Beowulf: Glossary
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These definitions are from the Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition, on CD (version 2.0)

alliteration

[n. of action f. alliterate v.: see -ation.]
[f. L. al-, ad- to…littera letter…-ate, on the analogy of obliterate, f. L. oblitterát-um, oblitterá-re, already formed in L.]

1. gen. The commencing of two or more words in close connexion, with the same letter, or rather the same sound.

1656 Blount Glossogr., Alliteration, a figure in Rhetorick, repeating and playing on the same letter. 1749 Power Pros. Numbers 71 That which some call Alliteration, i.e. beginning several Words with the same Letter, if it be natural, is a real Beauty. 1763 Churchill Proph. Famine Poems I. 101 Apt Alliteration's artful aid. 1831 Macaulay Johnson 126 Taxation no Tyranny..was..nothing but a jingling alliteration which he ought to have despised. 1871 R. F. Weymouth Euph. 4 ‘Delightful to be read, and nothing hurtfull to be regarded; wherein there is small offence by lightnes given to the wise, and lesse occasion of loosenesse profferred to the wanton.’ Lilie's favourite form of alliteration is well marked in this sentence.

2. The commencement of certain accented syllables in a verse with the same consonant or consonantal group, or with different vowel sounds, which constituted the structure of versification in OE. and the Teutonic languages generally. Thus from the beginning of Langland's Piers Ploughman, text C.: In a somere seyson · whan softe was þe sonne, Y shop me into shrobbis · as y a shepherde were; In abit as an ermite · vnholy of werkes, Ich wente forth in þe worlde · wonders to hure, And sawe meny cellis · and selcouthe þynges.

1774 T. Warton Eng. Poetry (1840) I. Diss. i. 38 The Islandic poets are said to have carried alliteration to the highest pitch of exactness. 1846 T. Wright Ess. Mid. Ages I. i. 14 The form of Saxon poetry is alliteration − not rhyme. 1871 Earle Philol. Eng. Tong. §626 Alliteration did not necessarily act on the initial letter of the word.

Anglo-Saxon

Forms: 1 Angul-, Angel-, Ongol-seaxan n. pl., 7– Anglo-Saxon, -saxon, 9 Anglosaxon. [Prob. in 9th c., as certainly in 17th, ad. L. Anglo-Saxones, -Saxon-icus, in which Anglo-, comb. form of Anglus, -W, is used adverbially, as in similar L. and Gr. compounds, as sacro-sanctus sacredly sanctioned, #mdo-rjth¬a Indian Scythia, Scythia of the Indus, Rtqo-uo´min, L. Syrophœnix, Phœnician of Syria. Cf. also Gallo-græci, and in later use Mœso-Gothi Goths of Mœsia. Hence Anglo-Saxones, Angel-seaxan = English Saxons, Saxons of England or of the Angul-cynn (gens Anglorum, Bæda), as distinguished from the Ald-Seaxan (Antiqui Saxones, Bæda) or Old-Saxons of the continent. The earliest L. forms were Angli Saxones, Saxones Angli (two words ‘English Saxons’), whence Angli-Saxones, and finally Anglo-Saxones, Anglosaxones. App. of continental origin; in OE. use, rare in the Eng. form; not uncommon in Latin documents down to 1100.]

I. English Saxon, Saxon of England: orig. a collective name for the Saxons of Britain as distinct from the ‘Old Saxons’ of the continent. Hence, properly applied to the Saxons (of Wessex, Essex, Middlesex, Sussex, and perhaps Kent), as distinct from the Angles. a. n. (the only contemporary use).

[c775 Paulus Diaconus iv. xxiii, Vestimenta..qualia Angli Saxones habere solent. Ibid. iv. xxxvii, E Saxonum Anglorum genere duxit uxorem. c885 Charter, Cod. Dip. V. 134 Ego Ælfredus, gratia Dei, Angul-Saxonum rex.] 934 Chart. C.D. V. 218-9 Ic Æthelstán, Ongol-Saxna cyning and Brytænwalda eallæs þyses iglandes. 955 Chart. C.D. II. 303 He hafað geweorðad mid cynedóme Angulseaxna Eádred cyning and cásere totius Britanniæ.

b. adj. absol. In this Dictionary, the language of England before 1100 is called, as a whole, ‘Old English’ (OE.); Anglo-Saxon, when used, is restricted to the Saxon as distinguished from the Anglian dialects of Old English; thus we may say that eald was the Anglo-Saxon (i.e. West Saxon and Kentish) form of the normal OE. ald (retained in Anglian), whence, and not from eald, we have mod. Eng. old. II. Extended to the entire Old English people and language before the Norman Conquest.
    For these there was apparently at first no collective name; subsequently, the name Englisc (Anglish, English) was extended from the dialect of the Angles (the first to be committed to writing) to all dialects of the vernacular, whether Anglian or Saxon; and Angul-cynn (Angle-kin, gens Anglorum), and later still, during the struggle with the Danes, ‘English’ and ‘Englishman,’ to all speakers of the vernacular in any dialect Angle or Saxon. After the Norman Conquest, the natives and the new incomers were at first distinguished as ‘English’ and ‘French,’ but, as the latter also became in a few generations ‘English’ politically and geographically, men's notions of ‘English’ changed accordingly, so that the 12th c. chroniclers could no longer apply the word distinctively to the people of Edward the Confessor and Harold, for whom therefore they recalled the name ‘Saxon,’ applicable enough to the West Saxon dynasty, but incorrect when extended to the whole Angle-kin over whom they ruled. At the hands of the Latin chroniclers, often foreigners, to whom the historical relations of Saxons and Angles were not very obvious, a similar extension of meaning had been given to Anglo-Saxones. But this name did not reappear in English till after 1600, when, with the revival of OE. learning, historians and philologists again felt the need of distinguishing English ‘Saxon’ from the Saxon of Germany. The modern use dates from Camden, who himself used Anglo-Saxon-es, -icus, in Latin, and English Saxon in his vernacular works. His translator adapted the Lat. as Anglo-Saxon, which gradually displaced ‘English Saxon,’ first as n., and finally as adj. also. But it was applied, as Saxon had been for 500 years erroneously applied, to ‘Old English’ as a whole. This has led in turn to an erroneous analysis of the word, which has been taken as = Angle + Saxon, a union of Angle and Saxon; and in accordance with this mistaken view, modern combinations have been profusely formed in which Anglo- is meant to express ‘English and..’, ‘English in connexion with..’, as ‘the Anglo-Russian war’; whence, on the same analogy, Franco-German, Turko-Russian, etc. See Anglo-.

a. n.

[1586-1607 Camden Brit. 94 Nunc..Anglo-Saxones ad differentiam eorum in Germania, vocatos. Ibid. 128 Maiores nostri Anglo-Saxones Wittena-ge-mott, .i. Prudentum Conuentus..vocârunt.] [1610 Holland Camden's Brit. 177 The Anglo Saxons our ancestors termed it Wittena-ge-mott, that is, an assembly of the wise. Ibid. i. 127 (title) English Saxons; (marg. title) Anglo-Saxons. [1605 Camden Rem. (1614) 20 The English-Saxon tongue came in by the English-Saxons out of Germany.] [1726 Tindal Rapin's Eng. (1757) I. i. 90 They were generally called Saxons, yet they had sometimes the compound name of Anglo-Saxons given them. 1735 Thomson Liberty iv. (T.) Ere, blood-cemented, Anglo-Saxons saw Egbert and Peace on one united throne. 1846 Wright Mid. Ages I. i. 2 Public attention..was first drawn to the writings of the Anglo-Saxons at the time of the reformation. [a1861 Palgrave Norm. & Eng. (1864) III. 596, I must..substitute henceforward the true and antient word English for the unhistorical and conventional term Anglo-Saxon, an expression conveying a most false idea in our civil history. [1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1877) I. 548, I speak therefore of our forefathers, not as ‘Saxons,’ or even as ‘Anglo-Saxons,’ but as they spoke of themselves, as Englishmen.

b. adj. (absol. The Old English language.)

[1586-1607 Camden Brit. 121 In Anglo-Saxonicis legibus nusquam comparet. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. 168 In the English-Saxon lawes, it is nowhere to be seene. 1605 Camden Rem. (1614) 21 The English-Saxon conquerors, altred the tongue which they found here wholly. Ibid. 70 Folc, the English-Saxon woorde for people. 1715 E. Elstob (title) The Rudiments of Grammar for the English Saxon Tongue. 1726 Ayliffe Parerg. 11 Under all the English Saxon Kings.] 1726 Tindal Rapin's Eng. (1757) I. iii. 157 The Anglo-Saxon kings were naturally very restless. 1783 Bailey, the Saxon language as it was spoken in England. 1876 Sweet Anglo-Sax. Reader xi, The oldest stage of English before the Norman Conquest is now called ‘Old English,’ but the older name of ‘Anglo-Saxon’ is still very generally used. 1955 Quirk & Wrenn O.E. Gram. 1 In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the term Anglo-Saxon..was the commonest name for the language; but, although still sometimes used by scholars it has gradually been replaced in the last hundred years by the more scientific term Old English.

III. Used rhetorically for English in its wider or ethnological sense, in order to avoid the later historical restriction of ‘English’ as distinct from Scotch, or the modern political restriction of ‘English’ as opposed to American of the United States; thus applied to (1) all persons of Teutonic descent (or who reckon themselves such) in Britain, whether of English, Scotch, or Irish birth; (2) all of this descent in the world, whether subjects of Great Britain or of the United States. a. n.

1853 Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. Part. (1858) I. xv. 51 Sometimes they stand on the right and the necessity for the European to live by plunder; and sometimes..they concentrate their claim upon the Anglo-Saxon. 1904 Conrad Nostromo ii. vi. 180 It is part of the truth of things which hurts the − what do you call them? − the Anglo-Saxon's susceptibilities.

b. adj.
Quot. 18711 should perhaps be placed in sense II. b.

1832 R. Choate in Deb. Congress 13 June 3515 The whole circle of the..arts, trades, and branches of manufacture, which characterize the..industry of the Anglo-Saxon race of men. 1840 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) V. 314 The chief reason stated for the recognition of the pirates, is that they are of the Anglo-Saxon race. 1846 Spirit of Times (N.Y.) 6 June 177/3 The Anglo-Saxon ‘never can acknowledge the corn’ to the cross of negro and Indian. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 143 The Puritan part of the Anglosaxon colony had little right to complain. 1871 ‘L. Carroll’ Through Looking-Glass vii, He's an Anglo-Saxon Messenger − and those are Anglo-Saxon attitudes. 1871 Spect. 22 Apr. 467 England's best alliance would be the free confederation of the English race in every part of the world. Change ‘English’ for ‘Anglo-Saxon,’ and in that sentence lies the policy of the future. 1875 W. James Coll. Ess. & Rev. (1920) 16 But the thing which to our Anglo-Saxon mind seems so outlandish is that crowds of dapper fellows, revelling in animal spirits and conscious strength, should enroll themselves in cold blood as his [sc. Schopenhauer's] permanent apostles. 1888 Kipling in Lett. of Marque (1891) xvi. 119 A snowy-bearded chowkidar..threw himself into Anglo-Saxon attitudes. 1924 R. Graves Mock Beggar Hall 63 Yet commonsense, the Anglo-Saxon flair Seems weakest on its vaunted practical side. 1956 A. Wilson (title) Anglo-Saxon Attitudes.

IV. Used for ‘the English language’. ‘(Of) the English language (of the modern period)’ U.S.; freq. with the implication ‘plain, unvarnished, forthright’. colloq. a. adj.

1859 ‘J. Downing’ Thirty Years out of Senate 10 The best and truest exposition of the peculiar Yankee dialect of the Anglo-Saxon language that there is extant. 1863 C. Lyell Antiquity of Man xxiii. 466 Among the [Germans of Pennsylvania]..I found the newspapers full of terms half English and half German, and many an Anglo-Saxon word which had assumed a Teutonic dress, as ‘fencen’, to fence, instead of umzäunen. 1927 in Amer. Speech (1928) III. 376 Several Laborites were suspended in the House of Commons..to the accompaniment of..the hurling of bald Anglo-Saxon epithets traditionally classed as unparliamentary. 1927 Sat. Rev. Lit. 23 Apr. 772/4 All nine of the tabooed Anglo-Saxon monosyllables. 1958 Spectator 31 Jan. 133/2 The Bishop was reported in reputable newspapers as having said (and in more Anglo-Saxon terms) that he had been reliably informed of the truth of this fact.

b. n.

1866 J. C. Gregg Life in Army xv. 137 Occasionally a word of honest, hearty Anglo-Saxon, or a ‘bit of the brogue’, to remind you that you are not in Naples, but in New Orleans. 1872 H. A. Wise Seven Decades of Union 141 He [sc. Senator Leigh of Virginia] was a purist in his Anglo-Saxon. 1917 in Amer. Speech (1929) IV. 271, I like your stilted style best Jack. When you descend to the Anglo Saxon you get too much in dead earnest. 1926 Amer. Speech I. 265/1 Specimens of the jargon daily spoken by witnesses believing they talk pure Anglo-Saxon. 1927 Yale Rev. Jan. 414 Tell me what you forget and I will tell you what you are, says the psycho-analyst. But I can do this, too, and in plain Anglo-Saxon. The man who insists on telling me what he forgets is a fool. 1947 K. Malone in Word Study Oct. 2/2 In current speech Anglo-Saxon often means plain English. In this use, the word has Latin for antonym.

codex

Pl. codices ("k@UdIsi;z). [a. L. cZdex, later spelling of caudex trunk of a tree, wooden tablet, book, code of laws.]

†1. = code n.11, 2. Obs.

1581 Mulcaster Positions xl. (1887) 228 In the fourth booke of Iustinians new Codex, the thirtenth title. 1622 Fletcher Sp. Curate iv. vii, The codexes o' th' law. 1659 Gentl. Call. iv. §24. 408 The whole codex of Christian precepts. 1753 Scots Mag. Sept. 460/1 A new codex, or body of the laws.

2. A manuscript volume: e.g. one of the ancient manuscripts of the Scriptures (as the Codex Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus, Vaticanus, etc.), or of the ancient classics.

1845 M. Stuart O.T. Canon viii. (1849) 185 Account for the speedy loss or destruction of most codices once in circulation. 1875 Scrivener Lect. Text N. Test. 26 Tischendorf's great discovery, the Codex Sinaiticus. Ibid. 59 The characters in Codex B are somewhat less in size than those of Codex A.

3. ‘In medicine, a collection of receipts for the preparation of drugs’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.); spec. the French Pharmacopœia.

codicology

[ad. Fr. codicologie, f. L. cZdic- stem of codex + -ology.]

The study or science of manuscripts and their interrelationships. Hence codico'logical a., codico'logically adv.
Used mainly by continental writers, when writing in English, as a calque on G. Handschriftenkunde.

1953 D. C. C. Young in Scriptorium VII. 7 If the suggestion that O [= MS. Vat. gr. 915] for Theognis is by Gregoras be accepted, much may follow for the codicology of the other texts in O. Ibid. 3 A codicological inventory of Theognis manuscripts. 1964 L. Bieler in Studia Evangelica III. 328 Many of these manuscripts have recently been described and analysed ‘codicologically’ by Dr. Patrick McGurk. 1968 PMLA LXXXIII. 25/1 It is codicologically indivisible from the preceding pieces and in the same script. 1970 Times Lit. Suppl. 21 May 568/2 The recent development of ‘codicology’, which Greg would have subsumed under bibliography − the study of manuscripts as physical objects in order to identify the workshops that produced them.

comitatus

[L., collective deriv. of comes, comit-em, companion, count.]

1. A body of comites or companions; a retinue of warriors or nobles attached to the person of a king or chieftain. b. The status or relationship of such a body to their chief.

1875 Stubbs Const. Hist. I. vi. 152. The development of the comitatus into a territorial nobility seems to be a feature peculiar to English History. Ibid. I. vi. 160 The Danish jarl..seems to have been more certainly connected by the tie of comitatus with his king than the Anglo-Saxon ealdorman. 1875 Maine Hist. Inst. v. 138 The first aristocracy springing from kingly favour consisted of the Comitatus or Companions of the King.

2. An (English) county; as in the legal phrase posse comitatus, q.v.

diphthong

Forms: 5–6 diptong(e, (dypton), 6 dyphtong, diphthonge, -gue, 7–9 dipthong, 8 dipthongue, 6– diphthong. [a. F. diphthongue, earlier dyptongue, ad. L. diphthong-us, a. Gr. d¬uhocco|, adj. having two sounds, n. a diphthong, f. di-, d¬| twice, doubly + uh¾cco| voice, sound.]

A union of two vowels pronounced in one syllable; the combination of a sonantal with a consonantal vowel. The latter is usually one of the two vowels i and u, the extremes of the vowel scale, which pass into the consonants y, w. When these sounds, called by Melville Bell glides, follow the sonantal vowel, the combination is called a ‘falling diphthong’, as in out, how, boil, boy; when they precede, the combination is a ‘rising diphthong’, as in It. uovo, piano. It is common in the latter case to consider the first element as the consonant w or y. 1483 Cath. Angl. 100/2 A Diptonge [MS. A. Dypton], diptongus. 1530 Palsgr. 213/2 Diphthonge, diphthongue. a1637 B. Jonson Eng. Gram. v, Dipthongs are the complexions, or couplings of Vowells. 1668 Wilkins Real Char. 15 I and u according to our English pronunciation of them, are not properly Vowels, but Diphthongs. 1749 Power Pros. Numbers 9 All Dipthongs are naturally long. But in English Numbers they are often short. 1876 C. P. Mason Eng. Gram. (ed. 21) §17 When two vowel sounds are uttered without a break between them, we get what is called a vocal or sonant diphthong. 1888 J. Wright O.H. German Prim. §10 All the OHG. diphthongs..were falling diphthongs; that is, the stress fell upon the first of the two elements. 1892 Sweet New Eng. Gram. 230 If two vowels are uttered with one impulse of stress, so as to form a single syllable, the combination is called a diphthong, such as (oi) in oil.

b. Often applied to a combination of two vowel characters, more correctly called digraph1. When the two letters represent a simple sound, as ea, ou, in head (hEd), soup (su;p), they have been termed an improper diphthong: properly speaking these are monophthongs written by digraphs.

1530 Palsgr. 15 This diphthong ou..in the frenche tong shalbe sounded lyke as the Italians sounde this vowell u. c1620 A. Hume Brit. Tongue (1865) 10 We have of this thre diphthonges, tuae with a befoer, ae and ai, and ane with the e befoer, ea. 1668 Price in A. J. Ellis E.E. Pronunc. i. iii. (Chaucer Soc.) 125 That is an improper dipthong that loseth the sound of one vowel. There are eight improper dipthongs, ea ee ie eo, ea oo ui, ou obscure as in cousin. 1876 C. P. Mason Eng. Gram. (ed. 21) §17 When two of the letters called vowels are written together to represent either a sonant diphthong or a simple vowel sound, we get a written diphthong or digraph. Ibid. §25 The same letter or diphthong often represents very different vowel sounds.

c. esp. In popular use, applied to the ligatures æ, œ of the Roman alphabet. As pronounced in later L., and in modern use, these are no longer diphthongs, but monophthongs; the OE. ligatures æ and œ always represented monophthongs.

1587 Harrison England ii. xix. (1877) i. 312 Waldæne with a diphthong. 1631 Weever Anc. Fun. Mon. To Rdr. Aij, I write the Latine..as I find it..E vocall for E diphthong, diphthongs being but lately come into use. 1702 Addison Dial. Medals (1727) 20 We find that Felix is never written with an œ dipthongue. 1756-7 tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) III. 222 The epitaph, in which the dipthong æ, according to the custom of those times, is expressed by a single e..Vitam obiit VII Id. Oct. etatis sue ann. I. & L.

d. transf. Applied to a combination of two consonants in one syllable (consonantal diphthong), especially to such intimate unions as those of ch (tS) and dg or j (dZ), in church, judge.

1862 M. Hopkins Hawaii 65 The Hawaiian alphabet..is..destitute of consonant diphthongs. 1889 Pitman Man. Phonogr. (new ed.) §64 The simple articulations p, b, t, d, etc. are often closely united with the liquids l and r, forming a kind of consonant diphthong..as in plough..try.

e. attrib. = diphthongal.

1798 H. Blair Lect. I. ix (R.), We abound more in vowel and diphthong sounds, than most languages.

dittography

[f. as dittogram + -graphy; cf. Gr. dissocqauoÊlemom a double reading.]

In Palæography and Textual Criticism: Double writing; the unintentional repetition of a letter or word, or series of letters or words, by a copyist. So "dittograph, a letter or series of letters thus repeated; ditto"graphic a., of the nature of a dittograph.

1874 T. H. Key Language 407 note, The letters in italics stand, probably, for probeidem, i.e. a dittograph for probe and pridem. 1876 H. Sweet A.S. Rdr. Notes (1879) 202 The ge may be merely a scribal error − a repetition (dittography) of the preceding ge. 1882 Athenæum 7 Oct. 456/3 They committed errors through confusing sounds..through dittography and repetition of letters. 1885 Ibid. 11 July 46/2 If the H of JEJAOH is considered as dittographic of the H of the word HOIT which precedes. 1889 Sat. Rev. 26 Jan. 108/1 Mistakes that arose from the haplography, dittography, homœoteleuton, and all the other malfeasances of the much-abused Scribes. 1893 J. Cook Wilson in Classical Rev. Feb. 34/1 OÌde¬| before ugri may be a dittograph of oÌd\ e® after ugri.

hengest

Obs.

A male horse; usually a gelding. (Also the proper name of the reputed founder of the Saxon or Jutish kingdom of Kent; and in various place-names, as OE. Hengestesbróc, Hengestesgeat, Hengesteshéafod, Hengestesige, now Hinxbrook, Hinxgate, Hinxhead, Hinksey.) a1000 Ags. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 274/8 Cabullus, hengest. c1000 Ælfric Voc. Ibid. 119/37 Canterius, hengst. 1002 in Dipl. Angl. Ævi Sax. (Th.) 548 An hundred wildra horsa, and xvi. tame hencgestas. c1205 Lay. 3546 Ich bi-tæche þe anne hængest, godna and strongna.

palaeography

Also (chiefly U.S.) paleo-. [ad. mod.L. palæographia (Montfaucon, title Palæographia Græca 1708), f. palæo-, paleo- + Gr. -cqau¬a -graphy. Cf. F. paléographie (1708).]

1. Ancient writing, or an ancient style or method of writing. 1822 Q. Rev. XXVI. 195 Dr. Young..whose acuteness and learning seem calculated to subdue the difficulties of Palæography. 1857 Birch Anc. Pottery (1858) I. 197 Judging from the palæography of the inscriptions, they may have been in use from the age of Augustus to that of..Severus. 1900 G. C. Brodrick Mem. & Impressions 255 Freeman..thought it a waste of time for an historian to grub in palæography.

2. The study of ancient writing and inscriptions; the science or art of deciphering and determining the date of ancient writings or systems of writing.

1818 in Todd. 1840 Penny Cycl. XVII. 149/1 The study of antient documents, called by modern antiquaries ‘Palæography’. 1859 Gullick & Timbs Paint. 100 The art of deciphering ancient writings, or palæography. 1885 Sir E. M. Thompson in Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 143 Palæography is the study of ancient handwriting from surviving examples. So palæograph ("p&li;@grA;f, -&-, "peI-) [see -graph], (a) an ancient writing; (b) = next [= F. paléographe]; palæ"ographer, one who studies or is skilled in palæography; palæo"graphic, -ical adjs., of or pertaining to palæography, or ancient writing (hence palæo"graphically adv., in relation to palæography); palæ"ographist = palæographer. 1864 Webster, *Paleograph, an ancient manuscript. 1894 A. Lang in Contemp. Rev. Aug. 169 The great French palæograph and historian. 1850 C. T. Newton Ess. in Archæol. 12 The researches of the *Palæographer of classical antiquity embrace a far wider field than those of the mediæval Palæographer. 1881 Hartshorne Glance 20th C. 21 A Greek Codex..believed by palæographers to belong to the third century. 1846 Worcester, *Paleographic. 1858 J. Prinsep (title) Essays on Indian Antiquities, Historic, Numismatic, and Palæographic. 1842 Brande Dict. Sci. s.v. Palæography, The most valuable compilation of *palæographical knowledge is to be found in the Traité de Diplomatique of the Benedictines of St. Maur, 6 vols. 4to. 1748. 1846 Ellis Elgin Marb. II. 135 One of the most celebrated palæographical monuments in existence. 1869 Deutsch in Academy 11 Dec. 83/2 Both these Phoenician characters, though to be distinguished *palaeographically only by the length and the bend of the tail, have a very distinct existence. 1882 Athenæum 29 July 139/2 The reading..is..palæographically impossible. 1846 Worcester, *Paleographist, one versed in paleography. T. Rood. 1880 Antiquary May 227/1 MSS...declared by Roman palæographists to be unpublished compositions of St. Thomas Aquinas.

vellum

Forms: a. 5 velym, 5–6 velyme, 5, 7 velim, 6 velime, velem, 7 vellem. b. 5, 7 velum, 5–7 velume (7 velumne), 7– vellum. c. 7 velom, 7–8 vellom. d. 7 velame, 7–8 velam, vellam. [ad. OF. velin (vellin, veelin, etc.; mod.F. vélin), f. vel veal n., with change of n to m as in pilgrim, venom.]

1. A fine kind of parchment prepared from the skins of calves (lambs or kids) and used especially for writing, painting, or binding; also, any superior quality of parchment or an imitation of this. vegetable vellum: see vegetable a. 7. a c1440 Promp. Parv. 508/2 Velyme, membrana. c1449 Pecock Repr. i. xv. 81 That Holi Writt mai be take for the outward lettris writun and schapun vnder dyuerse figuris in parchemyn or in velim. 1519 W. Horman Vulg. 80b, That stouffe that we wrytte vpon, and is made of beestis skynnes, is somtyme called parchement, somtyme velem. 1598 R. Haydocke tr. Lomazzo ii. 127 The Painters vse general groundes..; saue vpon paper, parchment or velime. 1644 Direct. Publ. Worship Ord. 3 A fair register book of velim. fig. 1611 J. Davies (Heref.) To Worthy Persons Wks. (Grosart) II. 62/1 Vpon th' unspotted vellem of thy face Nature hath printed characters of grace. b 1474 Caxton Cheese iii. iii. (1883) 93 The Notayres, skynners, coryours, and cardewaners werke by skynnes and hydes, As parchemyn, velume, peltrye and cordewan. 1499 Croscombe Church-w. Acc. (Som. Rec. Soc.) 24 A mass boke of velum lymmyde. a1586 Sidney Astr. & Stella Sonn. xi, A childe..With gilded leaues or colourd velume playes. 1616 Drummond of Hawthornden Flowers of Sion, Bk. World, But sillie wee (like foolish Children) rest Well pleas'd with colour'd Velumne. 1699 Bentley Phal. xvi. 506 And without doubt it was immortal Vellum, and stoln from the Parchmentes of Jove. 1700 Congreve Way of World v. iii, I have an old fox by my thigh that shall hack your instrument of ram vellum to shreds, sir! 1710 J. Clarke tr. Rohault's Nat. Philos. (1729) I. 243 The Retina [of an artificial eye] was made of a very white thin Piece of Vellum. a1781 R. Watson Philip III, iii. (1839) 159 The deed..was written on paper, and not on vellum, as was usual in all transactions of importance. 1819 Keats Fall Hyperion i. 5 Pity these have not Trac'd upon vellum or wild Indian leaf The shadows of melodious utterance. 1855 Mrs. Gaskell North & S. iii, The Paradise of Dante in the proper old Italian binding of white vellum and gold. 1875 Scrivener Lect. Gk. Test. 16 The durable fine vellum of our oldest extant codices. fig. 1784 Cowper Task i. 569 The sportive wind blows wide Their flutt'ring rags, and shows a tawny skin, The vellum of the pedigree they claim. c 1601 Hakewill Van. Eye xxii. (1615) 110 [To] beholde the heavens, and in them (as in large characters drawn in faire velom) the glory of their maker. 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing i, One of the first Books Printed on Paper; (that of Tully being on Vellom). 1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Parchment, What we call Vellom is only Parchment made of the Skins of abortive Calves, or at least of sucking Calves. d 1600 Fairfax Tasso xiv. lxxvi, The house is builded like a maze within,..The shape whereof plotted in velam thin I will you giue. 1617 Barbier Jan. Ling. 114 He cancelled a line in the margent of the velame. 1632 Quarles Div. Fancies ii. xiii, Hee..Whose milk-white Vellam did incurre No least suspition of a Blurre. 1706 Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) I. 258 A MS. in velam. 1715 Ibid. V. 130 King Henry the VIIIth's Primer upon Vellam. fig. 1631 Massinger Emperor East iv. iv, Can you think This master peece of heauen, this pretious vellam, Of such a puritie and virgin whitenesse, Could be design'd to haue periurie, and whoredome,..writ vpon 't?

