--ANDREWES, _Of
the Gunpowder Treason_, Serm. 6.
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, ...
_seditions_ (in R.V. ‘divisions’).--_Gal._ v. 20, 21. (A.V.)
Ill for thee, but in wished hour
Of my revenge, first sought for, thou returnest
From flight, _seditious_ Angel, to receive
Thy merited reward.
MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, vi. 150.
=SEE.= Not always confined as now to the _seat_ or residence of a
bishop; nor indeed did it necessarily involve the notion of a seat _of
authority_ at all.
At Babiloyne was his sovereyn _see_.
CHAUCER, _The Monkes Tale_.
And smale harpers with her gleës
Saten under hem in _seës_.
Id., _The Hous of Fame_, b. iii. (Skeat, p. 156).
The Lord smoot all the fyrst gotun in the loond of Egipte, fro
the fyrst gotun of Pharao, that sat in his _see_, unto the
fyrst gotun of the caitiff woman that was in prisoun.--_Exod._
xii. 29. WICLIF.
Not that same famous temple of Diane
Might match with this by many a degree;
Nor that which that wise King of Jewry framed
With endless cost to be the Almighty’s _see_.
SPENSER, _Fairy Queen_, iv. 10, 30.
=SEEDSMAN.= Between the ‘seedsman’ and the ‘sower’ there is now a
useful distinction. The one sells the seed; the other scatters it in
the furrow; but the distinction is comparatively modern.
The higher Nilus swells
The more it promises; as it ebbs, the _seedsman_
Upon the slime and ooze scatters his grain,
And shortly comes to harvest.
SHAKESPEARE, _Antony and Cleopatra_, act ii. sc. 7.
=SENSUAL=, }
SENSUALITY. }
‘Sensual’ is employed now only in an ill meaning, and implies ever a
predominance of sense in quarters where it ought not so to predominate.
Milton, feeling that we wanted another word affirming this predominance
where no such fault was implied by it, and that ‘sensual’ only
imperfectly expressed this, employed, I know not whether he coined,
‘sensuous,’ a word which, if it had rooted itself in the language
at once, might have proved of excellent service. ‘Sensuality’ has
had always an ill meaning, but not always the same ill meaning which
it has now. Any walking by sense and sight rather than by faith was
‘sensuality’ of old.
Hath not the Lord Jesus convinced thy _sensual_ heart by
_sensual_ arguments? If thy sense were not left-handed, thou
mightest with thy right hand bear down thine infidelity; for
God hath given assurance sufficient by his Son to thy very
_sense_, if though wert not brutish (_1 John_ i. 1).--ROGERS,
_Naaman the Syrian_, p. 493.
There cannot always be that degree of _sensual_, pungent, or
delectable affections towards religion as towards the desires
of nature and sense.--Bishop TAYLOR, _Life of Christ_, part ii.
§ 12.
Far as creation’s ample range extends,
The scale of _sensual_, mental powers ascends.
POPE, _Essay on Man_, b. i.
I do take him to be a hardy captain; but yet a man more meet
to be governed than to govern; for all his enterprizes be made
upon his own _sensuality_, without the advice and counsel of
those that been put in trust by the King’s Majesty.--_State
Papers_, 1538, vol. iii. p. 95.
He who might claim this absolute power over the soul to be
believed upon his bare word, yet seeing the _sensuality_ of man
and our woful distrust, is willing to allow us all the means
of strengthening our souls in his promise, by such seals and
witnesses as confirm it.--ROGERS, _Naaman the Syrian_, p. 483.
A great number of people in divers parts of this realm,
following their own _sensuality_, and living without knowledge
and due fear of God, do wilfully and schismatically abstain
and refuse to come to their own parish churches.--_Act of
Uniformity_, 1662.
=SERVANT.= A wooer, follower, admirer, lover, not of necessity an
accepted one, was a ‘servant’ in the chivalrous language of two or
three centuries ago.
_Valentine._ Madam and mistress, a thousand good morrows.
