_lealock_, see EDD. (s.v. Laylock).
=lelely;= see =leally.=
=lembic,= an ‘alembic’, B. Jonson, Alchem. iii. 2 (Subtle); _limbeck_,
Macbeth, i. 7. 67.
=leme,= a flame, light, ray, beam. Sir T. Elyot, The Governour, bk. i,
c. 1, § 2; Calisto and Melibæa, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 64; _leames_,
lights, Sackville, Induction to Mirror, st. 9. A north-country word, see
EDD. (s.v. Leam, sb.^{1} 1). ME. _leme_ (Chaucer, C. T. B. 4120). OE.
_lēoma_, light.
=Lemures,= in early Roman religion, the spirits of the departed. Milton,
Christ’s Nativity, Hymn, st. 21.
=l’envoy,= the sending forth a poem, hence, the conclusion of a poetical
or prose composition; the author’s parting words; _fig._ a conclusion,
catastrophe, ‘Long since I look’d for this l’envoy’, Massinger, Bashful
Lover, iv. 1 (Martino); v. 1 (Alonzo). OF. _envoye_ (F. _envoi_), a
sending.
=lere,= lore, teaching. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 261; Drayton, Pol.
xxiv. 803; _leare_, Spenser, F. Q. iii, 11. 16; iv. 3. 40; _leares_,
lessons, F. Q. iii. 7. 21; _leere_, Lyly, Mother Bombie, ii. 5
(Sperantus). Also, the meaning, sense (as of a Latin phrase), Heywood,
Witches of Lancs. iv (Lawrence). In prov. use in Scotland and north of
England, see EDD. (s.v. Lear, sb.^{1} 5). ME. _lere_ (Sir Gowther, 231);
fr. _leren_, to teach (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iv. 441). See =leyre.=
=lere;= see =leer.=
=lerrepoop;= see =liripoop.=
=lerrie,= something said by rote, a set speech, ‘patter’; ‘Man can teach
us our lerrie’, Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, iii. 3 (Third Lady). In
Kent ‘lerry’ is the part which has to be learnt by a mummer (EDD.). See
NED. (s.v. Lurry).
=lesses,= the dung of a ‘ravenous’ animal. Turbervile, Hunting, c. 37;
p. 97; Maister of Game, c. 25. F. _laisses_, ‘the lesses (or dung) of a
wild Boar, Wolf, or Bear’ (Cotgr.).
=lest,= to listen. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 1. 17. See EDD. (s.v. List,
vb.^{3}).
=lest;= see =list.=
=lesynge;= see =leasing.=
=let,= hindrance. Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 13; vi. 2. 17. ME. _lett_ (Cursor
M. 7395).
=Lethe,= a river in Hades, the water of which produced forgetfulness of
the past; ‘Lethe the River of Oblivion’, Milton, P. L. ii. 583; ‘Lethe
Wharfe’, Hamlet, i. 5. 33. Hence _Lethean_, ‘They ferry over this
Lethean Sound’, Milton, P. L. ii. 604 (cp. the ‘Lethaeus amnis’ of
Virgil, Aeneid vi. 705). Gk. λήθη, forgetfulness, oblivion; personified
in Hesiod; no river is called Λήθη by the ancient Greeks.
=Lethe,= Death, Jul. Caesar, iii. 1. 206. Hence _Lethean_, deadly,
mortal. Blount, Glossogr., 1670. F. _Lethe_, ‘masc. Death; _Lethean_,
deadly, mortal, death-inflicting’ (Cotgr.). L. _letum_ (on acc. of
association with Gk. λήθη, Lethe, sometimes printed _lethum_, an
orthography which is not supported by MSS. or Inscriptions), Death.
=lettice,= a kind of whitish grey fur; ‘A robe of Scarlet . . . bordered
with Lettice’, Hall, Chron., 25 Hen. VIII (ed. 1809, 803); _a lettice
cap_, ‘Bring in the Lettice cap . . . And then how suddenly we’ll make
you sleep’, Fletcher, M. Thomas, iii. 1. 9; id., Thierry and Theod. v.
2. 8. F. _letice_, ‘a beast of a whitish gray colour’ (Cotgr.). OF.
_letice_, _lettice_, _lettiche_, ‘fourrure ou pelisse grise’ (Didot),
see Ducange (s.v. Lactenus). OHG. _illitiso_, the polecat (12th cent.),
MHG. _iltis_, _iltisse_, see Weigand and Kluge (s.v. Iltis). See Nares.
=lettuce,= in proverbial sayings: _Like lips, like lettuce_, i.e. things
happen to a man according to his deserts, Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 318
(Orgalio, p. 93, col. 1); _Like lettuce, like lips_, New Custom, in
Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iii. 23; _Such lips, such lettuce_, Heywood’s
Proverbs, 80. Cp. the Latin Proverb, ‘Similes habent labra lactucas’,
see Ray’s English Proverbs (ed. Bohn, 111). See NED.
=level-coil,= a rough game, in which each player is in turn driven from
his seat and supplanted by another, hence, riotous sport. B. Jonson,
Tale of a Tub, iii. 2 (Dame Turfe); ‘_Jouër à cul-leve_, to play at
level-coyl’, (Cotgrave). Also used as adv. for turn and turn about,
alternately, ‘The mother’s smile Brought forth the daughter’s blush, and
levell coyle, They smil’d and blusht’, Quarles, Argalus (ed. 1629, 18).
F. _lève-cul_, see Littré (s.v. Lever). See Halliwell.
=lever,= rather, more gladly. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 32; _me lever were_,
it would be more agreeable to me, id., iii. 2. 6. In gen. prov. use in
the British Isles. ME. ‘me were lever’ (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. i. 1034).
OE. _lēofre_, comp. of _lēof_, dear, ‘lief’.
=leveret,= a mistress, a courtesan. Shirley, Gent. of Venice, i. 1
(Malipiero); Gamester, i. 1; Honoria. i. 1 (Alamode). F. _levrette_, ‘A
Greyhound bitch, also, a most lascivious and incontinent wench’
(Cotgr.).
=levet,= a trumpet-call, to awaken soldiers, &c., in a morning;
‘Trumpets sound a levet’ (stage-direction), Fletcher, Double Marriage,
ii. 1; Butler, Hud. ii. 2. 611. Ital. _levata_, a march upon a drum and
trumpet (Florio); orig. pp. fem. of _levare_, to raise.
=levigate,= lightened, made easier. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c.
3, § 1. Late L. _levigare_, to lighten; _levigatio_, a lightening
(Rönsch, 81).
=leyre,= lore. Drayton, Pastorals, Ecl. 4; Ballad of Dowsabel, l. 11.
See =lere.=
=leystall;= see =laystall.=
=liam, lyam,= a leash for hounds. Spelt _liom_, Sir Thos. More, i. 4.
143; Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, ch. 13, § 5; Drayton, Muses’
Elysium, Nymphal 6, 65. O. Prov. _liam_ (Levy), Béarnais Dial., _liam_
(Lespy), Norm.-F. _lian_, ‘lien’ (Moisy), L. _ligamen_, a band, anything
to tie with, fr. _ligare_, to tie. See NED. (s.v. Lyam), and EDD. (s.v.
Leam, sb.^{2}). See =lym.=
=lib,= to sleep. (Cant.) Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song). Hence,
_libkin_, a house to sleep in, a lodging, B. Jonson, Gipsies
Metamorphosed (Jackman); _lib ken_, Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1
(Tearcat); ‘A _lypken_, a house to lye in’, Harman, Caveat, 83.
=lib;= see =glib.=
=libbard,= leopard. Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 29; Milton, P. L. vii. 467.
[The form ‘libbard’ occurs in modern poets: ‘The lion, and the libbard,
and the bear’, Cowper, Task, vi. 773; ‘On libbard’s paws’, Keats, Lamia,
ii. 185.] ME. _libarde_ (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 894). OF. _lebard_
(Godefroy); see NED.
=libbat,= a short thick stick, chiefly for throwing at cocks, &c.; a
billet of wood. Warner, Alb. England, bk. iv, st. 21, st. 12; id., prose
add. to bk. ii, § 22. In prov. use in Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Dorset,
see EDD. (s.v. Libbet, sb.^{1}).
=libecchio,= a south-west wind. Milton, P. L. x. 706. An erroneous form
for Ital. _libeccio_ (Florio), deriv. of L. _Libs_, S.W. wind; Gk. Λίψ.
=libel, libell,= a little book, a short treatise. Gascoigne, Works, i.
42; a written statement. North’s Plutarch, Life of Octavius, § 25 (in
Shaks. Plut., p. 277, note 1).
=liberal,= licentious, gross. Much Ado, iv. 1. 93; Merch. Ven. ii. 2.
194; Othello, ii. 1. 165. _Liberally_, licentiously; City Gallant, in
Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xi. 194.
=libration,= oscillation, swaying to and fro; ‘The bounds of thy
libration’, Dryden, Conq. of Granada, ii. 3. 1 (Almanzor). L. _librare_,
to balance.
=licket.= Meaning doubtful; perhaps a flap of some kind; ‘Wear your coif
with a London licket’, Eastward Ho, i. 1 (Gertrude). In the west country
‘licket’ is in use for ‘a shred, rag’ (EDD.).
=lidderon,= a rascal. Skelton, Against Ven. Tongues, 29; Garl. of
Laurell, 188. A Sc. prov. word, see Jamieson, Suppl. ME. _lyderon_ or
_lydron_, ‘lydorus’ (Prompt. EETS. 262), (_lydorus_ = Gk. λοίδορος).
=lieger,= an ordinary or resident Ambassador; ‘A Lieger (differed) from
an extraordinary Ambassador’, Fuller, Ch. Hist. iii. 5. 22; Fletcher,
Love’s Cure, ii. 2 (Alvarez); a commissioner, an agent, spelt _leiger_,
Meas. for M. iii. 1. 59; Butler, Hud. ii. 3. 140. See =ledger.=
=lie-pot,= a vessel to hold ‘lye’ for use as a hair-wash. Middleton,
Five Gallants, i. 1. 12 (_or_ 14).
=lifter,= a thief, cheat. Tr. and Cr. i. 2. 129; Greene, James IV, iii.
1 (near the end).
=lig, ligge,= to lie, lie down. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 4. 40; Shep. Kal.,
May, 217; Oct., 12. In common prov. use in the north country and E.
Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Lie, vb.^{2} 1 (4)). OE. _licgean_ (_liggan_).
=lightly,= usually, commonly. Richard III, iii. 1. 91; Massinger,
Bondman, iii. 3 (Gracculo); ‘There’s lightning lightly before thunder’,
Ray’s English Proverbs (ed. Bohn, 110); given as a Kentish saying
(EDD.).
=lightmans,= a cant term for day. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song);
Harman, Caveat, p. 84. See =darkmans.=
=like,= to please; ‘The music likes you not’, Two Gent. iv. 2. 56; esp.
in the phrase of courtesy, _an’t like your Grace_, if it please your
Grace, Hen. VIII, i. 1. 100 (for exx. see Schmidt). ME. _lyke_, to
please; _it lyketh yow_, it pleases you (Chaucer); OE. _līcian_, to
please.
†=lilburne,= heavy stupid fellow; a term of abuse. Udall, Roister
Doister, iii. 3 (Merygreek).
=lill,= to let the tongue loll out, to thrust forth the tongue. Spenser,
F. Q. i. 5. 34; ‘I lylle out the tonge’, Palsgrave. In prov. use in
Berks. and Wilts., see EDD. (s.v. Lill, vb.^{2}).
=limbeck;= see =lembic.=
=limiter,= a friar licensed to beg within certain limits. Spenser,
Mother Hubberd, 85. ME. _limitour_ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 209). See Nares.
=limmer,= a ‘limber’; the shaft of a cart or carriage. North, tr. of
Plutarch, Coriolanus, § 14 (in Shak. Plut., p. 26); ‘_Timone_, the
limmer or beam or pole of a wagon’, Torriano, Ital. Dict. (1688).
‘Limmer’ is in prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v.
Limber).
=limmer,= a scoundrel, rascal, rogue. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1
(Earine); Dalrymple, tr. Leslie’s Hist. Scot. ix. 219; _lymmer_,
Holinshed Hist. Irel. (Nares). In common prov. use in the north country
(EDD.).
=limp,= a ‘limpet’. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 189. A Cumberland word (EDD.).
=lin,= a pool. Drayton, Pol. v. 118; vi. 22. In Scotland and the Border
country _linn_ is used for the pool at the base of a waterfall, see EDD.
(s.v. Linn, sb.^{1} 2). Gael _linne_; Irish _linn_; Welsh _llyn_, a
pool.
=lin,= to cease. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 35; Puritan Widow, iii. 5. 110; B.
Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (Tat.); Mirror for Mag. 77 (Nares). In
prov. use in the north country (EDD.). ME. _linne_ (King Horn, 1004);
OE. _linnan_.
=line,= the lime or linden. Holland, Pliny, i. 541; _line-grove_, grove
of lime-trees, Tempest, v. 1. 10. OE. _lind_ and _linde_. See NED. (s.v.
Lind).
=lingel,= a shoemaker’s waxed thread. Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B.
Pestle, v.3 (Ralph); Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 142; ‘Lyngell that
souters sowe with, _chefgros_’, Palsgrave. ‘Lingel’ (or ‘lingle’) is the
ordinary word for shoemaker’s thread in Scotland (EDD.). F. _ligneul_
(Cotgr.).
=linsel, lynsel,= a sheet, a winding-sheet. Kyd, Cornelia, iii. 1. 83.
F. _linceul_, a sheet; L. _linteolum_, dimin. of _linteum_, a linen
cloth.
=lint,= flax, flaxen cloth; ‘Robes that brooke no lint’, admit of no
flax; being of costly material, Warner, Albion’s England, bk. ii, ch. 9,
st. 68. In prov. use in Scotland and north of Ireland (EDD.).
=lint-staff,= a lint-stock or linstock, a staff with a forked head to
hold a lighted match. Heywood, Challenge for Beauty, iii. 1
(Valladaura); vol. v, p. 35. See Dict. (s.v. Linstock).
=lion-drunk,= drunk as a lion. Massinger, Bondman, iii. 3 (Gracculo).
The four degrees of drunkenness were to be drunk as a sheep
(good-humoured); as a lion (noisy); as an ape (foolish); and as a swine
(bestial). See note to Chaucer (C. T. H. 44), in Complete Works.
=liquor,= to lubricate; to anoint with grease. Bacon, Nat. History, §
117; Butler, Hud. i. 3. 106.
=liripoop,= chiefly in phrases _to know_ or _have_ (one’s) _liripoop_,
_to teach_ (a person) _his liripoop_. It means something to be learned
and acted or spoken; _lyrypoope_, Newton, Lemnie’s Complex. vii. 58
(NED.); ‘I will teach thee thy lyrripups’, Stanyhurst, Desc. Irel. in
Holinshed, ii. 35; _lerripoope_, Lyly, Mother Bombie, i. 3 (Prisius);
_leerypoope_, Sapho, i. 3 (Cryticus). Used in the sense of a trick,
_lerrepoop_, Beaumont and Fl., Wit at Several Weapons, i. 1 (Sir
Gregory); London Prodigal, iv. 1. 2. Cp. ‘lerry’, Linc. word for a trick
(EDD.). See =lerry.=
=lirrypoope,= a silly person, Fletcher, Pilgrim, ii. 1. See Nares (s.v.
Liripoop). A Devon word, see EDD. (s.v. Lirripoop).
=list,= a stripe of colour. Butler, Hud. ii. 3. 306; Sir T. Browne,
Vulgar Errors, bk. vi, c. 11. Hence _listed_, striped, Milton, P. L. xi.
866. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. List, sb.^{1} 3). F. _liste_, a list
or selvedge (Cotgr.).
=listeth, list,= _impers._ it is pleasing to; ‘Ys yt not lawfull for me
to do as me listeth with myne awne’, Tyndale, Matt. xx. 15; ‘Me list
. . . This idle task to undertake’, Peele, Arraignm. Paris, i. 2; ‘When
me lest’, World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 247.
=litch-owl,= the ‘lich-owl’, screech-owl, whose cry portended death;
‘The shrieking Litch-owl that doth never cry But boding death’, Drayton,
The Owl, 302; _like-owle_, Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. x, c. 23 (i.
283c). See EDD. (s.v. Lich). ME. _liche_, a body, a dead body (Chaucer).
OE. _līc_.
=lithe, lythe,= a joint; _out of lythe_, out of joint, Morte Arthur,
leaf 58, back, 10; bk. iii, c. 13. ME. _lyth_, a limb (Prompt.). OE.
_lið_.
=lither,= pliant, supple, yielding; ‘The lither skie’, 1 Hen. VI, iv. 7.
21; see NED. ‘Lither’ is used in this sense in Kent and Sussex, see EDD.
(s.v. Lither, adj.^{2}). Probably the same word as ‘lither’, lazy,
sluggish. OE. _lȳðre_, bad (morally and physically).
=little-ease,= pillory, stocks; a very small compartment in a prison.
Middleton, Family of Love, iii. 1. 9. Also called _small-ease_. See
Nares.
=little-son,= a grandson. North, tr. of Plutarch, Octavius, § 22 (in
Shak. Plut., p. 271).