2. A piece or sheet of this material; a manuscript or testimonial written on vellum.

c1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 204 A froward velym upon to wryt. 1687 Death's Vision (1713) 2 note, Like a Velum upon the Head of a Drum. 1878 G. Vigfusson Sturlunga Saga I. p. clx, A quarto of 200 leaves when entire (about the largest size ever reached by an Icelandic vellum). 1900 Westm. Gaz. 15 Oct. 6/3 He and his brother..received the vellum of the Royal Humane Society for their plucky conduct.

3. attrib. and Comb. a. Attrib. in the senses ‘made of, resembling, of the nature of, bound in, vellum’. 1565 Golding Ovid's Met. iv. 507 With shere and velume wings. 1570 Dee Math. Pref. aj, All these, liuely designementes..be in velame parchement described. 1586 Hooker Hist. Irel. in Holinshed II. 94/1 He ought rather to make sute for some good vellam parchment for the ingrossing thereof. 1636 Davenant Platonick Lovers iv. i, Not all thy Leathern, nor thy Vellum friends, those dead companions on thy Shelves shall be more faithful [etc.]. 1651 Cleveland Poems 46 Who place Religion in their Velam-ears; As in their Phylacters the Jews did theirs. 1707 Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) I. 330 A very Ancient Vellam MSt. 1740 Richardson Pamela (1824) I. 216 Mr Longman has already furnished me with a vellum-book of white paper. 1820 Lamb Elia i. South-Sea House, The costly vellum covers of some of them [sc. books]. 1882 M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal III. v. 88 A large vellum envelope.

b. Comb. With pa. pples., as vellum-bound, -covered.

1837 Dickens Pickw. iv, With vellum-covered books under their arms. 1856 Lever Martins of Cro' M. 605 A square vellum-bound book, with massive silver clasps. 1866 Geo. Eliot F. Holt (1868) 11 Her writing-table, with vellum~covered account-books on it.

c. Special Combs.: vellum-binder (see quot. 1858); vellum-binding, the process or trade of binding account-books; also attrib.; vellum cloth, tracing-cloth; †vellum mode (see mode n. 11, quot. 1795); vellum paper, a paper made to imitate vellum; hence vellum-papered adj.; vellum post (see quot.); vellum thunder poet., the noise made by the parchment of a drum.

1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Vellum-binder, a book~binder who covers books with vellum, and makes account~books. 1891 Pall Mall G. 20 Nov. 3/1 Three of them are concerned with the bookbinders − that is, the binders of printed books − and the fourth with the vellum-binders, the technical name for account-book binders. 1835 J. Hannett Bibliopegia iii. (Heading) 139 Of Stationery, or *Vellum Binding. 1891 Pall Mall G. 20 Nov. 3/1 As soon as it was known that the bookbinders were going to concede the eight hours, several of the best vellum-binding firms conceded it also. 1888 Jacobi Printers' Vocab. 151 *Vellum laid paper, a laid writing paper with a vellum surface. Ibid., Vellum wove paper, a wove writing paper with a vellum surface. 1858 O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf.-t. (1883) 73 Look at..the..*vellum-papered 32 mo. 1847 Webster, *Vellum~post, a peculiar sort of superior writing-paper. 1716 Gay Trivia ii. 18 Here Rows of Drummers stand in martial File, And with their *Vellom-Thunder shake the Pile. Hence "vellumy a., relating to or resembling vellum. 1846 Worcester, citing Ec. Rev. 1925 H. A. Maddox What Stationer & Printer ought to know about Paper (ed. 3) i. 14 There are smooth vellums which derive their title from..a vellumy thickness and clarity of appearance.

Viking

Also vikingr, -er, -ir; wiking, wicking. [ad. ON. and Icel. víking-r (whence also Norw., Sw., Da. viking, G. wiking), = OE. wícing, OFris. witsing, wising. Cf. also ON. and Icel. víking fem., the practice of marauding or piracy. The ON. word is commonly regarded as f. vík creek, inlet, bay, + -ingr -ing3, a viking thus being one who came out from, or frequented, inlets of the sea. The name, however, was evidently current in Anglo-Frisian from a date so early as to make its Scandinavian origin doubtful; wícingsceaða is found in Anglo-Saxon glossaries dating from the 8th century, and s-wícingas occurs in the early poem of Exodus, whereas evidence for víkingr in ON. and Icel. is doubtful before the latter part of the 10th cent. It is therefore possible that the word really originated in the Anglo-Frisian area, and was only at a later date accepted by the Scandinavian peoples; in that case it was probably formed from OE. wíc camp, the formation of temporary encampments being a prominent feature of viking raids.]

1. One of those Scandinavian adventurers who practised piracy at sea, and committed depredations on land, in northern and western Europe from the eighth to the eleventh century; sometimes in general use, a warlike pirate or sea-rover.

a 1807 G. Chalmers Caledonia I. iii. iii. 341 At the age of fourteen, Torfin commenced his career, as a vikingr. c1827 W. Motherwell Poet. Wks. (1847) 13 It is a Vikingir Who kisses thy hand. 1838 Crichton Scandinavia I. 176 Hákon commanded the intrepid Vikingr to be put to death. 1864 [H. W. Wheelwright] Spring & Summer in Lapland i. 8 When the ‘Viking’ or pirate vessel..bore the ‘Vikinger’ or dreaded sea pirate to the opposite shores of Britain. b 1840 Longfellow Skeleton in Armour iii, I was a Viking old! 1848 Lytton Harold vi. v, A fleet of vikings from Norway ravaged the western coasts. 1877 Black Green Past. xxviii, I am already convinced that my ancestors were vikings. c 1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1877) I. iv. 165 He [Rolf] is described as having been engaged in the calling of a wiking. 1868 Ibid. II. vii. 96 The wikings harried far and wide. 1883 Vigfusson & Powell Corpus Poet. Bor. II. 139 The warden of the land had the heads of many Wickings (pirates) cut short with keen weapons. 1904 E. Rickert Reaper 53 Beyond that, we were Wickings, back to the time of Odin.

2. attrib., as viking age, expedition, invader, line, ship, vessel.

1847 I. A. Blackwell Mallet's Northern Antiq. 86 Halfdan enriched himself by successful Viking expeditions. 1864 [see 1a]. 1866 G. Stephens Runic Mon. I. 226 The lower compartment is a noble Wiking-ship. 1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1877) I. App. 665 He may have joined the Danes or have done anything else in the wiking line. 1881 Daily News 3 Sept. 2/2 This Viking ship, with its sepulchre chamber, in which the Viking had been buried. 1883 Vigfusson & Powell Corpus Poet. Bor. I. 259 The Northmen confederates of the Wicking invaders. 1889 P. B. Du Chaillu Viking Age I. iii. 26 We must come to the conclusion that the ‘Viking Age’ lasted from about the second century of our era to about the middle of the twelfth.

Hence "Vikingism, "Vikingship, the practices or spirit of vikings. 1880 Stubbs Lect. Stud. Hist. (1886) 222 The conquest of Palestine was to Robert of Normandy..a sanctified experiment of *vikingism. 1899 Somerville & Ross Irish R.M. 239, I prefer their total lack of interest in seafaring matters to the blatant Vikingism of the average male.

1883 G. Stephens Bugge's Stud. Northern Mythol. Exam. 15 *Wikingship began to be felt..as an unbearable curse.

West Saxon

Also West-Saxon. [f. west a. + Saxon n. and a., after OE. West-seaxan pl.]

A. n. 1. pl. The division of the Saxons in England occupying the area south of the Thames and westward from Surrey and Sussex; also sing. an individual belonging to this group or area.

1387 Trevisa Higden VI. 403 Plegmundus..ordeyned..fyve [bishops] to þe lond of Giweysys, þat beeþ West Saxons. 1432-50 tr. Higden VII. 99 Edmunde Irensyde..subduede to hym the Westesaxons anoon. 1513 Bradshaw St. Werburge i. 155 The thyrde [realm] was West Saxons, famous and myghty. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 232 Aidan winnis the feild vpon the Pechtis and Westsaxonis. a1643 Baker Chron. (1653) 7 The third Kingdome of the Heptarchie, was of the West Saxons. 1714 Addison Spect. No. 569 31, I was the other Day with honest Will. Funnell the West Saxon. 1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Money, Ina King of the West-Saxons. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. xxxviii. (1787) III. 618 note, Cerdic, the West Saxon. 1877 Tennyson Harold iv. i, Thou art but a West-Saxon: we are Danes!

2. The dialect of Old English used by the West Saxons.

1844 Garnett in Proc. Phil. Soc. II. 17 The plural..totally unknown in West-Saxon. Ibid. 18 The discrepancies from the ordinary West-Saxon are specified. 1876 Sweet Ags. Reader p. xii, The West Saxon of the eleventh century differs in many respects from that of Alfred's reign. 1893 A. C. Champneys Hist. English 85 Northumbrian retains some very ancient forms not found in West Saxon.

B. adj. Of or pertaining to, characteristic of, the West Saxons or their speech.

1570 Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1576) 20 Kent was vnited by King Egbert..vnto the Westsaxon Kingdome,..and..gouerned after the Westsaxon law. 1670 Milton Hist. Brit. iii. 121 Before the West-Saxon Kingdome. 1842 Penny Cycl. XXII. 231/2 During the West Saxon, Anglo-Saxon, and Anglo-Danish dynasties. 1848 Latham Eng. Lang. (ed. 2) 91 The Psalter also exhibits this West-Saxon form. 1876 Sweet Ags. Reader p. xii, The old Northumbrian poems were also copied in the West Saxon dialect. 1893 A. C. Champneys Hist. English 86 The Southern or West Saxon plural, -aþ. Hence †West-"Saxonry, the kingdom of the West Saxons. 1650 C. Elderfield Civil Right of Tythes x. 70 Kenulph King of West-Saxon-rie.

palimpsest
A. n.

Also 7–8 in L. or Gr. form. [ad. L. palimpsUstus n., a. Gr. pak¬lwgrso| scraped again, pak¬lwgrsom a parchment whence writing has been erased, f. p0kim again + wgrs¾|, from w0x, wžm to rub smooth.]

†1. Paper, parchment, or other writing-material prepared for writing on and wiping out again, like a slate. Obs. [So It. palimsesto (Florio).]

1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 7 The chalked skinne for a palimpsestus, serving in stead of a table book. 1662 Evelyn Chalcogr. (1769) 52 In writing, the use of the palimpsestus..and the like. 1706 Phillips, Palimpseston,..a sort of Paper or Parchment, that was generally us'd for making the first draught of things, which might be wip'd out, and new wrote in the same Place.

2. A parchment or other writing-material written upon twice, the original writing having been erased or rubbed out to make place for the second; a manuscript in which a later writing is written over an effaced earlier writing.

1825 Gentl. Mag. XCV. i. 348 Monsignore Angelo Mayo..celebrated for his discoveries in the ‘Palimpsestes’. 1838 Arnold Hist. Rome I. 256 note, The Institutes of Gaius..was first discovered..in a palimpsest, or rewritten manuscript of..works of S. Jerome, in the Chapter Library at Verona. 1875 Scrivener Text N. Test. 18 To decipher a double palimpsest calls for the masterhood of a Tischendorf. fig. 1845 De Quincey Suspiria Wks. 1890 XIII. 346 What else than a natural and mighty palimpsest is the human brain? 1856 Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh i. 826 Let who says ‘The soul's a clean white paper’ rather say A palimpsest..defiled. 1879 Lewes Study Psychol. viii. 153 History unrolls the palimpsest of mental evolution. 1918 D. H. Lawrence New Poems 33 Darkness comes out of the earth..Wanes the old palimpsest. 1929 Oxford Poetry 17 The world is all a palimpsest That hails the spurious pugilist. 1949 ‘G. Orwell’ Nineteen Eighty-Four i. iv. 42 All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and re-inscribed exactly as often as was necessary. 1962 R. Page Educ. Gardener x. 294 In Italy every town and house..is a palimpsest of two or three thousand years of building and decay. 1977 Times 3 Sept. 9/1 Alan Watts will be principally remembered as the architect of that peculiar theological palimpsest which served as an ideology for the hippie generation: that odd blend of rural fundamentalism and eastern mysticism.

3. A monumental brass slab turned and re-engraved on the reverse side.

1876 Encycl. Brit. IV. 219/2 A large number of brasses in England are palimpsests, the back of an ancient brass having been engraved for the more recent memorial. 1877 L. Jewitt Half-hrs. among Eng. Antiq. 132 They were frequently laid down to other persons, or re-engraved on the other side, and hence called palimpsests.

B. adj.

1. (Applied to a manuscript) Written over again; of which the original writing has been erased and superseded by a later: see A. 2.

1852 H. Rogers Ecl. Faith (1853) 237 A friend who used to mourn over the thought of palimpsest manuscripts. 1875 Poste Gaius Pref. (ed. 2) 5 The codex is doubly palimpsest, i.e. there are three inscriptions on the parchment. 1898 R. Harris in Expositor Dec. 402 It is useless to apply reagents in search of palimpsest writing where the vellum has only been used once. fig. 1873 W. Cory in Lett. & Jrnls. (1897) 308 The pretty song, rising one will never know how, from a palimpsest memory.

2. Of a monumental brass: see A. 3.

1843 Archæologia XXX. 124 Palimpsest brasses are also found at Berkhampstead. 1877 J. C. Cox Ch. of Derbysh. III. 241 This monument is a remarkable..example of the palimpsest or re-used brass.

3. Petrogr. Of a rock: partially preserving the texture it had prior to metamorphism. Also in Geol., exhibiting features produced at two or more distinct periods.

1912 R. W. Clark tr. Weinschenk's Petrogr. Methods x. 198 In the normal case the newly developed substance is confined strictly to the border of the original crystal, but the texture of the altered rock may be recognized excellently, palimsest [sic] structure. 1926 G. W. Tyrrell Princ. Petrol. xvi. 271 (caption) A palimpsest structure. Garnetiferous biotite-hornfels... Shows alternations of psammitic and pelitic sediments preserved, although the rock is thoroughly hornfelsed with the production of muscovite and biotite. 1951 Turner & Verhoogen Ign. & Metamorphic Petrol. xx. 503 It frequently happens..that fabric relicts (palimpsest structures), like mineral relicts, survive metamorphism and provide valuable indications of the parentage of the metamorphic rock. 1962 A. D. Howard in Bull. Amer. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists XLVI. 2255/1 A particularly interesting part of the anomaly is the drainage pattern, an unusual superposition of modern and ancient patterns that is convenient to refer to as palimpsest. In palimpsest drainage, the modern pattern is anomalous with respect to the older; it clearly indicates different topographic and possibly structural conditions at the time of development. 1972 D. J. P. Swift et al. Shelf Sediment Transport xxiii. 499 The floor of the central and southern Atlantic shelf is a palimpsest or multiple imprint surface. Hence "palimpsest v. trans., to make into a palimpsest, to write anew on (parchment, etc.) after erasure of the original writing; palimp"sestic a., that is, or that makes, a palimpsest. 1823 New Monthly Mag. VIII. 13 Discoveries..of Palimpsestic parchments had not yet furnished fresh matter for research. 1836 F. Mahony Rel. Father Prout, Songs Horace i. (1859) 376 Thy MSS. have come down to us unmutilated by the pumicestone of palimpsestic monk. 1900 Expositor June 420 We may wonder less at this Sinaitic..codex having been palimpsested.

fit, fytte

Forms: 1 fitt, 4–5 fyt(t, 4–6 fitt(e, 5–6, 9 fytte, 5–8 fit. [OE. fitt str. fem. = OS. *fittia, preserved in latinized form in the preface to the Hêliand: ‘Juxta morem vero illius poematis, omne opus per vitteas distinxit, quas nos lectiones vel sententias possumus appellare’. Some regard the word as identical with OHG. fiza list of cloth, mod.Ger. fitze skein of yarn, also explained in the 17th c. as ‘the thread with which weavers mark off a day's work’; the sense ‘division or canto of a poem’ might well be a transferred use of this. The Ger. word corresponds to ON. fit str. fem., hem, also ‘web’ of a bird's foot:—OTeut. *fitjâ, of unknown origin: see remarks under next n.]

1. A part or section of a poem or song; a canto.

c888 K. Ælfred Boeth. xxxi. §1 (Gr.) Se wisdom þa þas fitte asungen hæfde. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. i. 139 Cumse[þ] þer a Fitte. c1386 Chaucer Sir Thopas 177 Lo, lordes, heer is a fyt; If ye wil eny more of it, To telle it wol I fonde. a1400-50 Alexander 5626 Now fynes here a fitt & folows a nothire. c1450 Bk. Curtasye 349 in Babees Bk. 309 Of curtasie here endis þe secunde fyt. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. xxvi. (Arb.) 65 This Epithalamie was deuided by breaches into three partes to serue for three seuerall fits or times to be song. 1771 Johnson Let. to Langton 20 Mar. in Boswell, Dr. Percy has written a long ballad in many fits. 1812 Byron Ch. Har. i. xciii, Here is one fytte of Harold's pilgrimage. 1864 Skeat Uhland's Poems 213 The first ‘fytte’ here is ended.

2. A strain of music, stave. Also, to dance a fit.

a1500 Iak & his step dame in Herrig's Archiv XC. 78, I shall yow shewe of my gle: Ye shall haue a fytte. ?a1548 King Estmere 243 in Percy Reliq. (1765) I. 68 To playe my wiffe and me a fitt. c1550 R. Wever Lusty Iuventus in Hazl. Dodsley II. 48, I would fain go dance a fit. 1578 Gude & G. Ball. (1868) 182 Sa sall thay pype ane mirrie fit. 1673 True Worship God 65 An afternoon Sermon..many times..serves only like a fit of Musick, to Lull them asleep after their Dinner. 1681 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. (1693) 611 Come now, strike up and give us a fit.

folio

Also 7 follio. [a. L. foliZ, abl. of folium leaf. Branch I proceeds from the med.L. use of the ablative in references, though in sense 2 the word may be a. It. foglio. In branch II the phrase in folio is either a. Lat. or a refashioning of the Italian in foglio. Cf. the use of in folio in Fr. both in sense 5b and as n. = sense 7.] \

A. n. I. With reference to pagination. 1. A leaf of paper, parchment, etc. (either loose as one of a series, or in a bound volume) which is numbered only on the front. In the early instances the word may have been regarded as Latin. The front and back of the leaf were referred to as (folio) recto and verso; these words became Eng. as ns.

1533 T. More Debell. Salem Wks. 958/2 The .xlv. Chapiter of mine Apology beginnyng, Folio .243. 1548 W. Stanford Kinges Prerog. ix. (1567) 35a, There it appeares folio .285. allso. 1585 Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. Turkie, Table, The first number signifieth the chapter, the second the folio. 1669 Sturmy Mariner's Mag. ii. xvii. marg., Place this between folio 202. and folio 203.

2. In Bookkeeping, The two opposite pages of a ledger or other account-book in which these are used concurrently; hence used for a page of a ledger in which one page serves for both sides of an account, and sometimes for a page of an account book generally.

1588 Mellis Briefe Instruct. Cv, The number of the leafe or folio of your Creditor. 1622 Malynes Anc. Law-Merch. 364 The Leaves or Folio of the Leidger. 1849 Freese Comm. Class-bk. 109 A narrow column, for the figures which denote the Folio, where each account will be found in the Ledger.

3. The page-number of a printed book.

1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc. II. 376 The Corrector and Compositer..examine..how the Folio's of those Pages properly and numerically follow and succeed one another. 1841 Savage Dict. Print., When there is a running title, the folios are placed at the outside corners of the pages.

4. Law. A certain number of words (in Gt. Britain and Ireland 72 or 90, in U.S. generally 100) taken as a unit in reckoning the length of a document. Many legal documents of 16th c. are found to be written in pages of 12-15 lines, each containing 6 words. This is doubtless the origin of the above sense.

1836 Sir H. Taylor Statesman xxiii. 169 Paying persons in the rank of life of law-stationers and their hired writers at the rate of so much per folio. 1848 Wharton Law Lex., Folio, a certain number of words; in conveyances, &c., amounting to seventy-two, and in Chancery proceedings to ninety.

II. With reference to size.

5. in folio, a phrase signifying ‘in the form of a full-sized sheet folded once’. Orig. apprehended as a Latin phrase, used appositively or attributively; afterwards as consisting of an English prep. and n.

1582 Parsons Def. of Censure 148, I haue two editions in greeke: the one of learned Pagnine in folio, the other of Plantyne in octavo. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. i. ii. 192 Deuise Wit, write Pen, for I am for whole volumes in folio. 1644 Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 89 That rare book in a large folio. 1679 Bp. of Hereford Coll. Jesuits 4 Divinity Books..in Folio and Quarto. 1763 Massey Orig. of Lett. ii. 59 All the curious hands..engraved on 28 brass plates in folio. 1819 Blackw. Mag. Oct. 29, I asked her if she would have it in folio, with marginal notes? 1837-9 Hallam Hist. Lit. I. iii. i. §148. 250 The more usual form of books printed in the 15th century is in folio.

b. transf. and fig.; spec. in a full and loose dress. Obs. exc. dial.

1590 Greene Neuer too late (1600) 96 His lippes were of the largest sise in folio, able to furnish a Coblers shoppe with clowting leather. a1613 Overbury A Wife &c. (1638) 133 Many ride poast to Chandlers and Tobacco shops in folio. a1625 Fletcher Love's Cure ii. ii, I had rather walke In folio again, loose, like a woman. 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Jack-a-Lent 114/1 When a mans stomacke is in Folio, and knowes not where to haue a dinner in Decimo sexto. 1651 Lilly Chas. I (1774) 244 The scorns..he saw now returned upon himself in folio. 1670 R. Lassels Voy. Italy ii. 7 It [Rome] hath its Hospitals..and many of those are Hospitals in folio. 1698 Vanbrugh Prov. Wife v. (1710) 95 Cuckoldom in Folio, is newly printed: and Matrimony in Quarto, is just going into the Press. 1828 Craven Gloss. (ed. 2) s.v., ‘In full folio’, in full dress.

6. A sheet of paper when folded once. Also, †such a sheet used for a specific purpose.

1616 Bullokar, Folio, a sheete or large leafe of paper. 1691 Evelyn Diary 16 Apr., Severall folios of dried plants. 1710 Addison Tatler No. 216 35 To his Daughter..I bequeath..my large Folio of Indian Cabbage. 1876 J. Gould Letter-press Printer 40 Folio denotes a sheet of paper folded into two leaves.

7. A volume made up of sheets of paper folded once; a volume of the largest size.

1628 Earle Microcosm. Sergeant (Arb.) 57 He swels them [Bookes] into Folio's with his Comments. 1713 Swift Frenzy J. Dennis Wks. 1821 XIII. 211 The gentleman..let drive at us with a vast folio. 1826 Scott Woodst. iii, Tomkins began to turn the leaves of a folio, which lay open on the reading-desk. 1867 Stubbs Benedict's Chron. I. Pref. 24 The other manuscript..is a small folio. transf. and fig. 1659 D. Pell Impr. Sea 286 The little decimo sextos..the small fish..as well as..the great folios of the Whale, and Elephant. 1813 Byron Jrnl. 16 Nov. in Moore Life (1833) I. 541 This same lady writes octavos, and talks folios. 1885 Pall Mall G. 25 July 3/2 The London police − those folios in dark blue, lettered, and uniform.

b. attrib. and Comb.

1712 Addison Spect. No. 529 31, I have seen a folio writer place himself in an elbow chair, when [etc.]. 1849 Sir J. Stephen Eccl. Biog. (1850) II. 37 They lower, in the sullen majority of the folio age, over the pigmies of this duodecimo generation. 1879 Dowden Southey iii. 78 He received from his Lisbon collection precious boxes folio-crammed.

B. adj.

1. Formed of sheets or a sheet folded once; of the largest size; folio-sized. Often following the n.; cf. A. 5.

1597-8 Bp. Hall Sat. ii. i. 29 With folio volumes, two to an oxe hide. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. v. xi. 404 Small Pocket-Bibles, and a great Folio-Alchoran. 1680 Evelyn Diary (1850) II. 147 A folio MS. of good thickness. 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc. II. 231 If it be a large Folio Page ..he..has Tyed up. 1728 Pope Dunc. i. 139 A folio Common-place Founds the whole pyle, of all his works the base. 1802 Dibdin Introd. Classics 26 There are some Folio editions of this beautiful work. 1808 Scott Autobiog. in Lockhart Life i, I remember writing upwards of 120 folio pages with no interval either for food or rest. 1870 Dickens E. Drood ii, The folio music-books on the stand. Mod. A history in ten volumes folio. fig. 1622 J. Taylor (Water P.) Water-cormorant, Separatist 21 These fellowes with their ample folio graces. a1839 Praed Poems (1864) I. 366 A minute will supply To thought a folio history Of blighted hopes.

2. Printing and Stationery. (See quots.)

1871 Amer. Encycl. Print., Folio Post, a flat writing-paper, usually 17 by 22 inches. 1888 Jacobi Printers' Voc., Folio chase, a chase with one bar only. 1890 I Printing ii. 32 In the wooden kinds we have slip, octavo, quarto, and folio galleys. Ibid. 42 These chases are often divided or subdivided into folio or quarto by means of cross-bars.

transcription

[ad. L. transcriptiZn-em, n. of action f. transcrWbSre to transcribe, or a. F. transciption (16th c. in Godef. Compl.).]

1. a. The action or process of transcribing or copying. Also fig.

1598 Florio, Trascrittione, a transcription, a writing, or copying out. 1610 Healey St. Aug. Citie of God 548 The error was committed in the transcription of the copy from Ptolomies library. 1664 H. More Myst. Iniq. 93 By a diligent comparing of Copies upon every transcription. 1762 J. Kennedy Compl. Syst. Astronom. Chronol. ad fin., Evidence which no transcription can corrupt. a1848 R. W. Hamilton Rew. & Punishm. i. (1853) 43 We might take the Decalogue and trace its transcription upon the soul of man. 1858 J. H. Newman Hist. Sk. (1873) III. iv. xi. 416 Manual labour..applied to the transcription and multiplication of books..was a method of instruction.

b. Transliteration.

1869 Farrar Fam. Speech i. (1873) 10 He succeeded in demonstrating the law of transcription, and for the first time reading these names in their proper form. Ibid. 24 The transcription into Russian letters.

2. The product of this process; a transcript; a copy.

1650 Vind. Hammond's Addr. §88 Besides this transcription, there is but one passage.., to which he thinkes fit to make reply. 1657 Rumsey Org. Salutis Ep. Ded. (1659) 11 Most medicinal Books are usually but bare transcriptions from former Writers. 1696 Phillips (ed. 5), Transcription, a Writing copied, or transcribed. 1882-3 Schaff's Encycl. Relig. Knowl. I. 116/2 A transcription of the work, made in the beginning of the third century.

3. Mus. The arrangement, or (less properly) modification, of a composition for some voice or instrument other than that for which it was originally written; an instance of this, a transcribed piece.

1864 in Webster. 1878 E. J. Hopkins in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 21/1 Variations or adaptations like the popular ‘Transcriptions’ of the present day. 1885 Athenæum 26 Dec. 851/1 To the musicianly ear the term ‘transcription’ has generally an unpleasant sound, because it frequently bears reference to some uncalled-for distortion of a composer's original idea.

4. Roman Law. A transfer, assignment (of a debt or obligation); = L. transcriptio.

1677 Owen Justif. Wks. 1851 V. 170 This he [Paul] did by the transcription of both the debts of Onesimus to himself. 1880 Muirhead Gaius iii. §129 There is transcription from thing to person when, for example, I enter to your debit a sum you already owe me by reason of a purchase, a conduction, or a partnership.

5. a. A gramophone record made from a secondary source, not the master recording.

1931 Gramophone Dec. 264/2 ‘Transcriptions’, too, for which our unkind readers used to prefer the phrase ‘faked records’, are not very popular over here. 1968 Jazz Monthly Feb. 4/1 Numerous ‘pirate’ labels also issuing EPs and LPs,..tend increasingly to concentrate on air shots and transcriptions from a variety of sources.

b. Broadcasting. The recording of a broadcast for subsequent reproduction; a record or broadcast so made. Also attrib.