_Silvia._ Sir Valentine and _servant_, to you two thousand.
SHAKESPEARE, _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, act ii. sc. 1.
’Tis more than I know if Mr. Freeman be my _servant_.... I
cannot brag much that he makes any court to me.--_Letters from
Dorothy Osborne_, Lett. 22 (ed. 1889).
=SERVILITY.= The _subjective_ abjectness and baseness of spirit of one
who is a slave, or who acts as one, is always implied by this word at
the present; while once it did but express the _objective_ fact of an
outwardly servile condition in him of whom it was predicated, leaving
it possible that in spirit he might be free notwithstanding.
Such _servility_ as the Jews endured under the Greeks and
Asiatics, have they endured under the Saracen and the
Turk.--JACKSON, _The Eternal Truth of Scriptures_, b. i. c. 26.
We are no longer under the _servility_ of the law of Moses, but
are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.--H. MORE,
_The Grand Mystery of Godliness_, b. viii. c. 6.
The same [faith] inclined Moses to exchange the dignities
and delights of a court for a state of vagrancy and
_servility_.--BARROW, _Sermon 3, On the Apostles’ Creed_.
[=SHED.= This verb was once in common use in the sense of to separate,
divide, or part. This ‘shed’ is the representative of the O.E.
‘sceādan’ (scādan), the equivalent of the modern German ‘scheiden.’
With these words is connected the modern geographical term ‘watershed,’
i.e. water-divider. ‘To shed’ is still used in the North in the sense
of to divide or separate (Halliwell). From this verb comes the word
‘sheeding,’ the name of a territorial division in the Isle of Man.
Probably our modern ‘shed,’ to scatter, pour, may be the same word as
‘shed,’ to separate, with a development of meaning, but the relation of
the two words has not been satisfactorily made out yet.]
They say also that the manner of making the _shed_
[διακρίνεσθαι] of new-wedded wives’ hair with the iron head of
a javelin came up then likewise.--NORTH, _Plutarch’s Lives_,
p. 22.
They were never so careful to comb their heads as when they
should to the battle; for then they did noint their selves with
sweet oils, and did _shed_ their hair.--Id., _ibid._ p. 45.
=SHEER.= It is curious that Christopher Sly’s declaration that he was
‘fourteen pence on the score for _sheer_ ale’ (_Taming of the Shrew,
Induction_, sc. 2) should have given so much trouble to some of the
early commentators upon Shakespeare. ‘Sheer,’ which is pure, unmixed,
was used of things concrete once, although mostly of things abstract
now.
They had scarcely sunk through the uppermost course of sand
above, when they might see small sources to boil up, at the
first troubled, but afterward they began to yield _sheer_ and
clear water in great abundance.--HOLLAND, _Livy_, p. 1911.
Thou _sheer_, immaculate, and silver fountain,
From whence this stream through muddy passages
Hath held his current.
SHAKESPEARE, _King Richard II._, act v. sc. 3.
Thou never hadst in thy house, to stay men’s stomachs,
A piece of Suffolk cheese, or gammon of bacon,
Or any esculent, but _sheer_ drink only,
For which gross fault I here do damn thy license.
MASSINGER, _A New Way to pay Old Debts_, act iv. sc. 2.
=SHELF.= ‘To shelve’ as to shoal, still remains; but not so, except in
mariners’ charts, ‘shelf’ as = shallow or sandbank. This ‘shelf’ is
quite a distinct word from the ‘shelf’ (of a cupboard).
I thought fit to follow the rule of coasting maps, where
the _shelves_ and rocks are described as well as the safe
channel.--DAVENANT, _Preface to Gondibert_.
God wisheth none should wreck on a strange _shelf_;
To Him man’s dearer than t’ himself.
BEN JONSON, _The Forest_, iii.
The watchful hero felt the knocks, and found
The tossing vessel sailed on shoaly ground.
Sure of his pilot’s loss, he takes himself
The helm, and steers aloof, and shuns the _shelf_.
DRYDEN, _Virgil’s Æneid_, b. v.