=liver.= Supposed to be the seat of love; to which idea allusions are
common. Temp. iv. 56; Merry Wives, ii. 1. 121. Also, the seat of
courage; Twelfth Nt. iii. 2. 22. To be _lily-livered_, or
_milk-livered_, or _pigeon-livered_, or _white-livered_, is to lack
courage, to be cowardly.
=livery,= a suit of clothes bestowed on retainers or servants, 2 Hen.
IV, v. 5. 11; _instance of livery_, badge of service; Ford, Broken
Heart, iv. 1 (Nearchus). Hence _liveried_, ‘A thousand liveried angels
lackey her’, Milton, Comus, 455. F. _livrée_, ‘a delivery of a thing
that’s given, the thing so given, hence, a livery; ones cloth, colours,
or device worn by servants or others’ (Cotgr.); Med. L. _liberata_
(Ducange). See Dict.
=loave ears,= drooping ears. Lady Alimony, ii. 6 (Morisco).
=lob,= a lubber, a clown. Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 10; Westward Ho, ii. 3
(Birdlime). Cp. Du. _lobben_, ‘a lubbard, a clowne’ (Hexham). A
Lancashire word, see EDD. (s.v. Lob, sb.^{2}).
=lobcock,= a lubber; a term of abuse. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3
(Merygreek); Gascoigne, Supposes, ii. 3 (end). In prov. use in the north
country and in E. Anglia (EDD.).
=Lob’s pound,= prison; also _fig._ a state of great difficulty or
entanglement; a fix. Massinger, Duke of Milan, iii. 2 (Officer); Digby,
Elvira, ii. 1 (Chichon); Butler, Hud. i. 3. 910. Also _Hob’s pound_. See
Nares.
=lodam,= the name of a game of cards; ‘_Carica l’asino_, the play at
cards that we call, Load him’ (Florio); in one form, called _losing
loadum_, the loser won the game, ‘_Coquimbert qui gaigne pert_, a game
at cards, like our losing Lodam’, Cotgrave; Shirley, The Wedding, ii. 3
(Lodam).
=lodesman,= a pilot, guide; ‘Lodesman of a shippe, Pilotte’, Palsgrave;
‘A lodes-man’, Song in Tottel’s Misc., p. 184. ME. _lodesman_, pilot
(Chaucer, Leg. G. W. 1488). OE. _lādmann_.
=lodesmate,= (?) a travelling companion. Only in Gascoigne, Glasse Govt.
v. 3 (Phylocalus), in Poems (ed. 1870, ii. 77).
=loffe,= to laugh. Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 55. In EDD. _loff_ (_lough_)
is given as the infin. of ‘laugh’ in many parts of England (western from
Lanc. to Cornwall). In Lanc. they say ‘he lough’ for ‘he laughed’. ME.
_lough_, pret. of _laughe_ (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 248); OE. _hlōh_,
laughed.
=loft,= uplifted, elated; ‘In neyther fortune loft, nor yet represt’,
Surrey, Of the death of Sir T. W., ii. 27, in Tottel’s Misc., p. 29; and
see the same Misc., p. 235, l. 11.
=loggats,= a game in which thick sticks are thrown to lie as near as
possible to a stake fixed in the ground or a block of wood on a floor.
Hamlet, v. 1. 99. See EDD.
=lol,= that which lolls; the tongue. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii.
442. See EDD. (s.v. Loll, vb.^{2}: Loller, ‘the tongue’).
=lollard,= lazy, idle, sluggish; ‘The lolearde Asse’, Turbervile, That
all things have release, st. 3. The word ‘lollard’ for a lazy person is
used in Cumberland (EDD.).
=Lombard,= a native of Lombardy; ‘A Lumbarde, _longobardus_’, Levins,
Manip. 30; a Lombard engaged as a money-changer or pawnbroker, Greene,
Mourn. Garm. 44 (NED.); also, a money-lender’s office, a pawnshop,
Northward Ho, v. 1 (Kate). Norm. F. _lombard_, _lumbart_, ‘usurier,
prêteur sur gages’ (Moisy). See =lumber.=
=lome,= a bucket. Mirror for Mag., Godwin, st. 55. ‘Loom’ is in use in
many parts of Scotland for a vessel of any kind, see EDD. (s.v. 4).
=long,= to belong. World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 254. ME.
_longen_, to belong (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2278); OE. _langian_.
=longee,= a ‘lunge’, a complimental bow to a lady. Butler, Hud. iii. 1.
159. See Dict. (s.v. Lunge).
=longtails;= see =Kentish long-tails.=
=loos,= praise, fame. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 12. ME. _los_, praise
(Chaucer, Leg. G. W. 1514); OF. _los_, _loos_; O. Prov. _laus_, praise;
L. _laudes_, pl. of _laus_, praise.
=loose,= the act of discharging an arrow. Middleton, Family of Love,
iii. 2. 5; Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 146).
=lope,= to run. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iv. 1 (Sancho’s Song); Greene,
James IV, Induction (Bohan); Gascoigne, Fruites Warre, lii (NED.). They
say in Essex, ‘He went lopin’ along’, see EDD. (s.v. Loup, vb.^{1} 8).
Du. _loopen_, ‘to runne or to trot’ (Hexham).
=lopeman,= a runner. Fletcher, Noble Gentleman, iii. 4. 8.
=lorel,= a worthless person, rogue, blackguard; ‘I am laureate, I am no
lorelle’, Skelton, Against Garnesche. See NED. ME. _lorel_, ‘Lewede
lorel!’ (P. Plowman, A. viii. 123). See =Cock Lorel.=
=loring,= instruction. Spenser, F. Q. v. 7. 42. (A rime-word; formed fr.
_lore_.)
=lote,= in Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, iv. 802, represents Gk. λωτός, some
kind of clover or trefoil, see NED. (s.v. Lote, sb.^{1} 2).
=lought,= loath. Heywood, Fortune by Land and Sea, i. 1 (Old Forrest);
vol. vi, p. 364. ‘Loft’ is in prov. use in Oxfordsh. and Kent as a
pronunc. of ‘loath’ (EDD.).
=loup-garou,= a werwolf, a man changed into the form of a wolf. North,
tr. of Plutarch, Alcibiades (Story of Timon). F. _loup-garou_; F.
_loup_, wolf + _garou_, a werwolf, cp. MHG. _werwolf_, man-wolf; OE.
_werewulf_, so that in _loup-garou_ there is a tautological repetition
of two words for ‘wolf’—one of Latin and the other of Teutonic origin.
See Hatzfeld.
=lour, lowre,= money (Cant); ‘Lour to bouze with’, Fletcher, Beggar’s
Bush, ii. 1 (Prigg); Harman, Caveat, p. 85.
=lourdain,= a general term of opprobrium, a sluggard, vagabond.
Puttenham, English Poesie, bk. i, ch. 13; Drayton, Sheph. Garl. (ed.
1593, K 2), see Nares; ‘Let alone makes mony lurdon’, Ray’s English
Proverbs (ed. 1678, p. 383). See EDD. (s.v. Lurdane). ME. _lordayne_
(_lurdayn_), ‘lurco’ (Prompt. EETS. 269 and 272); OF. _lourdein_, ‘sot,
stupide’ (Roquefort), deriv. of _lourd_, heavy, dull.
=loute,= to bend, bow, make obeisance. Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 30; v. 8.
50. In prov. use in Scotland and in various parts of England, see EDD.
(s.v. Lout, vb.^{2} 1). ME. _loute_ (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iii. 683); OE.
_lūtan_, to stoop.
=louver,= an aperture with a shutter or flap; ‘He put abrode the louvres
of the tente’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Antigonus, § 10; spelt _lover_,
Spenser, F. Q. vi. 10. 42. A north-country word still in use (EDD.). ME.
_lovere_, ‘lodium’ (Prompt. EETS. 271, see note, no. 1294); OF. _lover_,
_lovier_ (Godefroy).
=lover-hole,= an opening in a ‘louver’, Shirley, Honoria, iii. 4
(Alamode).
=love,= to praise, to appraise; ‘I love, as a chapman loveth his ware
that he wyll sell’, Palsgrave. ME. _loven_: ‘_lovon_ and bedyn as
chapmen’ (Prompt. EETS. 277); OE. _lofian_, to praise, to value; cp. G.
_loben_.
=lovery,= a ‘louver’. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. v. 72.
=loves.= The phrases _for all loves_, _of all loves_ (or _love_), _upon
all love_, _for love’s sake_, are all phrases indicating strong
entreaty, like our _for my sake_, _for his sake_. ‘Speake of all loves’,
Mids. Night’s D. ii. 2. 153. ‘Of all loves’ is a Derb. form of entreaty,
see EDD. (s.v. Love, sb.^{1} 3).
=low-bell,= a hand-bell used in fowling, to make the birds lie close;
‘Take a low-bell which must have a deep and hollow sound’, Gentleman’s
Recreation, Fowling, 39 (Nares); ‘As timorous larks amazed are With
light and with a low-bell’, St. George for England, st. 5 (written in
1688), in Percy’s Reliques (ed. Bohn, ii. 329). It is probably this kind
of bell which Petruchio means when he says to Maria: ‘Peace, gentle
low-bell!’, Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 3.
=low-men,= loaded dice that produced low throws. London Prodigal, i. 1.
218.
=lubric, lubrick,= incontinent, wanton. Ford, Witch of Edmonton, iii. 2
(Win.); Dryden, Ode to Mrs. Killigrew, 63; B. Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1
(Crispinus). Med. L. _lubricus_, ‘impudicus, salax’ (Ducange).
=lubrican,= the ‘leprechaun’; in Irish folk-lore, a pigmy sprite who
always carries a purse containing a shilling (NED.); ‘Your Irish
lubrican’, Dekker, Honest Wh., 2nd Pt. iii. 1 (Hippolito); Drayton,
Agincourt. For full particulars of this tricky little sprite, see Joyce,
English as we speak it in Ireland, 284. Irish _lupracán_ (also,
_lughracán_, _lugharcán_) a ‘leprechaun’ (Dinneen, p. 450). See EDD.
(s.v. Leprechaun).
=lucern,= a lynx. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Hubert); _lucerns_ (=
θῶες), Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xi. 417; id., Bussy D’Ambois, iii (Bussy);
_luzern_, Peele, Device of a Pageant. Cp. early mod. G. _lüchsern_,
pertaining to the lynx, deriv. of _luchs_, a lynx (NED.).
=lug,= the ear. B. Jonson, Staple of News, v. 1 (P. Canter); Return from
Parnassus (last scene); hence, _lugg’d_, furnished with ‘lugs’ or flaps,
Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. xi. 174. ‘Lug’ is very common in the
north country and E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Lug, sb.^{2} 1).
=lug,= a measure of land. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 11. In prov. use in the
Midlands and south-west counties from Warwicksh. to Somerset, see EDD.
(s.v. Lug, sb.^{3} 5).
=lug,= to pull, drag about. Hamlet, iii. 4. 212; 1 Hen. IV, i. 2. 83;
‘Head-lugged bear’, King Lear, iv. 2. 42. In common colloq. use (EDD.).
=lugge,= a stiff bow. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 28; ‘_Vastus arcus_, a
lugge or mighty bigge bowe’, Cooper.
=lull,= pleasant soothing drink; ‘A Cup of blessed lull’, The London
Chanticleers, scene 9 (Heath). Not found elsewhere.
=lumber,= a pawnbroking establishment; ‘_Mónte de piedád_, a lumber or
bancke to lend money for a yeare, for those that need, without
interest’, Minsheu, Span. Dict. Phr. _to put to lumber_, to put in pawn,
‘To put one’s Clothes to Lumbar, _pignori dare_’, Skinner. See
=Lombard.=
=Luna,= an alchemist’s name for silver. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1
(Subtle). ME. ‘Sol gold is, and Luna silver we threpe’ (Chaucer, C. T.
G. 826).
=lunary,= moonwort, the fern called _Botrychium Lunaria_. Drayton,
Nymphidia, st. 50; Lyly, Endimion, ii. 3 (End.); iv. 3 (Gyptes); Sapho,
iii. 3 (Ismena); B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly). ME. _lunarie_
(Chaucer).
=lune,= a ‘loyn’ or thong for a hawk. Morte Arthur, leaf 104, back, 12;
bk. vi, c. 16. ME. _loigne_ (Rom. Rose, 3882). OF. _loigne_, a cord.
Med. L. _longia_, ‘lorum’ (Ducange). See NED. (s.v. Loyn).
=lunes,= fits of frenzy, mad freaks. Winter’s Tale, ii. 2. 30. F.
_lune_, humour, whim; ‘_Il y a de la lune_, he is a foolish, humorous,
hare-brain’d, giddy-headed fellow’ (Cotgr.); cp. G. _laune_, whim,
humour; fr. L. _luna_, the moon.
=lungis,= a long, slim fellow; one who is long in doing anything.
Beaumont and Fl., Knight B. Pestle, ii. 3. 4; ‘_Longis or a long
slymme_, _lungurio_’, Huloet; ‘_Lungis_, a slim slow-back, a drowsy or
dreaming Fellow’, Phillips (ed. 1706). F. ‘_Longis_, nom propre d’un
personnage légendaire, qui aurait percé de sa lance le flanc de Jésus
Christ; le sens est dû à l’influence de _long_: Celui qui est long à
faire qqch.’ (Hatzfeld). Longinus was said to have been the soldier who
pierced the Lord’s side with his lance (λόγχη); his martyrdom at
Caesarea in Cappadocia was commemorated March 15; see Dict. Christ
Antiq. (s.v.).
=lupus est in fabula,= there is a wolf coming to interrupt our talk. A
proverb used on the occasion of a sudden silence; from the idea that a
man becomes dumb if a wolf happens to see him before the man sees the
wolf. Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 322 (p. 93, col. 1); see Sir T. Browne,
Vulgar Errors, bk. iii, ch. 8. The superstition is referred to by
Virgil, Ecl. ix. 54. The proverb occurs in Terence, Adelphi, iv. 1. 21.
See Büchmann, Geflügelte Worte (ed. 1905, p. 441).
=lurch,= to remain in or about a place secretly, esp. with an evil
design. Merry Wives, ii. 2. 26; to be beforehand in getting something,
to get hold of by stealth, Middleton, Chaste Maid, iii. 2; to deprive,
rob, Coriolanus, ii. 2. 106. A north-country word (EDD.).
=lurden,= a term of reproach, Greene, Friar Bacon, ii. 4. See
=lourdain.=
=lush,= luxuriant, succulent. Temp. ii. 1. 52. In prov. use in Lakeland
and Glouc., see EDD. (s.v. Lush, adj.^{1}). ME. _lusch_ or slak, ‘laxus’
(Prompt.).
=lusk,= to lie idle, to indulge in laziness. Warner, Alb. England, bk.
vi, ch. 30, st. 15. Cp. ‘lusk’, a Linc. word for an idle worthless
fellow (EDD.). Hence _luskye_, lazy; ‘Thy luskye nest’, Drayton, The
Owl, 111; _luskishness_, sluggishness, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 1. 35.
=lustick, lustique,= merry, jolly. All’s Well, ii. 3. 47; ‘Rusticke and
lusticke’, Dekker, Sir T. Wyatt (Clown), ed. Dyce, p. 193. Du.
_lustigh_, pleasant (Hexham); deriv. of _lust_, pleasure. See NED.
=lustihead,= jollity. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Oct., 51.
=lustless,= listless, feeble. Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 20; Gascoigne,
Jocasta, iii. 4. 2. ME. _lustles_ (Gower, C. A. ii. 2024; iv. 3455).
=luxur,= an incontinent man. C. Tourneur, Revenger’s Tragedy, i. 1. 9.
=luxury,= lasciviousness. Middleton, A Game at Chess, ii; A Mad World,
iii. 2 (Mis. H.); Hamlet, i. 5. 83. ME. _luxurie_ (Chaucer, C. T. B.
925). Late L. _luxuria_ (in Vulgate = ἀσωτία, Eph. v. 18).
=luzern;= see =lucern.=
=lyam;= see =liam.=
=lycanthropi,= persons suffering from _lycanthropia_, or wolf-madness.
Middleton, The Changeling, iii. 3 (Franciscus); Ford, Lover’s
Melancholy, iii. 3 (Corax). Gk. λυκάνθρωπος, a wer-wolf, a man who
thought he was changed into a wolf, or who was thought by others to be
so changed.
=lyers;= see =leare.=
=lylse-wulse,= linsey-woolsey. Skelton, Why Come ye nat to Courte, 128.
_Lylsey_ is an older form of Linsey (Suffolk), where cloth was once
made. _Wulse_ furnishes a pun on the name of Wolsey.
=lym,= a lyam-hound, or one held by a leash. King Lear, iii. 6. 72.
Short for _lyam-hound_. See =liam.=
=lymiter;= see =limiter.=
=lythe;= see =lithe.=
M
=M,= abbreviation for Master as a conventional title. Phr. _to have_ (or
_carry_) _an M under one’s girdle_, to use a respectful prefix (Mr. or
Mrs.) when addressing or mentioning a person; ‘You might carry an M
under your girdle to Mr. Deputy’s worship’, B. Jonson, &c., Eastward Ho,
iv. 1 (Constable); ‘Have you nere an M under your girdle’, Great Britons
Honycombe (Nares); ‘You might have an M under your Girdle, Miss’, Swift,
Polite Conversation; Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3. 133. [‘Ye might hae
had an M under your belt for Mistress Wilson of Milnwood’, Scott, Old
Mortality, xxix.]