1932 B.B.C. Year-bk. 1933 290 The relaying of the Empire station by overseas transmitters cannot for various reasons be assumed to be possible as a regular practice and therefore the recording of programmes on gramophone discs becomes an important subsidiary method of programme circulation... American programmes are already circulated by this method, which is termed ‘electrical transcription’. 1936 Communication Mar. 5 (heading) The growing importance of transcription broadcasting. Ibid. 6/2 The transcriptions in every-day use in broadcast stations include both lateral-cut and vertical-cut recordings. 1943 B.B.C. Year-bk. 23 An important broadcasting activity little known in this country is the projection overseas, by means of recordings, of the culture and wartime life of Britain... Known collectively as the London Transcription Service, the activity has been undertaken by the BBC for the Empire since the beginning of the war, and for foreign countries for nearly two years. 1956 B.B.C. Handbk. 1957 42 English by Radio lessons..reach an audience of several millions by direct transmission from London, by relays, and by transcription recordings. Ibid. 133 Among other transcriptions, the special service for Colonial schools..proved successful. 1978 A-Z of BBC (ed. 2) 225/2 Transcription services are the BBC's channel for selling Radio Programmes to stations overseas.

c. Used attrib. to designate equipment used in professional recording or broadcasting transcription, or gen. of a standard or type so used.

1936 Communication Mar. 8/2 Noise in the output of a transcription equipment is often caused by pickup of the motor vibration. 1943 Proc. I.R.E. Feb. 52 (heading) The measurement of transcription-turntable speed variation. 1957 Long Playing Record Library Catal. & Handbk. 10 The only answer..is the use of a ‘transcription motor’, implying a high standard of design and finish and individual care in manufacture. 1962 A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio 271 The large transcription tape decks are normally equipped to play either type. 1965 Wireless World Aug. 6 (Advt.), The Goldring-Lenco GL 70 transcription unit with its integrally mounted transcription arm continues to be the first choice of discriminating record lovers with custom-built equipment. 1978 Lancashire Life Nov. 110/1 (Advt.), All the illustrated units are complete music centres with Dolby cassette deck-belt driven transcription unit.

6. Biol. The process by which genetic information represented by the sequence of nucleotides in the DNA of a cell or virus is copied into molecules of RNA, which are synthesized with the DNA serving as a template; reverse transcription, the reverse process, occurring in some RNA viruses, by which DNA is synthesized from an RNA template.

1961 Jacob & Monod in Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quantitative Biol. XXVI. 193/1 The second process, which we shall call transcription, allows the gene to perform its physiological function. 1970 Nature 27 June 1198/1 For the past twenty years the cardinal tenet of molecular biology has been that the flow or transcription of genetic information from DNA to messenger RNA and then its translation to protein is strictly one way. 1971 [see promoter 1g]. 1973 Sci. Amer. Apr. 34/2 In prokaryotes, which include the many species of bacteria, transcription and translation of messenger RNA occur at the same time and place. 1977 Nature 8 Sept. 122/1 Until recently..most groups studying reverse transcription in vitro found the DNA products to be small relative to the size of the RNA templates. Hence tran"scriptional a., of, pertaining to, or of the nature of transcription; tran"scriptionally adv., on transcriptional grounds; also, in Biol., in a transcriptional way. 1881 Westcott & Hort Grk. N.T. Introd. §29 Transcriptional Probability is not directly..concerned with the relative excellence of rival readings, but merely with the relative fitness of each for explaining the existence of the others. 1905 J. R. Harris in Expositor Sept. 166 Traces of such transcriptional errors. 1907 H. S. Cronin in Eng. Hist. Rev. Apr. 294 Both Latin versions must have had some transcriptional history. 1911 K. Lake Earlier Ep. St. Paul 419 The omission is transcriptionally slightly the more probable reading. 1970 Nature 29 Aug. 910/1 A similar mechanism controls gene expression at the transcriptional level during bacterial sporulation. 1975 Ibid. 5 June 462/2 This transcriptionally active DNA represents r-protein genes. 1981 L. L. Mays Genetics ix. 416 The prokaryotic systems that operate via transcriptional control often utilize different control systems. 1983 Nature 23 June 677/1 Transcriptionally active chromatin.

transliterate

[f. trans- 1 + L. littera letter, written symbol + -ate3.]

trans. To replace (letters or characters of one language) by those of another used to represent the same sounds; to write (a word, etc.) in the characters of another alphabet. Hence trans"literated ppl. a. 1861 Max Müller in Sat. Rev. 9 Mar. 247/1 Not only proper names, but the technical terms also of the Buddhist creed, had to be preserved in Chinese. They were not to be translated, but to be transliterated. But how was this to be effected with a language which, like Chinese, has no phonetic alphabet? 1861 G. Moore Lost Tribes 158, I transliterate the words into modern Hebrew letters. 1871 Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue §190 To master this alphabet and transliterate passages of English into it. 1884 American VII. 378 The transliterated pages and the Devanagari can be kept in sight at the same time.

scriptorium

Pl. scriptoria, -iums. [med.L. f. L. script-, scrWbSre to write: see -orium.]

A writing-room; spec. the room in a religious house set apart for the copying of manuscripts. 1774 T. West Antiq. Furness Expl. Ground Plan, H, the chapter-house, over which were the library and scriptorium. 1828 H. Angelo Remin. (1830) I. 66 The attics or scriptoriums of the poets of the last age. 1874 Green Short Hist. iii. §1 (1882) 113 Writing-rooms or scriptoria, where the chief works of Latin literature..were copied and illuminated. 1907 Times, Lit. Suppl. 18 Jan. 17/1 Drowsy intelligences and numbed fingers in a draughty scriptorium, will easily account for deviations.

linguistic

[f. linguist + -ic. Cf. F. linguistique.]

A. adj. a. Of or pertaining to the knowledge or study of languages. Also used for: Of or pertaining to language or languages; = lingual 4b. The latter use is hardly justifiable etymologically; it has arisen because lingual suggests irrelevant associations.

1856 C. J. Ellicott in Cambr. Ess. 187 Orthographies..and..the veriest minutiæ of linguistic differences. 1858 J. M. Mitchell Mem. R. Nesbit i. 12 His linguistic talent was logical as much as philological. 1860 Marsh Eng. Lang. i. (1862) 2 The most striking improvement in linguistic study may be dated from the discovery..of the Sanskrit. 1876 C. M. Davies Unorth. Lond. 31 In a linguistic point of view the peoples were one. 1911 V. Welby Significs & Lang. v. 17 The implicitly false mental image, source of the false linguistic image. 1921 E. Sapir Lang. vi. 156 In a book of this sort it is naturally impossible to give an adequate idea of linguistic structure. 1935 B. Malinowski Coral Gardens II. vi. v. 232 Within the linguistic theory of the present book, in which the distinction between ‘form’ and meaning is in the last instance illusory. 1936 J. R. Kantor Objective Psychol. Gram. xiii. 195 It is undoubtedly necessary to include many other speech parts if we are to cover linguistic phenomena adequately. 1953 J. B. Carroll Study of Lang. i. 5 It was only natural..that the engineer should have perceived the possibilities of developing various sorts of ‘linguistic machines’, such as a machine for instantly converting human speech into..printed alphabetic symbols. 1957 W. Haas in Studies in Ling. Analysis (Philol. Soc.) 33 ‘Zero’ in Linguistic Description stands for what is acoustically nothing. 1957 G. Ryle in C. A. Mace Brit. Philos. in Mid-Cent. 263 Philosophical problems are linguistic problems − only linguistic problems quite unlike any of the problems of philology, grammar, phonetics..etc., since they are..about the logic of the functionings of expressions. 1964 M. A. K. Halliday et al. Ling. Sci. i. 18 If language is described according to the version of linguistic theory outlined, the task of the language learner..will be made easier. 1966 English Studies XLVII. 270 Instead of adverb transforms we find occasional instances of ‘linguistic shortening’, which in itself is a means of expressing emotiveness. 1967 R. Textor Cross-Cultural Summary 67 The rationale for including linguistic affiliation is..that ‘genetic relationships in culture and past historical connections among societies are commonly revealed..among the languages spoken by the peoples in question’. 1968 D. Hymes in Internat. Encycl. Social Sci. 366/2 Linguistic description has focused on the form of languages, neglecting the structuring of their use. 1968 Chomsky & Halle Sound Pattern Eng. i. 4 The essential properties of natural language are often referred to as ‘linguistic universals’. 1972 L. R. Palmer Descr. & Compar. Ling. ix. 227 Sound laws do not enable us to predict linguistic events as a law of chemistry predicts material change.

b. Special collocations: linguistic analysis, (a) the analysis of language structures in terms of some theory of language; (b) Philos., analysis of language as the medium of thought; so linguistic analyst; linguistic anthropology, anthropological research based on the study of the language of a selected group; so linguistic-anthropological adj.; linguistic atlas, a set of tables or maps recording regional or dialectal variations of pronunciation, vocabulary, or inflexional forms; linguistic form, any unit or pattern of speech that has meaning; linguistic geography, the study of the geographical distribution of languages, dialects, etc.; so linguistic geographer, linguistic-geographical adj.; linguistic map, a map in a linguistic atlas; a map showing the distribution of linguistic features; linguistic philosophy = linguistic analysis (b); so linguistic philosopher; linguistic psychology, the study of human psychology through the data provided by language; cf. psycholinguistics; linguistic science, the science of language; the systematic study of linguistic phenomena; so linguistic scientist; linguistic stock, the group to which a set of related languages belongs.

1932 A. F. Bentley Let. 15 Nov. in Ratner & Altman J. Dewey & A. F. Bentley (1964) 51, I have at length found a region of investigation in which some tentative results can be secured, and I am permitting myself to send you a copy of the resulting book, *Linguistic Analysis of Mathematics. 1943 Amer. Speech XXVII. 60/1 Outline of linguistic analysis. 1945 Mind LIV. 195 Positivists, as is well known, do not search for answers to the philosophical questions; what they try to bring about, in all cases, is the disappearance of the questions by means of what they call linguistic analysis. 1949 Amer. Speech XXIV. 55 His charts make it possible to suggest the potentialities of ‘slur’ as a factor in linguistic analysis. 1957 J. R. Firth in Studies in Ling. Analysis (Philol. Soc.) p. vi, Palatograms, kymograms..specifically keyed to the linguistic analysis. 1966 J. J. Katz Philos. of Lang. iii. 16 The leading philosophical movements..have concerned themselves with what they call ‘linguistic analysis’. 1945 Aristotelian Soc. Suppl. Vol. XIX. 7 If anyone was ever a ‘*linguistic analyst’, surely Socrates was. 1957 G. Ryle in C. A. Mace Brit. Philos. in Mid-Cent. 263, I gather that at this very moment British philosophy is dominated by some people called ‘linguistic analysts’. 1962 Listener 17 May 851/1 You might well meet a philosopher described as a linguistic analyst. 1964 E. A. Nida Toward Sci. Transl. iii. 36 The *linguistic-anthropological approach to meaning has in many respects paralleled developments in symbolic logic, though the immediate area of study in the two fields is different and the approach seemingly quite divergent. 1968 D. Hymes in Internat. Encycl. Social Sci. 354/2 Through Boas the interest became an intrinsic part of American *linguistic anthropology. 1923 H. R. Lang in Romanic Rev. XIV. 264 It will be clear from this that the study of the charts of this *linguistic atlas affords a deep insight into the various phases of the decline of the dialects of Italy. 1930 Dialect Notes VI. ii. 67 The Linguistic Atlas of New England will provide an organized collection of the present forms of the spoken language. 1939 Amer. Speech XIV. 64/2 Ten sets of 300 phonograph records representing all the present dialects of Germany. Recorded by Telefunken under the auspices of the Linguistic Atlas. 1952 Dieth & Orton (title) A questionnaire for a linguistic atlas of England. 1954 G. Bottiglioni in Martinet & Weinreich Ling. Today 261 The way in which the plan of a linguistic atlas is organized and carried out. 1975 Times 6 Jan. 4/7 The next project will be the publication of a complete linguistic atlas which will trace on maps not only the use of specific words but of dialect sounds as well. 1921 E. Sapir Lang. iv. 62 *Linguistic form may and should be studied as types of patterning, apart from the associated functions. Ibid. vi. 127 In dealing with linguistic form, we have been concerned only with single words and with the relations of words in sentences. 1943 Amer. Speech XVIII. 228 The flier forced down in Libya.., would have little interest in the linguistic form of the utterance, ‘I am an American’, in Arabic but he might forfeit his life by not knowing how to say it. 1964 M. A. K. Halliday et al. Ling. Sci. i. 20 The least obvious distinction perhaps is that between grammar and lexis, since these are two aspects of linguistic form. Ibid. ii. 21 When we describe linguistic form..we are describing the meaningful internal patterns of language. 1952 Word VIII. iii. 275 Who but Rohlfs combines a background of solid 19th century German scholarship with a thorough training as a *linguistic geographer? 1948 Neophilologus XXXII. 175 In the absence of English *linguistic-geographical data, no more than tentative suggestions regarding the relation between English and its Continental cognates are as yet possible. 1926 Germanic Rev. I. iv. 281 *Linguistic geography, as geography, is an aspect of human geography. 1930 Dialect Notes VI. ii. 74 A course in the methods and the interpretation of the results of linguistic geography. 1933 Linguistic geography [see historical a. 2d]. 1934 H. Kurath in Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. LXXIV. 228 Linguistic geography undertakes to ascertain the distribution of linguistic features (dialectal features). 1939 I (title) Handbook of the linguistic geography of New England. 1954 G. Bottiglioni in Martinet & Weinreich Ling. Today 255 Linguistic geography owes its origin to the comparative method. 1968 D. Hymes in Internat. Encycl. Social Sci. 359/2 Linguistic geography, or dialectology, and typological comparison, together with general linguistics, often are distinguished as well. 1944 Amer. Speech XIX. 135 The book includes sixteen *linguistic maps and nineteen illustrations. 1951 Mind LX. 104 These words should rejoice the heart of any present-day *Linguistic Philosopher. 1963 W. H. Walsh Metaphysics i. 16 The brief ascendancy of the Logical Positivists came to an end and their place was taken by the so-called Linguistic Philosophers. 1957 J. L. Austin in Proc. Aristotelian Soc. LVII. 9 There are, I know, or are supposed to be, snags in ‘*linguistic’ philosophy, which those not very familiar with it find, sometimes not without glee or relief, daunting. 1962 Listener 22 Feb. 353/1 He was reputed to be the high priest of linguistic philosophy. 1966 J. J. Katz Philos. of Lang. iii. 15 The leading philosophical movements in twentieth-century philosophy have been referred to..as ‘linguistic philosophy’. 1953 J. B. Carroll Study of Lang. iii. 70 The study of verbal behavior..has variously been called the psychology of language, *linguistic psychology, or psycholinguistics. 1966 M. Pei Story of Lang. (rev. ed.) xii. 286 The number of unsolved problems in the field of linguistic psychology is tremendous. 1922 O. Jespersen Lang. 21 Nor did *linguistic science advance in the Middle Ages. 1933 L. Bloomfield Lang. ii. 21 Linguistic science arose from relatively practical preoccupations, such as the use of writing, the study of literature and especially of older records, and the prescription of elegant speech. 1938 Year's Work Eng. Stud. 1936 27 Philology (which scholars tend more and more to call ‘linguistic science’ or ‘linguistics’). 1971 D. Crystal Ling. 36 It is also sometimes called linguistic science. 1934 Amer. Speech IX. 88/1 *Linguistic scientists will find a rich ground for study if they will stop thinking of the written or printed Standard Language as solely a secondary, or derivative, form of speech. 1921 E. Sapir Lang. x. 221 What are the most inclusive linguistic groupings, the ‘*linguistic stocks’, and what is the distribution of each. 1953 Beals & Hoijer Introd. Anthropol. xvii. 524 As more and more languages are studied and compared intensively with each other, we may expect that the number of linguistic stocks will decrease.

B. n. [-ic 2.] The science of languages; philology. a. sing. (Cf. F. linguistique, G. linguistik.) rare.

1837 Whewell Hist. Induct. Sci. (1840) I. p. cxiv, We may call the science of languages linguistic, as it is called by the best German writers. 1870 Lowell Study Wind. 334 Mr. Hooper is always weak in his linguistic.

b. pl.

1847 in Webster. 1855 in Ogilvie, Suppl. a1858 S. W. Singer (Worc.), A work containing a complete chronological account of English lexicography and lexicographers would be a most acceptable addition to linguistics and literary history. 1875 Whitney Life Lang. x. 191 A fundamental principle in linguistics. 1893 Leland Mem. I. 112 The extreme interest which I take in philology and linguistics. 1902 PMLA XVII. 104 Both linguistics and literature are proper university studies. 1908 H. G. Wells War in Air iii. §4 He thought of himself performing feats with the sign language and chance linguistics. 1938 [see linguistic science above]. 1953 J. B. Carroll Study of Lang. iv. 113 Linguistics thus appears to have a bearing on all the social sciences. 1964 M. A. K. Halliday et al. Ling. Sci. i. 9 The term ‘linguistic sciences’ covers two closely related but distinct subjects: linguistics and phonetics. 1964 R. H. Robins Gen. Ling. ii. 66 The linguist..may have to rely on sciences other than linguistics and on unsystematized ‘common sense’. 1972 L. R. Palmer Descr. & Compar. Ling. xiii. 300 There are few discussions of this subject [sc. Etymology]..in modern handbooks of linguistics.

c. appositive and Comb.

1958 College English XX. 12/2 Linguistics-based metrical analysis. Ibid. 17/2 A few linguistics-manufactured accessories. 1965 Canad. Jrnl. Ling. Fall 40 The long history of the linguistics-literary study opposition.

philology

[In Chaucer, ad. L. philologia; in 17th c. prob. a. F. philologie, ad. L. philologia, a. Gr. uikokoc¬a, abstr. n. from uik¾koco| fond of speech, talkative; fond of dicussion or argument; studious of words; fond of learning and literature, literary; f. uiko- philo- + k¾co| word, speech, etc.]

1. Love of learning and literature; the study of literature, in a wide sense, including grammar, literary criticism and interpretation, the relation of literature and written records to history, etc.; literary or classical scholarship; polite learning. Now rare in gen. sense except in the U.S.

[c1386 Chaucer Merch. T. 490 Hoold thou thy pees thou poete Marcian That writest vs that ilke weddyng murie Of hire Philologie and hym Mercurie. (Martianus Capella, 5th cent. wrote ‘De nuptiis Philologiæ et Mercurii’.)] 1614 Selden Titles Hon. Ded. Aij, This of Mine dealing with Verum chiefly, in matter of Storie and Philologie. 1637 Heylin Antid. Lincoln. ii. 108 Your Grammer learning being showne, we must next take a turne in your Divine and Theologicall Philology. a1661 Fuller Worthies i. (1662) 26 Philology properly is Terse and Polite Learning, melior literatura... But we take it in the larger notion, as inclusive of all human liberal Studies. 1669 Gale Crt. Gentiles i. i. x. 50 Philologie, according to its original, and primitive import..implies an universal love, or respect to human Literature. 1776 G. Campbell Philos. Rhet. I. i. v. 125 All the branches of philology, such as history, civil, ecclesiastic, and literary: grammar, languages, jurisprudence, and criticism. 1818 Hallam Mid. Ages ix. ii, Philology, or the principles of good taste, degenerated through the prevalence of school-logic. 1892 Athenæum 25 June 816/1 The fact that philology is not a mere matter of grammar, but is in the largest sense a master-science, whose duty is to present to us the whole of ancient life, and to give archæology its just place by the side of literature. 1922 O. Jespersen Language iii. 64 In this book I shall use the word ‘philology’ in its continental sense, which is often rendered in English by the vague word ‘scholarship’, meaning thereby the study of the specific culture of one nation. 1925 L. Bloomfield in Language I. 4 That noblest of sciences, philology, the study of national culture is..greater than a misfit combination of language plus literature... The British use of ‘philology’ for linguistics leaves no name for the former subject. 1931 J. W. Spargo tr. Pedersen's Linguistic Sci. 19th Cent. iv. 79 One may define philology briefly as a study whose task is the interpretation of the literary monuments in which the spiritual life of a given period has found expression. Ibid. 80 The use of ‘philology’ as a mere synonym for ‘linguistics’ is to be avoided. 1939 L. H. Gray Foundations of Lang. 3 A more serious objection to the term [sc. comparative philology] lies in the fact that ‘philology’, strictly speaking, denotes not only the study of language, but also of literature and of all the civilisational phenomena of a people. a1941 B. L. Whorf in Ann. Rep. Board of Regents Smithsonian Inst. 1941 (1942) 502 As the major linguistic difficulties are conquered, the study becomes more and more philological; that is to say, subject matter, cultural data, and history play an increasing role... This is philology. But at the base of philology we must have linguistics. 1947 E. H. Sturtevant Introd. Linguistic Sci. i. 7 Philology is a word with a wide range of meaning. I use it here to designate the study of written documents. 1954 F. G. Cassidy Robertson's Devel. Mod. Eng. (ed. 2) 424 Philology, the study of thought and culture as embodied in literary monuments; in a narrower sense, the study of language (but for this sense, the term linguistics is now preferred). 1964 R. H. Robins Gen. Linguistics i. 6 In German,..Philologie refers more to the scholarly study of literary texts, and more generally to the study of culture and civilization through literary documents... This meaning..is matched by..the use of philology in American learned circles. 1980 Yale Rev. Winter 312 Philology meant, and still ought to mean, the general study of literature.

†2. Rendering Gr. uikokoc¬a love of talk, speech, or argument (as opposed to uikorou¬a love of wisdom, philosophy). Obs.

1623 Cockeram, Phylologie, loue of much babling. 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 195 Whereas hee [Seneca] complaineth Philosophy was turned into Philology; may not we too sadly complain, most of our Christianity is become Discoursive noise? 1678 R. L'Estrange Seneca's Mor. (1702) 387 By which Means Philosophy is now turn'd to Philology.

3. spec. (in mod. use) The study of the structure and development of language; the science of language; linguistics. Now usu. restricted to the study of the development of specific languages or language families, esp. research into phonological and morphological history based on written documents. (Really one branch of sense 1.) This sense has never been current in the U.S. Linguistics is now the more usual term for the study of the structure of language, and, with qualifying adjective or adjective phrase, is replacing philology even in the restricted sense. comparative philology: see comparative 1b.

1716 M. Davies Athen. Brit. III. 102 Harduin has there several erudite Remarks upon Philology: especially upon the Pronunciation and Dialects of the Greek Tongue. 1748 Hartley Observ. Man i. iii. 353 Philology, or the Knowledge of Words, and their Significations. 1838 Winning (title) Manual of Comparative Philology. 1843 H. H. Wilson in Proc. Philol. Soc. I. 22 The publication of the grammar of the late Sir Charles Wilkins constitutes an important era in the annals of Sanskrit philology. 1852 Blackie Stud. Lang. 7 Philology unfolds the genesis of those laws of speech, which Grammar contemplates as a finished result. 1964 R. H. Robins Gen. Linguistics i. 6 In British usage philology is generally equivalent to comparative philology, an older and still quite common term for what linguists technically refer to as comparative and historical linguistics. 1968 J. Lyons Introd. Theoret. Linguistics i. 22 The term ‘comparative philology’, which I shall use to refer to this period of linguistics [sc. the nineteenth century].., though less commonly used these days by linguists themselves (who tend to prefer ‘comparative and historical linguistics’), is not infrequently met in general books on language and, like many other unsuitable terms, has been perpetuated in the titles of university chairs and departments and of prescribed courses of study. 1974 R. Quirk Linguist & Eng. Lang. v. 84 ‘Developmental’ and ‘general’ philology − or, as we would usually call them today, historical and general linguistics.

thane

Forms: 1 þe¼n, þe¼en, -in, (þeng), 1–2 þén, þei¼n (6–7 theigne), 2 þening, 2–3 þein (6, 9 thein), 3–4 þ-, theyn(e (6 theyn), 4 thain (8 -e), 4–6 thayn(e, 5– thane. See also thegn. [OE. þe¼n, þe¼en, þén, = OS. thegan, OHG. degan boy, servant, warrior, hero (MHG., G. degen), ON. þegn freeman, liegeman:—OTeut. *þegnoz, orig. child, boy, lad:—pre-Teut. *tek-nó- (cf. Gr. sŒjmom child), f. root tek: tok to beget. The regular modern repr. of OE. þe¼n, if the word had lived on in spoken use, would have been thain (cf. fain, main, rain), as it actually appears in some writers, chiefly northern, from 1300 to near 1600. But thain was in 15–16th c. Sc. written thane (in L. thanus), and this form, being used by Boece, Holinshed, and Shakespeare (in Macbeth), was adopted by Selden, Spelman, and the legal antiquaries and historians of the 17th c. to represent the Anglo-Saxon þe¼n, and became the usual form in Eng. history. Recent historians, as Stubbs, Freeman, and Green, in order to distinguish the Anglo-Saxon use from the Sc. in sense 4, have revived the OE. þe¼n as thegn, q.v.]

Hist.

†1. A servant, minister, attendant; in OE. often applied to (Christ's) disciples. Obs.

a700 Epinal Gloss (O.E.T.) 101 Adsaeculam [= assecula], thegn. c725 Corpus Gloss 77 Adsaeclum, þegn. c888 K. Ælfred Boeth. vii. §2, gif þu þonne heora þegen beon wilt. a900 tr. Bæda's Hist. iv. xxv. [xxiv.] (1890) 346 Þa bæd he [a monk] his þegn..þæt he in þæm huse him stowe gegearwode..Þa wundrode se þegn. c950 Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. xxiv. 45 Hwa woenes ðu is geleaf-full ðegn & hoga? 971 Blickl. Hom. 67 Iohannes, se deora þegn. Ibid., Lazarus þær was ana sittende mid Hælende & mid his þegnum. c1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. xx. 26 Sy he eower þen. Ibid. John ii. 9 Þa þenas soðlice wiston þe þæt wæter hlodon. a1175 Cott. Hom. 229 An þera twelf Christes þeiŠne se þe was iudas Šehaten. c1275 Death 177 in O.E. Misc. 179 Hwer beoþ þine þeynes Þat þe leoue were? 13.. Cursor M. 5373 (Cott.) First he was here als our thain [Gött. thrall, Trin. þral]. 1591 Lambarde Archeion (1635) Eiij, By certaine Messengers, which they tearmed Theignes; that is to say, Ministers, or Servants.

†2. A military attendant, follower, or retainer; a soldier. Obs. Beowulf 400 Aras þa se rica ymb hine rinc manig þryðlic þegna heap. a800 Cynewulf Elene 549 (Gr.) Þa cwom þegna heap to þam heremeðle. c893 K. Ælfred Oros. v. ii. §3 Ueriatuses þegn þæm oþrum to longe æfterfylgende, oþ mon his hors under him ofsceat. c950 Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. viii. 9 Ic..hæfo under mec ðeignas [Vulg. milites]. c1000 Ags. Gosp. ibid., Ic hæbbe þegnas [c 1160 Hatton þeignes] under me. c1000 Ælfric Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 119/34 Agaso, hors þen.

†b. poet. A warrior, a brave man. Cf. earl 1b. Beowulf 2709 Swylc sceolde secg wesan, þegn æt ðearfe. c893 K. Ælfred Oros. iii. vii. §2 gif ge swelce þegnas sint, swelce ge wenað þæt ge sien, þonne sceoldon ge swa lustlice eowre agnu brocu aræfnan. a1272 Luue Ron 13 in O.E. Misc. 93 Þeos þeines þat weren bolde beoþ aglyden.