=mace-proof,= proof against fear of bailiffs or mace-carrying serjeants.
Shirley, Bird in a Cage, ii. 1 (Bonamico); Gamester, iii. 1 (Lord F.).
=mackrel gale,= a fresh gale, when mackerel are more easily caught.
Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 456.
=maculate,= to stain, defile. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 26, §
8; _maculated_, spotted, Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. v, c. 29, §
9. L. _maculare_, to spot; from _macula_, a spot.
=mad=(=de,= a maggot or grub, esp. the larva which causes a disease in
sheep. Tusser, Husbandry, § 50; Best, Farming Books (Surtees Soc., 6);
Worlidge, Syst. Agric. 273; an earthworm, ‘Mooles take mads’, Warner,
Alb. England, ii. 9, st. 52; Holland, Pliny, ii. 361. See =mathe.=
=maddle-coddle,= foolish. Three Lords and Three Ladies, in Hazlitt’s
Dodsley, vi. 391. See EDD. (s.v. Maddle).
=Madrill,= Madrid. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, i. 1 (Pedro); ii. 1
(Alvarez); Marvell, Appleton House. Cp. Span. _Madrileño_, a native or
inhabitant of Madrid.
†=magar,= some kind of ship. Only in Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 86; p. 90,
col. 2.
=mage,= a magician. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3. 14. L. _magus_, pl. _magi_,
‘the Wise Men’ (Vulgate, Matt. ii. 1).
=maggot-pate,= a light-headed whimsical person. Beaumont and Fl., Span.
Curate, iv. 5 (Milanes).
=maggot-pye,= a magpie. Macbeth, iii. 4. 125; ‘_Gazzotto_, a
maggot-a-pie’, Florio. ‘Magot’ was a pet name for Margaret, see
Bardsley, English Surnames, 76. F. _Margot_, ‘diminutif très familier de
Marguerite, nom vulgaire de la pie’ (Littré). ‘Maggotty-pie’ is in prov.
use in Wilts., Somerset, and Cornwall for the magpie, see EDD. (s.v.
Maggot, sb.^{2}).
=magisterium,= lit. mastery; a name for the ‘philosopher’s stone’. B.
Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Subtle). See Ducange.
=magnificate,= to magnify; ‘A church reformed state, The which the
female tongues magnificate’, Marston, Sat. ii. 42; ridiculed by Jonson,
Poetaster, v. 1 (Tucca); p. 130.
=magnificence,= liberality of expenditure combined with good taste.
Massinger, Renegado, ii. 4 (Vitelli); Duke of Milan, iii. 1 (Charles).
Cp. Chaucer, C. T. I. 736.
=magnificent,= munificent, liberal. Massinger, Emp. of the East, ii. 1
(Theodosius); Parl. of Love, iv. 1 (Dinant).
=maid,= a name given to the thornback and skate, when young. A Woman
never vexed, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xii. 112; Drayton, Pol. xxv. 104;
Gay, Trivia, ii. 292. In prov. use in Ireland and various parts of
England, see EDD.
=mail,= in hawking, to tie or wrap up a hawk with a girdle or kerchief,
to secure her. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 4 (Captain); Fletcher and
Rowley, Maid in the Mill, iii. 3 (Gerasto). See NED. (s.v. Mail, vb.^{3}
2).
=main,= in the game of hazard, a number (from five to nine inclusive)
called by the caster before the dice are thrown; 1 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 47;
_mains_, throws at dice; Marston, What you Will, iv. 1 (Quadratus). See
NED. (s.v. Main, sb.^{3} 1).
=mainprize,= suretyship, acceptance of suretyship. Butler, Hud. iii. 1.
60; Heywood, Eng. Traveller, iv. 1 (Reignald); ‘_Mainprise_, the
receiving a man into friendly custody, that otherwise is or might be
committed to prison, upon security given for his forthcoming at a day
assigned’, Cowell, Interpreter (ed. 1637). Anglo-F. _maynprys_ (Rough
List).
=maiordomo,= ‘major-domo’, the chief officer or servant of a princely or
wealthy household. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. iii, c. 4 (ed. Arber,
158). Span. _mayordomo_, a steward (Stevens).
=maistry,= a competitive feat of strength or skill. Sir T. Elyot,
Governour, bk. i, c. 17, § 4; _masteries_, Bacon, Essay 19, § 3.
=make,= a companion, husband, wife. Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 7; iii. 11. 2.
Hence _makeless_, widowed, Shak., Sonnet 9. ME. _make_, a mate, equal,
match; a wedded companion, husband or wife (Chaucer). Still in use in
these senses in Scotland, also in England in many parts from the north
to Glouc. OE. _gemaca_.
=makeless,= matchless, incomparable, Mirror for Mag, Buckingham,
st. 13.
=make-bate,= a mischief-maker, promoter of quarrels. Stanyhurst, tr. of
Aeneid, ii. 573 (ed. Arber, 62); BIBLE, 2 Tim. iii. 3 (margin); Titus
ii. 3 (margin); ‘Satan the author and sower of discord stirred up his
instruments, certain Frenchmen, tittivillers and makebaits about the
King’, Foxe, Bk. Martyrs (ed. Cattley, ii. 648); Heywood, A Woman
Killed, iii. 2 (Nicholas). In prov. use in Devon, see EDD. (s.v. Make,
vb.^{1} 3).
=making,= a match-making, matching. Middleton, A Trick to catch, iii. 3
(Witgood).
=malakatoon,= a quince, a peach grafted on a quince. Webster, Devil’s
Law-case, i. 2 (Romelio); _malicatoon_, Rowley, All’s Lost, i. 3. 15.
See =melocotone.=
=malander, mallander,= a dry scabby eruption behind the knee in horses.
Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 94; B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Knockem).
F. _malandre_; Late L. _malandria_, pl. pustules on the neck, esp. in
horses (Vegetius).
=male,= a bag, wallet, pack. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 142. 2; ‘Male or
wallet, to putte geare in’, Palsgrave; Tusser, Husbandry, § 102. 4. ME.
_male_ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3115). See Dict. (s.v. Mail, 2).
=male-ease,= indisposition, illness. Morte Arthur, leaf 169, back, 2;
bk. viii, c. 41. F. _malaise_.
=malefice,= an evil deed. Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 1154. L.
_maleficium_, evil deed.
=malengin, malengine,= evil contrivance, ill intent, deceit. Spenser, F.
Q. iii. 1. 53; v. 9. 5. ME. _malengin_: ‘The florin Was moder ferst of
malengin’ (Gower, C. A. v. 345). Anglo-F. _malengin_, evil device
(Gower, Mirour, 6544); cp. _engin_, device, trickery, id., 2102.
=maleur,= misfortune. Spelt _maleheure_, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 169.
1; _maleure_, id., lf. 244, back, 22. OF. _maleur_; L. _malum augurium_,
evil destiny.
=maleurous,= unlucky. Spelt _malewreus_, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 82.
26. OF. _maleuros_ (F. _malheureux_).
=maleurtee,= misfortune. Spelt _maleheurte_, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf
338. 15. See NED.
=male-uryd,= ill-omened, unlucky. Skelton, Against the Scottes, 111. See
=ure= (destiny).
=malgrado,= ‘maugre’, in despite of, to the loss of; ‘Malgrado of his
honour’, Greene, Orl. Fur. v. 2 (Orlando); Marlowe, Edw. II, ii. 5. 5.
Ital. _malgrado_, ‘in despight of’ (Florio). Cp. =maugre.=
=malice,= to regard with malice, seek to injure. Surrey. Complaint of a
Lover that defied Love, 34 (in Tottell’s Misc., p. 8); North, tr. of
Plutarch, Coriolanus, § 13 (in Shak. Plut., p. 23). See Nares.
=malkin,= an untidy female servant, a slut, slattern. Coriolanus, ii. 1.
227; Pericles, iv. 3. 34; used as a term of abuse, a lewd woman, spelt
_maukin_, Beaumont and Fl., The Chances, iii. 1 (Landlady); Death of E.
Huntington, ii. 1 (Hubert), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 258. ‘Malkin’
(‘Mawkin’) is in gen. prov. use in England and Scotland for a slattern,
and as a term of abuse, see EDD. (s.v. Mawkin, 2). It is prop. a dimin.
of the Christian name _Maud_ (ME. _Malde_), a F. equivalent of
_Matilda_.
=mall,= a club. Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 51; an iron club, id., iv. 5. 42.
As vb., to beat down, id., v. 11. 8.
=malleation,= the test of hammering. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Face).
From L. _malleus_, a hammer.
=malleted,= infixed as if by a ‘mallet’. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii.
649.
=maltalent,= ill-will. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 4. 61. ME. _maltalent_,
ill-will, ill-humour (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 273 and 330); Anglo-F.
_maltalant_, ill-humour (Ch. Rol. 271).
=mammer,= to waver, to be undecided. Othello, iii. 3. 70; Drant, tr.
Horace, 2 Sat. 3. A north-country word (EDD.). ME. _mamere_, ‘mutulare’
(Voc. 668. 26). See Nares.
=mammet,= a puppet, an odd figure, freq. used as a term of abuse. Romeo,
iii. 5. 186; 1 Hen. IV, ii. 3. 95; spelt _maumet_, Machin, The Dumb
Knight, iii. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Mommet). ME. _maumet_, an
idol, a false god (Chaucer, C. T. I. 860); OF. _mahumet_, an idol, orig.
Mahomet, who was supposed to be one of the false gods of the Saracens
(Ch. Rol. 2590).
=mammock,= a scrap, shred. Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 654; to tear into
shreds, Coriolanus, i. 3. 71. ‘Mammock’, a broken piece, scrap, slice of
food; to cut into pieces—in prov. use (EDD.).
=mammothrept,= a spoiled child, weakling. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels,
iv. 1 (Amorphus). Gk. μαμμόθρεπτος, brought up by one’s grandmother.
=man,= to ‘squire’, or accompany a lady, to escort. Lyly, Euphues (ed.
Arber, 291); Fletcher, Span. Curate, iv. 7 (Amaranta).
=manable,= used of a girl of marriageable age. Middleton, Family of
Love, iv. 4 (Gudgeon); ‘She’s manable’, Fletcher, Maid in the Mill, ii.
1 (Otrante).
=manage,= management, control. Richard II, iii. 3. 179; Edw. III, iii.
3. 224.
=manchet,= a small loaf of white bread. Drayton, Pol., Song, xvi. 229;
Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, ii. 1 (Roger). In prov. use in Yorks., Lanc.,
and in the west country (EDD.). Norm. F. _manchette_, ‘pain à croûte
dure, inégale, fait en forme de couronne’ (Moisy). Prob. the same word
as F. _manchette_, a cuff (Hatzfeld).
=manderer;= see =maunder.=
=mandilion,= a soldier’s cloak. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, x. 120;
Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, iv. 3 (Lazarillo). See Nares. Ital.
_mandiglione_, a jacket (Florio), deriv. of Med. L. _mantile_, cp. Span.
_mantilla_. See Dozy, Glossaire, 299.
=mandragora,= mandrake. Othello, iii. 3. 330; Ant. and Cl. i. 5. 4. Gk.
μανδραγόρας.
=mandrake,= the plant _Atropa mandragora_; of a strong narcotic quality.
Its root was thought to resemble the human figure, and to cause madness
by its shriek or groan when torn from the ground. 2 Hen. VI, iii. 2.
310; Romeo, iv. 3. 47; a term of abuse, 2 Hen. IV, i. 2. 16; iii. 2.
342.
=mandritta, mandrita,= in fencing, a cut from right to left. Nabbes,
Microcosmos, i. 2 (Choler); Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. xi. 56.
Ital. _mandritto_, _manritto_, ‘a right handed blow’ (Florio).
=maner, manner:= in phr. _to be taken with the maner_, to be taken in
the act. BIBLE, Num. v. 13 (ed. 1611); also, in the Geneva Bible (1562);
1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 350; Winter’s Tale, iv. 3 (or 4), 755. ‘If the
Defendant were taken with the mainour (or manour)’, Cowell, Interpreter
(s.v. Mainour); ‘He is taken with the maynure’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour,
bk. ii. c. 7, § 6. Compare the Anglo-F. legal phrase _pris ov mainoure_,
and the L. _cum manuopere captus_, i.e. taken with the thing stolen in
one’s possession (Ducange, s.v. Manopera); _mainoure_, lit. hand-work,
acquired the legal sense of ‘thing stolen’. Later, to be taken _in the_
(_i’th_) _manner_, Fletcher, Rule a Wife, v. 4. 8. See Dict. (s.v.
Mainour).
=mangonize,= to sell men or boys for slaves. B. Jonson, Poetaster, iii.
1 (Tucca). L. _mangonizare_, to trim up an article for sale (Pliny);
_mango_, a dealer in slaves and wares.
=manicon,= the name of a narcotic, obtained from a kind of night-shade,
so called from its supposed power of causing madness; ‘(Who) Bewitch
hermetic men to run Stark staring mad with manicon’, Butler, Hud. iii.
1. 324. See Alphita, 176 (under Strignus manicon, and Solatrum mortale).
Cp. Gk. στρύχνος μανικός (Dioscorides).
=maniple,= a handful, bundle. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, i. 1 (Sir Dia.); a
band of men, Milton, Areopagitica (ed. Hales, 48). See Dict.
=manner;= see =maner.=
=manred,= the men whom the lord could call upon in time of war; hence, a
supply of fighting men; ‘Manred and retinew’, Holland, Camden’s Brit.,
Scot. ii. 17 (NED.); Phaer, Aeneid vii, 644 and 710 (L. orig. ‘cohors’).
OE. _mannrǣden_, homage, service due from tenants.
=manticore,= a fabulous animal, compounded of a lion, porcupine, and
scorpion, with a human head. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 118 and 124;
‘Mantichoras, monstrous beasts’, Wilkins, Miseries of inforst Marriage,
v (Butler). Gk. μαντιχώρας, a corrupt reading for μαρτιχόρας in
Aristotle; from a Persian word meaning ‘man-eater’. See NED.
=manto,= a cloak. Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 700. Ital. _manto_.
=mantoon,= a mantle. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, i. 2 (Romelio). Ital.
_mantone_, _manto_, a cloak (Florio).
=manurage,= cultivation of land. Warner, Alb. England, bk. iii, c. 14,
st. 1.
=map,= a mop. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 2 (Soto); ‘Map’ is a Yorks.
pronunc. of ‘mop’ (EDD.).
=maquerelle,= a bawd, a procuress. Westward Ho, v. 3; Shirley, Triumph
of Peace (Second Antimasque). F. _maquerelle_, ‘a (woman) bawd, the
solicitrix of Lechery’ (Cotgr.).
=marablane,= an Oriental aromatic. Ford, Sun’s Darling, ii. 1
(Spaniard). See =myrobalane.=
=marasmus,= a wasting away of the body. Milton, P. L. xi. 487. Gk.
μαρασμός.
=marchesite;= ‘marcasite’; a kind of iron pyrites. B. Jonson, Alchem.
ii. 1 (Surly). Ital. _marchesita_, _marcasita_, ‘a marquesit, or
fire-stone, good to make mill-stones’ (Florio).
=marcussotte,= to cut the beard in a particular way; ‘And with a sythe
doth marcussotte his bristled berd’, Golding, Metam. xiii. 766; fol. 163
(1603). F. _Barbe faicte à la marquisotte_, ‘Cut after the Turkish
fashion; all being shaven away but the mustachoes’ (Cotgr.).
=mare,= the nightmare. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 83. ME. _mare_ or nyȝhte mare,
‘epialtes’ (Prompt.). OE. _mare_, Icel. _mara_.
=mare:= in phr. _to ride the wild mare_, to play at see-saw. 2 Hen. IV,
ii. 4. 268; _the two-legged mare_, the gallows, Like Will to Like, in
Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iii. 335, 345.
=mare;= ‘the blues’, melancholy; ‘Away the mare’, Skelton, Elynour
Rummyng, 110; ‘Let pass away the mare’, Calisto and Melibæa, in
Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 57.
=mare,= a term in wrestling; a particular kind of grip. Drayton, Pol. i.
244. Also called _the flying mare_; see NED.
=mareyse,= a marsh. Morte Arthur, leaf 113. 5; bk. vi, c. 14; lf. 217.
17; bk. x, c. 1. OF. _mareis_; Med. L. _mariscus_ (Ducange).
=margaret, margarite,= a pearl. Greene, Orl. Fur. i. 1. 76; p. 90, col.
1; A Looking-Glasse, i. 1. 100 (Rasni). F. _Marguerite_, ‘Margaret (a
woman’s name); also a (Margarite) pearl’ (Cotgr.). L _margarita_, Gk.
μαργαρίτης, a pearl.
=marge,= margin, brink, border. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 6. Drayton, Pol.
ii. 25. F. _marge_.