3. One who in Anglo-Saxon times held lands of the king or other superior by military service; originally in the fuller designation cyninges þegn, ‘king's thane, military servant or attendant’; in later times simply thegn, as a term of rank, including several grades below that of an ealdorman or eorl (earl n. 2) and above that of the ceorl or ordinary freeman. In this sense the name was superseded by baron and knight in the 12th c., and continued only in historical use, in which it was written thane in the 16th c. Recent historians have revived the OE. form as thegn. 805 Charter in O.E. Texts 442 Beforan wulfrede arcebiscope..& esne cyninges ðegne. a900 O.E. Chron. an. 897, Manige þara selestena cynges þena... Eadulf cynges þegn..& Ecgulf cynges hors þegn. 971 Blickl. Hom. 211 Wæs his fæder ærest cyninges þegn, & ða..he wæs cininges þegna aldorman. c1000 Ælfric Gram. ix. (Z.) 50 Optimas, ðegn. c1000 I Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 155/20 Primas, heafodman, uel þegn. Ibid. 155/23 Satrapa, þegn. c1029-60 Laws Ranks c. 1 in Liebermann Gesetze (1903) 456 Ælc be his mæðe, ge eorl ge ceorl, ge þegen ge þeoden. c1050 Byrhtferth's Handboc in Anglia (1885) VIII. 326 Þegnas & ceorlas habbað landmearke. 1066 Writ of Eadweard in Earle Land-Charters 342 Eadward cyningc gret Hereman bisceop, and Harold eorl, and Godric, and ealle his þegenas [L. version barones]. a1100 O.E. Chron. an. 1086 (Laud MS.) Ealle þa rice men ofer eall Engla land, arce biscopas, & leodbisceopas, abbodas & eorlas, þegnas & cnihtas. a1175 Cott. Hom. 231 Mid ærlen and aldren, mid cnihten, mid þeinen. c1300 Havelok 2260 Siþen drenges, and siþen thaynes, And siþen knithes, and siþen sweynes. c1325 Chron. Eng. (Ritson) 583 Alle the theynes of Walschelonde He made bowe to ys honde. 1570-6 Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 453 As for twelf Pindman, it was given to the Theyn or Gentleman, bicause his life was valued at Twelve hundreth shillings. 1598 Hakluyt Voy. I. 126 If a Thein so thriued, that he serued the king, and on his message rid in his houshold, if he then had a Thein that followed him..he became an Earle.

1577-87 Holinshed Chron. I. 190/1 Harold..slue thirtie gentlemen of honor, or thanes (as they called them). 1614 Selden Titles Hon. 267 The neerest name for Baron was that of Thane, anciently written also Thegn. c1630 Risdon Surv. Devon §284 (1810) 296 The thane was descended of ancient lineage, and such a one as we call gentleman. 1754 Hume Hist. Eng. (1761) I. App. i. 96 The nobles were called thanes; and were of two kinds, the king's thanes and lesser thanes. 1809 Bawdwen Domesday Bk. 18 In Loctvsv (Lofthouse) two Thanes had four carucates to be taxed. 1853 Jos. Stevenson tr. O.E. Chron. an. 1036, Leofric the earl, and almost all the thanes north of the Thames..chose Harold for chief of all England. 1853 I tr. Florence of Worcester an. 897, Ecgulf the kings horse-thane. 1875 Maine Hist. Inst. v. 135 There are in the early English laws some traces of a process by which a Ceorl might become Thane. 1888 Earle Land-Charters Introd. 71 These words..eorl, gesith, thane, knight, squire, gentleman. The last two run abreast.

4. In Sc. Hist. A person, ranking with the son of an earl, holding lands of the king; the chief of a clan, who became one of the king's barons. [1220 Stat. Alex. II, c. 2, in Scot. Statutes (1844) I. 398 De terris episcoporum abbatum baronum militum et thanorum qui de Rege tenent.] 14.. transl. of prec., Of þe landis of bischopis abbotis barounis knychtis and thaynis þe quhilkis haldis of þe Kyng. 1422 in Thanes of Cawdor (Spalding Club) 10 To spouse and til haf to your wife, the douchter of the saide Donald thayne of Caldor. c1425 Wyntoun Cron. vi. xviii. 1904 Lo, Šonder þe thayne of Crumbaghty! Ibid. xix. 2318 Makduf of Fif þe thayne. c1470 Henry Wallace xi. 894 That Erll was cummyn off trew haill nobill blud, Fra the ald thane, quhilk in his tym was gud. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. (Rolls) II. 637 ‘The Thane of Glames, gude morne to him’, said scho. [1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. i. (S.T.S.) 112 margin, The first nobils in Scotland war called Thani; thay war of the clan cheif... In ald tymes Dukes war called Thani.] 1605 Shakes. Macb. i. iii. 71 By Sinells death, I know I am Thane of Glamis, But how, of Cawdor? the Thane of Cawdor liues. Ibid. v. iii. 50 Doctor, the Thanes flye from me. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj. 73b, Item, the Cro of ane Earles sonne, or of ane Thane, is ane hundreth kye. Item, the Cro of the sonne of ane Than, is thriescore sax kye. 1759 Robertson Hist. Scot. i. (1802) I. 229 The ancient Thanes were the equals and the rivals of their prince. 1810 A. Boswell Edinburgh 260 Hill after hill some cunning clerk shall gain, Then, in a mendicant, behold a Thane!

b. transf. to modern persons, in various senses; e.g. a Scottish lord. Often in allusion to Shakes. Macbeth v. iii. 50. (See above.)

1750 Shenstone Odes, Rural Elegance 7 Ye rural thanes that o'er the mossy down Some panting, timorous hare pursue. a1764 Lloyd Poetry Prof. Poet. Wks. 1774 I. 39 Hail to the Thane, whose patriot skill Can break all nations to his will. 1839 Ld. Brougham Statesm. Geo. III, Dundas I. 232 He [Pitt] held the proxies of many Scottish Peers in open opposition! Well might his colleague exclaim to the hapless Addington in such unheard-of troubles, ‘Doctor, the Thanes fly from us.’ 1888 Bryce Amer. Commw. lxiii. II. 455 Sometimes however he is rebuffed by the powers at Washington and then his State thanes fly from him.

5. Comb. thane-right, the legal rights and privileges of a thane; thane-wer [OE. þegn-wer], the wer-gild of a thane (sense 3).

1008 [see thegnwer]. 1844 Lingard Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858) II. xii. 234 note, His thane-wer, and thane-right in life and in the grave means the same as his worldly goods, and Christian sepulture. Hence "thaness, a female thane; a thane's wife. 1827 Scott Surg. Dau. iii, All the rural thanes and thanesses attended on these occasions. 1849 J. Wilson Christopher under Canvass No. 5 The Thaness [Lady Macbeth] is self-stayed.

saga

[a. ON. and Icel. saga wk. fem. (Sw. saga) narrative, story, history; corresp. (exc. in declension) to OE. sa¼u str. fem.: see saw n.2]

1. a. Any of the narrative compositions in prose that were written in Iceland or Norway during the middle ages; in English use often applied spec. to those which embody the traditional history of Icelandic families or of the kings of Norway.

1709 Hickes in Pepys' Diary (1879) VI. 201 The histories of the old Northern nations, which commonly have the title of Saga, which signifies a narration of History. 1777 Robertson Hist. Amer. (1783) I. 326 The credit of this story rests, as far as I know, on the authority of the Saga, or Chronicle of King Olaus..published by Perinskiold at Stockholm a.d. 1697. 1805 Scott Last Minstr. vi. xxii, Many a Saga's rhyme uncouth. 1897 W. P. Ker Epic & Romance 66 The Icelandic Sagas − the prose histories of the fortunes of the great Icelandic houses.

b. transf. A narrative having the (real or supposed) characteristics of the Icelandic sagas; a story of heroic achievement or marvellous adventure. Also, a novel or series of novels recounting the history of a family through several generations, as The Forsyte Saga. Now freq. in weakened use, a long and complicated (account of a) series of more or less loosely connected events.

1857 Longfellow Discov. North Cape viii, For the old seafaring men Came to me now and then, With their sagas of the seas. 1862 H. Marryat Year in Sweden II. 63 With this last visit terminates my saga of Gripsholm. 1891 Kipling Light that Failed v, Dick delivered himself of the saga of his own doings. [1891 R. L. Stevenson Let. 19 May (1899) II. 231 Henry Shovel has now turned into a work called ‘The Shovels of Newton French’.., which work is to begin in 1664..and end about 1832... I mean to make it good; it will be more like a saga.] 1895 Hall Caine Bondman (ed. 4) p. viii, I have called my story a Saga, merely because it follows the epic method. 1919 J. Galsworthy Let. 25 Nov. in H. V. Marrot Life & Lett. J. Galsworthy (1935) iv. i. 485, I have just finished a sequel to The Man of Property, and, in accordance with the scheme I broached to you..have still one story and a third novel in further sequel to write, to make the whole of The Forsyte Saga. 1935 D. L. Sayers Gaudy Night iii. 51 She felt she would rather be tried for life over again than walk the daily treadmill of Catherine's life. It was a saga, in its way, but it was preposterous. 1942 ‘M. Innes’ Daffodil Affair ii. 89 Appleby and Hudspith were scarcely in a position to give it the dispassionate appraisal of literary critics; the saga had a sort of aura of alligator which made it uncomfortable hearing. 1952 Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Jan. 15/3 The latest, no doubt the logical, development of the ‘life with mother’ saga is the chronicle of pregnancy and childbirth. 1959 Listener 18 June 1074/1 The Burrell Collection..is still, after a long saga of misadventures, looking for a site. 1970 Nature 18 Apr. 197/1 By now, the daily newspapers will tell how the saga of Apollo 13 has been finished. 1977 ‘E. Crispin’ Glimpses of Moon x. 190 Rousing themselves hastily from the morbid fascination induced by this saga, Thouless, Padmore and the Major all went into action. 1978 H. Wouk War & Remembrance xlix. 497 ‘Found her! Where?’ ‘In Marseilles. Told me about it for two hours over dinner. It's a saga.’

2. In incorrect uses (partly as the equivalent of the cognate Ger. sage): A story, popularly believed to be matter of fact, which has been developed by gradual accretions in the course of ages, and has been handed down by oral tradition; historical or heroic legend, as distinguished both from authentic history and from intentional fiction.

1845 B. Thorpe in J. M. Lappenberg's Hist. Eng. I. 90 The poem of Beowulf.., in which the old Anglian saga is ennobled by an Anglo-Saxon of the eighth century. 1855 Geo. Eliot in Fraser's Mag. July 55/1 The libretto is founded on the old German saga of the Venusberg and the knightly minstrel Tannhäuser. 1864 Kingsley Rom. & Teut. i. (1875) 1, I shall begin..with a saga. 1869 H. F. Tozer Highl. Turkey II. 265 The Popular Tale is thus..distinguished from..the Myth, or Saga. 1873 R. H. Busk Sagas fr. Far East 242 While displaying the usual exaggerations common to the Sagas of all nations, these Indian Sagas have one leading peculiarity. 1881 H. Morley Longer Works in Eng. Verse & Prose I. i. 1/1 Most ancient of English poems is the old saga which tells how Beowulf rescued Hrothgar from the attacks of Grendel. 1883 Kennedy tr. Ten Brink's E. Eng. Lit. 150 The Sagas of Guy of Warwick and Bevis of Hampton. 1898 T. Arnold Notes on Beowulf v. 71 Whether the Sigemund − Siegfried saga is of Scandinavian or German origin. 1903 L. F. Anderson Anglo-Saxon Scop 16 The great number of sagas learned by the scop of Beowulf is expressly mentioned... It was praiseworthy in a scop to have learned not only the more familiar sagas, but some not generally known. 1912 R. W. Chambers Widsith 15 How much of this is history, and how much saga, it is not easy to say. 1960 M. B. McNamee in Jrnl. Eng. & Gmc. Philol. LIX. 199 At least by the eleventh century, the mysterious serpent-infested mere of Anglo-Saxon saga had provided a means of making the story of Christ and Satan and Hell graphic to the Anglo-Saxon imagination.

3. Comb., as saga-age, -cycle, -hero; -writer; saga boy W. Indies, [perh. f. a different word], a well-dressed lounger, a playboy; saga-man [= ON. sœgu-maðr], a narrator of sagas, also the hero of a saga.

1897 W. P. Ker Epic & Romance iii. 230 In the material conditions of Icelandic life in the ‘Saga Age’ there was all the stuff that was required for heroic narrative. 1956 Peterson & Fisher Wild Amer. xxxiii. 354 The..Eskimos used to drive the geese across the tundra..and net them..a method of wildfowling known..in Iceland, where it became a great art in the Saga Age. 1949 Human Relations II. 358/2 This change in behaviour is clearly demonstrated by men who have been to Aruba, Curacao, Trinidad, or U.S.A., and who have acquired some money... In this group the ‘Saga-Boys’ are to be found − flamboyantly dressed men with exaggerated manners and mannerisms and somewhat aggressive tendencies. 1959 V. S. Naipaul Miguel St. xi. 118 Eddoes was a real ‘saga-boy’. This didn't mean that he wrote epic poetry. It meant that he was a ‘sweet-man’, a man of leisure, well-dressed, and keen on women. 1966 P. Sherlock West Indies xi. 143 Saga boys dressed in sheath-like saga pants, ‘peg-top trousers’ and saga coats called Bim-Bams. 1892 S. A. Brooke Hist. Early Eng. Lit. I. 104 The first saga-cycle includes the songs sung concerning the earlier deeds of Beowulf before he became king. 1899 W. H. Schofield tr. S. Bugge's Home of Eddic Poems 172 In the oldest reference to this saga-hero, in Widsith, 21, we read: Hagena [wéold] Holmrygum. 1823 Crabb Technol. Dict., Saga-man (Archæol.), a tale~teller, or secret accuser. 1853 Kingsley Hypatia xxix, You are the hero! you are the Sagaman! We are not worthy. 1866 Reader 3 Mar. 221/3 All the skalds and sagamen of any note were Icelanders. 1866 Baring-Gould Myths Mid. Ages Ser. i. 113 An arrow..penetrated the windpipe of the king, and it is supposed to have sped, observes the Saga writer, from the bow of Hemingr.

epic

Also 6–9 epick, 7 epique, (epik). [ad. L. epicus, a. Gr. Žpij¾|, f. “po| word, narrative, song. Cf. Fr. épique.]

A. adj. 1. Pertaining to that species of poetical composition (see epos), represented typically by the Iliad and Odyssey, which celebrates in the form of a continuous narrative the achievements of one or more heroic personages of history or tradition. Epic dialect: that form of the Greek language in which the epic poems were written.

1589 Puttenham Arte Eng. Poet. (Arb.) 176 Harding a Poet Epick or Historicall. 1644 Milton Educ. (1738) 139 Teaches what the Laws are of a true Epic Poem. 1666 Dryden Ann. Mirab., Let. Sir R. Howard, The same images serve equally for the Epique Poesie, and for the Historique and Panegyrique. 1710 Steele Tatler No. 106 31 Three and twenty Descriptions of the Sun-rising that might be of great Use to an Epick Poet. 1752 Johnson Rambler No. 202 36 To be poor, in the epick language, is only not to command the wealth of nations. 1819 Byron Juan i. cc, My poem's Epic, and is meant to be Divided in twelve books. 1841-4 Emerson Ess. Poet Wks. (Bohn) I. 165 The epic poet..must drink water out of a wooden bowl. 1879 B. Taylor Stud. Germ. Lit. 73 Tennyson has endeavored to imitate the old epic simplicity. absol. a1637 B. Jonson Discoveries (1641) 132 The best masters of the Epick, Homer and Virgil.

2. Such as is described in epic poetry; epic theatre, a play or plays characterized by realism and an absence of theatrical devices.

1731 A. Hill Advice to Poets 35 Then, might our great, Third Edward's awful Shade..Pale, from his Tomb, in Epic Strides, advance. 1847 Tennyson Princ. Prol. 219 Some great Princess, six feet high, Grand, epic, homicidal. 1935 Life & Letters To-day Sept. 74 This method of theatrical presentation was dubbed by Brecht the ‘epic’ as opposed to the ‘dramatic’ style. 1957 R. Hoggart Auden 15 In some of their techniques for presenting social problems and for obtaining a sense of urgent participation from the audience they seemed to have learned something from the early ‘epic theatre’ of the German Communist playwright Bertolt Brecht.

B. n.

†1. An epic poet. Obs.

a1637 B. Jonson Horace's Art Poet (1640) 5 Now to like of this, lay that aside, the Epic's office is.

2. a. An epic poem.

1706 A. Bedford Temple Mus. ii. 33 One of them was the Goddess of Elegies..and another of Epicks. 1789 J. Campbell Eccl. & Lit. Hist. Irel. 170 (T.) He [Mr. M'Pherson] brought forward his counterfeit epicks (the alleged poems of Ossian). 1833 Coleridge Table-t. 23 Oct., The Homeric epic, in which all is purely external and objective, and the poet is a mere voice. 1876 Green Short Hist. viii. 583 The most popular of all English poems has been the Puritan epic of the ‘Paradise Lost’.

b. transf. A composition comparable to an epic poem. The typical epics, the Homeric poems, the Nibelungenlied, etc., have often been regarded as embodying a nation's conception of its own past history, or of the events in that history which it finds most worthy of remembrance. Hence by some writers the phrase national epic has been applied to any imaginative work (whatever its form) which is considered to fulfil this function.

1840 Carlyle Heroes (1858) 267 Schlegel has a remark on his Historical Plays, Henry Fifth and the others, which is worth remembering. He calls them a kind of National Epic. 1869 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) III. xiv. 328 To turn from the glowing strains of the Norwegian prose epic. 1916 A. Huxley Let. 19 Mar. (1969) 95, I want very much to see the Birth of a Nation, which is said to be a really great film, an epic in pictures. 1940 M. Gorelik New Theatres for Old ix. 412 An ‘epic’ is a large-scale film in which the events, usually historical, take precedence over the ‘love interest’. 1957 N. Frye Anat. of Crit. iv. 314 Ulysses, then, is a complete prose epic. 1965 Movie Spring 36/1 The budget was supposed to have guaranteed an action-packed epic.

3. fig. A story, or series of events, worthy to form the subject of an epic.

1831 Lytton Godolph. lxiii, This starry and weird incident in the epic of life's common career. 1866 Motley Dutch Rep. vi. vii. 898 That life was a noble Christian epic.

skald

Also 8 scalld. [a. ON. and Icel. skáld neut., occurring as early as the 9th cent.; no satisfactory etymology has yet been proposed. Hence also mod.Norw. and Sw. skald, Da. (incorrectly) skjald, †sk(i)alder, sk(i)aldre.]

An ancient Scandinavian poet. Also sometimes in general use, a poet. Usually applied to Norwegian and Icelandic poets of the Viking period and down to c1250, but often without any clear idea as to their function and the character of their work.

a 1763 Percy 5 Pieces Runic Poetry Pref. A5b, It was the constant study of the northern Scalds to lift their poetic style as much as possible above that of their prose. Ibid. 49 The Ransome of Egill the Scald. 1775 Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry I. 60 It is supposed, that Rollo carried with him many scalds from the north. 1830 Scott Ivanhoe xxxii. note, It will readily occur to the antiquary, that these verses are intended to imitate the antique poetry of the Scalds. 1869 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1875) III. 267 The inspiration of the scald comes upon him. b 1780 Von Troil Iceland 198 In ancient times there was no king, or any other man of note, who had not his own skald or poet. 1818 E. Henderson Iceland II. 356 Before taking the field of battle, it was the office of the Skald to compose a poem suited to the occasion. 1886 Athenæum 24 Apr. 551/2 The skill with which the author has reproduced..the alliterative verse of the Skalds. Hence "skaldship, the office of skald. 1879 E. W. Gosse North. Studies 117 There was no young man so fit to be considered heir-apparent of the skaldship as Runeberg.

verse

Forms: 1, 4 fers (1 færs, fyrs), 3 Orm. ferrs; 1–4 uers, 1, 3–4, 5–6 Sc., vers, 4–5 wers; 4– verse, 5, 6 Sc., werse; 5 veerse, veerce, 6 vearse, 5–6 Sc. veirs, 6 Sc. veirse. [OE. fers, corresponding to OFris. fers (WFris. fêrs, NFris. fês, etc.), MDu. (Du.) and MLG. vers, OHG., MHG. vers, fers (G. vers), ON. (Da., Sw.) vers, ad. L. versus a line or row, spec. a line of writing (so named from turning to begin another line), verse, f. vertSre to turn; in ME. reinforced by or newly a. AF. and OF. (also mod.F.) vers (= Pr. vers, It., Sp, Pg. verso) from the same source. In OE. (the word being neuter), and to a certain extent in ME., the pl. was the same as the sing.]

1. a. A succession of words arranged according to natural or recognized rules of prosody and forming a complete metrical line; one of the lines of a poem or piece of versification.

c900 tr. Baeda's Hist. iv. xxiv. (1890) 344 Þa ongon he sona singan in herenesse Godes Scyppendes þa fers [v.r. uers] & þa word þe he næfre gehyrde. c1000 Ælfric Gram. xxxvii. (Z.) 218 Uersificor, ic fersige oððe ic wyrce fers. c1050 Byrhtferth's Handboc in Anglia (1885) VIII. 313 Þæt pentimemeris byð þe todælð þæt vers on þam oðrum fet. c1200 Ormin Ded. 59 And icc ne mihhte nohht min ferrs AŠŠ wiþþ Goddspelless wordess Wel fillenn all. 13.. Cato 633 in Minor P. Vernon MS. 609 Þe [= thee] merueyles of þise nakede vers [that] Beoþ maked bi two and two. c1369 Chaucer Dethe Blaunche i. 463 He made of ryme ten verses [v.r. vers] or twelue Of a complaynt. c1380 Wyclif Last Age Ch. (1840) 33 Sibille acordiþ herto þat suche tribulacioun is nyŠe in þes verse. c1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) ii. 5 As it es contende in þis werse, whilk es here writen. 1479 Paston Lett. III. 242 Thes too verse afore seyde be of myn own makyng. 1483 Caxton Cato 9, I haue made this lytel book in double verses the whiche conteynen two shorte and utyle sentences for the symple folke. a1513 Fabyan Chron. (1516) 200 And for this Scisme thus graciously was endyd, a Vercifier made this verse folowynge: Lux fulsit mundo cessit Felix Nicholao. 1567 in Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.) [p. cxxxiv], Sing thir four veirs efter euerie Psalme as followis. 1597-8 Bacon Ess., Ceremonies (Arb.) 26 Some mens behauiour is like a verse wherein euery sillable is measured. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iv. xv. 316 When..the Spanish Embassadour..had summed up the effect thereof in a Tetrastich, she instantly in one verse rejoined her answer. 1664 Butler Hud. ii. i. 28 But those that write in Rhime, still make The one Verse for the others sake. 1709 Hearne in Chron. R. Gloucester (1724) App. 601 There are eight Verses in the Tale it self, which are not in the common Editions. a1771 Gray Observ. Eng. Metre Wks. 1843 V. 260 The verse of fourteen [syllables]..and verse of six. 1822 S. Tillbrook in Southey's Poet. Wks. (1853) p. xx/2, Eight verses of hexametrical dimensions. 1842 Penny Cycl. XXII. 370/1 An hexameter verse which has a spondee in the fifth place, is called a spondaic verse. 1895 A. W. Ward Pope's Wks. p. li, The ordinary rule as to the position of the cæsura in the verse. (b) spec. with historical reference to Old English poetry. 1715 E. Elstob Rudiments Gram. Eng.-Saxon Tongue 68 The Saxon Verses consist of three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or more syllables. 1883 H. M. Kennedy tr. Ten Brink's Hist. Eng. Lit. I. 22 The sentence rarely closes with the ending of the verse. 1938 A. Campbell Battle of Brunanburh 16 Sievers showed once and for all the combinations of accentual elements, which might be used to build a verse. 1958 A. J. Bliss Metre of Beowulf 1 The term ‘verse’ is here used instead of the more cumbrous ‘half-line’ or ‘hemistich’.

b. In the pl. occas. merging into sense 5.

1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 14 He hadde many verses techyng folkis to eschewe their propre willes. 1500-20 Dunbar Poems lix. 16 He hes indorsit myn indytting With versis off his awin hand vrytting. 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal., June 42 Tho couth I sing of loue, and tune my pype Vnto my plaintiue pleas in verses made. 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. iii. iii. 34 Cinna. I am Cinna the Poet…4[th Cit.] Teare him for his bad verses. a1643 W. Cartwright Love's Convert iv. v, They do swarm hither with their Verses, Like Town-poets on some Lord's Son's Wedding-day. 1714 (title), Rymer's Translations from Greek, Latin and Italian Poets; with other Verses and Songs. 1779 Johnson L.P., Lyttelton 31 The verses cant of shepherds and flocks, and crooks dressed with flowers. 1805 H. K. White Let. to B. Maddock 18 Oct., I have this week written some very elaborate verses for a college prize.

c. With distinguishing terms. (Cf. 6c.)

1546 Langley tr. Pol. Verg. De Invent. i. viii. 16 A songe of Exameter Verses. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 377 To write in heroicall Verses. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1246 A chronicler penning the historie of these affaires in elegiack verses. 1605, 1656 [see serpentine a. 1b]. 1658 [see leonine a. 2]. 1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Hexameter, Epic Poems, as the Iliad, Odyssee, Æneid, &c. consist of Hexameter Verses alone. Ibid., Serpentine Verses, are such as begin and end with the same Word. 1756 J. Warton Ess. Pope x. (1782) II. 211 Like Ovid's Fasti, in hexameter and pentameter verses. 1774 Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry (1870) 30 The verses which we call Alexandrine. 1815 [see Fescennine a.]. 1818 J. C. Hobhouse Hist. Illust. (ed. 2) 442 [Italian] heroic verses have not the advantage of the hexametral length.

2. Liturg. = versicle 1. Now rare.

c960 Rule St. Benet ix. (1885) 33 Cweþe ærest þis fers: Deus in adiutorium meum intende. Ibid. xi. 35 Singe man ærest six sealmas and þonne on ende fers. c1030 Ibid. (Logeman) 41 Æfter þisum rædingum fylian..syx sealmas mid antiphonam, swa swa þa æreran & mid ferse. a1400 Prymer (1891) 88 R'. Delyuere me lord. With these thre ueers. V'. Now cryst. V'. Brennynge soules wepiþ [etc.]. V'. Schappere of alle þynges. c1450 Myrr. Our Ladye 114 What is vnderstonded by the thre lessons wyth the Responces & verses folowynge. a1500 Chaucer's Dreme 1806 Many orisones and verses, Withoute note full softely Said were and that full heartily. 1548-9 (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer Pref., Respondes, Verses, vaine repeticions. 1627 Cosin's Corr. (Surtees) I. 111 Doth he begin with the Lord's Prayer; orderly proceeding with the Verses and Responds. 1657 Sparrow Rationale 29 Then follow the Verses, ‘O Lord open Thou our Lips, And our mouth shall shew forth thy praise’. 1762 Evening-Office of Church (ed. 2) Direct. 3 Then is sung the Hymn with its Verse and Responsory. 1763 Burn Eccl. Law I. 38 The invitatories, responsories, verses, collects, and whatever is said or sung in the quire. 1877 J. D. Chambers Div. Worship 91 The Gradual, Alleluya, and Responsory and Verses.

†3. A clause, sentence, or the like; an article of the Creed. Obs.

c1000 Ælfric Gram. l. (Z.) 291 Se þridda hatte distinctio oððe periodos, se belycð þaet fers [v.rr. færs, fyrs]. c1000 I Pref. Genesis (Grein) 23 Eft stynt on þære bec on þam forman ferse: Et spiritus dei ferebatur super aquas. c1175 Lamb. Hom. 75 Þet rihte ileue setten þe twelue apostles on write,..& ec of heom wrat ther of his uers, & sancte peter wrat þet ereste. Ibid. 77 We habbeð bigunnen ou to seggen on englisch hwat biqueþ þe crede, & habbeð ou iseið twa uers. c1425 Wyntoun Cron. v. xi. 3495 Sancte Ierome wrat til hym..Gloria Patri in til twa werse. 1535 Coverdale Deut. iv. 13 He declared vnto you his couenaunt, which he commaunded you to do, namely, the ten verses. 1560 Proude Wyves Pater Noster 116 in Hazl. E.P.P. IV. 157, I pray you, gossyp dere, vnderstand well this verse.

4. a. One of the sections of a psalm or canticle corresponding to the compound unit (usually a couplet) of Hebrew poetry. (Now merged in next.) c1200 Ormin 11943 Forr þær iss sett an oþerr ferrs Þatt spekeþþ off þe deofell. a1225 Ancr. R. 36 Þe vorme psalm is ‘Iubilate’.., þe vifte, ‘Laudate Dominum in sanctis ejus’; and in euerichon beoð vif vers. c1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 34 [He] seide þeos two vers of þe sauter. Ibid. 225 Þe foweles sunge ek here matyns,..& of þe sauter seide þe uers. c1325 Spec. Gy Warw. 460 Sein Daui seiþ, if þu wolt loke In a vers of þe sauter boke [etc.]. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xii. 290 Þe glose graunteth vpon þat vers [Ps. xxiii. 4] a gret mede to treuthe. c1425 Wyntoun Cron. v. xi. 3508 Of þe psalmys distyntly Þe ta syde sulde þe fyrst werse say, Þe toþir þe next werse ay Sulde begyn. c1450 Rewle Sustris Menouresses (1915) 103 Þan þe quere on þat one syde schal take his verse, & þe Quere on þat oþer syde schal take anoþer verse [of Ps. li]. 1508 Fisher 7 Penit. Ps. cxxx. Wks. (1876) 208 It is also profytable for good & ryghtwyse people ofte to reherse this verse [Ps. cxxx. 1] wherby they may auoyde the grete perylles of this wretched worlde. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 163b, Yf..for ony necessite, a psalme scape ony persone, or a lesson, or else yt they omyt one verse or twayne.

b. One of the sections into which a chapter of the Bible is divided. Freq. abbreviated as v. chapter and verse: see chapter n. 10b. The practice of dividing the chapters of the Bible into verses, introduced by Stephanus in 1551, was adopted by Whittingham in his New Testament (1557) and followed in the Geneva Bible (1560).