=margery-prater,= a hen (Cant). Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 1 (Higgen);
Harman, Caveat, p. 83. _Prater_ = cackler.
=marginal finger,= an index-hand in the margin of a book (☞); used to
direct attention to a striking passage. Massinger, Fatal Dowry (Romont;
towards the end).
=mark,= a coin worth 13_s._ 4_d._, or 2/3 of the £ sterling. Measure for
M. iv. 3. 7; King John, ii. 530.
=mark-white,= white mark, centre. Phr. _at the marke white_, at the
white mark in the centre of a target, Spenser, F. Q. v. 5. 35; cp. _the
white_, Tam. Shrew, v. 2. 186. And see =rove.=
=marle,= to marvel, wonder. Eastward Ho, iii. 2 (Gertrude); B. Jonson,
Ev. Man out of Humour, Induct. (Carlo); a marvel, B. Jonson, Silent
Woman, iii. 1 (Mrs. Otter). A Devon and Somerset pronunc., see EDD.
(s.v. Marl, vb.^{3}).
=marlian,= a merlin, small hawk. Song in Tottel’s Misc., p. 132, l. 1. A
Cornish pronunc., see EDD. (s.v. Marlin).
=marling,= a ‘marline’, a small tarred cord used for binding ropes.
Dryden, Annus Mirab. 148. See Dict. (s.v. Marline).
=marmaritin,= a plant. Middleton, The Witch, iii. 3 (Hecate). L.
_marmaritis_; Gk. μαρμαρῖτις, a plant that grows in marble quarries
(Pliny).
=marmoll,= an enflamed sore, esp. on the leg. Skelton, Magnyfycence,
1932. See =mortmal.=
=marrow,= a companion, partner, mate. Tusser, Husbandry, § 57, st. 40;
Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, Nymphal ii, 195. In common prov. use in the
north to Cheshire and Derbyshire, see EDD. (s.v. Marrow, sb.^{2} 1). ME.
_marwe_, ‘socius, sodalis, compar’ (Prompt.).
=marry gip= (an exclamation); ‘Marry gip, thought I, with a wanion!’,
Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, ii; B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Waspe);
cp. the oath, _By Mary Gipcy_ (i.e. by S. Mary of Egypt), Skelton, Garl.
of Laurell, 1455.
=marry gup= (an exclamation); _marie gup!_, Lyly, Midas, v. 2 (Licio)
See NED. (s.v. Marry, int., c).
=marry muff,= some kind of cheap textile fabric; ‘A sute of Marrymuffe’,
Meeting of Gallants (NED.). Used as a derisive exclamation, Dekker,
Honest Wh., Pt. I, ii. 1 (Bellafront).
=Mars,= an alchemist’s name for iron. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Face).
=mart:= phr. _letters of mart_, _letters of marque_, Fletcher, Beggar’s
Bush, i. 3 (Goswin); Wife for a Month, ii. 1 (Tony). See Dict. (s.v.
Marque).
=martagan,= martagon, Turk’s-cap lily; _Lilium martagon_. B. Jonson, Sad
Sheph. ii. 2 (Aiken). F. ‘_martagon de Constantinople_, the Byzantine
Lilly’ (Cotgr.); Ital. _martagone_; Turk. _martagān_, a kind of turban,
a martagon-lily.
=martel,= to hammer. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 7. 42. OF. _marteler_, deriv.
of OF. _martel_, a hammer.
=martern,= the ‘marten’, an animal of the weasel kind. Fletcher,
Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Hubert); Harrison, Descript. England, ii. 19 (ed.
Furnivall, 310). See Dict. (s.v. Marten).
=martialist,= a military man. Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 2. 17.
=Martlemas,= Martinmas. St. Martin’s day, Nov. 11. Meat was often killed
at this time to be salted for use at Christmas, Greene, George-a-Greene
(ll. 439, 1001), ed. Dyce, p. 260, col. 1; p. 266, col. 1; _Martilmas_,
Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 134. 21; Tusser, § 12. 3. An E. Anglian form
of Martinmas (EDD.).
=mary, maree,= marrow. Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, iv. 66; _maree_, Golding,
tr. of Met. ix. 172. ME. _mary_ (Chaucer, C. T. C. 542); _mary-bones_,
marrow-bones (id., C. T. A. 380).
=maryhinchco, maryhinchcho,= a disease to which horses are subject; ‘She
has had a string-halt, the maryhinchco’, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, iii. 1
(Knockem). Markham explains it thus: ‘The string-halt, of some called
the mary-hinchcho, is a sodaine twitching up of the horses hinder
legges’ (NED.).
=mash,= to become enmeshed or entangled. Warner, Albion’s England, vi.
29, st. 27. See NED. (s.v. Mesh, vb.).
=maship,= a shorter form of _mastership_, as a term of respect. Udall,
Roister Doister, i. 2 (Merygreek).
=mask,= the ‘mesh’ of a net. Brewer, Lingua, ii. 6 (Mendacio). A
Cheshire pronunc., see EDD. (s.v. Maske). ME. _maske_, ‘macula’
(Prompt.); OE. _max_, cp. Dan. _maske_. See NED. (s.v. Mask, sb.^{1}).
=masticot, masticote,= ‘massicot’, yellow protoxide of lead, used as a
pigment. Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, c. 13; pp. 130, 132. F. _massicot_,
‘oaker [ochre] made of Ceruse, or white lead’ (Cotgr.).
=mastlin,= mixed corn, esp. a mixture of wheat and rye. Tusser,
Husbandry, § 63. 23; ‘_Metail_, Messling or Masslin, Wheat and Rie
mingled, sowed and used together’, Cotgrave. ME. _mestlyon_ or mongorne,
‘mixtilio’ (Prompt. EETS. 286). ‘Meslin’ is in gen. prov. use in England
and Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Maslin, sb.^{1}).
=mastlin, maslin,= a kind of brass. Brewer, Lingua, iv. 1 (Heuresis). In
prov. use as an attrib.: maslin kettles, pans, pots, spoons, see EDD.
(s.v. Maslin, sb.^{2}). ME. _maslin_, also, _mestling_ (NED.); OE.
_mæs_(_t_)_ling_ (B. T.).
=masty,= a mastiff. Middleton, A Trick to catch, i. 4 (Witgood); used
_fig._ of a cannon (from its noise). Shirley, Maid’s Revenge, iv. 1
(near the end). In prov. use in the north (EDD.). F. _mastin_, a mastive
(Cotgr.); with change of suffix, cp. _haughty_ (F. _hautain_).
=matachin,= a kind of sword-dancer in a fantastic costume; ‘They looked
upon one another as if they had been Matachines’, Luna’s Pursuit (NED.);
see Douce, Illustrations of Shakespeare, ii. 435, quotation in Nares.
Also, the dance performed by ‘matachins’, Webster, White Devil
(Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 48; Beaumont and Fl., Elder Brother, v. 1
(Miramont); spelt _mattacina_, Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 38).
Span. _matachin_, ‘a sword-dancer; as _dança de matachines_, a dance
with swords, in which they fence and strike at one another, as if they
were in earnest; receiving the blows on their bucklers, and keeping
time’ (Stevens). Of Arab. origin, see Dozy, 309.
=matador,= the slayer of the bull in a Spanish bull-fight. Dryden, Span.
Friar, i. 2 (Elvira). Also, in the card-games of ombre and quadrille, a
‘killing’ or principal card, Pope, Rape of the Lock, 321, 335; Etherege,
Man of Mode, ii. 1 (Medley). Span. _matador_, a killer; ‘At the game of
Hombre on the cards, there are four _Matadores_; that is, four murdering
cards; so called because they win all others’ (Stevens).
=matchecold,= machicolated; i.e. furnished with machicolations, which
are openings between the corbels that support a projecting parapet of a
tower; Morte Arthur, leaf 113, back; bk. vii, c. 10 (beginning). F.
_maschecoulis_, ‘the stones over a gate resembling a grate through which
offensive things are thrown upon Pioneers and other assailants’
(Cotgr.).
=matchless,= of things that are not a match, or pair. Spenser, F. Q. iv.
1. 28.
=mathe,= a maggot. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 18. 8, § 45; Caxton,
Reynard, xxviii (ed. Arber, 69). OE. _maða_ (Voc. 205. 8). See
=mad=(=de==.=
=matted,= dulled, deprived of lustre or gloss; ‘Oile colours matted’,
Kyd, Span. Tragedy, iii. 12a (Appendix D. 116). See NED. (s.v. Mat, vb.
2).
=maugre,= to act in spite of, to defy. Webster, Appius, ii. 3 (App.
Claudius). F. _maugréer_, ‘to curse, ban, blaspheme, revile extreamly’
(Cotgr.). See =malgrado.=
=maukin;= see =malkin.=
=maule,= a heavy hammer. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 70. See =mall.=
=maumet;= see =mammet.=
=maund,= to beg (Cant). ‘One that maunds Upon the pad’ [highway], B.
Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1 (Pennyboy Canter); ‘_Maunde_, aske . . .
_hygh pad_, hygh waye’, Harman, Caveat, p. 86; ‘Maund on your own pads’,
Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen). Hence, _maunder_, a beggar,
Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen). See EDD. (s.v. Maund, vb.). OF.
_mandier_ (F. _mendier_), to beg (Bartsch), L. _mendicare_.
=maunder,= to beg. Beaumont and Fl., Thierry, v. 1 (De Vitry); hence
_maunderer_: ‘a maunderer upon the pad’, a beggar on the road, Dekker
and Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Teareat).
=maunder,= to grumble, Fletcher, Rule a Wife, iii. 1 (Margarite). In
gen. prov. use in England and Scotland (EDD.).
=maundie,= a maundy-dole; hence, almsgiving. Herrick, Noble Numbers (The
Widow’s Teares), st. 3. ME. _maundee_, ‘maundy’, the washing of the
disciples’ feet (P. Plowman, B. xvi. 140, see note, p. 239); OF.
_mandé_,’ lavement des pieds’ (Didot); Eccles. L. _mandatum_,
commandment (Vulgate, John xiii. 34); ‘ablutio pedum’ (Ducange).
=mauther,= a young girl. B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 4 (Kastril). Spelt
_moether_, Tusser, Husbandry, § 17, st. 13. An E. Anglian word (EDD.).
=maw,= a game at cards. Rowley, All’s Lost, ii. 1. 16; Chapman, Mayday,
Act v (Lodovico). See Nares.
=may,= a maiden. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 39; Greene, Description of
the Shepherd, l. 57; ed. Dyce, p. 305. Of frequent occurrence in
Scottish Ballads, see EDD. (s.v. May, sb.^{2}). ME. _mai_ (Cursor M.
3238); OE. _mǣg_, a kinswoman, a maiden.
=May-game,= a mirthful spectacle (metaphorically). Ford, Lover’s
Melancholy, i. 2. 10. ‘May games’ were the dancings and merry-makings
round the May-pole, after the gathering of the May. See Stubbes, Anatomy
of Abuses (ed. Furnivall, pp. 149, 305); Herrick’s Hesperides (Corinna’s
going a-Maying), &c.
=May-lord,= a young man chosen to preside over May-day festivities.
Beaumont and Fl., Women Pleased, iv. 1 (Soto); Knight of the B. Pestle,
iv. 5.
=mayneal;= see =menial.=
=maynure;= see =maner.=
=mazard, mazzard,= the head. Hamlet, v. 1. 97; Othello, ii. 3. 155.
Spelt _mazer_, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, iv. 2 (Fustigo). A _fig._ use
of _mazer_, a bowl. See Dict., and Notes on Eng. Etym., p. 183.
=mazard,= to knock on the head, kill; ‘If I had not been a
spirit, I had been mazarded’, B. Jonson, Love Restored (Robin
Goodfellow).
=meach;= see =mich.=
=meacock,= an effeminate person, a coward; ‘A meacock wretch’, Tam.
Shrew, ii. 1. 315; spelt _mecocke_, ‘As stout as a stockefish, as meeke
as a mecocke’, Appius and Virginia (NED.).
=mean,= in music, the tenor or middle part, Two Gent. i. 2. 95. In use
in Warwicksh. as late as 1850, see EDD. (s.v. Mean, sb.^{1} 1). Cp. It.
_mezzano_, ‘a mean or countertenor in musick’, Florio. ME. _mene_, of
songe, ‘Introcentus’ (Prompt. EETS.), also, ‘A _Meyne_, intercentus’
(Cath. Angl.).
=mean,= to lament, ‘moan’. Mids. Night’s D. v. 1. 331. A north-country
word for uttering a moaning sound, see EDD. (s.v. Mean, vb.^{2} 1). ME.
_mene_, to bemoan (Cursor M. 18255). OE. _mǣnan_, to lament.
=meane,= mien, look. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 9. 11. Probably an aphetic form
of _demean_, see NED. (s.v. Mien).
=mease,= a mess, portion of food. Greene, Looking Glasse, ii. 2 (570);
p. 124, col. 2; a group of four, ‘A mease of men, _quatuor_’, Levins,
Manip. _Mease_ is a Yorks. form of _mess_, see EDD. (s.v. Mess,
sb.^{1}). ME. _mese_, ‘ferculum’ (Cath. Angl.); _mees_ of mete,
‘ferculum’ (Prompt. EETS. 286). F. _més_, ‘a messe or service of meat’
(Cotgr.). See =mess.=
=meath,= ‘mead’; a sweet drink made with honey. Drayton, Pol. iv. 112;
B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, i. 1 (Sat.); Milton, P. L. v. 345. ‘Meath’, a
drink made with honey, is in prov. use in Cheshire, Pembroke, Somerset,
and Devon, see EDD. (s.v. Mead, sb.^{2}).
=meaze,= the ‘form’ of a hare. Return from Parnassus, ii. 5 (Amoretto).
See =muse.=
=mechal,= adulterous. Only in Heywood, Eng. Traveller, iii. 1 (O. Ger.);
Rape of Lucrece, iv. 3 (Sextus). Gk. μοιχός, an adulterer.
=mecocke;= see =meacock.=
=meddle, medle,= to mingle, mix. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 61; Shep. Kal.,
April, 68. OF. _medler_, _mesler_ (F. _mêler_), to mix.
=meech;= see =mich.=
†=meered;= ‘He being the meered question’, Ant. and Cl. iii. 13. 10.
Formation and sense doubtful; Schmidt explains: he being the only cause
and subject of the war.
=meet,= to be even with; ‘I have heard of your tricks . . . I may live
To meet thee’, Fletcher, Hon. Man’s Fortune, iii. 3 (Montague); id.,
Rule a Wife, v. 3 (Leon). Also, _to meet with_; ‘I’ll meet with you anon
for interrupting me so’, Marlowe, Faust, x; ‘I shall find time to meet
with them’, Englishmen for any Money, iii. 2 (Pisaro), in Hazlitt’s
Dodsley, x. 513. See Nares.
=meg,= a guinea. (Cant.) Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1 (Hackum). See
NED.
=meg-holly, by the,= a mild oath. Heywood, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs); vol. i, p.
40.
=meint, meynt,= mingled. Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 81; _ment_, F. Q. v.
5. 12; vi. 6. 25. ‘Ment’ is obsolescent in the north country, see EDD.
(s.v. Ment, pp.). ME. _meynt_, pp. of _mengen_ (Lydgate, Storie of
Thebes, 1260). OE. _mengan_, to mix. See Dict. M. and S.
=meiny, meinie,= a body of retainers. King Lear, ii. 4. 35; the common
herd, Coriolanus, iii. 1. 65. Of freq. occurrence in north-country
ballad literature for a company of followers, also, a crowd, throng,
multitude, see EDD. (s.v. Menyie). ME. _meynè_, a household, family
(Wyclif, Acts iii. 25). OF. _maisnée_, ‘famille’ (La Curne), see Ducange
(s.v. Maisnada). A deriv. of L. _mansio_ (an abode). See =menial.=
=mell,= to meddle, to have to do with. All’s Well, iv. 3. 257; Spenser,
F. Q. v. 9. 1; v. 12. 35. In common prov. use in Scotland, also in
Yorks. and Lanc., see EDD. (s.v. Mell, vb.^{2} 1. to mingle, 2. to
meddle). ME. _melle_, to mix (Hampole, Ps. ix. 9). OF. _meller_,
_mesler_ (F. _mêler_).
=mell,= honey. Gascoigne, Works, i. 102; Herrick, Hesperides, Pray and
Prosper, 4. L. _mel_.
=melocotone,= a peach grafted on a quince. Bacon, Essay 46; melicotton,
B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Winwife). Span. _melocoton_, Med. L.
_melum cotoneum_, Gk. μῆλον Κυδώνιον, ‘Cydonian apple’ (NED.). See
=malakatoon.=
=melotte,= a garment of skins, worn by monks. Skelton, Colyn Cloute,
866. L. _melota_ (Vulgate); Gk. μηλωτή, a sheepskin; also, a skin of any
animal (Heb. xi. 37). See Prompt. EETS. 191 (and Latin Glossary, p.
819).
=menial,= a servant of the household; ‘The great Housekeeper of the
World . . . will never leave any of his menials without the bread of
sufficiency’, Bp. Hall, Balm Gilead, xii. § 4; _mayneal_, Morte Arthur,
leaf 215, back, 35; bk. x, c. 11. See =meiny.=
=ment;= see =meint.=
=merce,= to ‘amerce’, to fine. Wilkins, Miseries of inforst Marriage, i
(Sir Wil. Scarborow; l. 12 from end).
=merchant,= a fellow, a chap. 1 Hen. VI, ii. 3. 57; Romeo, ii. 4. 153;
Latimer, Serm., 115 (Nares). Phr. _to play the merchant with_, to get
the better of, to cheat, Rowley, Woman never Vext, iv. 1. 51.
=mercify,= to pity. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 32.
=mercurial finger,= the little finger. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Subtle).
In chiromancy the little finger was assigned to Mercury.
=merds,= fæces, excrement. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Surly). L. _merda_.
=mere, mear,= a boundary, limit; spelt _meare_. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 9.
46; Drayton, Pol. xix. 405. Hence, _meer-stone_, Bacon, Essay 56, § 1.
In gen. prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Mear). ME. _mere_ (Prompt, EETS. 286).
OE. _ge_)_mǣre_, boundary.
=mere, mear,= to mark out by means of ‘meres’; ‘The Latine name Which
mear’d her rule with Africa’, Spenser, Ruines Rome, xxii; _to mear on_,
to abut upon, border upon, Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, iii. 520.
=mere,= absolute, complete, unqualified, Merry Wives, iv. 5. 64; wholly,
completely, All’s Well, iii. 5. 58; Fletcher, Mad Lover, iii. 4. 9;
_merely_, absolutely, entirely, Temp. i. 1. 21; Hamlet, i. 2. 137.
=meridian,= a period of repose at noon; ‘Ye, a meridian to lul him by
daylight’, Mirror for Mag., Cobham, st. 30. Monastic L. _meridiana_,
‘somnus meridianus’ (Ducange). Cp. Ital. _meriggiána_, ‘midday; a
pleasant shady place to feed, to rest, or sleep, and recreate in at
noon, or in the heat of the day’ (Florio).
=mermaid,= a cant term for a courtesan. Massinger, Old Law, iv. 1
(Agatha).
=merrygall, merrygald,= a gall or sore produced by chafing; ‘Heales a
merrygald’, Turbervile, Hunting, p. 139; ‘Merry-gals and raw places’,
Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xxi, c. 18; vol. ii. 101.
=mesel,= a foul person; used as a term of abuse; spelt _messel_, London
Prodigal, ii. 4. 74; iv. 1. 78. In Devon and Somerset, _meazle_ is used
as a term of abuse, meaning a filthy creature. ME. _mesel_, a leper
(Wyclif, Matt. x. 8). OF. _mesel_ ‘lépreux’ (Didot); O. Prov. _mezel_,
‘lépreux’, _mezelia_, ‘lèpre’ (Levy).
=mesprise,= contempt, scorn. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 39. F. _mespris_,
‘contempt, neglect’ (Cotgr.), deriv. of _mespriser_, to fail to
appreciate. F. _mépris_.
=mesprize,= mistake. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 19. Anglo-F. _mesprise_,
error, offence (Gower, Mirour, 1548). F. _méprise_, cp. _mesprendre_, to
mistake (Cotgr.).
=mess,= a group of four persons or things; ‘Where are your mess of sons
to back you now?’, 3 Hen. VI, i. 4. 73; L. L. L. iv. 3. 207; ‘There
lacks a fourth thing to make up the mess’, Latimer, Serm. v; ‘A mess of
most eminent men, Nicolaus Lyra . . . Hieronymus de Sanctâ Fide . . .
Ludovicus Carettus . . . Emmanuel Tremellius’, Fuller, A Pisgah Sight,
Pt. ii, bk. 5; Peele, Edw. I (ed. Dyce, 393); Heywood, Witches of Lanc.
i. 1 (Shakstone), in Wks. iv. 173. A ‘mess’ at the Inns of Court still
consists of four. See Trench, Select Glossary. See EDD. (s.v. Mess,
sb.^{1} 4). F. _més_, ‘a messe or service of meat’ (Cotgr ). Med. L.
_missus_ (Ducange). See =mease.=
=messe:= phr. _by the messe_, by the mass, used in oaths and
asseverations. Skelton, Magnyfycence, 2201; ‘By the Mes’, Hen. V, iii.
2. 122; also, _mess_ by itself, ‘Mess! I’d rather kiss these
Gentlewomen’, Congreve, Love for Love, iii. 3 (Ben). This asseveration
is still in prov. use in various forms in the north country: _By th’
mass_ (Lanc.); _By th’ mess_ (Westm.); _Amess, Mess_ (Cumb.), see EDD.
(s.v. Mass, sb.^{1} 3). F. _messe_, the mass, the Eucharist.
=messling;= see =mastlin.=
=met,= measure. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 333. A north-country word for a
measure, gen. a bushel, see EDD. (s.v. Mete). ME. _mette_, ‘mensura’
(Cath. Angl.). OE. _ge_)_met_, ‘mensura, modius, satum’ (B. T.).
=mete,= to measure; _met_, pt. t., Chapman, tr. of Iliad, iii. 327;
_mete_, pp. Tourneur, Revenger’s Tragedy, ii. 1. ME. _meten_ (Wyclif,
Matt. vii. 2). OE. _metan_.
=metely,= moderately; ‘Metely good’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii,
c. 16. OE. _ge_)_met ice_.
=metereza,= mistress. Middleton, More Dissemblers, v. 1 (Sinquapace);
_metreza_, Marston, Malcontent, i. 1 (Malevole). Neither French nor
Italian, but a mixture of the two (Nares). An alteration of F.
_maîtresse_, with an Italian termination.
=metoposcopy,= divination by observing the forehead. B. Jonson, Alchem.
i. 1 (Subtle). Gk. μέτωπο-ν, forehead; σκοπεῖν, to observe.
=meuse;= see =muse.=
=meve,= to move; ‘I meve or styrre from a place, _je meuve_’, Palsgrave;
Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 2, § 7; _meeve_, Damon and Pithias
(Nares); _mieve_, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 12. 26. ‘Meve’ is an E. Anglian
form (EDD.). ME. _mevyn_, ‘amoveo’ (Prompt.). OF. _moev-_ (_meuv-_),
stressed stem of _movoir_, to move.
=mew,= to moult. Beaumont and Fl., Thierry, ii. 2 (Martell); Wildgoose
Chase, i. 1 (La Castre). F. _muer_; L. _mutare_, to change.
=mew,= a coop for hawks; ‘Mewe for haukes, _meue_’, Palsgrave; a place
of confinement, Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 20; ii. 5. 27 and 7. 19. F. _mue_,
a hawk’s mue or coop; _mue_, a change, the mewing of a hawk (Cotgr.),
fr. _muer_, ‘to change, to mew’ (ib.); L. _mutare_. Our word ‘mews’, for
a range of stabling, is derived from the _Mews_ by Charing Cross, the
name of the place for the King’s horses, orig. the place for the king’s
falcons and the royal falconer. See Stow’s Survey of London (ed. Thoms,
167).
=mew:= in phr. _knights of the mew_, knights of the cat-call; the least
select among an audience at a theatre. Marston, What you Will, Induction
(Doricus).
=mich,= to skulk, to lurk stealthily. Heywood, A Woman Killed (ed. 1874,
ii. 113), spelt _meach_, Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, v. 2.
11; hence _micher_, a truant, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 450; a skulker, Beaumont
and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 2 (Yo. Loveless); spelt _meecher_, Bonduca,
i. 2 (Petillius). ‘Mitch’ and ‘meech’ are in common prov. use (EDD.).
ME. _mychyn_, or stelyn prively smale thyngys, ‘surripio, furtulo’
(Prompt. EETS. 301). Of Ger. origin, see Schade, Altdeutsches Wörterbuch
(s.v. mûhhan). See NED. (s.v. Miche).
†=miching malicho= (meaning quite uncertain), Hamlet, iii. 2. 148.
Textual variants are: _myching Mallico_, _munching Mallico_, _miching
mallecho_.
=migniard,= tender, delicate. B. Jonson. Devil an Ass, i. 2 (Fitz.). F.
_mignard_, ‘migniard, pretty, quaint; dainty, delicate’ (Cotgr.).
=migniardise,= delicate attention. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iii. 1
(Picklock). F. _mignardise_, ‘quaintnesse . . . smooth or fair speech,
kind usage’ (Cotgr.).
=mill,= to steal or rob (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song);
see Harman, Caveat, p. 67.
=mime,= a mimic, jester, pantomimist. B. Jonson, Epigrams, bk. i, cxxix;
Randolph, Muses’ Looking-glass, i. 4 (Satire). Gk. μῖμος.
=mince,= to walk affectedly or primly. Merry Wives, v. 1. 9; _mincing_,
BIBLE, Isa. iii. 16; _minsen_, pres. pl., Drayton, Pastorals, vii. 14.
Also, to perform mincingly, to parade, King Lear, iv. 6. 122. F.
_mincer_, to mince, to cut into small pieces (Cotgr.).
=minchen,= a nun. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 18, § 3.
‘_Mincheon lane_, so called of . . . the _Minchuns_, or nuns of St.
Helen’s’, Stow, Survey of London (ed. Thoms, p. 50). OE. _mynecenu_, f.
of _munuc_, a monk.
=mind,= to mean, intend. Mids. Night’s D. v. 113; 3 Hen. VI, iv. 1. 8,
64, 106, 140; Evelyn, Diary (May 21, 1645). In common prov. use, see
EDD. (s.v. Mind, vb. 7).
=ming,= to mingle, mix. Surrey, Description of Spring, 11; in Tottel’s
Misc., p. 4. In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Ming, vb.^{2}). ME. _mynge_,
to mix (Wyclif, Rev. xviii. 6); OE. _mengan_.
=minge,= to mention. Hall. Satires, IV. ii. 80 (Davies). In prov. use,
see EDD. (s.v. Ming, vb.^{1}). ME. _mynge_ (Pearl, 855); OE.
_myn_(_e_)_gian_.
=minikin,= a playful or endearing term for a female. Glapthorne,
Hollander, ii (NED.). A Shropshire word for a delicate affected girl,
see EDD. (sv. Minikin, 3). Du. _minneken_ (Hexham).
=minikin,= small, delicate; ‘One blast of thy minikin mouth’, King Lear,
iii. 6. 45. Cp. the Somerset phr. ‘Her was a poor little minnikin thing’
(EDD.).
=minikin string,= the thin string of gut used for the treble of the lute
or viol, Ascham, Tox. 28. Hence, phr. _to tickle the minikin_, to play
on the treble string, Middleton, Family of Love, i. 3 (Gerardine); a
_minikin-tickler_, a fiddler, Marston, What you Will, v. 1 (Albano).
=minim,= a note, a part of a song or lay. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 10. 28.
=miniments,= ‘muniments’, valuable belongings. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 6.
=minion,= a darling, a favourite, esp. in a contemptuous sense, a
mistress, a paramour. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 37; ‘A minion wyfe’, a neat,
pretty wife, Roister Doister (ed. Arber, 86); the name of a small kind
of ordnance, Whitelocke, Memorials (ed. 1853, i. 273); Marlowe, 2
Tamburlaine, iii. 3. 6. F. _mignon_, ‘a minion, favourite, wanton,
darling; also, minion, dainty, neat’ (Cotgr.).
=minth,= the plant called mint. Peele, Arr. of Paris, i. 1 (Flora). Gk.
μίνθα.
=mint-man,= one skilled in coinage. Bacon, Essay 20, § 7.
=minx,= a pert girl, hussy. Congreve, Love for L., ii. 1; a wanton
woman, Dryden, Limberham, i. 1; ‘_Magalda_, a trull or minxe’, Florio;
_Mistress Minx_, Marlowe, Dr. Faustus, ii. 2 (Faustus).
=minx,= a pet dog. Udall, tr. Apoph., Diogenes, § 140.
=mirador,= gallery to gaze from, balcony. Dryden, Conquest of Granada,
I. i. 1 (Abdelmelech). Span. _mirador_, a balcony (Stevens). See
Stanford.
=mischief,= misfortune, disaster. Merry Wives, iv. 2. 76; Much Ado, i.
3. 13.
=misconster,= to misconstrue. Shirley, Love in a Maze, ii. 1. 8. See
=conster.=
=miscreaunce,= misbelief, false belief. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 51; Shep.
Kal., May, 91. F. _mescreance_ (Cotgr.).
=misdeem,= to judge amiss of, to think evil of. Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 49;
iii. 10. 29; Milton, P. R. i. 424; to judge amiss, id., P. L. ix. 301.
=misken,= a ‘mixen’, a manure-heap. Fletcher, Nightwalker, iii. 1
(Toby). A west-midland pronunc. of _mixen_ (EDD.).
=miskin,= a little bagpipe. Drayton, Pastorals, ii. 5. A dimin. (through
Dutch?) of OF. _muse_, a bagpipe, cp. F. _musette_, a little bagpipe
(Cotgr.).
=misprise,= to mistake; ‘Misprise me not’, B. Jonson, Case is Altered,
iii. 3 (Maximilian). See =mesprize.=
=mister:= in phr. _what mister wight_, Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 23; iii. 7.
14, i.e. a man of what ‘mister’ (occupation), or, a man of what class,
what kind of a man. The idiom occurs as an archaism in Spenser, borrowed
from Chaucer, ‘But telleth me what mister men ye been’ (C. T. A. 1710).
So we find, _what mister thing_, what kind of thing, Beaumont and Fl.,
Little French Lawyer, ii. 3. 19; _such myster saying_, such a kind of
saying, Shep. Kal., Sept., 103. _Mister_ (or _mester_) is very common in
ME. in the sense of office, employment, business. OF. _mestier_ (F.
_métier_); Med. L. _misterium_, for _ministerium_ (Ducange).
=mister,= to be necessary or needful; ‘As for my name, it mistreth not
to tell’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 7. 51. From _mister_, need, necessity,
want; cp. Scottish proverb, ‘Mister maks man o’ craft’, Ray’s Proverbs
(ed. Bohn, 250); Ferguson, Proverbs (ed. 1641, p. 24). See EDD. (s.v.
Mister, vb. 1 and 3). ME. _mistere_, need (Cursor M. 3247); OF. (Norman)
_mestier_, ‘besoin, nécessité’ (Moisy). The same word as =mister,=
above.
=mistery,= occupation, profession. Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 221. ME.
_misterye_ (Chaucer, C. T. I. 890); Med. L. _misterium_, ‘officium’
(Ducange). See =mister.=
=mistress,= the small bowl, or jack, in the game of bowls. Middleton, No
Wit like a Woman’s, ii. 3 (Mis. Low.); cp. ‘His bias was towards my
mistress’, Shirley, Witty Fair One, ii. 2 (Brains); cp. A Woman never
vext, iv. 1 (Lambskin).
=misured,= ill-omened, fatal; ‘O foule mysuryd ground, Whereon he gat
his finall dedely wounde’, Skelton, Dethe of Erle of Northumberland,
118. Cp. OF. _meseur_, ‘malheur’ (Godefroy); _meseurus_, ‘malheureux’
(Chron. des ducs de Normandie, in Didot). See =eure.=
=mite,= a small coin of very small value; used in negative phrases for a
thing of little worth; ‘The price falleth not one mite’, More’s Utopia
(ed. Arber, 42). Hence _miting_: ‘Nat worthe a mytyng’, not worth a
mite, Skelton, Poems against Garnesche, iii. 115. ME. _myte_: ‘Noght
worth a myte’ (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1558). See Dict.
=mithridate,= a compound regarded as an antidote against all poisons.
Fletcher, Valentinian, v. 2 (Val.); Massinger, Maid of Honour, iv. 4
(Adorni). Named from Mithridates, king of Pontus, who was said to have
been proof against poison owing to his constant use of antidotes. See
Stanford.
=miting,= a diminutive creature; freq. used as a term of endearment or
contempt, Skelton, El. Rummyng, 224. ME. _mytyng_ (Towneley Myst. xii.
477).
=mixt,= to mix; ‘_I myxte_, or myngell’, Palsgrave; pres. pt.,
_mixting_, Elyot, Governour, bk. i, ch. 13, § 4. Hence _mixt_, a
mixture; ‘A mixt of both’, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. ii, ch. 9 (ed.
Arber, 97). From the L. pp. _mixtus_.
=mo, moe,= orig. used as adv.; ‘Gent’lest fair, mourne, mourne no moe’
(mourn no more), Fletcher, Q. Corinth, iii. 2 (Song); _the moe_, the
majority, the greater part, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, i. 15 (ed. Arber,
48); _mo_, more in number, ‘mo tymes’, Caxton, Reynard (ed. Arber, 7);
‘Infinite moe . . . He there beheld’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 63. ME.
_mo_, adj., more in number, adv., any longer (Chaucer); OE. _mā_; Goth.
_mais_, more (adv.). See Wright’s OE. Gram. § 252.
=mobble, moble,= to muffle up one’s head or face; also, with _up_;
‘_Mobled_ queen’, Hamlet, ii. 2. 524; _mobble up_, Shirley, Gent. of
Venice, v. 3 (Florelli). A Warw. and Shropsh. word, see EDD. (s.v.
Moble).