1560 Bible (Geneva) To Rdr., The argumentes bothe for the booke and for the chapters with the nombre of the verse are added. 1643 Caryl Expos. Job 178 Verse 2 [of ch. iii]... This verse is only a transition into the matter of the next. 1678 Butler Hud. iii. ii. 1170 One single Red-Coat Sentinel..could disperse Whole Troops, with Chapter rais'd, and Verse. 1685 Baxter Paraphr. N.T. John viii. 3 The last Verse of the foregoing Chapter and the eleven first Verses of this Chapter. 1729 Law Serious C. i. 8 That Religion..is to be found in almost every verse of Scripture. 1818 Horne Introd. Script. (1834) II. 75 The verses into which the New Testament is now divided. 1847 Kitto's Cycl. Bibl. Lit. II. 909 note, The twentieth verse of the tenth chapter of Matthew. 1888 E. Abbot Crit. Ess. xx. 465 The first edition of the New Testament divided into our present verses was printed by Robert Stephens at Geneva in 1551. Comb. 1855 I. Taylor Restor. Belief (1856) 186 A verse-by-verse commentary.

5. a. A small number of metrical lines so connected by form or meaning as to constitute either a whole in themselves or a unit in longer composition; a stanza. In quots. c1340 and 1387 applied to elegiac and hexameter couplets. In later use the pl. is sometimes not clearly distinct from 1b.

c1308 Sat. Kildare i. in E.E.P. (1862) 153 Þis uers is ful well iwroŠt, hit is of wel furre y-broŠt. Ibid. iii, Þis uers is imakid wel of consonans and wowel. c1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 246 Of þis Saynt Bernard witnes bers And er þa four wryten in þis vers. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 83 So hit semeþ þat þis vers wolde mene þat þese feyned goddes regneþ..in Chestre. 1502 Douglas Pal. Hon. iii. xcii, In laude of honour I wrait thir versis thre. 1573-80 Baret Alvearie s.v., A verse: a charme: a prophesie, carmen. 1598 R. Grenewey Tacitus, Ann. iii. xiii. (1622) 83 The Smyrnæans alleaged an oracle of Apollo,..the Tenians a verse [L. carmen] of the same Apollo, commanding them to offer an image and Temple to Neptune. 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. ii. iv. 7 Now good Cesario, but that peece of song, That old and Anticke song we heard last night;..Come, but one verse. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 74 35 The Country of the Scotch Warriors, described in these two last Verses [of ‘Chevy Chase’]. 1793 Burns Let. to G. Thomson 7 April, I remember the two last lines of a verse in some of the old songs of ‘Logan Water’,..which I think pretty. 1801 Busby Dict. Mus. s.v., In secular music, as a song or ballad, each stanza of the words is a verse. 1838 Dickens O. Twist xxvi, A young lady proceeded to entertain the company with a ballad in four verses. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xxiii. 167 It was at once proposed to sing a verse from Schiller's play.

b. Mus. (See quot.)

1801 Busby Dict. Mus., Verse, the appellation given to those portions of an anthem meant to be performed by a single voice to each part.

c. That part of a modern popular song which leads into the chorus, or separates one chorus from another. Cf. chorus n. 6c.

1927 Melody Maker Aug. 782/2 The verse is then taken ‘hot’ by the trumpet, who gives a fine example of what modern ‘hot’ playing..should be. 1929, 1935 [see chorus n. 6c]. 1966 Melody Maker 7 May 13/1 Wonder charges through the verse and builds up into the repetitious chorus.

6. a. Without article: Metrical composition, form, or structure; language or literary work written or spoken in metre; poetry, esp. with reference to metrical form. Opposed to prose.

a1300 Cursor M. 22227 We wat bath thoru stori and wers, Þat þe kingrikes o grece and pers War hefd kingrikes in form tide. 14.. Chaucer's Sompn. T. 297 (Harl. MS.), Schortly may no man, by rym and vers, Tellen her thoughtes, thay ben so dyvers. c1425 Wyntoun Cron. v. xi. 3492 This Damasyus..Couth mak rycht weill in metyre vers. a1586 Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 50 That Verse farre exceedeth Prose in the knitting vp of the memory, the reason is manifest. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxvi. 141 In antient time, before letters were in common use, the Lawes were many times put into verse. 1696 Prior Secretary 16 Athens.., Where people knew love, and were partial to verse. 1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Stanza, For though we speak Verse on the Stage, 'tis still presumed we are speaking Prose. 1779 Johnson L.P., Dryden (1868) 186 To write verse, is to dispose syllables and sounds harmonically by some known and settled rule. 1827 Pollok Course T. iii, He searched again..For theme deserving of immortal verse. 1883 R. Noel in Contemp. Rev. Nov. 709 note, We find..much nakedly argumentative ratiocinative verse, but that is not, strictly speaking, poetry at all. personif. 1580 Spenser Let. to Harvey Wks. (1912) 636 Unhappy Verse,..Make thy selfe fluttring wings of thy fast flying Thought. c1645 Milton Sonn. to Lawes 9 Thou honour'st Verse, and Verse must lend her wing To honour thee.

b. Freq. in verse, in metrical form. Also fig. (quot. 1390).

c1315 Shoreham vii. 191 O god hyt hys, and stent in uers Ine þulke song [= Athanasian Creed]. 1340 Ayenb. 128 He wenþ libbe yet uourti yer, ase zayþ elyuans ine uers of þe dyaþe. 1390 Gower Conf. III. 3 For Dronkeschipe is so divers, It may no whyle stonde in vers. c1425 Wyntoun Cron. vi. x. 859 His epitaphi þan in werse Wryttyn þus men may rahers. 1483 Caxton Cato 3 Two partyes − the fyrst is in prose and the second in verse. 1500-20 Dunbar Poems xxxii. 43, I will no lesingis put in vers. 1557 Tottel's Misc. To Rdr., That to haue wel written in verse..deserueth great praise [etc.]. 1586 W. Webbe Eng. Poet. (Arb.) 30 Thinking nothing to be learnedly written in verse, which fell not out in ryme. 1643 Caryl Expos. Job 178 Job breaths out his passion in verse, and in verse receives his answer. 1689 Prior Ep. to Fleetwood Shephard 97 In Verse or Prose, We write or chat. 1762-71 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) I. 132 The Introduction to knowledge, partly in verse and partly in prose. 1838 Thirlwall Greece II. 124 In Crete and at Sparta..the maxims of the constitution were delivered in verse. 1841 W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. III. 272 The Romans choose this form..for conveying their feelings in verse.

c. With distinguishing terms. (Cf. 1c.) Adonic, Alexandrine, blank, elegiac, heroic(al, hexameter, Leonine, Saturnian verse, etc.: see those words.

1552 Huloet s.v., Verse heroicall, or of sixe feete, versus heroicus. 1585 Jas. VI Ess. Poesie (Arb.) 68 For flyting, or Inuectiues, vse..Rouncefallis, or Tumbling verse. 1685 Dryden (title), The twenty-ninth Ode of the third Book of Horace; paraphrased in Pindarick Verse. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 39 35 Aristotle observes, that the Iambick Verse in the Greek Tongue was the most proper for Tragedy. 1855 Milman Lat. Chr. xiv. iv. VI. 488 An interminable length of harsh hexameter, or of elegiac verse.

7. a. The metrical or poetical compositions of a particular author, etc.; a certain amount of metrical work or poetry considered as a whole.

1586 W. Webbe Eng. Poetrie (Arb.) 32 Lydgate.., surely for good proportion of his verse..comparable with Chawcer. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. v. i. 101 Thus your Verse Flow'd with her Beautie once. c1715 Pope Ep. Jervas 1 This Verse be thine, my friend, nor thou refuse This, from no venal or ungrateful Muse. 1810 Scott Lady of L. i. xxxii, Till to her lips in measured frame The minstrel verse spontaneous came. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 401 The verse of Waller still breathed the sentiments which had animated a more chivalrous generation. 1906 Lit. World 15 Nov. 487/2 Some of the poems are spoiled by..hate of England... Had it been omitted the verse would have been improved.

†b. A particular style of metre or versification.

1586 W. Webbe Eng. Poetrie (Arb.) 30 A singuler gyft in a sweete Heroicall verse. Ibid. 34 Master D. Phaer..had the best peece of Poetry whereon to sette a most gallant verse.

8. attrib., as verse-beat, -book, -craft, -cup, -end, -form, -line, -pair, -rhythm, -shot, -unit, -wit, etc.; verse anthem (see quots.); †verse-fellow, a fellow or companion verse-maker; verse-service (see quots.).

1801 Busby Dict. Mus., *Verse,..the epithet applied to an anthem beginning with verse. 1876 Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms 446/1 A verse anthem is one which begins with soli portions as opposed to a full anthem, which commences with a chorus. 1943 E. Sitwell Poet's Notebk. xxviii. 134 The *verse-beat is not very strong in this passage. 1849 Lytton Caxtons 22 Rude songs, modelled from such *verse-books as fell into my hands. 1894 Daily News 20 Oct. 6/1 Her own skill in *versecraft gives her unusual felicity of insight. 1885 S. Cox Expositions xxii. 290 We have kept the best wine in this little *Verse-cup until now. 1930 T. Sasaki On Lang. R. Bridges' Poetry i. v. 24 The fully strong stress at the *verse-end. 1592 Nashe Four Lett. Confuted Wks. (Grosart) II. 235 To beare his old *verse-fellow noble M. Valanger company. 1887 G. M. Hopkins Let. 20 Oct. (1956) 381 The style of prose is a positive thing and not the absence of *verse-forms. 1906 G. P. Krapp Andreas p. xlvi, The distinctively epic verse-form. 1966 English Studies XLVII. 97 In a difficult and restrictive verse-form, one might expect the poet to resort to the use of convenient whole-line units more..often. 1927 D. H. Lawrence Mornings in Mexico 66 He had written the thing [sc. a love-poem] straight ahead, without *verse-lines or capitals. 1953 Speculum XXVIII. 449 The recurrence of verses and *verse-pairs in Anglo-Saxon poetry. 1930 T. Sasaki On Lang. R. Bridges' Poetry i. v. 21 Lines in verse..form units of *verse-rhythm intermediate between a ‘foot’ and a ‘stanza’. 1942 J. C. Pope Rhythm of Beowulf 22 In no case is it necessary to pass beyond the limits of accentual adjustment that verse-rhythm everywhere allows. 1851 J. S. Adams 5000 Mus. Terms 105 *Verse service, a service in which verses are introduced. 1889 Grove's Dict. Music (1902) IV. 257 A verse-service or verse-anthem sometimes includes portions set for a voice solo. 1794 Mathias Purs. Lit. (1797) ii. 13 note, Before they were half finished,..as many of the others as were within hearing or *verse-shot..were all found fast asleep!!! 1948 Mod. Philology XLVI. 77 When the character of the dipody, or *verse unit, is examined, the first impression is one of extreme variation. 1966 English Studies XLVII. 96 The verse-unit, the half-line, was quite short. 1668 Dryden Evening's Love iii. i, The prose-wits playing and the *verse-wits rooking.

b. In the sense ‘composed or written in, consisting of, verse’, as verse drama, epistle, epitaph, -exercise, letter, miscellany, narrative, -part, play, -tale, -text, translation, etc.

1685 Dryden Sylvæ Pref. 31 The hot [prose], which succeeded them, in this volume of Verse Miscellanies. 1687 Norris Coll. Misc. Pref. (1699) 4 Thus much for the Verse-part. 1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. 23 In verse or prose, or in verse-text aided by prose-comment. 1881 Encycl. Brit. XII. 19/1 Verse narrative, even when it deals with true events,..is either more or less than history. 1896 R. Palmer Mem. I. i. viii. 122 He..gained both the University prizes for verse-exercises. 1925 R. Graves Welchman's Hose 31 Then the first draft of a verse-epitaph. 1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 5 Nov. 850/2 It might be inferred certainly from the verse-epistles [of Burns] alone: not quite so certainly from the prose letters alone. 1952 T. S. Eliot Film of ‘Murder in the Cathedral’ 7 Murder in the Cathedral is, I believe, the first contemporary verse play to be adapted to the screen. 1962 Times 14 Aug. 11/1 Jean Cocteau's verse-drama Renaud et Armide. 1963 M. H. Abrams in N. Frye Romanticism Reconsidered 37 In a verse-letter of 1800 Blane identified the crucial influences in his spiritual history as a series beginning with Milton.

c. Comb. Objective or obj. genitive, as verse-gracer, -merchant, -reciter, -smith, -wright, -writer; verse-making, -painting, -reading, -speaking, -writing; verse-repeating, -speaking adjs.; instrumental, as verse-commemorated adj. Also verseward adv.

1842 S. C. Hall Ireland II. 339 The long celebrated and *verse-commemorated month of August. 1881 W. Wilkins Songs of Study 127 *Verse-gracer! deign to grace mine With lucky chosen words. 1811 Andw. Scott Poems p. x, My attachment to *verse-making. 1873 Symonds Grk. Poets v. 147 A father taught the trade of flute-playing and chorus-leading and verse-making to his son. 1845 Browning Lett. (1899) I. 18 The Rialto where *verse-merchants most do congregate. 1942 Blunden Romantic Poetry & Fine Arts 19 A single touch of his originality in the ‘Ancient Mariner’ holds the secret of his *verse-painting. 1585 Jas. I Ess. Poesie (Arb.) 31 Ye procure By your lasciuious speache, that fathers sage Defends *verse reading, to their yonger age. 1938 L. MacNeice Mod. Poetry ii. 41 This [sc. the Golden Treasury] was my chief verse-reading for two years. 1822 Shelley To Jane, The Invitation 36 You, tiresome *verse-reciter, Care. a1704 T. Brown Dial. Dead Wks. 1711 IV. 75 The *Verse-repeating Beaux of Will's Coffee-House. 1820 T. Mitchell Aristoph. I. 205 Ye *verse-smiths and bard-mechanicians! 1887 Saintsbury Hist. Elizab. Lit. i. (1890) 8 The supposed editor..is but a journeyman verse-smith. 1933 Amer. Speech VIII. iv. 39/2 Outside of the school there may be a place for *verse-speaking choirs. 1980 Times 5 Sept. 11/7 His verse-speaking consists of a heavy lurch from beat to beat. 1810 Miss Mitford Let. 3 Apr. in L'Estrange Life (1870) I. 99 That feeble *verse-spinner Bloomfield. 1809 Byron Bards & Rev. 230 But if, in spite of all the world can say, Thou still wilt *verseward plod thy weary way. 1729 Savage Wanderer i. 335 These scorn (said I) the *verse~wright of their age. 1840 Pierpont Airs Palestine p. v, The pieces that make up this volume will be seen..to be..the wares of a verse-wright, made ‘to order’. 1726 Swift (title), Advice to the Grub-street *Verse-Writers. 1885 Pater Marius I. vii. 121 A familiar playfulness of the Latin verse-writer in dealing with mythology. 1755 M. Barber in Colman & Thornton Poems by Eminent Ladies I. 23 There's nothing I dread, like a *verse-writing wife. 1850 Thackeray Pendennis ii, If he was distinguished for anything it was for verse-writing. 1884 Tennyson Becket ii. ii, So if the city be sick..your lordship would suspend me from verse-writing?

prose

Also 6 proese, proase, Sc. pross, prois. [a. F. prose (13th c. in Littré), ad. L. prZsa (ZrQtio), lit. straightforward discourse, n. use of fem. of prZs-us, for earlier prors-us adj. straightforward, straight, direct, contr. from prZvers-us, pa. pple. of prZvert-Sre to turn forwards. Hence med.L. prZsa an accentual hymn, in which the prose pronunciation and order is used.]

1. a. The ordinary form of written or spoken language, without metrical structure; esp. as a species or division of literature. Opposed to poetry, verse, rime, or metre.

c1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 10975 But ffrensche men wryten hit in prose, Right as he dide, hym for to alose. c1386 Chaucer Melib. Prol. 19 Gladly quod I by goddes sweete pyne I wol yow telle a litel thyng in prose. 1483 Caxton Cato 3 Two partyes − the fyrst is in prose and the second in verse. 1575 Laneham Let. (1817) 15 The thing which heer I report in vnpolisht proez, waz thear pronounced in good meeter and matter. 1596 Dalyrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. x. 468 Monie vther thingis baith in prois and verse he wrote. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 16 Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime. 1718 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Abbé Conti 31 July, I..will..continue the rest of my account in plain prose. 1800 Wordsw. Lyr. Ball. (ed. 2) Pref. note, Much confusion has been introduced into criticism by this contradistinction of Poetry and Prose... The only strict antithesis to Prose is Metre. 1833 Coleridge Table-t. 3 July, The definition of good prose is − proper words in their proper places. 1880 M. Arnold Ess. Crit., Stud. Poet. (1888) 39 The needful qualities for a fit prose are regularity, uniformity, precision, balance.

b. with a and pl. A piece of prose, as opp. to a poem; a composition in prose; a prose exercise. Now rare or Obs. exc. in school or college use.

1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xvi. (Arb.) 184 The Greekes vsed a manner of speech or writing in their proses, that went by clauses, finishing the words of like tune. 1646 J. Hall Poems i. 5 Gently to amble in a York-shire prose. 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xix. viii. V. 607 New Verses or light Proses. 1901 Punch 9 Jan. 20/1 When my tutor fond supposes I am writing Latin proses.

c. In ME., A (prose) story or narrative. (The pl. was app. sometimes confounded with proses, proces, process n. 4; this being, as in F., sing. and pl.)

c1400 Laud Troy Bk. 6357 He fond her bokes bothe two..In siker proses and no romaunce. c1400 Destr. Troy 11523 All the pepull in þat presse, þat the prose herd, Afermyt hit as fyn þat þe freike said. a1400-50 Alexander 2062 And slike a pas, sais þe prose, to Persy he ridis. Ibid. 2397 A croune all of clere gold, clustrid with gemmes, Of fyfty ponde with þe payse, as þe prose tellis.

2. Eccl. A piece of rhythmical prose or rimed accentual verse, sung or said between the epistle and gospel at certain masses: also called a sequence. Called prZsa in Latin in distinction from versus applied to the ancient quantitative metres: see P. Wagner Introd. Gregorian Melodies (Eng. transl. 234, etc.).

c1449 Pecock Repr. (Rolls) 201 Also in the prose clepid a sequence which is sungun in the Feeste of the Cross is HiŠing, aftir that manye spechis there ben mad to the cros. 1486 Rec. St. Mary at Hill 16 Euery persone..syngyng a Respond of Seynte Stephen with the prose therto. 1561 T. Norton tr. Calvin's Inst. iii. xx. (1634) 427 In all their Letanies, Hymnes, and Proses, where no honour is left ungiven to dead Saints, there is no mention of Christ. 1822 K. Digby Broadst. Hon. iii. (1848) 90 The stanzas of the new worship proposed as more worthy of God than the ancient proses of the Church. 1882 Rockstro in Grove Dict. Mus. III. 465 In the Middle Ages it [Sequence] was called a Prose; because, though written for the most part in rhymed Latin..the cadence of its syllables was governed, not as in classical Poetry, by quantity, but by accent − a peculiarity which deprived it of all claim to consideration as Verse of any kind. 1885 Cath. Dict., Sequence, In the revision of the Roman Missal in the sixteenth century, only four sequences were retained: ‘Victimæ Paschali’.., ‘Veni, Sancte Spiritus’.., ‘Lauda, Sion’.., the ‘Dies Iræ’... A fifth prose, ‘Stabat Mater’..must have been added very recently, since neither Le Brun nor Benedict XIV. recognise it.

†b. Hence, in prose is used in the following instances app., as = in rimed, as opposed to quantitative verse. Obs.

1486 Surtees Misc. (1888) 54 Which shall salute the king wt wordes folowing in prose... Most reverend, rightwose regent of this rigalitie, Whos primative patrone I peyre to your presence [rimes citie..prehemynence.]. Ibid. 55 Saying the wordes folowing unto the king in prose..Most prudent prince of pruved prevision [etc.].

3. fig. (from 1). Plain, simple, matter-of-fact, (and hence) dull or commonplace expression, quality, spirit, etc. (The opposite of poetry 5.)

1561 T. Norton tr. Calvin's Inst. i. 18 For the plaine prose hereof is to cleare to be subject to any cauillations at all. 1641 Milton Ch. Govt. ii. Pref., Wks. 1851 III. 143 Sitting here below in the cool element of prose. 1742 Young Nt. Th. iv. 645 That Prose of Piety, a lukewarm Praise. 1876 Lowell Ode 4th July iii. iii, To see things as they are, or shall be soon, In the frank prose of undissembling noon. 1900 ‘Sarah Grand’ Babs xv, Mrs. Normanton was a broad embodiment of the prose and commonplace of her class.

4. a. A dull, commonplace, or wearisome discourse or piece of writing; a prosy discourse. Also, a dull, prosy person. colloq.

1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 175/2 Mr. Guillims had not needed to have used such a long prose. 1813 Byron in Daily News (1899) 29 June 6/1, I have sent you a long prose. I hope your answer will be equal in length. 1840 J. H. Newman Lett. (1891) II. 300 All this is a miserable prose. 1844 Dickens Mart. Chuz. xxxvii. 439, I verily believe you have said that fifty thousand times, in my hearing. What a Prose you are! 1897 Life & Lett. B. Jowett I. v. 129 He received many a ‘prose’ from Jowett on the philosophy of law and on the various questions of the hour.

b. Old colloq. Familiar talk, chat, gossip; a talk.

1805 Mrs. Creevey in C. Papers, etc. (1904) I. 68, I had a great deal of comfortable prose with her. 1807 Earl Malmesbury Diaries & Corr. III. 385 Long prose with the Duke of Portland till one in the morning. 1825 Brockett N.C. Gloss., Pross, talk, conversation − rather of the gossiping kind. ‘Let us have a bit of pross.’ 1848 R. D. Hampden in Some Mem. (1871) 162 She does not forget the long friendly proses that you have had together, and she longs to have another talk-out with you.

5. attrib. (often hyphened to the following word). a. Consisting of, composed or written in prose. (In this and the following, substituted for prosaic 1.)

1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) III. 254 Which after the manner of my familiar prose-satir I presume to criticize. 1718 Pope Let. to Dk. Buckhm. 1 Sept., There had been a very elegant Prose-translation before. 1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. 23 In verse or prose, or in verse-text aided by prose-comment. 1862 Stanley Jew. Ch. (1877) I. xi. 206 Here we have..the prose account. 1875 Lowell Spenser Wks. 1890 IV. 322 Bunyan..is the Ulysses of his own prose-epic.

b. Composing or writing in prose.

1668 Dryden Evening's Love iii. i, The prose-wits playing, and the verse-wits rooking. 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) I. 235 Poets and prose-authors in every kind. 1866 J. Martineau Ess. I. 172 In..First Principles we have a kind of prose Lucretius.

c. fig. Having the character of prose; plain, matter-of-fact, commonplace: = prosaic 2.

1818 Hazlitt Eng. Poets viii. (1870) 194 Poets are not ideal beings; but have their prose-sides. 1864 Webster s.v., The prose duties of life. 1905 Q. Rev. Oct. 485 For the poet the aesthetic value of the Gospels is independent of their prose-truth.

6. Comb., as prose book, work; prose-inditing n. and adj., prose-like adj.; prose fiction, the genre of fictional narratives written in prose; †prose-master, a master of prose, one who excels in prose composition; prose-poem, a prose work having the style or character of a poem; so prose-poet, prose-poetry; †prose-printer, a printer of prose (in quot. = prose author); prose sense, the meaning of a poem as it can be paraphrased in prose; prose style, characteristic manner of writing in prose; prose-writer, one who writes or composes prose, an author who writes in prose; so prose-writing.

1940 Dylan Thomas Let. 13 May (1966) 248, I do not want to write another straight *prosebook yet. 1382 Wyclif Job Prol., The litle distinccioun that leueth with *prose enditing is wouen. 1841 *Prose-fiction [see perfect a. 4a]. 1848 Mill Pol. Econ. I. ii. xiv. 467 The most successful writer of prose fiction (Scott). 1919 V. Woolf in Times Lit. Suppl. 10 Apr. 189/2 It is for..[the historian of literature] to ascertain whether we are now at the beginning, or middle, or end, of a great period of prose fiction. 1957 Encycl. Brit. XVI. 573/2 Dickens, perhaps the most remarkable genius in the history of English prose fiction. 1742 P. Francis tr. Horace's Art P. 138 For Telephus or Peleus..must complain In *prose-like Style. 1656 Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Pol. Touchstone (1674) 270 *Prose-Master Major to his Majestie. 1842 Poe in Graham's Mag. Jan. 69/1 Criticism is not..an essay, nor a sermon, nor an oration,..nor a *prose-poem. 1850 C. Kingsley Alton Locke I. ix. 139 That great prose poem, the single epic of modern days, Thomas Carlyle's ‘French Revolution’. 1906 Daily Chron. 15 Jan. 3/4 The so-called prose-poem is very rarely attempted. 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) I. 162 They have vulgarly pass'd for a sort of *prose-poets. 1860 Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. III. cxiii. 42/2 The prose-poet Bunyan's ‘Holy War’. 1887 Saintsbury Hist. Elizab. Lit. ii. 41 Sidney commits himself..to the pestilent heresy of *prose-poetry, saying that verse is ‘only an ornament of poetry’. 1581 Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 68 Peculier to Versifiers, and..not..among *Prose-printers. 1947 C. Brooks Well Wrought Urn xi. 182 The ‘*prose-sense’ of the poem is not a rack on which the stuff of the poem is hung. 1852 Thackeray Esmond III. iii. 88 His [sc. Addison's] *prose style I think is altogether inimitable. 1906 R. Brooke Let. 10 May (1968) 51 This effort has..worked..havoc in my carefully elaborated prose-style. 1959 G. D. Painter Proust I. viii. 115 His [sc. Proust's] prose style was..faded and artificial. 1976 N. Freeling Lake Isle xiii. 120 Someone, presumably..has been phoning somebody. A prefect to judge from the prose style. c1827 Mill Speech in Adelphi (1924) I. 692 The very small number of good *prose works which have been published for many years past, except indeed novels. 1934 J. Joyce Let. 1 June (1966) III. 306, I work every day alone at my big long wide high deep dense prosework. 1978 W. White Whitman's Daybks. & Notebks. I. p. xxiii, Every name of a person, place, book, poem, prose work, or a ‘situation’ in Whitman's life and times that seemed to me to call for annotation, I have annotated. 1611 Whitaker in Coryat's Crudities Panegyr. Verses dv, The most peerelesse Poeticall *Prose-writer. 1697 Dryden Virg., Ess. Georg. (1721) I. 202 Where the Prose-writer tells us plainly what ought to be done, the Poet often conceals the Precept in a Description. 1847 Grote Greece ii. xxix. IV. 130 The philosopher Pherekydês of Syros, about 550 b.c., is called by some the earliest prose-writer. 1769 R. Wood Ess. Homer 60 It is allowed on all hands, that *Prose writing was unknown in Greece, till long after the Poet's time. 1787 Sir J. Hawkins Johnson 255 A taste in morals, in poetry, and prose-writing.

poetry

Forms: 4–7 poetrie, 5 -trye, -terye, 6 Sc. poyetrie, 5– poetry. [ME. = OF. poetrie, poeterie (13–14th c.), old It. poetría (Florio); ad. late and med.L. poetrWa, f. poUta poet. Poetria occurs in a scholium on Horace Epist. ii. i. 103, written (according to O. Keller, Pseudacro) c 650, perh. in North Italy, and preserved in MSS. of 10th c.; also in 9th or 10th c. MSS. of Martianus Capella. It is used as the title of treatises on the art of poetry, esp. the Nova Poetria of Gaufrei de Vinsauf (Galfridus de Vino Salvo, also called Galfridus Anglicus) about or soon after 1200; and in various works of the 13th c., as the Græcismus of Eberhardus Bethuniensis c 1212 (‘Arte poetria fungor dum fingo poema’), the translation of Averroes' paraphrase of Aristotle's Poetics by Hermannus Alemannus c 1260, and the Catholicon of Joannes de Janua, 1286 (‘a poeta, poeticus, et hæc poetria ars poetica’). (I. Bywater.) The relation of the word to L. poUtria, Gr. poi–sqia, poetess, is not clear; but, from its antiquity, its formative suffix cannot be identified with F. -erie, Eng. -ery, -ry, in such words as chirurgery, drollery, bigotry, mimicry. Our earliest English examples are from Chaucer, to whom the Nova Poetria of Galfridus was well known, as he makes the Nun's Priest refer to it in his Tale (l. 527) and apostrophize the author as ‘O Gaufred deere Maister souerayn’.]

I. In obsolete senses.

†1. A rendering of med.L. poetrWa in sense of an ars poetica or treatise on the art of poetry. Obs. 1447 O. Bokenham Seyntys Introd. (Roxb.) 3 Galfridus Anglicus in hys newe poetrye.

†2. Applied to imaginative or creative literature in general; fable, fiction: cf. poet n. 1b. Obs.

c1384 Chaucer H. Fame ii. 493 When thou redest poetrie How goddes gonne stellifye Briddes fisshe best. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 279 Of þe bryngynge forþ of mawmetrie com wel nyh al þe feyninge of poetrie [L. De ortu idolatriæ omnia pene figmenta manarunt; 1432-50 Alle figmentes toke begynnenge allemoste of ydolatry]. 1484 Caxton Fables of Æsop ii. Proem, Fable is as moche to seye in poeterye as wordes in theologye. 1530 Tindale Pract. Prelates Wks. (Parker Soc.) II. 268 They..feigned Miracles, and gaue themselues only unto poetry, and shut up the scripture. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 607 Their profession of Poëtry, that is to say, of faining and deuising fables, may in some sort excuse them.

II. In existing use.

3. The art or work of the poet: a. With special reference to its form: Composition in verse or metrical language, or in some equivalent patterned arrangement of language; usually also with choice of elevated words and figurative uses, and option of a syntactical order, differing more or less from those of ordinary speech or prose writing. In this sense, poetry in its simplest or lowest form has been identified with versification or verse: cf. quots. 1658, 1755.

1386 Chaucer Clerk's Prol. 33 Fraunceys Petrak..whos Rethorik sweete Enlumyned al Ytaille of poetrie, As Lynyan dide of Philosophie. 1412-20 Lydg. Chron. Troy iii. xxv. (MS. Digby 230), Til þat he [Chaucer] came and with his poetrye Gan our tunge first to magnifye. c1440 Promp. Parv. 406/2 Poetrye, poetria. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. (Percy Soc.) 2 Nothinge I am experte in poetry, As the monke of Bury, floure of eloquence. 1567 Satir. Poems Reform. vi. 9 Thair plesand flowre of Poyetrie. 1586 W. Webbe Eng. Poetrie (Arb.) 21 Poetrie..may properly be defined, the arte of making: which word as it hath alwaies beene especially vsed of the best of our English Poets, to expresse ye very faculty of speaking or wryting Poetically. 1658 Phillips, Poesie, or Poetry, the art of making a Poem, i. any kind of subject consisting of Rythm or Verses. 1727-41 Chambers Cycl. s.v., The rules of poetry and versifying are taught by art, and acquired by study... Its matter, long and short syllables, and feet composed hereof, with words furnished by grammar; and its form, the arrangement of all these things in just and agreeable verse, expressing the thoughts and sentiments of the author. 1755 Johnson, Poetry, metrical composition; the art or practice of writing poems. 1838 Thirlwall Greece II. xii. 116 The first period of Greek poetry..is entirely filled by the names of Homer and Hesiod. 1906 J. W. Mackail (Communicated), In general, the essence of poetry as an art is not so much that it is rhythmical (which all elevated language is), or that it is metrical (which not all poetry is, except by a considerable extension of the meaning of the word), as that it is patterned language. This is its specific quality as a ‘fine art’. The essence of ‘pattern’ (in its technical use, as applied to the arts) as distinct from ‘composition’ generally, is that it is composition which has what is technically called a ‘repeat’; and it is the ‘repeat’ which technically differentiates poetry from non-poetry, both being (as arts) ‘composition’. The ‘repeat’ may be obvious, as in the case of rhymed lines of equal length, or it may be more implicit, to any degree of subtlety; but if it does not exist, there is technically no poetry. The artistic power of the pattern-designer is shown in the way he deals with the problem of ‘repeat’; and this is true of poetry likewise, and is probably the key (so far as one exists) to any technical definition or discussion of the art.

b. The product of this art as a form of literature; the writings of a poet or poets; poems collectively or generally; metrical work or composition; verse. (Opp. to prose.)

1586 Webbe Eng. Poetrie 28 The first wryters of Poetry among the Latines, shoulde seeme to be those, which excelled in the framing of Commedies. 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. iv. i. 14 Cornelia neuer with more care Read to her sonnes, then she hath read to thee, Sweet Poetry, and Tullies Oratour. 1749 Numbers in Poet. Comp. 75 Speak here..of the several Sorts of English Poetry, as divided into Heroic, Pastoral, Elegy, Satire, Comedy, Tragedy, Epigram and Lyric. 1763 J. Brown Poetry & Mus. xiii. 223 If the Poet select and adapt proper Music to his Poem; or the Musician select and adapt proper Poetry to his Music. 1798 Wordsw. Lyr. Ballads (ed. 2) Pref. note, I here use the word ‘Poetry’ (though against my own judgment) as opposed to the word Prose, and synonymous with metrical composition. But..the only strict antithesis to Prose is Metre; nor is this, in truth, a strict antithesis. 1807 Edin. Rev. XI. 216 The end of poetry..is to please − and the name, we think, is strictly applicable to every metrical composition from which we receive pleasure, without any laborious exercise of the understanding. 1828 Whately Rhet. in Encycl. Metrop. I. 290/1 Good Poetry might be defined, ‘Elegant and decorated language in metre, expressing such and such thoughts’. 1846 Wright Ess. Mid. Ages II. 39 Poetry was the only form of literary composition found in the primeval age.

c. With special reference to its function: The expression or embodiment of beautiful or elevated thought, imagination, or feeling, in language adapted to stir the imagination and emotions, both immediately and also through the harmonic suggestions latent in or implied by the words and connexions of words actually used, such language containing a rhythmical element and having usually a metrical form (as in sense 3a); though the term is sometimes extended to include expression in non-metrical language having similar harmonic and emotional qualities (prose-poetry).

1581 Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 28 Verse being but an ornament and no cause to Poetry: sith there haue beene many most excellent Poets, that neuer versified. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iv. ii. 165, I will proue those Verses to be very vnlearned, neither sauouring of Poetrie, Wit, nor Inuention. 1689-90 Temple Ess. Poetry Wks. 1731 I. 235 Nor is it any great Wonder that such Force should be found in Poetry, since in it are assembled all the Powers of Eloquence, of Musick, and of Picture, which are all allowed to make so strong Impressions upon humane Minds. 1779-81 Johnson L.P., Waller Wks. II. 267 The essence of poetry is invention; such invention as, by producing something unexpected, surprises and delights... Poetry pleases by exhibiting an idea more grateful to the mind than things themselves afford. 1798 Wordsw. Lyr. Ballads (ed. 2) Pref., Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all Science. 1853 Robertson Serm. Ser. ii. xx, All Christ's teaching is a Divine Poetry, luxuriant in metaphor, overflowing with truth too large for accurate sentences, truth which only a heart alive can appreciate. a1854 H. Reed Lect. Brit. Poets vi. (1857) 220 A strain of prose which is poetry in all but poetry's metrical music. 1885 Watts-Dunton in Encycl. Brit. XIX. 257/2 Absolute poetry is the concrete and artistic expression of the human mind in emotional and rhythmical language. 1906 W. B. Yeats Poems Pref., Poetry..is in the last analysis an endeavour to condense as out of the flying vapours of the world an image of human perfection, and for its own and not for the art's sake.

d. Extended (with reference to the Etymology) to creative or imaginative art in general. rare.

[1815 D. Stewart in Encycl. Brit., Suppl. I. 5 note, The latitude given by D'Alembert to the meaning of the word Poetry is a real and very important improvement on Bacon, who restricts it to fictitious History or Fables... D'Alembert, on the other hand, employs it in its natural signification, as synonymous with invention or creation.] 1856 Ruskin Mod. Paint. III. iv. i. §15 Painting is properly to be opposed to speaking or writing, but not to poetry. Both painting and speaking are methods of expression. Poetry is the employment of either for the noblest purposes.

4. pl. Pieces of poetry; poems collectively. rare.

c1384 Chaucer H. Fame iii. 388 Oon seyde Omere was [v.r. made] lyes Feynynge in hys Poetries. 1587 Golding De Mornay xxiv. (1592) 372 What shall we say then to the Poetries [of our Scriptures], specially of Dauid, considering that he was afore all the Poetries of the Heathen? 1656 Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. 284 Desired that she might see both their Poetries; which after she had perused several times, and duly considered them, she..chose Mauro's Fava. 1818 Scott Rob Roy xxiii, And this young birkie here,..will his stage plays and his poetries help him here, d'ye think..? − Will Tityre tu patulæ, as they ca' it, tell him where Rashleigh Osbaldistone is? 1886 M. F. Tupper My Life as Author 222 If some few have appeared among other poetries in print, they shall not be repeated here.

5. fig. Something resembling or compared to poetry; poetical quality, spirit, or feeling. Phr. poetry of the foot or of motion: dancing.

1664 Dryden Rival Ladies iii. 32 The Poetry of the foot takes most of late. 1813 Lady Morgan Wild Irish Girl (ed. 5) II. xix. 156, ‘I seldom dance,’ said I − ‘Ill health has for some time coincided with my inclination, which seldom led me to try my skill at the Poetry of Motion.’ 1816 Keats Sonn. Grasshopper & Cricket, The poetry of earth is never dead:..a voice will run..about the new~mown mead; That is the Grasshopper's. 1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. II. xiv. 1 The sudden charm, which accidents of light and shade, which moon-light or sun-set diffused over a known and familiar landscape..these are the poetry of nature. 1818 Byron Ch. Har. iv. lviii. 32 That music in itself, whose sounds are song, The poetry of speech. 1846 Mackay Poems, Railways 1 ‘No poetry in railways!’ foolish thought Of a dull brain, to no fine music wrought. c1863 T. Taylor Ticket-of-leave Man in M. R. Booth Eng. Plays of 19th Cent. (1969) II. 101 Come along, Emily, if you're at liberty to give your Montague a lesson in the poetry of motion. 1874 Blackie Self-Cult. 70 To live poetry, indeed, is always better than to write it. 1874 Hardy Far from Madding Crowd I. ii. 13 The poetry of motion is a phrase much in use. 1946 D. C. Peattie Road of Naturalist iv. 42 There is left only the poetry of speed and wind. 1959 E. H. Clements High Tension i. 10 He had never been back there. He had not..seen poetry in the small exploit. 1975 Times 6 Mar. 13/5 There is a moment of poetry in a sequence where the dancers simply walk about carrying umbrellas. 1975 Listener 4 Dec. 747/2 Raffles..compares the poetry of cricket with the poetry of burglary. 1977 Zigzag Apr. 30/3 This song captures what Television are all about: a kind of poetry in motion with a scorching musical backdrop.

6. (With capital initial.) The name given to the sixth, or (reckoning the Preparatory as one, the seventh) class from the bottom or third from the top, in English Roman Catholic schools, seminaries, or colleges, on the continent, and subsequently in England. The class so called comes between Syntax and Rhetoric.

1629 [see grammar n. 5c]. 1679 Trials of White & other Jesuits 56 Fall. I saw him when I was in my Syntax, and now I am in Poetry. 1773 [see grammar n. 5c]. 1838 C. Waterton Essays on Nat. Hist. p. xxiv, One day, when I was in the class of poetry..about two years before I left the college.., he called me up to his room. 1887 Stonyhurst Mag. Nov. 34/1 Poetry..were granted a most unexpected but none the less welcome holiday on Thursday October 20th. 1906 [‘Still in use at Stonyhurst, etc.; also at St. Edmund's or Douay College, now located at Woolhampton in Berks.’ (Rev. Sir D. O. Hunter Blair, O.S.B.)] 1946 D. Gwynn Bishop Challoner iii. 39 By the summer of 1708 he had passed through the two higher classes of Poetry and Rhetoric.

7. attrib. and Comb., as poetry professorship, reader, school, work-shop; poetry-loving adj.; poetry-book, a book containing a collection of poems, esp. one used in schools; poetry reading, the reading of poetry, esp. to an audience; a poetry recital; poetry recital, a public performance of poetry; poetry-voice, a pompous or mannered style of writing poetry or reading it aloud.

1847 Thackeray Van. Fair (1848) xii. 103 She wrote whole pages out of *poetry-books without the least pity. 1877 A. B. Edwards (title) A poetry-book of elder poets. 1881 R. L. Stevenson Virginibus Puerisque 176 Whether we regard life as a lane leading to a dead wall..or pule in little atheistic poetry-books about its vanity and brevity [etc.]. 1903 ‘A. McNeill’ Egregious English 102 The demand for poetry-books by new writers has practically ceased to exist. 1935 E. Farjeon Nursery in Nineties v. 271 The poem was ‘good enough’ for the Poetry-Book. 1980 G. Nelson Charity's Child vi. 86 The poetry book, sir. 1798 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Tales of Hoy Wks. 1812 IV. 410 He scrawls the chairs and tables over, and walls whenever the *poetry-fit is upon him. 1885 Illustr. Lond. News 7 Nov. 468/3 The book is one on which every *poetry lover should form his own opinion. 1941 Blunden T. Hardy ii. 34 The change was natural to the period and the *poetry-loving author. 1979 E. Koch Good Night Little Spy iv. 24 A poetry-loving, moon faced charmer. 1887 Dowden Transcripts (1896) 516 The ignominious years of dreaming, *poetry-making, and the receiving of wretched praise. 1793 W. B. Stevens Jrnl. 11 Mar. (1965) i. 72 Received a College letter, requesting me to support the pretensions of Mr. Hurdies to the *Poetry Professorship which will be vacant in Michaelmas Term next. 1940 R. S. Lambert Ariel & all his Quality v. 127 Few *poetry-readers win its [sc. the audience's] general approbation. 1975 ‘G. Black’ Big Wind for Summer ii. 32 The voice of the British Broadcasting Corporation's top poetry reader. 1917 A. Huxley Let. 11 Dec. (1969) 140 After that to Eliot, whom I found as haggard..as usual; we held a council of war about a *poetry reading, in which both of us are supposed to be performing. 1945 ‘G. Orwell’ in New Saxon Pamphlets iii. 35 That grisly thing, a ‘poetry reading’. 1975 O. Sela Bengali Inheritance xvi. 139 She..organised poetry readings and prescribed reading books. 1966 J. Betjeman High & Low 73 A *poetry recital we are giving to the troops. 1978 J. Symons Blackheath Poisonings i. 34 The Rink Hall in the village, where the poetry recital was to take place. 1976 *Poetry school [see poetry workshop below]. 1846 Thackeray L. Blanchard Wks. 1900 XIII. 477 The young fellow..*poetry-stricken, writing dramatic sketches. 1971 Guardian 28 Dec. 13/5, I hate the *poetry-voice; the poetry should speak for itself. 1972 Country Life 1 June 1418/3 Stevie Smith..was not one for the Poetry Voice. She mixes nonsense and its opposite. 1976 Times 1 Mar. 3/1 Mr Lovibond and his supporters..operate a *poetry school and workshop. 1977 Time Out 28 Jan.-3 Feb. 40/5 Audio-visual poetry workshop last Fri of month. Hence "poetryless a., devoid of poetry. 1854 H. Strickland Trav. Th. 28 A soulless, poetryless, utilitarian, money-making Englishman is bad enough.

lay

Also 3–4 lai, 4–6 laie, 4–7 laye. [a. OF. lai (recorded from the 12th c.) = Pr. lais, lays; of uncertain etymology. The most likely view is that favoured by M. Gaston Paris, that the word is of Teut. origin, an adoption of some form of the word represented by OHG., MHG. leich, play, melody, song. The ON. lag (see law n.1), used in the sense of ‘tune’, would also be phonetically a possible source. Connexion with Teut. *leuþo- (OE. léoð, Ger. lied) is out of the question, as are the Celtic words commonly cited: the Irish laoidh is believed to represent an OCeltic type *lGdi-; the Welsh llais voice, sound, is too remote in meaning, and the assumed Breton equivalent is non-existent.]

1. A short lyric or narrative poem intended to be sung. Originally applied spec. to the poems, usually dealing with matter of history or romantic adventure, which were sung by minstrels. From the 16th to the 18th c. the word was a mere poetical synonym for ‘song’. This use still continues, but lay is now often employed (partly after G. lied, with which it is often erroneously supposed to be etymologically connected) as the appropriate term for a popular historical ballad such as those on which the Homeric poems are by some believed to be founded. Some writers have misapplied it to long poems of epic character like the Nibelungenlied or Beowulf.

a1240 Ureisun in Cott. Hom. 199 Þet ich habbe þe i-sungen ðesne englissce lai. c1320 Sir Tristr. 551 An harpour made alay. c1320 Orpheo 13-16 In Brytayn this layes arne ywrytt..Of aventures that fillen by dayes, Wherof Brytons made her layes. c1386 Chaucer Merch. T. 637 And in a lettre wroot he al his sorwe In manere of a compleynt or a lay. I Frankl. Prol. 2 Thise olde gentil Britons in hir dayes Of diuerse auentures maden layes,.. Whiche layes with hir Instrumentz they songe, Or elles redden hem for hir plesance. a1400-50 Alexander 6 Sum has langing of lufe lays to herken. 1470-85 Malory Arthur x. xxxi, Thenne came Elyas the harper..and told hym the lay that Dynadan had made by Kynge Marke. 1483 Caxton G. de la Tour Aj, I made songes layes Roundels balades. 1592 Davies Immort. Soul ix. iv. (1714) 60 The holy Angels Choir Doth spread his Glory forth with spiritual Lays. 1608 Shakes. Per. v. Prol. 4 Shee sings like one immortall, and shee daunces As Goddesse-like to her admired layes. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. ii. 542 To Bacchus therefore let us tune our Lays. 1714 Gay Trivia i. 21 My Country's Love demands the Lays. 1718 Prior Solomon ii. 80 Each morn they wak'd me with a sprightly lay; Of opening Heaven they sung. a1758 Ramsay Some of the Contents iii, Attackis his freind Dunbar in comick layis. 1805 Scott (title) The Lay of the Last Minstrel. 1827 Keble Chr. Y., Catechism, Why should we think He turns away From infants' simple lays. 1842 Macaulay (title) Lays of Ancient Rome. 1849 I Hist. Eng. iii. I. 418 The popular lays chaunted about the streets of Norwich and Leeds in the time of Charles the Second. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. xlviii, These brief lays, of Sorrow born. 1886 F. B. Jevons in Jrnl. Hellenic Studies VII. 303 The theory of the aggregationists, that the Iliad is an agglomeration of orginally independent lays.

b. poet. Applied to the song of birds. 13.. K. Alis. 5211 Mery time it is in May, The foules syngeth her lay. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. ix. 57 For to leorne the layes that louely foules maden. c1386 Chaucer Sir Thopas 58 The thrustelcok made eek his lay. 1390 Gower Conf. III. 119 Whan every bird upon his lay Among the grene leves singeth. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, i. iii. 93 Madame, my selfe haue..plac't a Quier of such enticing Birds, That she will light to listen to the Layes. 1742 Young Nt. Th. i. 443 Sweet Philomel!.. ev'ry star Is deaf to mine, enamour'd of thy lay. a1788 J. Logan Cuckoo iv, The school-boy..Starts, the new voice of Spring to hear, And imitates thy lay.

†2. Strain, tune. Obs.

a1529 Skelton Agst. Garnesche iv. 6 Your chorlyshe chauntyng ys all o' lay. 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 118 A continuall ianglyng of this Portingall Coockoe chatteryng alwayes one maner of laye in myne eares.

metaphor

Forms: a. 6–7 metaphore, (6 metafor), 6– metaphor. b. 6–7 metaphora. [a. F. métaphore, ad. L. metaphora, a. Gr. lesauoq0, f. lesauŒqeim to transfer, f. lesa- meta-1 + uŒqeim (root ueq- : uoq-) to bear, carry.]

The figure of speech in which a name or descriptive term is transferred to some object different from, but analogous to, that to which it is properly applicable; an instance of this, a metaphorical expression. mixed metaphor: see quot. 1824.

a 1533 Hen. VIII in Wotton Lett. (1654) Suppl. 8 And rather then men would note a lye when they know what is meant, they will sooner by allegory or metaphor draw the word to the truth. 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. 91b, A metaphor is an alteration of a woorde from the proper and naturall meanynge, to that whiche is not proper, and yet agreeth therunto, by some lykenes that appeareth to be in it. 1555 Bonner Homilies 71* Chryste alwayes in hys speakynge dyd vse fygures, metaphores and tropes. 1563 Mirr. for Mag., Collingbourne xxxvii, These metafors I vse with other more. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. v. ix. 247 An horn is the hieroglyphick of authority, power, & dignity, and in this Metaphor is often used in Scripture. 1712 Addison Spect. No 289 38 Those beautiful Metaphors in Scripture, where Life is termed a Pilgrimage. 1821 Lamb Elia Ser. i. Imperf. Sympathies, He stops a metaphor like a suspected person in an enemy's country. ‘A healthy book!’..‘Did I catch rightly what you said?’ 1824 L. Murray Eng. Gram. (ed. 5) I. 493 We should avoid making two inconsistent metaphors meet on one object. This is what is called mixed metaphor. 1841 Trench Parables i. (1877) 9 The allegory stands to the metaphor,..in the same relation that the parable does to the..simile. 1876 Mozley Univ. Serm. xvi. (1877) 265 The metaphor of the poet is perfectly true in fact, for life is a stage. b 1586 A. Day Eng. Secretary ii. (1625) 77 Metaphora, which is, when a word from the proper or right signification is transferred to another neere vnto the meaning. 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. ii. 11. Babylon 369 Better then Greek with her..Fit Epithets, and fine Metaphora's. 1650 Earl of Monmouth tr. Senault's Man bec. Guilty 175 The Metaphora, which is so frequent with them,..is it not an imposture?

b. Comb., as metaphor-making, -monger.

1670 Eachard Cont. Clergy 46 These indiscreet and horrid metaphor-mongers. 1889 Mivart Orig. Hum. Reason 273 This power of metaphor-making.

synecdoche

Also 4–5 syn-, sinodoches, 5 synadochie, 6 sinecdochine, senec(h)doche, 6–7 synechdoche, 7 sinecdoche, synegdoche, synechdochie. Also anglicized 6 sinecdoch. [a. late L. synecdoche (in med.L. sinodoche, whence obs. F. synodoche), a. Gr. rtmejdov–, f. rtmejdŒverhai lit. to take with something else, f. rÊm syn-1 + ŽjdŒverhai to take, take up. Cf. F. synecdoche, -doque, It. sineddoche, Sp. siné(c)doque, Pg. synecdoche. The form sinecdochine represents the acc. synecdochen, rtmejdov–m, and synodoches is a new nom. formed upon it; cf. syncopis, -in, s.v. syncope.]

Gram. and Rhet. A figure by which a more comprehensive term is used for a less comprehensive or vice versâ; as whole for part or part for whole, genus for species or species for genus, etc. Formerly sometimes used loosely or vaguely, and not infrequently misexplained.

1388 Wyclif's Bible, Prol. xii. (1850) 47 Bi a figure clepid synodoches [v.r. synadochie], whanne a part is set for al, either al is set for oo part. 1432-50 tr. Higden (Rolls) IV. 263 Criste was seide to be in the..herte of therthe thre daies and iij. nyŠhtes by a figure callede sinodoches, after Seynte Austyn, sythe Criste reste not in his sepulcre but by xlti howres. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg., Resurr. (1892) 52 Jhesus was in the sepulcre iii dayes & iii nyghtes. But after saynt austyn the first day is taken by synecdoche, that is, that the last part of the day is taken [etc.]. 1548 R. Hutten Sum of Diuinitie Eijb, They imagyne a Sinecdoch to be in thys worde. Ibid. Fviijb, The subtyll cauillacyons, whereby they fayne Sinecdochine. 1551 T. Wilson Logike (1580) 75 Therefore, whereas I saie, the Churche doeth not erre, it is called Synechdoche, that is to saie, when the parte is vsed for the whole [sic]. 1602 Marston Ant. & Mel. v. Wks. 1856 I. 55, I did send for you to drawe me a devise, an Imprezza, by Sinecdoche a Mott. 1612 J. Mason Anat. Sorc. 56 By these two blessings (to wit) the sunne & raine meaning al other earthly benefits whatsoever, by the figure synechdoche. 1638 Chillingw. Relig. Prot. i. v. §94. 295 By a Synecdoche of the whole for the part, he might be said to forsake the Visible Church. 1657 J. Smith Myst. Rhet. 44 Of the Grammarians it is called a Synecdoche, or Comprehension, when a common word or name is restrained to a part which is expressed by the Accusative Case..: as, Æthiops albus dentes, an Ethiopian white in the teeth; here, white agreeing to the teeth only, is attributed to the whole Ethiopian. 1660 Jer. Taylor Worthy Commun. i. iii. 58 It is by a Metonymy and a Sacramental Manner of speaking, yet it is also a synecdoche of the part for the whole. 1718-31 J. Trapp tr. Virg., Eclogues i. 87 note (ed. 2) I. 11 Aristas, by a Metonymy of the Adjunct, for Harvests; and Those by a Synecdoche, for Years. 1872 W. Minto Engl. Prose Lit. Introd. 15 Metaphors, personifications, synecdoches and metonymy in almost every sentence. 1900 R. J. Drummond Apost. Teach. viii, This ordinance was frequently by synecdoche spoken of as the Breaking of Bread.

simile

[L. simile, neut. of similis like. With the form simily (pl. -ies), cf. query for quere, quære.]

1. A comparison of one thing with another, esp. as an ornament in poetry or rhetoric.

a 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xx. 160 By this simile..ich seo an euidence, That ho so synegeþ in þe seynt espirit asoilled worth he neuere. 1589 Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 51 Samela had learnd..to anatomize wit, and speake none but Similes. Ibid. 88 Stufft with prettie Similes and farre fetcht Metaphores. 1602 Marston Ant. & Mel. 1, No simile Is pretious, choyce, or elegant enough. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. i. ix. (1686) 26 Playing much upon the simile or illustrative argumentation. 1712 Addison Spect. No 303 320 Milton..never quits his Simile till it rises to some very great Idea, which [etc.]. 1779 Johnson L.P., Pope, A simile, to be perfect, must both illustrate and ennoble the subject. 1825 Lytton Falkland 8, I could wish..that this simile were in all things correct. 1858 Doran Court Fools 167 Some of his similes are drawn from his profession. 1873 C. M. Davies Unorth. Lond. (ed. 2) 72, That was aptly illustrated by the simile of the infant that can only cry. b 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. ii. i. 45 Did he not moralize this spectacle?.. O yes, into a thousand similies. 1636 Davenant Platonic Lovers Wks. (1673) 390 An excellent Similie for a Painter, That would draw a good face. 1695 J. Edwards Perfect. Script. 386 The same simily is made use of in Terence. 1728 Pope Dunc. i. 64 There motley Images her fancy strike, Figures ill-paired, and Similies unlike. 1759 Sterne Tr. Shandy ii. ii, Even my similies,..my illustrations, my metaphors, are erudite. 1824 Landor Imag. Conv., Delille & Landor, The simily is imperfect, because the fact is untrue. 1846 Wright Ess. Mid. Ages I. i. 13 [In] Anglo-Saxon poetry..Similies..are rare.

b. Without article.

1682 Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm.) Ess. Poetry, They sigh in simile and die in Rhyme. c1700 Prior Dial. Dead, Locke & Montaigne, Simile is the very Algebra of Discourse. 1707 I A Simile 4 'Tis but by way of Simile. 1864 Lowell Fireside Trav. 165 How would he have run him up and down the gamut of simile!

c. Comb., as simile-maker, -monger.

1676 Wycherley Pl. Dealer ii. i, I cou'd not..sit to a vain young Simile-maker, tho' he flatter'd me. 1868 Helps Realmah viii. (1876) 178 That sort of confusion is indulged in by all simile-mongers.