=mobile,= mob; ‘The mobile’, Dryden, Pref. to Don Sebastian, § 2; id.,
i. 1 (near the end); iv. 2 (end). Common from ab. 1676 to 1700;
shortened to _mobb_, _c._ 1688. It represents the L. _mobile vulgus_,
the inconstant crowd. See Dict. (s.v. Mob), and Stanford.
=mockado,= a kind of cloth much used for clothing; ‘Who would not thinke
it a ridiculous thing to see a Lady in her milke-house with a velvet
gowne, and at a bridall in her cassock of mockado’, Puttenham, Eng.
Poesie (ed. Arber, 290); Ford, Lady’s Trial, ii. 1 (Guzman); Lodge,
Wit’s Miserie, 14. A quasi-Spanish form from F. _moucade_, ‘the stuffe
moccadoe’ (Cotgr.). Of Arab. origin, see NED. (s.v. Mohair), and Thomas,
_Essais_ (s.v. Camoiard).
=moder, modere,= to moderate, restrain. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 6,
back, 18; Sir T. More, Works, p. 882, col. 2. OF. _moderer_.
=modern,= ordinary, commonplace, common; in a depreciatory sense. As You
Like It, ii. 7. 156; Macbeth, iv. 3. 170. The only Shakespearian sense;
peculiarly Elizabethan.
=moe;= see =mo.=
=moil, moyle,= a ‘mule’. Ford, Fancies, ii. 2; More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby,
51); Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 1 (Welford). Common in Devon
and Cornwall, see EDD. (s.v. Moyle).
=moil, moyle,= a kind of slipper or shoe; ‘Moyles of velvet to save thy
shooes of lether’, J. Heywood, Prov. and Epigr. (ed. 1867, 214);
‘_Moiles_, a kind of high-soled shoes, worn in ancient times by Kings
and great Persons’, Phillips; spelt _mule_, ‘He had ane pair of mules on
his feit’, Spalding, Troubles of Charles I (NED.). F. _mules_, ‘moyles,
pantofles, high slippers’ (Cotgr.). Cp. Du. _muylen_, pantoffles
(Hexham). Med. L. _mula_, ‘crepida’ (Ducange).
=moil, moyle,= to wet; to soil, make dirty. Turbervile, Hunting, 33; to
defile, Spenser, Hymn Heavenly Love, 220; to toil, work hard, drudge,
Bacon, Essay, Plantations; to weary, fatigue, harass, Stanyhurst, tr.
Aeneid, i (ed. Arber, 27). In common prov. use in many senses, to
plaster with mud, to soil, defile, to work hard, to worry, see EDD.
(s.v. Moil, vb.). F. _mouiller_ (Cotgr.).
=mold,= a ‘mole’, spot, blemish. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 7. See =mould.=
=mollipuff;= see =mullipuff.=
=mome,= a blockhead. Com. Errors, iii. 1. 32; Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 49;
Levins, Manipulus; Drayton, Skeltoniad, p. 1373; Mirror for Mag. 466;
Dekker, Gull’s Horne-bk. 5; Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, i. 2. 5. Dialect
of Geneva _mome_, ‘sot, nigaud’; cp. F. (argot) _mome_, ‘garçon’
(Sainéan, p. 206).
†=Momtanish= (?); ‘And this your momtanish inhumanytye’, Sir T. More,
ii. 4. 162. Dr. H. Bradley conjectures _Moritanish_ (i.e. Moorish).
=moniment,= memorial, anything by which a thing may be remembered.
Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 38; ii. 10. 56; used of dints on a shield, F. Q.
ii. 12. 80; of an inscription stamped on coin, F. Q. ii. 7. 5. L.
_monimentum_, deriv. of _monere_, to remind.
=Monmouth cap,= a flat round cap formerly worn by soldiers and sailors,
Hen. V, iv. 7. 104; Eastward Ho, iv. 1 (_or_ 2) (Touchstone). Also,
_monmouth_, Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, iii. 5 (last Song).
=monomachy,= single combat. Heywood, Golden Age, A. iii (Enceladus);
vol. iii, p. 50. Gk. μονομαχία; deriv. of μονομάχος, fighting alone.
=monster,= a prodigy, wonder, divine omen. Phaer, Aeneid ii, 680 (L.
_mirabile monstrum_); id., iii. 26.
=montant= (a fencing term), an upright blow or thrust. Merry Wives, ii.
3. 27; _montanto_, B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 7 (Bobadil). F.
_montant_ (Cotgr.).
=month:= phr. _to have a month’s mind_, to have an inclination, a fancy,
a liking. Lyly, Euphues (Arber, 464); ‘_Tu es bien engrand de trotter_,
Thou hast a moneths mind to be gone’, Cotgrave; Pepys, Diary, May 20,
1660. In prov. use in many parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Month,
sb.^{1} 3 (b)).
=monthly,= madly; after the manner of a lunatic. Only in Middleton,
Roaring Girl, v. 2 (Moll).
=moodeles, modeless,= unmeasured, vast, huge; Mirror for Mag., Morindus,
st. 17. Frequent in Greene (NED.). From _mode_, measure, size, manner,
&c.
=moon,= a fit of frenzy; ‘I know ’twas but some peevish Moone in him’,
C. Tourneur, Revenger’s Tragedy, ii (Duke).
=mooncalf,= a false conception, imperfect foetus; hence, monstrosity.
Tempest, ii. 2. 111; Chapman, Bussy D’Ambois, iv. 1 (Bussy); Drayton,
The Mooncalf. Cp. G. _mondkalb_, ‘ungestalte Missgeburt’ (Weigand).
=moonling,= a mooncalf, silly fellow. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, i. 3
(Wit.).
=mooting-night,= a night at the Inns of Court, when imaginary cases at
law are discussed by the students. Cartwright, The Ordinary, iii. 5
(Song, verse 2). See Dict. (s.v. Moot).
=mooting-time,= the moulting season. Drayton, Pol. xxv. 120. In prov.
use, see EDD. (s.v. Mout). ME. _mowtyn_, as fowlys, ‘deplumeo’
(Prompt.); cp. Du. _muyten_, ‘to mue as hawkes doe’ (Hexham); Low G.
_muten_ (G. _mausen_), to moult (Berghaus); L. _mutare_.
=mop,= a grimace, Temp. iv. 1. 47; to make grimaces, King Lear, iv. 1.
64; ‘To moppe, maw, _movere labia_’, Levins, Manip.
=moppe= (see quot.); ‘I called her (the young lady) Moppe . . .
Understanding by this word, a litle prety Lady, or tender young thing.
For so we call litle fishes that be not come to full growth, as whiting
moppes, gurnard moppes’, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (ed. Arber, 229). Cp.
ME. _moppe_, ‘pupa’ (Prompt. EETS. 292).
=moppet,= a term of endearment applied to a child or a young girl,
Massinger, Guardian, iv. 2 (end); The Spectator, no. 277. See above.
=more,= the root of a tree or plant; a plant. Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 10.
A west-country word from Worc. to Cornwall, see EDD. (s.v. More). ME.
_more_, root (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. v. 25). OE. _more_, _moru_, an edible
root, a carrot, parsnip (B. T.), cp. G. _möhre_, a carrot.
=morelle,= a dark-coloured horse. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 15, l. 11; i.
24, l. 17. ME. _morel_, hors (Prompt. EETS. 293). Norm. F. _morel_,
_cheval morel_, ‘cheval noir’ (Moisy). F. _morel_, _moreau_, _cheval
moreau,_ a black horse (Cotgr.).
=morfound,= a disease in horses, sheep, &c., due to taking a chill.
Spelt _morfounde_, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 100. Palsgrave has: ‘I
morfonde, as a horse dothe that waxeth styffe by taking of a sodayne
colde.’ F. _se morfondre_, to take cold (Cotgr.).
=Morglay,= the name of the sword belonging to Sir Bevis, Drayton,
Polyolbion, ii. 332; used allusively for a sword, Beaumont and Fl.,
Honest Man’s Fortune, i. 1 (Longueville); Stanyhurst, Aeneid, ii (Arber,
60); Cleaveland’s Poems (Nares). We may perhaps compare _claymore_
(_glaymore_), see NED.
=Morian,= of the Moorish race, pertaining to the Moors; a Moor; _the
Moryans land_, Great Bible, 1539, Ps. lxviii. 31 (rendering of
‘Aethiopia’ in Vulgate); _the Morians londe_, Coverdale (1535), ib.; cp.
Luther’s rendering, _Mohrenland_, land of the Moors. See Bible
Word-Book. OF. _Morien_ (NED.). See =Murrian.=
=morigeration,= deference, obsequiousness. Bacon, Adv. of Learning, i.
3. 10; Howell, Foreign Travell, sect. V, p. 29. L. _morigeratio_,
compliance.
=morisco,= a morris-dance. Fletcher, Wildgoose Chase, v. 2. 7. Also, a
morris-dancer, 2 Hen. VI, iii. 1. 365. Properly, a Moorish dance; see
Stanford. Span. _morisco_, a man descended from Moors or converted from
them (Stevens). See =morris-pike.=
=mornifle;= ‘Mornyfle, a maner of play, _mornifle_’, Palsgrave. F.
_mornifle_, a trick at cards (Cotgr.); ‘réunion de quatre cartes
semblables’ (Hatzfeld). _Mornifle_ also meant a cuff, a blow: ‘_donner
mornifle_, c’est-à-dire un soufflet’ (Oudin, 1640); see Sainéan, L’Argot
ancien, p. 206. See =mournival.=
=morphew,= a disease of the skin; ‘_Morféa_, the morphew in some womens
faces’, Florio; ‘Morfewe, a sickenesse’, Palsgrave. Hence, _morphewed_,
afflicted with the disease, Webster, Duchess of Malfi, ii. 1 (Bosola).
ME. _morfu_, ‘morphea’ (Prompt.). Med. L. _morfea_, ‘cutis foedacio
maculosa’ (Sin. Bart.).
=morpion,= a kind of louse. Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 437. F. _morpion_, a
crab-louse (Cotgr.); cp. Rabelais, II. xxvii; deriv. of _mordre_ +
_pion_, ‘ce pou ayant infesté surtout les anciens corps d’infanterie’
(Hatzfeld).
=morris-pike,= a form of pike supposed to be of Moorish origin, Com.
Errors, iv. 3. 28; _morispike_, Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 67). See
=morisco.=
=mort= (a hunting term). The note sounded on a horn at the death of the
deer, Winter’s Tale, i. 2. 118; ‘He that bloweth the Mort before the
fall of the Buck’, Greene, Card of Fancie (Nares).
=mort= (Cant), a girl or woman. B. Jonson, Gypsies Met. 65; a female
vagabond, harlot, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Higgen). Later,
written _mott_ (_mot_), London slang for a woman of the town, see NED.
=mortar:= in phr. _to fly to Rome with a mortar on one’s head_, app. a
legendary achievement of some wizard; Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 2
(Soto); Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn, v. 2 (Clown); Kemp, Nine Daies
Wonder, Ep. Ded. (NED.). F. _mortier_, ‘a morter to bray things in’
(Cotgr.).
=mortmal, mormal,= an inflamed sore, esp. on the leg; ‘The old mortmal
on his shin’, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 2 (Maudlin); ‘Mormall, a
sore, _loup_’, Palsgrave. ME. _mormale_, ‘malum mortuum’ (Prompt.). OF.
_mortmal_; cp. Med. L. _malum mortuum_, ‘morbi genus pedum et tibiarum’
(Ducange). See =marmoll.=
=mort-pays,= the taking of the King’s pay by a captain in service for
men who were dead or discharged; ‘The severe punishing of mort-pays’,
Bacon, Hist. Henry VII (ed. Lumby, 93). See =dead pay.=
=most an end,= generally, usually; continually. Massinger, A Very Woman,
iii. 1 (Merchant). _Honest_ (addressing _Greatheart_): ‘Knew him! I was
a great companion of his; I was with him most an end’; Bunyan, Pilgrim’s
Progress, Pt. II. In common prov. use from Yorks. to E. Anglia, see EDD.
(s.v. Most, 7, 2a).
=mot, motte,= a word, saying, motto, proverb. Rape of Lucrece, 830; ‘To
gull him with a motte’, B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 2 (E. Knowell).
F. _mot_, a word.
=mote,= a note of a horn or bugle. Morte Arthur, leaf 112. 20 (bk. vii,
ch. 8); ‘Mote, blaste of a horne’, Palsgrave; _mot_, Chevy Chace, 16;
_mott_, Turbervile, Hunting, 86. ME. _moote_ of an horne, blowyng
(Prompt. EETS. 294, see note, no. 1431). F. _mot_, ‘the note winded by
an huntsman on his horn’ (Cotgr.).
=mote,= a pleading in a law-court. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c.
14, § 7. OE. _mōtian_, to address a meeting, to discuss, ‘moot a
question’ (B. T.). See Dict. (s.v. Moot).
=mote,= may, must; ‘I mote dye’, Morte Arthur, leaf 34. 9; bk. i, c. 20;
‘Now _mote_ ye understand’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 8. 46. ME. _mot_, _moot_,
pres. (I or he) may, must; _moten_, _mote_, pl.; _moste_, pt. t. OE.
_mōt_, (I, he) may; _mōst_, 2 sing.; _mōton_, pl.; _mōste_, pt. t.
=mother,= a young girl. Fletcher, Maid in the Mill, iii. 2 (Franio). See
=mauther.=
=mother, the,= hysteria. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, ii. 1 (Bellafront);
King Lear, ii. 4. 56.
=mothering,= the custom of visiting one’s mother, and giving and
receiving of presents of food, &c., on Mid-Lent Sunday; ‘Thou go’st
a-mothering’, Herrick, To Dianeme, A Ceremonie in Gloucester. See EDD.
(s.v. Mothering) for accounts of the customs connected with ‘Mothering
Sunday’ (Mid-Lent Sunday) in various parts of England from Yorks. to
Devon.
=moting,= mooting; i.e. discussion, debate. Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 1075.
ME. _motyng_, or pletynge, ‘placitatio’ (Prompt. EETS. 294). See =mote=
(a pleading).
=motion,= a puppet-show. Winter’s Tale, iv. 3. 103; a puppet, Two Gent.
ii. 1. 100; B. Jonson, Barthol. Fair, v. 3. 3.
=mott,= measured; pt. t. of =mete= (q.v.). Spenser, Colin Clout, 365.
See NED. (s.v. Mete, vb.^{1}).
=motte;= see =mot.=
=mouch,= to act by stealth; to idle and loaf about, Webster, Sir T.
Wyatt (Clown), ed. Dyce, p. 193. See _Mooch_ in NED. and EDD. The word
is in gen. prov. use in the British Isles and in Australia.
=mouchatoes,= moustaches. Lady Alimony, ii. 5 (Juliffe). See =mutchado.=
=mought,= a moth; ‘Mought that eates clothes, _ver de drap_’, Palsgrave.
Hence _moughte-eaten_, ‘Olde and moughte-eaten lawes’, More’s Utopia
(ed. Lumby, 53). ME. _mouȝte_ (Wyclif, Matt. vi. 19); _moghte_, ‘tinea’
(Cath. Angl.); OE. _mohða_.
=mought,= _pt. t._ might. Bacon, Essays (very common, see Abbott’s ed.,
Index); Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 42. ME. _maht_, 2 pr. s.; _mahte_, pt. t.
of _mæi_, (I, he) may; OE. _meaht_, 2 pr. s.; _meahte_, pt. t. of _mæg_,
(I, he) may, can.
=mould,= a ‘_mole_’, a spot on the skin, birthmark. Gascoigne, Supposes,
v. 5 (Cleander); _mold_, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 7. See Dict. (s.v.
Mould, 3).
=mouldwarp,= the mole, ‘talpa’; _moldwarp_, 1 Hen. IV, iii. 1. 148;
Spenser, Colin Clout, 763. In gen. prov. use in the north country,
Midlands, and Suffolk, see EDD. (s.v. Mouldywarp). ME. _moldewarpe_,
‘talpa’ (Cath. Angl.); cp. Dan. _muldvarp_, Norw. dial. _moldvarp_
(Aasen), G. _maulwurf_.
=mount cent, mount saint,= a game at cards resembling piquet; probably
the same as =cent= (q.v.), Machin, Dumb Knight, iv (Queen). Prob. from
_mount_, i.e. amount, and _cent_, one hundred. See NED.
=mountenance,= amount of space, distance. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 8. 18;
iii. 11. 20; v. 6. 36. ME. _mowntenawnce_ (Prompt.); _montenance_,
amount (Cursor M. 29166).
=mournival,= a set of four aces, kings, queens, or knaves in one hand.
Cotton Gamester, 68; hence, a set of four (things or persons), B.
Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (Mirth); _murnival_, Greene’s Tu Quoque,
in Ancient Eng. Drama, ii. 551. See =mornifle.=
=mouse,= a term of endearment. Hamlet, iii. 4. 183; Middleton, Roaring
Girl, ii. 1 (Openwork).
=mouse-hunt,= a woman hunter. Romeo iv. 4. 11. This is prob. a _fig._
use of _mouse-hunt_, a weasel, ‘The Ferrets and Moushunts of an Index’,
Milton (Wks., ed. 1851, iii. 81); spelt _musehont_, Caxton, Reynard (ed.
Arber, 79). ‘Mouse-hunt’ (‘Mouse-hound’) is in prov. use in E. Anglia
for the smallest animal of the weasel tribe. See EDD. (s.v. Mouse, 1,
(7) and (8)). M. Du. _muyshont_, or _muushont_, a weasel, lit. ‘a
mouse-hound’.
=mowe,= to be able; ‘They shalle not mowe helpe, they shall not be able
to help’, Morte Arthur, leaf 61, back, 26; bk. iv, c. 3. ME.
_mow_(_e_)_n_, ‘posse’ (Prompt. EETS. 302); see Chaucer (Tr. and Cr. ii.
1594). See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Mæi).
=mowe,= to make grimaces; ‘I mow with the mouth, I mock one, _Je fays la
moue_’, Palsgrave; ‘Apes that moe and chatter’, Tempest, ii. 2. 9;
_mowing_, making grimaces, Ascham, Scholemaster (ed. Arber, 54).
=mowes,= grimaces, ‘Making mowes at me’, BIBLE (1539), Ps. xxxv. 15;
Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 49; Cymbeline, i. 6. 41. ME. _mow_, or scorne,
‘valgia’ (Prompt. EETS. 294). F. _moue_, a moe, ‘an ill-favoured
extension or thrusting out of the lips’ (Cotgr.).
=mowles,= broken chilblains in the heels. Dunbar, Poems (ed. Small, ii.
128). See EDD. (s.v. Mool), and Jamieson (s.v. Mules). ME. _mowle_,
‘pernio’ (Cath. Angl.); _mowle_, sore, ‘pustula, pernio’ (Prompt. EETS.
295, see note, no. 1439). F. _mule_, ‘a kibe; _aller sur mule_: Il va
sur mule aussi bien que le Pape (an equivocation, applicable to one that
hath kibed heels)’; see Cotgrave. Cp. Du. _muyle_, a kibe (Hexham).
=moy,= an imaginary name of coin, evolved by Pistol out of his
prisoner’s speech; ‘Ayez pitié de _moi_! Moy shall not serve; I will
have forty moys’, &c., Hen. V, iv. 4. 14.
=moyle,= a variety of apple; ‘Of Moyle, or Mum, or Treacle’s viscous
juice’, J. Philips, Cider, bk. i. (Perhaps the word means a hybrid; cp.
_moyle_, a mule.) See =genet-moyl.=
=moyle;= see =moil.=
=muccinigo,= a small coin formerly current in Venice, worth about 9_d._
B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 1; iv. 1; Shirley, Gent. Venice, i. 1 (Cornari).
Ital. ‘_mocenigo_, a coyn in Venice; also the name of a considerable
family there’ (Florio). The coin was named from Tommaso Mocenigo, doge
of Venice, 1413-23. See NED. (s.v. Moccenigo).
=much!,= a contemptuous exclamation of denial. _Much_ = _much of that!_,
ironically; i.e. far from it, by no means. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 143;
Marston, Malcontent, ii. 2 (Celso), _Much wench!_ i.e. no wench at all,
B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum., iv. 6 (Brain-worm).
=muck;= in Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 1188. _To run amuck_, to run
about in a frenzy, is a phrase due to the Malay _āmuq_, ‘rushing in a
state of frenzy to the commission of indiscriminate murder’ (Marsden).
Dryden took the _a_ in _amuck_ to be the E. indef. article; and
reproduced the phrase in the curious form—_runs an Indian muck_. See
Stanford (s.v. Amuck).
=muckinder,= a handkerchief. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iii. 1 (Turfe);
Fletcher, Captain, iii. 5 (Fabricio); ‘Mockendar for chyldre,
_mouchouer_’, Palsgrave. In prov. use in many parts of England from the
north country to Kent and Dorset in various forms; _muckinder_,
_muckender_, _muckinger_, _muckenger_ (EDD.). ME. _mokedore_, ‘sudarium’
(Voc. 614. 25), O. Prov. _mocadour_ (mod. _moucadour_), a handkerchief,
Span. _mocador_, F. _mouchoir_; deriv. of _moucher_, ‘débarrasser des
mucosités que sécrète la muqueuse nasale’ (Hatzfeld).
=muffler,= (1) a wrapper worn by women and covering the face; (2) a
cloth for blindfolding a person. Merry Wives, iv. 2. 73; Fletcher,
Night-walker, ii. 2 (near the end); 2 Hen. V, iii. 6. 32.
=mugwet,= the intestines of an animal; ‘The gatherbagge or Mugwet of a
yong harte’, Turbervile, Hunting, 39. ‘Mugget’ is in prov. use in
Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall for sheep or calf’s intestines; see EDD.
See NED. (s.v. Mugget).
=mule:= phr. _to ride upon a mule_, to be a great lawyer. B. Jonson, Ev.
Man out of Humour, ii. 1 (Carlo); _to shoe one’s mule_, to help oneself
out of the funds trusted to one’s management, History of Francion
(Nares).
=mule;= see =moil= (a slipper).
=mullar,= a ‘muller’, a stone with a flat base, held in the hand and
used, in conjunction with a grinding-stone or slab, in grinding
painters’ colours. Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, p. 136. F. _moulleur_, a
grinder (Cotgr.); deriv. of OF. _moldre_, L. _molere_, to grind.
=mullet,= the rowel of a spur; a mullet, in heraldry. Shirley, Love in a
Maze, i. 1 (Simple). F. _molette d’esperon_, the rowel of a spur
(Cotgr.).
=mullets,= pincers or tweezers. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2
(Amorphus). F. _mollette_, ‘a mullet, a nipper, a pincer’ (Cotgr.).
=mullipuff, mollipuff,= the puff-ball, or fuzz-ball. Shirley, St.
Patrick, v. 1 (2 Soldier). See NED. (s.v. Mullipuff), and EDD. (s.v.
Mully-puff). ‘Mully’ in Norfolk is used for mouldy, powdery, see EDD.
(s.v. Mull, sb.^{1} 1). Norw. dial. _moll_, mould (Aasen), Swed. _mull_
(Widegren).
=mullwine,= mulled wine. Middleton, Phœnix, iv. 3. 9. See Dict. (s.v.
Mulled).
=mumbudget,= a word used to insist upon silence; ‘I cry . . . _mum_; she
cries _budget_’, Merry Wives, v. 2. 6; ‘Quoth she, _Mum budget_’,
Butler, Hud. i. 3. 208; ‘_Mumbudget_, not a word!’, Look about You, in
Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 420.
=mumchance,= the name of a game, both at dice and at cards. Westward Ho,
ii. 2 (with allusion to _bones_, i.e. dice); B. Jonson, Alchemist, v. 2
(Subtle); Barth. Fair, iv. 1 (Cokes). Played in silence; whence the
name.
=mumchance,= one who has nothing to say, a ‘dummy’. Plautus made English
(Nares). In prov. use in many parts of England, esp. in the west
country, for a stupid, silent, stolid person.
=mummia, mummy,= a preparation used in medicine, chiefly from the
substance with which Egyptian mummies were preserved. Webster, White
Devil (beginning, Gasparo), ed. Dyce, p. 5; id. (Isabella), p. 15;
Beaumont and Fl., iii. 1 (Galoshio). See Dict. (s.v. Mummy), and
Stanford (s.v. Mummia).
=mump,= to overreach, to cheat; ‘Mump your proud players’, Buckingham,
The Rehearsal, ii. 2 (Bayes); ‘Mump’d of his snip’ (i.e. cheated of his
portion), Wycherley, Love in a Wood, i. 2 (Ranger); Gent.
Dancing-master, iv. 1 (Mrs. Caution). In prov. use in the west country,
see EDD. (s.v. Mump, vb.^{1} 10). Du. _mompen_, ‘to mump, cheat’
(Sewel).
=mump,= to make grimaces, to screw up the mouth. Otway, Venice
Preserved, ii. 1 (Pierre); D’Urfey, Pills, vi. 198; a grimace, ‘_Monnoye
de singe_, moes, mumps’, Cotgrave. ‘To mump’ is used in Northamptonsh.
in the sense of drawing in the lips, screwing up the mouth with a smile:
‘She mumps up her mouth, she knows something’, see EDD. (s.v. Mump,
vb.^{1} 4).
=mumpsimus.= [In allusion to the story of an illiterate English priest,
who when corrected for reading ‘quod in ore _mumpsimus_’ in the Mass,
replied ‘I will not change my old _mumpsimus_ for your new _sumpsimus_’
(NED.).] One who obstinately adheres to old ways in spite of the
clearest evidence that they are wrong, an old fogey, Underhill in Narr.
Reform. (Camden Soc., 141); Gascoigne, Supposes, i. 3 (Dulipo). See
Nares.
=mundungo,= bad-smelling tobacco; ‘A mundungo monopolist’, Lady Alimony,
ii. 2 (1 Boy); _snuff-mundungus_, Butler, Hud. iii. 2. 1006. A jocular
use of Span. _mondongo_, ‘hogs puddings’ (Stevens).
=munify,= to fortify. Drayton, Barons’ Wars, ii. 34; hence,
_munificence_, defence, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 15 (ed. 1596).
=munite,= to fortify. Florio, tr. Montaigne, bk. i, c. 47; Bacon, Essay
3 (ed. Abbott, p. 10).
=munpins,= mouth-pegs, the teeth; a ludicrous form. _Munpynnys_,
Skelton, The Douty Duke of Albany, 292. ‘Mun’ for mouth is in prov. use
in the north, and in slang use generally, see EDD. (s.v. Mun, sb.^{1}
1). Norw. dial. _munn_, the mouth (Aasen).
=muraill,= a wall; walls of a city. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 201, back,
14. F. _muraille_.
=murderer, murdering-piece,= a cannon or mortar, discharging stones or
grape-shot. Hamlet, iv. 5. 95; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 3 (Jaques);
Double Marriage, iv. 2. 6.
=mure,= a wall. 2 Hen. IV, iv. 4. 119; Heywood, If you know not Me
(Queen), vol. i, p. 338; to shut up, 2 Hen. IV, iv. 4. 119; _mured up_,
Spenser, F. Q. vi. 12. 34. L. _murus_, a wall.
=murleon,= a merlin, a small hawk; ‘A cast [couple] of murleons’, Damon
and Pithias, Ancient Brit. Drama, i. 88, col. 2. ME. _merlioun_, Chaucer
(Parl. Foules, 339). F. _esmerillon_ (Cotgr.).
=murnival;= see =mournival.=
=murr,= a violent catarrh, a severe cold in the head. Chapman, Mons.
d’Olive, ii. 1 (Philip); _murres_, pl., Sir T. Elyot, Castel of Helthe,
fol. 3, back; ‘Murre, _gravedo_’, Levins, Manipulus. See Nares.
=Murrian,= a Mauritanian, a Moor. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 315). See
=Morian.=
=murrion,= a ‘morion’, a steel cap. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 4
(Captain). Also jocularly, a nightcap; spelt _murrain_, id., Scornful
Lady, iv. 1 (Abigail). Span. _morrion_ (Stevens). See Stanford (s.v.
Morrion), and Dict. (s.v. Morion).
=muscadine,= a kind of wine with a musk-like perfume. Massinger, City
Madam, ii. 1. 12. See Dict. (s.v. Muscadel).
=Muscovy glass,= a kind of talc. B. Jonson, Prol. to Devil is an Ass,
17; Marston (Malcontent), i. 3 (Passarello).
=muse,= to wonder, marvel. Coriolanus, iii. 2. 7; Macbeth, iii. 4. 85;
hence, _muses_, musings, thoughts, cogitations, Lyly, Euphues (ed.
Arber, 94); Englishman for my Money, iii. 2 (Harvey); in Hazlitt’s
Dodsley, x. 509. OF. _muser_, ‘regarder comme un sot’ (Bartsch), cp.
Ital. _musare_, ‘to muse, to gape, to hould ones muzle or snout in the
aire’ (Florio); Prov. _muzar_, ‘regarder bouche béante’; _mus_, ‘figure,
visage’ (Levy).
=muse,= a gap in a thicket or fence through which a hare or other beast
of sport is wont to pass; ‘Take a hare without a muse, and a knave
without an excuse’, Howell, Eng. Prov. 12; ‘The wild muse of a bore’
(boar), Chapman, tr. Iliad, xi. 368; Heywood, Witches of Lancs. i. 1
(Bantam). The word is in prov. use in many parts of England from the
north country to Sussex, written _muse_, _meuse_, _moose_, _muce_, see
EDD. (s.v. Meuse). F. dial. (Bas-Maine) _mus_, ‘muce, passage étroit à
travers des broussailles pour les lièvres, les lapins, &c.’ (Dottin);
see Littré (s.v. Musse). See =meaze.=
=muske-million,= the musk-melon. Drayton, Pol. xx. 54; Tusser,
Husbandry, § 40. 8.
=musquet,= a hawk of a very small size. Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii.
119; ‘Musket, a lytell hauke, _mouchet_’, Palsgrave. Ital. _mosquetto_,
‘a musket-hawke’ (Florio).
=muss,= a scramble among boys, for trivial objects. Ant. and Cl. iii.
13. 91; B. Jonson, Barthol. Fair, iv. 1 (Cokes). ‘Muss’ means a
confusion, scramble, in Warwickshire, see EDD. (s.v. Muss, sb.^{1} 1 and
2).
=mutchado,= a moustache; ‘On his upper lippe A mutchado’, Arden of Fev.
ii. 1. 56; _mutchato_, Higgins, Induction to Mirror for Mag. (Nares);
_muschatoes_, Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 4 (Ithamore). For numerous
spellings of the word ‘moustache’ see NED. See =mouchatoes.=
=mutton,= a strumpet. Middleton, Roaring Girl, iii. 2 (Mis. O.); Dekker,
Honest Wh., Pt. II, iii. 8 (Bots). See =laced mutton.=
=myrobalane,= a kind of dried Indian plum. B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 1
(Subtle). F. _myrobalan_, L. _myrobalanum_, Gk. μυροβάλανος, probably
the ben-nut; μύpov, unguent, and βάλανος, acorn.
N
=nab,= the head. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Higgen); Harman,
Caveat, p. 82; Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); _nabb_, a hat,
Shadwell, Squire Alsatia, ii. 1. Swed. dial, _nabb_, the head (Rietz).
=nab-cheat,= a hat or cap. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1; Harman,
Caveat, p. 82. See =cheat= (Thieves’ Cant).
=nache,= the rump; ‘The nache by the tayle’, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, §
57. 3. A west Yorks. word, see EDD. (s.v. Aitch-bone). OF. _nache_, a
buttock (Godefroy); Ital. _natica_. See Dict. (s.v. Aitch-bone).
=nads,= an ‘adze’. Tusser, Husbandry, § 17. 9.
=næve,= a spot, blemish; ‘Spots, like næves’, Dryden, Death of Lord
Hastings, 55. L. _naevus_, a mole, or mark on the body.
=nake,= to bare, unsheathe a sword; ‘Nake your swords’, Tourneur,
Revenger’s Tragedy, v. 1 (Lussurioso). ME. _naken_, to make naked
(Chaucer, Boethius, bk. iv, met. 7).
=naked,= unarmed. Othello, v. 2. 258. Phr. _naked bed_, in reference to
the once common custom of sleeping undressed, no night-linen being worn;
‘In her naked bed’, Venus and Ad. 397. See Nares; and EDD. (s.v. Naked,
1 (1)).
=nale, at,= for _atten ale_, at the ale-house. Hickscorner, in Hazlitt’s
Dodsley, i. 166. Cp. Glouc. phrase, ‘He’s gone to nale’ (EDD.). ME.
_atte nale_, at the ale-house (P. Plowman, C. viii. 19).
=nall,= an ‘awl’. Tusser, Husbandry, § 17. 4; ‘A _naule_, idem quod
_aule_’, Levins, Manip.; ‘Nall for a souter, _alesne_’, Palsgrave.
‘Nawl’ is in common prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.).
=namecouth,= known by name, famous. Spelt _naamkouth_, Grimalde,
Concerning Virgil, 14; in Tottel’s Misc., p. 102.
=namely,= especially. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 3. 14; vii. 7. 48.
=nape,= to strike upon the nape or back of the head just above the neck.
‘Naped in the head’, Latimer, 3 Sermon (ed. Arber, 76); ‘_I nawpe_ one
in the necke’, Palsgrave.
=Napier’s bones,= ivory rods marked with numbers, for facilitating
calculation; invented by Lord Napier of Merchiston (d. 1617). Butler,
Hud. ii. 3. 1095; iii. 2. 409.
=nappy,= having a head, foaming; heady, strong. Sir T. Wyatt, Sat. iii.
16; Gay, Shepherd’s Week, ii. 56. In common prov. use (EDD.).
=nares,= nostrils. Butler, Hud. i. 1. 742; ‘Nares (of a hawk)’, Book of
St. Albans, fol. a 5; L. _nares_, pl. nostrils.
=narre,= nearer. Spenser, Shep. Kal., July, 97; Ruines of Rome, xvi. 3.
Icel. _nærre_, nearer (adj.); _nærr_ (adv.).
=nas,= for _ne has_, has not. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 61.