†2. Likeness, resemblance; similarity. Obs.

1604 R. Cawdrey Table Alph., Similie,..likenes, or resemblance. 1613 J. Davies (Heref.) Muses Teares Wks. (Grosart) I. 5/1 The Simile twixt God and Man is such, That God is said to be immortall Man. 1692 Tryon Good Housew. made Doctor xiv. 103 What likeness or correspondence is there between Cloves, Mace,..and..Herbs or Flesh? Verily there is no simile between them.

†b. The likeness of a thing. Obs.-1

1742 Lond. & Country Brew. ii. (ed. 2) 151 Everything delighteth to produce its own Simile. Hence "simile v. trans., to express by a simile.

1727 Philip Quarll 219 Having similed every different Part, he proceeds in the Representation thereof. 1972 G. Jones Kings, Beasts, & Heroes ii. i. 75 We are told the colour of her hair and hands, her flesh and bosom, but she stays cool to view as..a wax doll. A clean doll, admittedly... And one most nobly similied.

meter, metre

Forms: 1 meter, 4 metur, 4-5 metir(e, 5-6 meetre, metyr, 5-8 meeter, 6 myter, mytre, 6-7 miter, 7 metar, 8 meteer, 6-8 (9 U.S.) meter, 4- metre. [OE. meter (? méter) was ad. L. metrum, a. Gr. lŒsqom, f. Indogermanic root *m/- to measure; in the 14th c. the word was adopted afresh from OF. metre (mod.F. mètre); cf. Sp., Pg., It. metro, G. meter.]

1. Any specific form of poetic rhythm, its kind being determined by the character and number of the feet or groups of syllables of which it consists.

a900 tr. Bæda's Hist. v. Concl., Ymenbec misenlice metre [v.r. metere]. Boc epigrammatum eroico metre [v.r. metere]. c1050 Byrhtferth's Handboc in Anglia (1885) VIII. 314 Þæt þæt riht meter vers sceal habban. c1386 Chaucer Man of Law's Prol. 48 Chaucer thogh he kan but lewedly On metres and on rymyng craftily. 1450-1530 Myrr. our Ladye 91 Whyche thre [verses] ar of dyuerse meter from the tother. a1568 R. Ascham Scholem. ii. (Arb.) 144 For the meter sake, some wordes in him [Terence], somtyme, be driuen awrie. 1599 Thynne Animadv. 6 Bothe in matter, myter, and meaninge, yt must needes gather corruptione, passinge throughe so manye handes. 1657 Sparrow Bk. Com. Prayer (1661) 361 They used all decent and grave variety of rhymes and Meeters in their Hymns and Psalms. 1749 Power Pros. Numbers 74 To one or other of which [three Measures] (however various be the Metre) almost all kinds of English Verse may be reduced. 1864 Tennyson Hendecasyllabics 4 All composed in a metre of Catullus. 1874 Symonds Sk. Italy & Greece (1898) I. xii. 250 Poetry employs words in fixed rhythms, which we call metres.

b. In the names of certain forms of verse used in English hymns, as common, long, particular, short metre: see these words. Also, peculiar metre, proper metre (abbreviated P.M.): a metre used only in a particular hymn, or at least not identical with any of the metres having recognized names.

1798 Select. Psalms & Hymns, Hymn vii. Pec. M. Ibid., Hymn x. Prop. M. Ibid., Hymn xxii. Pecul. Metre. Ibid., Hymn xxxvi. P.M.

2. Metrical arrangement or method.

c1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 196 After þe Inglis kynges he [Langtoft] says þer pris þat all in metir fulle wele lys. c1386 Chaucer Monk's Prol. 93 In prose eek been endyted many oon, And eek in metre, in many a sondry wyse. c1450 Holland Howlat 35, I haue mekle matir in metir to gloss Of ane nothir sentence. a1568 R. Ascham Scholem. i. (Arb.) 77, I will recite the very wordes of Homere and also turne them into rude English metre. 1667 Milton P.L. Pref., Rime being..the Invention of a barbarous Age, to set off wretched matter and lame Meeter. 1779-81 Johnson L.P., Milton Wks. II. 174 It is..by the musick of metre that poetry has been discriminated in all languages. 1828 Whately Rhet. in Encycl. Metrop. I. 290 Then arrange this [prose] again into metre. 1858 Marsh Eng. Lang. xxv. 544 Metre may be defined to be a succession of poetical feet arranged in regular order, according to certain types recognized as standards, in verses of a determinate length. 1905 W. H. Cobb (title) A Criticism of Systems of Hebrew Metre.

3. a. Composition ‘in metre’; verse. †b. In particularized sense: A piece of metrical composition; a verse or poem; occas. a metrical version.

1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 489 Þis vers of metre þat es wreten here: Dicentes E. vel A. quot-quot nascuntur ab Eva. c1350 Will. Palerne 5524 ÞouŠh þe metur be nouŠt mad at eche mannes paye. c1385 Chaucer L.G.W. Prol. 562 Here byn twenty thousand mo [ladies] syttyng..Make the metres of theym as the lest. 1423 Jas. I Kingis Q. iv, His metir suete, full of moralitee. 1475 Bk. Noblesse (Roxb.) 21 The vijthe metre of the .v. booke of Boecius. a1533 Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) Iij, To wryte workes, to make metres, to studie antiquitees. 1556 Robinson tr. More's Utop. (1895) p. xciv, A meter of iiii verses in the Utopian tongue. 1577 Hellowes Gueuara's Chron. 31 Traiane..persuaded the Oratours to compounde many meetres to his praise. 1584 Cogan Haven Health (1636) 195 According to that old meeter, Distentus venter vellet dormire libenter. 1631 Weever Anc. Funeral Mon. 140 A certaine Lollard..composed certaine virulent meeters against this and other of the Religious orders. 1662 Playford Skill Mus. i. i. (1674) 5 There is an old Metre..it contains a true Rule of the Theorick part of Musick − , It begins thus, ‘To attain the Skill of Musicks Art Learn Gam-Ut up and down by heart.’ 1679 T. Puller Moder. Ch. Eng. (1843) 43 The english metre of the Psalms. 1794 Blake Songs Exper., Clod & Pebble 8 A pebble of the brook Warbled out these metres meet. a1800 Cowper Ode to Apollo 3 Those luckless brains That..Indite much metre with much pains.

4. A metrical group or ‘measure’; spec. a dipody in iambic, trochaic, and anapæstic rhythms.

1880 W. S. Rockstro in Grove Dict. Mus. II. 317/1 Two feet usually constitute a Metre (or Dipodia). But in Dactylic Verse, each foot is regarded as a complete Metre in itself. 1903 W. R. Hardie Lect. 210 Metres..are ‘lengths’ or ‘sections’ of rhythm, beginning in a certain way, either with 6qri| or hŒri|, and of a fixed length.

5. Gr. Mus. = metric n. rare-0.

1811 Busby Mus. Dict., Metre, that part of the ancient music which consulted the measure of the verses.

6. attrib., as metre ballad, -maker, -making (n. and adj.), -monger; metre psalm, a Bible psalm translated in verse.

1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. i. 130, I had rather be a Kitten, and cry mew, Then one of these same *Meeter Ballad-mongers. 1611 Cotgr., Rimoyeur, a rimer, a *meeter-maker. 1789 T. Twining Aristotle's Treat. Poetry (1812) I. 253 A versifier − a meter-maker. 1841-4 Emerson Ess., Poet Wks (Bohn) I. 157 It is not metres, but a *metre-making argument, that makes a poem. 1880 Swinburne Stud. Shaks. i. (ed. 2) 9 The guidance which can be given by no *metre-monger or colour-grinder. 1655 Sanderson Serm. (1681) II. Pref. 7 Where your *metre-psalms? 1863 J. L. W. By-gone Days 102 Those beautiful Metre Psalms first versified by Francis Rous, an Englishman.

kenning

Now only Sc. and north. dial. (exc. sense 6). [f. ken v.1 + -ing1.]

†1. Teaching, instruction. Obs.

c1320 Sir Beues (MS. A) 644 Þe stedes hom to stable ran Wiþ oute kenning [v.r. techyng] of eni man. c1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 2472 When y blamed my doughter Šyng, & gaf no kepe til hure kennyng. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. x. 194 Þis is catounes kennyng to clerkes þat he lereth.

†2. a. Sign, token. b. Appearance. Obs.

a1300 Cursor M. 18332 (Cott.) Þou+has þe kenening [Gött. taken of] þe rode Raised in erth of ur ranscum. Ibid. 24086 (Cott.) Vnethes i his kenning kneu.

†3. Visual cognition; sight or view: = ken n.1 3. Phrases in, within, beyond, out of kenning. Obs.

c1400 Destr. Troy 2837 Nawther company+hade Kennyng of other, But past to þere purpos. 1577 Holinshed Chron. I. 490 There arriued in their sight a nauie of Shippes, which at the first kenning, they tooke to be french Shippes. 1586 R. Lane in Capt. Smith Virginia i. 5 The passage from thence was thought a broad sound within the maine, being without kenning of land. 1598 Tofte Alba (1880) 34 He is in kenning of his wished Home. 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. i. 102 We had also kenning of another Iland called Lissa. 1630 S. Lennard tr. Charron's Wisd. iii. xxiv. (1670) 491 Again, at a kenning we cannot see of the Earth above ten or twelve leagues. a1697 Strathspey in Aubrey's Misc. (1721) 203 The Lady Gareloch was going somewhere from her House within kenning to the Road which Clunie was coming.

†4. Range of sight: = ken n.1 2. Obs.

1530 Palsgr. 431, I am within syght, as a shyppe is that cometh within the kennyng. 1599 T. M[oufet] Silkwormes 15 Not dreaming that her loue in kenning were. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 61 Without your kenning lyeth Sardinia fast vpon the Africke sea.

†b. The distance that bounds the range of ordinary vision, esp. at sea; hence, a marine measure of about 20 or 21 miles. Cf. ken n.1 1.

a1490 Botoner Itin. (Nasmith 1778) 110 Per distanciam de le narrow see+v kennyngys, et quilibet kennyng continet+21 miliaria. c1500 Melusine 104 He sawe the ship three kennynges ferre on the sea, that is, one & twenty legues ferre. 1538 Leland Itin. III. 19 Scylley is a Kenning, that is to say about a xx Miles from the very Westeste Point of Cornewaulle. 1694 Motteux Rabelais iv. xxii. (1737) 94, I see Land+'tis within a Kenning.

5. Mental cognition; knowledge, cognizance; recognition. Now Sc. and north. dial. †fleshly kenning, carnal knowledge.

c1400 tr. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh. 64 Þy seluyn hadde takyn deed, þurgh þe hete of fleschly kennynge with here. c1440 Promp. Parv. 271/2 Kennynge, or knowynge,+cognicio, agnicio. 17+ in Burns' Wks. (Rtldg.) Life 45, I crept quietly owre the bed, out o' his kennin, and kneeled down beside him. 1828 Craven Dial., Kennin, knowing. ‘Ye're seea feafully waxen, at ye're past kennen.’

b. A recognizable portion; just enough to be perceived; a little. Sc. and north. dial.

1786 Burns Unco Guid vii, Tho' they may gang a kennin wrang, To step aside is human. 1805 J. Nicol Poems I. 187 (Jam.) Gif o' this warl, a kennin mair, Some get than me, I've got content. 1876 Whitby Gloss. s.v., That string's just a kenning thicker than the other. 1893 Stevenson Catriona 103 His father was+a kenning on the wrong side of the law.

6. One of the periphrastic expressions used instead of the simple name of a thing, characteristic of Old Teutonic, and esp. Old Norse, poetry. Examples are oar-steed = ship, storm of swords = battle. The term is adopted from the mediæval Icelandic treatises on poetics, and is derived from the idiomatic use of kenna við or til, ‘to name after’.

1883 Vigfusson & Powell Corpus Poet. Bor. II. 448 The extreme development of the ‘kenning’ in Northern Poetry. 1889 Cook Judith Introd. 59 A characteristic ornament of Old English, as well as of early Teutonic poetry in general, are the kennings. 1896 Scott. Rev. Oct. 342 note, The kennings for ‘man’ in Gröndal's Clavis Poetica extend to 33 closely printed columns.

7. Comb., as †kenning-glass, a spy-glass, small telescope; †kenning-place, a place prominently in sight.

1603 Reg. Stationers' Co. 15 June (Arb.) III. 238 A Booke Called A Kennyng glass for a Christian Kinge. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 606 It standeth forth as a Kenning place to the view of eyes.

orthography

Forms: 5–7 orto-, 6– ortho-, 5–6 -grafy(e, 6 -graphye, 6–7 -graphie, 6– -graphy, (7 ortagriphie, authography). [a. OF. ortografie (13th c.), later ortographie, mod.F. orthographie (16th c. in Littré), ad. L. orthographia (Suet.), a. Gr. Àqhocqau¬a, n. of quality f. Àqhocq0u-o| writing correctly, a correct writer, orthographer, f. Àqh¾-| + -cq0uo| that writes, writer: see -graphy. The earlier pronunciation, as in Fr., is shown by the spelling orto-.]

1. a. Correct or proper spelling; spelling according to accepted usage; the way in which words are conventionally written. (By extension) Any mode or system of spelling.

c1450 Cov. Myst. xx. (Shaks. Soc.) 189 Loke what scyens Še kan devyse, Of redynge, wrytynge, and trewe ortografye. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. v. (Percy Soc.) 22 In all good ordre to speke directly, And for to wryte by true ortografy. 1530 Palsgr. Introd. 16 For kepyng of trewe orthographie. 1573 J. Tyrie in Cath. Tract. (S.T.S.) 11/2 We keip his awin wordis and orthographie. 1582 Stanyhurst Æneis Pref. (Arb.) 13 Althogh thee ignorant pronounce Impératiue, Cosmógraphie, Ortógraphy, geeuing the accent too thee therd syllable, yeet that is not thee true English pronuntiation. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. v. i. 22 Such rackers of ortagriphie, as to speake dout sine [B], when he should say doubt. 1631 Weever Anc. Fun. Mon. 803 In our later English Ortography (I know not with reason) some write it Whore. 1645 Milton Colast. Wks. (1851) 346 If these Greek Orthographies were of his licencing; the boyes at School might reck'n with him at his Grammar. 1750 Chesterfield Lett. (1774) III. 80, I come now to+the orthography, if I may call bad spelling orthography. 1824 J. Johnson Typogr. I. 540 The singular orthography used in the foregoing legend. 1873 Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue (ed. 2) §187 When we use the word ‘orthography’, we do not mean a mode of spelling which is true to the pronunciation, but one which is conventionally correct.

b. That part of grammar which treats of the nature and values of letters and of their combination to express sounds and words; the subject of spelling.

1588 W. Kempe Educ. Children sig. F 3v Orthographie+teacheth with what letters euery syllable and word must be written, and with what points the sentence and parts thereof must be distinguished.+ Which expressing and skill of the hand, belongeth properly to the Arte of Painting, and not vnto Grammar. 1616 Bullokar Eng. Expos., Orthographie, the art of writing words truely; as sonne of man, with an o: sunne that shineth, with the vowell v. a1619 M. Fotherby Atheom. ii. xiii. §1 (1622) 348 Orthographie, the second part of Grammer, teaching the Arte of writing. 1824 L. Murray Eng. Gram. (ed. 5) I. 26 Orthography teaches the nature and powers of letters, and the just method of spelling words.

¶c. app. an error of some kind for orthographer.

1599 Shakes. Much Ado ii. iii. 21 Now is he turn'd orthography [Qo. ortography] his words are a very fantasticall banquet, iust so many strange dishes [Rowe (1714) read orthographer; Capell (1767) conjectured orthographist].

2. a. Orthographic projection. b. A representation in orthographic projection or section; a vertical elevation.

1645 N. Stone Enchirid. Fortification 6 Orthographie or Profile. 1664 Evelyn Architects & Architect. (R.), Orthography, or the erect elevation of the same in face or front, describ'd in measure upon the former idea, where all the horizontal lines are parallels. 1683 Lond. Gaz. No. 1820/4 Mr. John Spilberg has finished the Banqueting-house in Whitehal in Ortography, for the sole Printing and Publishing whereof,+His Majesty has been pleased to grant him his Royal License. 1772 C. Hutton Bridges 95 Orthography, the elevation+or front view as seen at an infinite distance. 1823 P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 589 Orthography, an elevation, showing all the parts of a building in true proportion.

syntax

Also 7 syntaxe. [ad. F. syntaxe, †sintaxe, ad. late L. syntaxis, a. Gr. rÊmsani| syntaxis.]

1. a. Orderly or systematic arrangement of parts or elements; constitution (of body); a connected order or system of things.

1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. xix. §1. 69b, Concerning the Syntax and disposition of studies, that men may know in what order or pursuite to reade. 1661 Glanvill Van. Dogm. xii. 116 They owe no other dependence to the first, then what is common to the whole Syntax of beings. a1676 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. ii. iv. (1677) 157 Perchance+no Man had ever the same Syntax of Phantasie or Imagination that he had. 1696 Edwards Demonstr. Exist. God ii. 124 This single [argument] from the fabrick and syntax of man's body is sufficient to evince the truth of a Deity. 1959 J. D. Evans Malta ii. 67 The decoration [of certain pottery]+derives its general syntax fairly exactly and its patterns in a more general way from the repertoire of the preceding phases. 1965 Listener 9 Dec. 965/2 We have to work to reconcile the shiny shoe with the flat red floor or with the absurd loopy shapes of the legs, or the crushed, pulpy mask of the head. For not only is the syntax of the paint disconnected and inconsistent, but the degree of distortion is too. 1967 G. Steiner Lang. & Silence 380 A young East German might come to be more at home, in the syntax of his politics and feelings, in Peking or Albania than in Cologne.

†b. Physical connexion, junction. Obs.

1615 Crooke Body of Man 595 Their articulation doth not differ from the Syntax or coniunction of other parts.

†c. Connexion, congruity, agreement. Obs.

1656 S. Holland Zara (1719) 123 What Syntax is there betwixt a Helmet and a Cap of Maintenance? 1675 R. Burthogge Causa Dei p. vi, I might display the Syntax, Harmony, Connexion, Concinnity of the Notions I employ.

d. That branch of mathematics which deals with the various arrangements of a number of things, as permutations, combinations, and the like.

1861 Sylvester Coll. Math. Papers (1908) II. 269 The theory of groups+, standing in the closest relation to the doctrine of combinatorial aggregation, or what for shortness may be termed syntax.

2. Gram., etc. a. The arrangement of words (in their appropriate forms) by which their connexion and relation in a sentence are shown. Also, the constructional uses of a word or form or a class of words or forms, or those characteristic of a particular author. b. The department of grammar which deals with the established usages of grammatical construction and the rules deduced therefrom: distinguished from accidence, which deals with the inflexional forms of words as such.

1613 R. Cawdrey Table Alph. (ed. 3), Syntaxe, construction and order of words. 1636 B. Jonson Eng. Gram. ii. i, Syntaxe is the second part of Grammar, that teacheth the Construction of words. Ibid. ii. ii, The Syntaxe of a Noune, with a Noune, is in number, and gender. Ibid. v, The Syntaxe of a Verb with a Noune is in number, and person. 1697 Bentley Phal. (1699) 407 Neither Sense nor Syntax would allow of that Signification. a1700 Evelyn Diary 27 Jan. 1658, He+could make congruous syntax, turne English into Latine, and vice versa. 1711 Greenwood Eng. Gram. 29 The Syntax, or Construction of the Noun, is chiefly perform'd by the Help of certain Words call'd Prepositions. 1755 Johnson Dict., Gram. a, Grammar, which is the art of using words properly, comprises four parts; Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, and Prosody. 1824 L. Murray Engl. Gram. (ed. 5) I. 217 The English adjective, having but a very limited syntax. 1861 Paley Æschylus, Prometh. (ed. 2) 38 note, <Oasperacu>sot+being used as if the syntax were de´nai Íu\ Åsot, rather than de´nai s¿ boÊketla Íu\ o× j.s.k. 1885 Grosart Nashe's Wks. VI. p. ix, He writes+with uncultured flabbiness, and with irritating syntax.

c. Name of a class in certain English Roman Catholic schools and colleges, next below that called poetry (see poetry 6).

1629 Wadsworth Pilgr. iii. 13 Father Lacy, the Reader of Poetry, and Master of the Syntax. 1655 in Foley Rec. Eng. Prov. S. J. (1878) III. 434, I went to the College of St. Omer, where I made one year's syntax. 1679 [see poetry 6]. 1713 in B. Ward Hist. St. Edmund's College (1893) iv. 58 What we call the Accidence they call Figures, which they divide into two years, one for the lower, the second for the higher, the third for grammar, the fourth for Syntax. 1897 W. Ward Life Cdl. Wiseman (ed. 2) I. i. 8 Dr. Newsham+was Wiseman's Professor [at Ushaw] in Syntax (in 1815), and again in Rhetoric.

d. transf. in Logic. The order and arrangement of the words or symbols forming a logical sentence; the rules operating in formal systems. (See quots.)

1922 tr. Wittgenstein's Tractatus 59 The rules of logical syntax must follow of themselves, if we only know how every single sign signifies. 1937 A. Smeaton tr. Carnap's Logical Syntax of Lang. 1 By the logical syntax of a language, we mean the formal theory of the linguistic forms of that language—the systematic statement of the formal rules which govern it together with the development of the consequences which follow from these rules. Ibid. 2 Thus we are justified in designating as ‘logical syntax’ the system which comprises the rules of formation and transformation. 1937, etc. [see metalogic]. 1940 W. V. Quine Math. Logic. vii. 286 Discourse which is ‘formal’ in this sense, and hence translatable into the notation just now described, is called metamathematics, formal syntax, or briefly syntax. 1955 A. N. Prior Formal Logic iii. 70 But as it happens—this can be shown from outside the system— no set of axioms and rules for a system containing its own syntax ever is ‘complete’. 1979 J. A. Robinson Logic: Form & Function ii. 8 The predicate calculus has a simple, systematic basic syntax, whose principal feature is the characterization of the class of expressions that are its formulas.

e. Computing. In extended use (from sense 2a) with reference to programming languages.

1958 Communications Assoc. Computing Machinery Dec. 11 In the sequel explicit rules—and associated interpretations—will be given describing the syntax of the language. 1980 P. Cress et al. Structured Fortran with WATFIV-S i. 8 WATFIV-S not only compiles the FORTRAN program, but detects errors in syntax while doing so. 1981 R. D. Tennent Princ. Programming Languages ii. 25 An abstract syntax tells us what syntactic structures are available in a language, but does not specify which strings of characters are well-formed program texts, nor their phrase structures.

3. attrib. and Comb., as syntax diagram, table; syntax-directed adj.; syntax language, the language used to refer to the syntactical forms of an object language; a metalanguage.

1980 L. V. Atkinson Pascal Programming i. 10 The syntax of a programming language can be conveniently illustrated by ‘syntax diagrams’. 1961 Communications Assoc. Computing Machinery IV. 51 (heading) A syntax directed compiler for Algol 60. 1972 J. J. Donovan Systems Programming vii. 228 A syntax-directed compiler uses a data base containing the syntactical rules of a source language to parse+the source-language input. 1935 Syntax language [see object language 1]. 1956 A. Church Introd. Math. Logic 58 The meta-language used in order to study the logistic system+is called the syntax language. 1961 Communications Assoc. Computing Machinery IV. 55/1 The descriptions are added to the syntax tables used for the second phase, which invokes diagram to output the assembly language program.

pagan

Forms: 4 paygane, 5 pagayne, 5–6 pagane, 5– pagan. [ad. L. pQgQn-us, orig. ‘villager, rustic; civilian, non-militant’, opposed to mWlUs ‘soldier, one of the army’, in Christian L. (Tertullian, Augustine) ‘heathen’ as opposed to Christian or Jewish. The Christians called themselves mWlitUs ‘enrolled soldiers’ of Christ, members of his militant church, and applied to non-Christians the term applied by soldiers to all who were ‘not enrolled in the army’. Cf. Tertullian De Corona Militis xi, ‘Apud hunc [Christum] tam miles est paganus fidelis quam paganus est miles infidelis’. See also Gibbon xxi. note.

Cf. payen. The explanation of L. pQgQnus in the sense ‘non-Christian, heathen’, as arising out of that of ‘villager, rustic’, (supposedly indicating the fact that the ancient idolatry lingered on in the rural villages and hamlets after Christianity had been generally accepted in the towns and cities of the Roman Empire: see Trench Study of Words 102, and cf. Orosius i Præf. ‘Ex locorum agrestium compitis et pagis pagani vocantur’) has been shown to be chronologically and historically untenable, for this use of the word goes back to Tertullian c 202, when paganism was still the public and dominant religion, and even appears, according to Lanciani, in an epitaph of the 2nd cent.] A. n. 1. One of a nation or community which does not hold the true religion, or does not worship the true God; a heathen. (†In earlier use practically = non-Christian, and so including Muslims and, sometimes, Jews.)

c1375 Sc. Leg. Saints viii. (Philepus) 6 Payganis, þat war dwelland þare. 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) II. 281 The goddes, that paganes do worshippe, were men some tyme. 1456 Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 8 The hard hertis, and untrewe treuth of the pagans. 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, iv. i. 95 Streaming the Ensigne of the Christian Crosse, Against black Pagans, Turkes, and Saracens. 1596 I Merch. V. ii. iii. 11 Adue,+most beautifull Pagan, most sweete Iew. 1727 De Foe Syst. Magic i. iii. (1840) 69 The emperor Julian+was perverted from Christianity, and confirmed a pagan, by Maximus a Magician. 1805 Southey Metr. T., Yng. Dragon i. i, Pithyrian was a Pagan, An easy-hearted man, And Pagan sure he thought to end As Pagan he began. 1846 Wright Ess. Mid. Ages I. iii. 99 The later Saxons, after the crusade, used the word ‘Saracen’ in the sense of ‘pagan’, and+applied it to the pagans of the north.

2. fig. or allusively. A person of heathenish character or habits, or one who holds a position analogous to that of a heathen in relation to Christian society.

1841 Emerson Lect., Man Reformer Wks. (Bohn) II. 247 Love would put a new face on this weary old world in which we dwell as pagans and enemies too long. 1877 Black Green Past. xv. (1878) 122 ‘But what are his politics?’ said the Lady Sylvia to this political pagan. 1879 I Macleod of D. xv, That bloodless old Pagan, her father.

†b. spec. A paramour, prostitute. Obs.

1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV ii. ii. 168 What Pagan may that be? 1632 Massinger City Madam ii. i, In all these places I have had my several pagans billeted For my own tooth.

3. Comb., as pagan-like adj.

1608 H. Clapham Errour Left Hand 34 The formes of them be Pagan-like. 1668 H. More Div. Dial. iv. xxxv. (1713) 387 A wicked Apostacy into Pagan-like Superstitions.

B. adj. 1. a. Not belonging to a nation or community that acknowledges the true God; worshipping idols; heathen.

c1586 C'tess Pembroke Ps. xliv. i, Thy hand the Pagan foe Rooting hence,+Leaveless made that braunch to growe. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 200 The women here [Sumatra] (not differing from all other parts of the Pagan World) are much vnchast. 1765 Blackstone Comm. I. 93 The antient and christian inhabitants+retired to those natural intrenchments, for protection from their pagan visitants. 1865 M. Arnold Ess. Crit. vi. 201 The ideal, cheerful, sensuous, pagan life. 1894 J. T. Fowler Adamnan Introd. 39 The first Christian architecture was+a continuation of the pagan work.

b. Nature-worshipping, pantheistic.

1908 E. F. Benson Climber vi. 107 She had read the account of the projected fair to them all two days before; it was a sort of pagan harvest festival, full of folk-lore, and was tremendously picturesque. 1953 L. Wilkinson Seven Friends 115 In all three brothers humour is rich and deep, as is love of Nature: but Llewelyn, more than John, much more than Theodore, found joy—a Pagan joy—in all his sensibilities and responses. 1973 R. Williams Country & City xxii. 270 The spiritual feeling for the land and for labour, the ‘pagan’ emphasis which is always latent in the imagery of the earth. 1987 Church Times 6 Nov. 12/4 Water—pond, river, or well—has a deep pagan appeal.

2. fig. Of heathen character, heathenish.