=nase,= nose. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., ii. 1 (Lorel). ME. _nase_, nose
(Wars Alex. 4519).
=natch,= a ‘notch’; ‘Cut all the natches of his tales’ (i.e. cut, in
order to destroy, all the notches off his accounts or tallies), Arden of
Fev. v. 1. 24; ‘A natche, _incisura_; to natch, _incidere_’, Levins,
Manip. In prov. use in various parts of the British Isles (EDD.).
=nathe,= ‘nave’ of a wheel. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 5. 9. In common
prov. use in the north and the Midlands (EDD.).
=nathemore,= never the more. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 25; iv. 8. 14. For the
earlier _nathemo_. See NED.
=native,= in astrology; the subject of a horoscope, the person whose
nativity is being cast. Massinger, City Madam, ii. 2 (Stargaze); Butler,
Hud. i. 1. 608.
=nawl;= see =nall.=
=nay:= phr. _say nay, and take it_, refuse, but accept; a proverbial
expression as to a maid’s part. Richard III, iii. 7. 50; Peele, Sir
Clyomon, p. 494, col. 1.
=ne,= nor. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 3. 25; All’s Well, ii. 1. 176. ME. _ne_,
nor (Chaucer, C. T. A. 179). OE. _ne_.
=neafe,= a clenched hand, a fist. Mids. Night’s D. iv. 1. 15; _neuf_, B.
Jonson, Poetaster, iii. 1 (Tucca); Ford, Witch of Edmonton, iii. 1
(Cuddy). In common prov. use in various parts of the British Isles, see
EDD. (s.v. Neive). ME. _neefe_, a fist (Barbour’s Bruce, xvi. 129); also
in forms _nave_, _new_, in pl. _nevis_, _newys_, _newffys_ (id., see
Glossary). Icel. _hnefi_.
=neal,= to anneal. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, ii. 1 (Meer).
=neat-house.= The Neat House (lit. house for cattle) was a celebrated
market-garden, near Chelsea Bridge (Gifford); Massinger, City Madam,
iii. 1. 14.
=neatresse,= a female neatherd. Warner, Alb. England, bk. iv, ch. 20,
st. 48.
=neck,= in chess; a move to cover check. Surrey, To the Lady that
scorned her Lover, 3, in Tottel’s Misc. (ed. Arber, 21). See NED.
=neck-verse,= the Latin verse read by a malefactor, to entitle him to
benefit of clergy, so as to save his neck; usually Psalm li. 1,
_Miserere mei_, &c. Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv. 4 (Pilia); Fletcher, Mad
Lover, v. 3 (Chilax).
=needle,= to penetrate like a needle; to make their way into; ‘Mice made
holes to needle in their buttocks’ (of fat hogs), Middleton, Game at
Chess, v. 3 (B. Knight).
=needly,= of necessity, necessarily. Peele, Sir Clyomon, ed. Dyce, p.
517, col. 2; id., Tale of Troy, p. 552. A Yorks. word (EDD.).
=neeld,= a ‘needle’. Fairfax, tr. of Tasso, xx. 95; Stanyhurst, tr. of
Aeneid, i. 715; Mids. Night’s D. iii. 2. 204. A common prov. form, see
EDD. (s.v. Needle).
=neele,= a ‘needle’. Gammer Gurton’s Needle, i. 3 (Tyb). The word spelt
without the _d_ is common in prov. E. in many spellings, as _neele_,
_neel_, _neal_, _nill_, _nail_ (EDD.).
=neesing,= a sneezing, a sneeze. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xvii. 732;
BIBLE, Job xli. 18. ‘Neese’ is in prov. use in Scotland, Ireland, and
various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Neeze). ME. _nesen_ (Prompt.).
Du. _niesen_, to sneeze (Hexham). See Dict. (s.v. Neese).
=neif,= one born on a feudal manor in a state of serfdom; ‘It signifieth
in our common law a bondwoman, the reason is, because women become bound
rather _nativitate_ than by any other means’, Cowell. Spelt _nyefe_,
Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 342. Anglo-F. _neif_, ‘serf de naissance
ou d’origine’ (Didot); Med. L. _nativus_ (Ducange).
=neis,= to scent, smell; ‘The hart . . . nere fra’ hence sall neis her
i’ the wind’, B. Jonson, Sad Sheph. ii. 1 (Maud.). See NED. (s.v. Nese).
=nephew,= a grandson. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 22; ii. 10. 45; ‘_Grandsires
and nephews_’, B. Jonson, Catiline, iii. 3 (Curius); spelt _nevew_;
Phaer, Aeneid ii, 702 (= L. _nepotem_). See Trench, Select Glossary. ME.
_nevewe_, a grandson (Chaucer, Hous Fame, ii. 109). OF. _neveu_. O.
Prov. _nep_, _nebot_. L. _nepotem_, nephew, grandson.
=nere,= nearer; ‘The nere to the churche, the ferther from God’,
Heywood, Prov. (ed. 1867, 17). ME. ‘þe nere þe cherche, þe fyrþer fro
God’, R. Brunne, Handlyng Synne. OE. _nēar_, compar. of _nēah_, nigh.
=nesh,= soft, tender, delicate; ‘Like a nesh nag’, Beaumont and Fl.,
Bonduca, iv. 1 (Petillius); ‘_Tendre_, tender, nice, nesh, delicate’,
Cotgrave. In gen. prov. use in Scotland and England (EDD.). ME.
_nesche_, ‘mollis’ (Cath. Angl.). OE. _hnesce_, soft (B. T.).
=nest of goblets,= a set of them, of different sizes, fitting one inside
another. Northward Ho, iii. 2 (Bellamont); _neast of goblets_, Marston,
Dutch Courtezan, i. 1. 7. So also _a nest of boxes_; Udall, tr. of
Apoph., Socrates, § 12.
=net, nett,= clear, clean, bare. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 12. 20; vi. 8. 45.
F. _net_, neat, clean, clear; bare, empty.
=nettie,= neat, ‘natty’. Tusser, Husbandry, § 68. 1.
=neuf;= see =neafe.=
=neuft,= a newt, evet, or eft. B. Jonson, Poetaster, iv. 1 (Tucca); cp.
_newt_ in Bartholomew Fair, Act ii, where Knockem says, ‘What! thou’lt
poison me with a _newt_’, &c.; where ed. 1614 has _neuft_ (NED.).
=Never a barrel the better herring,= proverbial saying, meaning never
one better than another, nothing to choose between them, referring to
the notion that you will not find a better herring by searching in a new
barrel. Gascoigne, Supposes, iv. 6 (Litio); Martiniere’s Voyage, 127
(NED. (s.v. Herring)); [Fielding, T. Jones, x. v.]. Also, _In neither
barrel better herring_, Heywood’s Proverbs (ed. Farmer, p. 102); Udall,
tr. of Apoph., Philip, § 11; ‘The Devil a barrel the better herring’,
Bailey’s Colleq., Erasmus, 373; cp. Gosson, School of Abuse, 32: ‘Of
both barrelles [i.e. as containing poets on the one side and cooks and
painters on the other] I judge Cookes and Painters the better herring.’
See Davies (s.v. Herring).
=new-eared,= newly ploughed. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xviii. 492. See
=ear= (to plough).
=newel,= a novelty, rarity. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 276. Explained as
‘a newe thing’. Formed from _new_, with the suffix of _novel_.
=new-fangle,= fond of new things; ‘The peple were soo newfangle’, Morte
Arthur, leaf 421; bk. xxi, c. 1 (end). See Dict. (s.v. _Newfangled_).
=new-year’s-gift,= a present to a great man on new-year’s day, usually
given in hope of a reward or by way of bribe. Webster, Devil’s Law-case,
ii. 1 (Julio); Ascham, Scholemaster, p. 21.
=neysshe,= soft. Morte Arthur, leaf 311. 8; bk. xiii, c. 30. See =nesh.=
=niaise,= a young hawk taken out of the nest, applied allusively to a
simple, witless person. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, i. 3 (Fitz.); ‘_Niard_,
a nias faulcon’, Cotgrave. ‘Nias’ is a north Yorks. word for a young
hawk (EDD.). OF. _niais_, ‘qui n’est pas encore sorti du nid, qu’on a
pris au nid’ (La Curne). See =eyas.=
=nice;= in various senses. It means fine, elegant, Much Ado, v. 1. 75;
tender, delicate, Ant. and Cl. iii. 13. 180; precise, Macbeth, iv. 3.
174; scrupulous, Merch. Ven. ii. 1. 14; subtle, L. L. L. v. 2. 232; coy,
prudish, L. L. L. iii. 1. 24; squeamish, Tam. Shrew, iii. 1. 80;
trifling, Romeo, iii. 1. 159. _To make it nice_, to seem reluctant,
North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Antonius, § 14 (in Shak. Plut., p. 177).
=niceness,= coyness, scrupulousness. Cymb. iii. 4. 158; Middleton, A
Fair Quarrel, i. 1 (Colonel).
=nick,= to cut in nicks or notches, Com. of Errors, v. 175; to clip,
curtail, Ant. and Cl. iii. 13. 8. _In the nick_, at the right moment,
Othello, v. 2. 317; _out of all nick_, beyond all reckoning,
excessively, Two Gent. iv. 2. 76. See EDD. (s.v. Nick, sb.^{4} 1).
Hence, _nick_, to hit off, to find out with precision; ‘You’ve nicked
the channel’ (i.e. the right course), Congreve, Love for Love, iii. 4
(Ben); _nicked_, luckily saved, Butler, Hud. iii. 2. 1304. See EDD.
(s.v. Nick, vb.^{2} 2).
=nidget, nideot,= an ‘idiot’, simpleton. Spelt _nigget_, Middleton, The
Changeling, iii. 3 (Lollio). In prov. use (EDD.).
=niding;= see =nithing.=
=niece,= a grand-daughter, Richard III, iv. 1. 1; a relative, cousin
(vaguely used). Greene, Alphonsus, ii, prol. 12; id., iii (Fausta, l.
939). Down to the beginning of the 17th cent. the sense of
grand-daughter appears to have been common; see Trench, Select Glossary.
=nifles,= trifles, things of little or no value; trifling tales; ‘The
fables and the nyfyls’, Heywood, A Mery Play, 434 (NED). ME. _nyfles_:
‘He served hem with nyfles and with fablis’ (Chaucer, C. T. D. 1760).
OF. _nifles_ (Godefroy). See EDD. (s.v. Nifle).
=nifling,= trifling, worthless, Lady Alimony, ii. 6. 10.
=niggers, niggers-noggers,= meaningless forms, used as minced oaths.
Rowley, A Match at Midnight, i. 1 (Tim.); also _sniggers_, id.
=niggish,= niggardly, miserly; ‘Niggish slovenrie’, Udall, tr. of
Apoph., Diogenes, § 11; ‘Nigeshe penny fathers’, More’s Utopia (ed.
Lumby, 102). See Nares.
=niggle,= to do anything in a trifling, fiddling, ineffective way; ‘Take
heed, daughter, you niggle not with your conscience’, Massinger, Emperor
of the East, v. 3 (Theodosius). In prov. use with numerous variations of
sense, see EDD. Norw. dial. _nigla_ (Aasen).
=night-cap,= a nocturnal bully, a notorious roisterer. Webster, Duch. of
Malfi, ii. 1; Devil’s Law-case, ii, 1. See =Roaring Boys.=
=night-rail,= a night-dress. Middleton, Mayor of Queenboro’, iii. 2 (1
Lady); Massinger, City Madam, iii. 2 (end); iv. 4 (Luke). In prov. use,
see EDD. (s.v. Night, 1 (29)). OE. _hrægl_, dress. See Nares (s.v.
Night-rail), and Dict. (s.v. Rail, 4).
=night-snap,= a thief (Cant). Beaumont and Fl., Chances, ii. 1 (John).
=nil=(=l,= to be unwilling, often denoting simple futurity; ‘I nill live
in sorrowe’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 151; ‘I nill relate’, Pericles,
iii, prel. 55; _will he nill he_, Hamlet, v. 1. 18; _to will and nill_,
B. Jonson, Epigrams, xlii. 16; _nild_, pt. t. would not, ‘Unto the
founts Diana nild repair’, Greene, Radagon’s Sonnet, 17 (ed. Dyce, p.
301). ‘Nill ye, will ye’, whether you wish or not, is in use in
Scotland; ‘Nildy wildy’, whether one would or not, is heard is E. Anglia
(EDD.). ME. _nil_, pr. s.; _nolde_, pt. t. (Chaucer).
=nim,= to steal. Puritan Widow, i. 4. 167; Butler, Hud. i. 1. 598;
hence, _nimmer_, a thief, id., ii. 3. 1094; Tomkis, Albumazar, iii. 7
(end); _nimming_, stealing, Massinger, Guardian, v. 2 (Durazzo). ‘Nim’
and ‘Nimmer’ are in prov. use (EDD.). ME. _nimen_, to take, to seize (P.
Plowman), see Dict. M. and S.; OE. _niman_, to take; cp. G. _nehmen_.
=nine-holes,= a game in which the players endeavoured to roll small
balls into nine holes in the ground, all separately numbered. Drayton,
Pol. xiv. 22; Muses’ Elysium, Nymphal vi (Melanthus). See EDD. (s.v.
Nine, 1 (9)), and NED. (s.v. Nine-holes).
=nine men’s morris,= a rural game, called also Merrils, described in
Brand’s Pop. Antiq. (ed. 1877, p. 542), Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 98.
Called ‘Morris’ by popular etymology, as if with reference to the
movement (or dance) of the men (or pieces). But the right name was
‘Merelles’ (i.e. counters or pieces used in the game). Cp. Cotgrave:
‘_Merelles, Le jeu des merelles_, The boyish game called Merils or
five-penny Morris, played here most commonly with stones, but in France
with pawns or men made of purpose, and termed Merelles.’ See Ducange
(s.v. Merallus), EDD. (s.v. Nine, 1 (12)), and Nares (s.v.).
=ningle,= ‘ingle’; _mine ingle_ became _my ningle_, my favourite.
Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iv. 3 (Roderigo); Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I,
iii. 1 (Fustigo). See =ingle.=
=nip,= a taunt, sarcasm, reproof. Puttenham, E. Poesie, bk. i, c. 27
(ed. Arber, p. 68). ‘Nip’ in prov. use means a pinch or squeeze; a bite
or sting, see EDD. (s.v. Nip, sb.^{1} 15, 16).
=nip a bung,= to steal a purse (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1
(Trapdoor); ‘A pickpocket, as good as ever _nipped_ the judge’s _bung_
while he was condemning him’, The London Chanticleers, scene 1 (Heath);
Cleveland (Nares); _nip_, a cutpurse, Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1
(Moll). Hence _nipper_, ‘A nypper is termed a pickpurse or a cutpurse’,
Fletewood (in Aydelotte, p. 95).
=nip a jan,= to steal a purse (Cant). B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed
(Jackman). See _Jan_ in NED.
=nipitato,= strong liquor; ‘A drink In England found, and Nipitato
call’d, Which driveth all the sorrow from your hearts’, Beaumont and
Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, iv. 2 (Pompiona). Hence, _nippitate_, strong
(said of wine), Chapman, Alphonsus, iii. 1 (Collen). See Nares.
=nis,= is not. Spenser, Shep. Kal., June, 19. ME. _nis_ (Chaucer). OE.
_nis_, for _ne is_, is not.
=niste, nist,= knew not. Spelt _nyst_, Morte Arthur, leaf 339. 4; bk.
xvi, c. 9. ME. _niste_ (Chaucer, C. T. F. 502). OE. _nyste_, for _ne
wyste_; _wiste_, pt. t. of _witan_, to know.
=nithing,= a vile coward; a term of severe reproach. _Nithing_, Blount’s
Gloss.; spelt _niding_, Howell, Foreign Travell, sect. xviii (end); p.
79. Icel. _nīðingr_, legally the strongest term of abuse for a traitor,
coward, or the like (Vigfusson).
=no,= used ironically; ‘No rich idolatry’ (i.e. great idolatry),
Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, iv. 3 (Learchus); ‘No villainy’
(i.e. great villainy), Mad Lover, iii. 6 (Chilax).
=noble,= a coin worth 6_s._ 8_d._ Richard II, i. 1. 88.
=noblesse,= noble birth or condition. Kyd, Cornelia, ii. 297; the
nobility, persons of noble rank, ‘There is in every state . . . two
portions of subjects; the Noblesse and the Commonaltie’, Bacon, Essay
15, § 13; Richard II, iv. 1. 119 (1st quarto only). ME. _noblesse_,
nobleness, noble rank (Chaucer). F. _noblesse_, ‘nobility, gentry;
gentlemanliness’ (Cotgr.).
=nobley,= great display, splendour. Morte Arthur, leaf 158, back, 8; bk.
viii, c. 29; lf. 211, back, 32; bk. 10, c. 6. ME. _nobley_, nobility,
dignity, splendour, noble rank; assembly of nobles (Chaucer). OF.
_noblei_(_e_, nobility of rank or estate; Anglo-F. _noblei_, nobleness
(Rough List).
=nocent,= harmful. Milton, P. L. ix. 186; guilty, Greene, James IV, v. 6
(Sir Cuthbert). L. _nocens_, hurtful, culpable.