1550 W. Lynne Carion's Cron. 279 To the pagane Papistes, arrogant Anabaptistes, licenciouse lybertines. 1606 Chapman Monsieur D'Olive Plays 1873 I. 215 Said t'was a pagan plant, a prophane weede And a most sinful smoke [i.e. tobacco]. a1704 T. Brown Sat. Marriage Wks. 1730 I. 58 This pagan confinement+Suits no order, nor age, nor degree.

heathen

Forms: 1 h<aeacu>ðen, h<aeacu>þen, héðen, 2–3 hæðen, heðen, 2–5 heþen, 2–6 hethen (3 heaðen, heaþen, eþen, 3–4 haþen, hethene, 4 heiþen, -in, heyþen, heŠthen, haiþen, -in, heþyn, -in, heden, -in, 4–5 haythen, 5 heþun, -on(e, -ynne, 6 Coverd. heithen), 6– heathen. [OE. h<aeacu>ðen = OFris. hêthin, -en, OS. hêðin (MDu., Du. heiden), OHG. heidan (MHG. heiden, Ger. heide), ON. heiðinn (Sw., Da. heden); cf. Goth. haiþnô Gentile or heathen woman.

As this word is used in all the Germanic langs. in the sense ‘non-Christian, pagan’, which could only have arisen after the introduction of Christianity, it is thought probable that, like some other terms of Christian origin (e.g. church), it was first used in Gothic, and thence passed to the other tribes. This is supported by the use by Ulfilas, in Mark vii. 26, of the fem. form haiþnô (Vulg. mulier gentilis, all OE. versions h<aeacu>ðen). The word has generally been assumed to be a direct derivative of Gothic haiþi, heath, as if ‘dweller on the heath’, taken as a kind of loose rendering of L. pQgQnus (orig. ‘villager, rustic’, later, after Christianity became the religion of the towns, while the ancient deities were still retained in rural districts, ‘pagan, heathen’). But in this there are difficulties chronological and etymological, esp. in reference to the form and use of the suffix; and Prof. S. Bugge (Indog. Forsch. V. 178) includes this among several words which point to Armenian influence on the language of Ulfilas; he takes haiþnô as indicating a masc. haiþans, which he refers to Armenian het<anos ‘heathen’, ad. Gr. “hmo| ‘nation’, pl. ‘nations, Gentiles, heathens’. This would explain the OHG. form heidan, while in OE., etc., the suffix was, as in cristen, levelled under the ordinary -in, -en, from -în. But even so, the stem-vowel has prob. to be explained by assimilation to haiþi heath.] A. adj. 1. Applied to persons or races whose religion is neither Christian, Jewish, nor Muslim; pagan; Gentile. In earlier times applied also to Muslims; but in modern usage, for the most part, restricted to those holding polytheistic beliefs, esp. when uncivilized or uncultured.

971 Blickl. Hom. 15 He bið ¼eseald hæþnum mannum. c1000 Ælfric Hom. I. 206 Se ¼etigeda assa and his fola ¼etacniað twa folc, þæt is Iudeisc and hæðen. 1154 O.E. Chron. an. 1137 Næure hethen men werse ne diden þan hi. a1200 Moral Ode 295 in Trin. Coll. Hom. 229 Þar beð þe haðene men þe waren laŠe-lease. c1200 Ormin 7286 Þatt hæþenn follc, Kalldisskenn follc, Wass warr off Cristess come. 1297 R. Glouc. (1724) 397 Wyllam+an eþene kyng com to. c1300 Cursor M. 19740 (Edin.) Baþe to haiþin [v.rr. heþen, heþin, heiþen] folc and iues. 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 5508 Haythen men+Þat never baptem ne right trouthe tuke. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xv. 450 A barne+Til it be crystened in crystes name and confermed of þe bisshop, It is hethene as to heueneward+Hethene is to mene after heth and vntiled erthe. ?a1400 Arthur 435 Lat not þe heþone Men Destroye þe puple crystien. 1563 W. Fulke Meteors (1640) 13 Helena was of the Heathen men taken as a Goddesse, the daughter of Jupiter and Leda. 1627 Sanderson Serm. I. 263 Abimelech, an heathen-man, who had not the knowledge of the true God of heaven to direct him. 1708 Swift Remarks Wks. 1883 VIII. 142 Made familiar to such practices by the heathen priests. 1825 Scott Talism. vi, I did the heathen Soldan injustice. 1870 B. Harte Heathen Chinee 17 He went for that heathen Chinee.

2. Of things: Pertaining to such persons or races, or to their religion and customs.

826 Charter of Ecgberht in Cod. Dipl. V. 83 Andlang dic to ðem heðenum biri¼elsum. c1000 Ælfric Hom. I. 98 On hæðenum da¼um. a1225 Leg. Kath. 53 Þe temple+of hise heaðene godes. 13+ Sir Beues (A.) 547 Me Šhe solde in to heþenlonde. a1400–50 Alexander 5673 Out of haythen Spayn. 1485 Caxton Malory's Arthur Pref. 2 In al places crysten and hethen. 1662 Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. i. ii. §1 Having already shewed a generall defect in the ancient Heathen Histories. 1708 Swift Remarks Wks. 1883 VIII. 118 The same authority+may abolish Christianity, and set up the Jewish, Mahometan, and heathen religion. 1722 Wollaston Relig. Nat. ix. 208 Even the Heathen world believed that the souls of men survived their bodies. 1879 Farrar St. Paul (1883) 3 The victorious enemy of heathen philosophy and heathen worship had passed his boyhood amid the heathen surroundings of a philosophic city.

3. transf. Religiously or otherwise on a level with heathens.

1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Race Wks. (Bohn) II. 22 A country of extremes—dukes and chartists, Bishops of Durham and naked heathen colliers.

B. n. (or adj. used subst.) 1. One who holds a religious belief which is neither Christian, Jewish, nor Muslim; a pagan.

c1000 Ags. Gosp. Mark vii. 26 Soðlice þæt wif wæs hæðen sirofenisces cynnes. 13+ Coer de L. 6297 He+slowgh ther many a hethene. 1682 Evelyn Diary 24 Jan., The Russian Ambassador+behav'd himselfe like a clowne, compared to this civil heathen. 1720 Watts Div. Songs vi, That I was born of Christian race, And not a Heathan or a Jew. 1727 Swift Gulliver iii. i, I was sorry to find more mercy in an heathen than in a brother Christian. 1873 Edith Thompson Hist. Eng. iii. §1 Though himself a heathen, he [Æthelbert] had agreed to allow his wife, as being a Christian, free exercise of her religion.

b. The adj. plural, the heathen (cf. the faithful), is now collective; in O.T. = the Gentiles, or people who did not worship Jehovah, the God of the Jews.

c1000 Ælfric Saints'' Lives (E.E.T.S.) II. 322 Þa hæþenan swa dydon. a1131 OE. Chron. an. 1128 Betwenen ða cristene and þa heðene. c1200 Vices & Virtues (1888) 51 And beuall þo haðene mid his leðre meneŠinges. c1340 Cursor M. 21254 (Fairf.) Þen come þe heiþen wiþ mikel wrange Þat cristen men to pine was prest. 1535 Coverdale Ps. lxxviii[i]. 1 O God, ye Heithen are fallen in to thine heretage. I 2 Esdras ii. 7 Scatred abrode amonge the Heithen. 1671 Milton Samson 1430 And spread his name Great among the Heathen round. 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xxviii, It would certainly be a greater self-denial to receive heathen among us than to send missionaries to them.

c. The n. plural, heathens, is mostly individual.

1630 Prynne Anti-Armin. 135 Heathens+want the true knowledge of God. 1736 Wesley Wks. (1872) I. 25 My brother and I+went to pay our first visit in America to the poor Heathens. 1845 R. Jebb in Encycl. Metrop. II. 692/1 Among the speculations of the more enlightened heathens we find the love of mankind at large highly commended. 1857 Maurice Ep. St. John iii. 38 Showing you how both Heathens and Jews were taught.

2. transf. One that has no more religion, enlightenment, or culture than a pagan.

1818 Scott Rob Roy xv, Puir frightened heathens that they are. 1870 Dickens E. Drood viii, My ideas of civility were formed among Heathens.

3. Applied humorously to persons belonging to places bearing the name ‘Heath’, as Blackheath.

1891 Pall Mall G. 16 Nov. 1/2 Blackheath crossed over with a goal to love+The Oxonians+got two goals, while the Heathens were unable to score. 1894 Westm. Gaz. 15 Jan. 6/2 Blackheath v. London Scottish+a victory for the Heathens.

C. Comb., as heathen-minded adj.; heathen-like adj. and adv.

1565 Jewel Def. Apol. (1611) 21 Thus prophanelie and Heathen-like he writeth. 1889 R. B. Anderson tr. Rydberg's Teut. Mythol. 104 Heathen-heroic songs. 1895 Dublin Rev. Oct. 318 A society of heathen-minded Humanists.

elegiac

Also 6 eligiack. [ad. L. elegWac-us, ad. Gr. Žkeceiaj¾|, f. Žkece´om elegy.]

A. adj. 1. Prosody. Appropriate to elegies. spec. Usually applied to the metre so called in Greek and Latin, which consists of a (dactylic) hexameter and pentameter, forming the elegiac distich. Sometimes the term elegiac verse has been applied to the pentameter of the couplet separately.

1586 Webbe Eng. Poetrie (Arb.) 86 The most vsuall kindes [of verse] are foure, the Heroic, Elegiac, Iambick, and Lyric. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1246 A chronicler penning the historie of these affaires in elegiack verses. 1741 Watts Improv. Mind (1801) 62 He has turned the same psalms+into elegiac verse. 1779 Johnson L.P., Hammond Wks. III. 240 Why Hammond or other writers have thought the quatrain of ten syllables elegiac, it is difficult to tell. 1846 Grote Greece (1862) I. xx. 503 The iambic and elegiac metres+do not reach up to the year 700 b.c. 1873 Symonds Grk. Poets i. 15 The pathetic melody of the Elegiac metre.

2. Of the nature of an elegy; pertaining to elegies; hence, mournful, melancholy, plaintive; also (rarely) of a person, melancholy, pensive.

1644 Bulwer Chiron. 20 An ingenious friend+in his Elegiack knell. 1720 Gay Poems (1745) II. 18 He+Might sweetly mourn in Elegiac verse. 1752 Gray Wks. (1825) II. 169 Mr. Lyttleton is a gentle elegiac person. c1800 K. White Rem. (1837) 383 Its elegiac delicacy and querimonious plaintiveness. 1808 Scott Marm. iii. Introd., Hast thou no elegiac verse For Brunswick's venerable hearse? 1856 Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh i. 994 Elegiac griefs, and songs of love.

3. elegiac poet: one who writes a. in elegiac metre; b. in a mournful or pensive strain.

1581 Sidney Def. Poesie (Arb.) 28 The most notable [denominations of poets] bee the Heroicke, Tragicke+Iambic, Elegiacke. Some of these being termed+by the sortes of verses they liked best to write in. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. xi. (Arb.) 40. 1855 H. Reed Lect. Eng. Lit. x. (1878) 319 It is the theme of the elegiac poet, to show the virtues of sorrow. 1888 Spectator 30 June 875/2 Matthew Arnold+the greatest elegiac poet of our generation.

B. n. †a. An elegiac poet (obs.). b. pl. Elegiac verses (sense A. 1).

1581 Sidney Def. Poesie (1622) 515 The lamenting Elegiacke+who bewayleth+the weakenesse of mankinde. 1774 T. Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry (1840) II. 508 His Latin elegiacs are pure. 1886 F. H. Doyle Reminiscences 30, I soon acquired ease+in rattling over my elegiacs.

Hence as combining form ele"giaco-.

1832 Carlyle in Fraser's Mag. V. 255 We named Rousseau's Confessions an elegiaco-didactic Poem.

allegory

Forms: 4–7 allegorie, 5–6 allegorye, 6– allegory. [ad. L. allUgoria, a. Gr. 2kkgcoq¬a, lit. speaking otherwise than one seems to speak, f. 4kko| other + -4coq¬a speaking; cf. 2coqeÊx to speak, orig. to harangue, f. 2coq0 the public assembly. Cf. Fr. allégorie, perh. the direct source of the Eng. The L. allegoria was occas. used unchanged in 16th c.]

1. Description of a subject under the guise of some other subject of aptly suggestive resemblance.

1382 Wyclif Gal. iv. 24 The whiche thingis ben seid by allegorie, or goostly vndirstondinge [Vulg. per allegoriam]. 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 66 The sayd Platon dide teche his sapyence by allegorye. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie (1869) 196 Properly and in his principall vertue Allegoria is when we do speake in sence translatiue and wrested from the owne signification, neuerthelesse applied to another not altogether contrary, but hauing much conueniencie with it. 1712 Parnell Spect. No. 501 31 Some of the finest compositions among the ancients are in allegory. 1840 Carlyle Heroes (1858) 207 Allegory and Poetic Delineation, as I said above, cannot be religious Faith.

b. attrib.

1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 1557, 415/1 These heretikes nowe not onely rob the churche in an allegorye sense. I Answ. Frith 835/1 The wordes of Chryste might beside the lyttarall sence bee vnderstanden in an allegorye.

2. An instance of such description; a figurative sentence, discourse, or narrative, in which properties and circumstances attributed to the apparent subject really refer to the subject they are meant to suggest; an extended or continued metaphor.

1534 More On the Passion Wks. 1557, 1340/1 It might be taken for an allegory or some other trope or figure. 1577 T. Vautrollier tr. Luther's Ep. Gal. 149 The allegorie of the two sonnes of Abraham, Isaacke and Ismael. 1611 Bible Gal. iv. 24 Which things are an Allegorie. 1751 Johnson Rambl. No. 176 311 They discover in every passage+some artful allegory. 1846 T. Wright Mid. Ages II. xix. 257 The spirited and extremely popular political allegory of the ‘Vision of Piers Ploughman.’

3. An allegorical representation; an emblem.

a1639 W. Whately Protot. i. xi. (1640) 154 These two mothers and the children borne of them were allegories, that is, figures of some other thing mystically signified by them. 1769 Burke State Nat. Wks. II. 134 Procrustes+with his iron bed, the allegory of his government. 1882 Mrs. Pitman Mission Life in Greece 30 That Hercules is only an allegory of the sun.

tragedy

Forms: 4–6 tragedye, (4–5 tregeedie, tregedie), 4–7 tragedie, 5 -idie, (trajedi), 5–6 tragedi, -ide, 6 tragœdie, (trigide, -idy), 5– tragedy. [ME. a. OF. tregedie, tragedie (14th c. in Godef.), ad. L. tragœdia, a. Gr. sqac{d¬a, app. goat-song, f. sq0co| goat + íd– ode, song.

As to the reason of the name many theories have been offered, some even disputing the connexion with ‘goat’. See L. H. Gray in Classical Quarterly VI. 60, and references there given.] 1. A play or other literary work of a serious or sorrowful character, with a fatal or disastrous conclusion: opp. to comedy1 1. †a. In mediæval use: A tale or narrative poem of this character.

c1374 Chaucer Boeth. ii. pr. ii. 23 (Camb. MS.) The cryenges of tragedyes.+ Tragedye is to seyn, a dite of a prosperite for a tyme þat endith in wrecchydnesse. c1374 I Troylus v. 1786 Go litel booke goo litell my tregeedie. c1386 I Monk's Prol. 83 (Corpus) Or elles tregedys [v.rr. -ies, -ise] first wol I telle. c1430 Lydg. Misericordias 65 At funeral feestys men synge tragedies With wooful ditees of lamentacioun. 1531 Elyot Gov. i. x, Than shall he, in redyng tragoedies, execrate and abhorre the intollerable life of tyrantes. 1593 Churchyard (title) The Earle of Mvrtons Tragedie.

b. Applied to ancient Greek and Latin works: the original (Dorian) being lyric songs, the later (Attic and Latin) dramatic pieces.

c1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 25 The tragidés divers and unkouth Of morall Senec. 1484 Caxton Curiall 11 As seyth Seneke in hys tragedyes, Age cometh to late to peple of smale howses. 1546 Langley Pol. Verg. De Invent. i. ix. 17b, As the Alters were kindled with fyre, and the Goate layed on it, the Quire in honor of Bacchus, songe this Meter called a Tragedie. 1579 Lodge Def. Poetry (Shaks. Soc.) 24 Tragedies and Comedies+wer inuented+to no other purpose, but to yeelde prayse unto God for a happy haruest, or plentiful yeere. a1637 B. Jonson Horace's Art of Poetry 312 Thespis is said to be the first found out The tragedy, and carried it about, Till then unknown, in carts, wherein did ride Those that did sing, and act. 1789 T. Twining Aristotle's Treat. Poetry ii. §12. 88 Now, the subjects of the best Tragedies are confined to a few families—to Alcmæon, Oedipus,+and others, the sufferers, or the authors, of some terrible calamity. 1873 Symonds Grk. Poets ix. 277 His Chorus were attired like Satyrs in goat~skins, to represent the woodland comrades of the god: hence came the name of Tragedy or Goat-song.

c. Applied to a modern stage-play.

1538 Bale Thre Lawes 1465 Companyons I want to begynne thys tragedye. 1597 Shakes. (title) An excellent conceited Tragedie of Romeo and Iuliet. 1611 I (title) The Tragedie of Cymbeline. 1641 Milton Ch. Govt. ii. Pref., Wks. 1851 III. 146 The Apocalyps of Saint Iohn is the majestick image of a high and stately Tragedy,+intermingling her solemn Scenes and Acts with a sevenfold Chorus of halleluja's and harping symphonies. 1703 Farquhar Inconstant iv. iii, Cry then, handsomely; cry like a queen in a tragedy. 1775 Harris Philos. Arrangem. Wks. (1841) 316 This excellent tragedy [Macbeth]+is not only admirable as a poem, but is perhaps+one of the most moral pieces existing. 1838–9 Hallam Hist. Lit. III. iii. vi. §90. 339 Five of his sixteen plays are tragedies, that is, are concluded in death.

2. That branch of dramatic art which treats of sorrowful or terrible events, in a serious and dignified style: opp. to comedy1 2. (Sometimes personified.)

1412–20 Lydg. Chron. Troy ii. 852 Tragidie, who so list to knowe, It begynneth in prosperite, And endeth euer in aduersite; And it also doth þe conquest trete Of riche kynges and of lordys grete. 1508 Dunbar Lament for Makaris 59 [Death] That scorpioun fell hes done infek Maister Iohne Clerk, and James Afflek, Fra balat making & trigide. 1598 Meres Palladis Tamia 282 Plautus and Seneca are accounted the best for Comedy and Tragedy among the Latines. 1632 Milton Penseroso 97 Som time let Gorgeous Tragedy In Scepter'd Pall com sweeping by. 1757 W. Wilkie Epigon. Pref. 5 In Epic poetry, Tragedy, or any other of the higher kinds of poetical composition. 1861 Paley Æschylus, Prometh. (ed. 2) 799 note, This use is common in Homer, but rare in tragedy. 1900 W. L. Courtney Idea of Tragedy 12 Tragedy is always the clash of two powers—necessity without, freedom within.

3. fig. An unhappy or fatal event or series of events in real life; a dreadful calamity or disaster. (Cf. comedy1 4.)

1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. xii. (Percy Soc.) 49 His chere is dolorus, As in bewaylyng a woful tragedy. 1535 Layton in Lett. Suppress. Monasteries (Camden) 76 To tell yowe all this commodie, but for thabbot a tragedie, hit were to long. 1617 Moryson Itin. i. 207 The warre of Hungarie made all those parts full of tragedies and miserie. 1657 Trapp Comm. Job i. 19 Lately at Witney+a scurrilous blasphemous Comedy was by the fall of the room wherein it was acted, turned into a Tragedy, as ending with the deaths of six. 1871 Freeman Norm. Conq. IV. xx. 572 The turning-point of William's reign, the tragedy of the fate of Waltheof.

†b. A doleful or dreadful tale; a passionate complaint. Obs.

1565 Jewel Def. Apol. ii. xiii. (1611) 255 Iudge thou+how iust causes M. Harding had to mooue these Tragedies. 1594 Spenser Amoretti liv, I waile, and make my woes a Tragedy. 1611 Bible Transl. Pref. 2 Herevpon they raise vp a tragedie, and wish in their heart the Temple had neuer bene built. 1664 H. More Myst. Iniq., Apol. 538 Some would raise such Stirres and Tragedies about.

†c. With of or possessive: Sad story, unhappy fate, misery, misfortune; esp. sorrowful end, violent death. Obs.

1513 Douglas Æneis iv. Prol. 264 Sen I suld thi [Dido's] trigidy endite. a1592 Greene Alphonsus i. Wks. (Rtldg.) 227/1 This sword+should the author be To make an end of this my tragedy. 1598–9 [E. Forde] Parismus i. (1661) 68, I fear he is destroyed by the treachery of that wicked homicide+, who is not contented with his tragedy, but also seeketh my destruction. 1617 Moryson Itin. i. 186 He ceased not to bewaile my misery, and to recount my Tragedy as if it had been the burning of Troy. 1678 Marvell Growth Popery Wks. (Grosart) IV. 412 Men sit by, like idle spectators, and still give money towards their own tragedy. 1738 Wesley Psalms xci. iv, Thou+shalt look on and see The Wicked's dismal Tragedy.

¶4. Misused for tragedian 1. Obs. rare—1.

1460 J. Capgrave Chron. (Rolls) 49 Sophocles and Euripides+were cleped Tragedies. Trajedi is as mech to sey as he that writith eld stories, with ditees hevy and sorowful.

5. attrib. and Comb., as tragedy-actor, -air, -drum (drum n.1 3), -god, -king, -player, -queen, speech, strut, -victim, -writer; tragedy-man the chief tragic actor at a theatre.

1820 W. Tooke tr. Lucian I. 481 Lay aside your proper character and assume that of a *tragedy-actor. 1897 ‘A Hope’ Phroso v, Her *tragedy-air was quite delightful. 1702 Steele Funeral iv. i. 59 He is a *Tragedy-Drum to one of the Play-Houses. 1820 W. Tooke tr. Lucian I. 505 Properties necessary for the equipment of a *tragedy-god. 1900 Macm. Mag. May 50/1 More like a *tragedy-king than a monarch of history. 1821 Blackw. Mag. X. 588 The vacant situation of *tragedyman. 1552 Huloet, *Tragedie player, tragœdus. 1755 C. Charke Life 192 Though it was a valuable Gift, but more proper to ornament the Neck of a Country-Housewife, than a *Tragedy-Queen. 1819 [see sail v.1 5b]. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair xlvi, She bowed me out of the room like a tragedy queen. 1773 Goldsm. Stoops to Conq. v. i, A short *tragedy speech. 1791 Paine Rights of Man (ed. 4) 27 A *tragedy-victim expiring in show, and not the real prisoner of misery. 1552 Huloet, *Tragedie wryter, tragicus, Sophocles. c1740 G. Walmsley in Hawkins Johnson (1787) 39 Johnson is a very good scholar and poet, and, I have great hopes, will turn out a fine tragedy-writer.

litotes

Rhet. [Gr. k·s¾sg|, f. k·s¾| smooth, plain, small, meagre.]

A figure of speech, in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary; an instance of this. Examples of litotes are: ‘A citizen of no mean city’; ‘When no small tempest lay on us.’

1657 J. Smith Myst. Rhet. 3. 1696 in Phillips (ed. 5). 1727 Pope, etc. Art of Sinking 115 The litotes or diminution, [is the peculiar talent] of ladies, whisperers, and backbiters. 1883 Schaff Hist. Chr. Ch. I. v. 291 Pressing into his service+the litotes and other rhetorical figures.

rune

[In origin the same word as roun, mystery, etc., but in sense 1 adopted in the 17th cent. (through Danish writers on Northern antiquities) from ON. and Icel. rún, pl. rúnar, later rúnir (Da. rune, pl. runer; Sw. runa, pl. runor). Hence also G. and Du. rune, pl. runen, F. rune, pl. runes, etc. In sense 2 the immediate source is the Finnish runo, itself an adoption of the ON. word.]

1. A letter or character of the earliest Teutonic alphabet, which was most extensively used (in various forms) by the Scandinavians and Anglo-Saxons. Also, a similar character or mark having mysterious or magical powers attributed to it; applied to a letter or character of a non-Germanic alphabet (esp. in fictional writings) having a resemblance to the Germanic runes. The original runic alphabet dates from at least the second or third century, and was formed by modifying the letters of the Roman or Greek alphabet so as to facilitate cutting them upon wood or stone.

[1685 W. Nicolson in Phil. Trans. XV. 1293 We are sufficiently assured, that the Heathen Saxons did also make use of these Runæ. 1686 see rimestock.] 1690 Temple Ess., Poetry 37 Runes, was properly the Name of the antient Gothick Letters or Characters. 1705 Phil. Trans. XXV. 2058 He thinks it remarkable, that Magog is there mention'd Inventer of the Runes. 1770 Percy Mallet's Northern Antiq. I. 375 The noxious, or as they called them, the bitter runes, were employed to bring various evils on their enemies. 1848 Lytton Harold i. i, Her pale hand seemed tracing letters, like runes, in the air. 1851 D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) I. 4 Intelligible inscriptions engraven in Anglo Saxon Runes. 1851 D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) II. iv. ii. 238 The inscriptions on the sculptured or Memorial Stones+include+the Ogham or Celtic Runes. 1883 I. Taylor Alphabet 201 An adaptation or survival of the ‘Slavonic Runes’, the existence of which is however entirely hypothetical. 1883 Morfill Slavonic Lit. i. 23 The view that the Slavs had runes is based upon a passage in the writings of the Monk Khrabr. 1937 J. R. R. Tolkien Hobbit i. 30 Look at the map+and you will see there the runes in red. 1948 D. Diringer Alphabet ii. v. 314 The monumental inscriptions are written in a runic character, termed Kök Turki runes. 1954 J. R. R. Tolkien Fellowship of Ring v. 339 They were written by many different hands, in runes, both of Moria and of Dale, and here and there in Elvish script. 1958 Everyman's Encycl. (ed. 4) IX. 461/1 Orkhon Inscriptions (also known as Siberian, Early Turki, Pre-Islamic Turki or Kök Turki Runes) are the earliest epigraphical monuments written in Turki. 1961 M. Savill tr. E. Doblhoffer's Voices in Stone ix. 289 Babinger sent a photograph+to the decipherer of the Old Turkish runes, Vilhelm Thomsen. 1968 U. K. Le Guin Wizard of Earthsea iv. 67 He studied the Further Runes and the Runes of Éa, which are used in the Great Spells. a1973 J. R. R. Tolkien Silmarillion (1977) 322 Cirth, the Runes, first devised by Daeron of Doriath.

2. †a. An incantation or charm denoted by magic signs. Obs.

1796 Morse Amer. Geogr. II. 35 [The Laplanders] have neither writing or letters,+but a number of hieroglyphics which they make use of in their Rounes.

b. A Finnish poem, or division of a poem, esp. one of the separate songs of the Kalevala. Also incorrectly applied to old Scandinavian poems.

1854 Latham Native Races Russian Emp. 73 There is Heathenism, and plenty of it, in the Fin poems—the Runes, as they are called. 1863 Longfellow Wayside Inn i. Interlude iv, Fragments of old Norwegian tunes That bound in one the separate runes. Ibid., K. Olaf iv. vii, One was singing the ancient rune Of Brynhilda's love. 1879 Encycl. Brit. IX. 220/1 He [Lönnrot] was successful in collecting 12,000 lines. These he arranged as methodically as he could into thirty-two runes or cantos.

c. transf. Any song, poem, or verse; spec. a cryptic or magic verse, an incantation; a lament.

1847 Emerson Poems, Woodnotes 11 But the runes that I rehearse Understand the universe. 1860 C. Sangster Hesperus 128 My heart would sit and sing Shrillest runes of wintry cold. 1870 D. G. Rossetti I saw Sibyl at Cumæ in Coll. Wks. (1886) I. vi. 378 ‘I saw the Sibyl at Cumæ’ (One said).+ ‘She hung in a cage, and read her rune.’ 1889 F. A. Knight By Leafy Ways 9 The light-hearted and irrepressible starling+ crooning his own quaint runes. 1900 A. Carmichael Carmina Gadelica I. p. xx, The wife knew many secular runes, sacred hymns, and fairy songs. 1908 Somerville & ‘Ross’ Further Experiences Irish R.M. viii. 211 She chanted+words in measured cadence.+ By the time this rune had been repeated three times she was in the hall. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 203 There he keened a wailing rune.—Pogue mahone! Acushla machree! 1936 W. Holtby South Riding i. i. 20 Curses could be lifted by spells. Midge was always trying them, inventing her own runes and incantations. 1949 New Yorker 22 Oct. 38/2 (title) Runes for an old believer. 1973 G. M. Brown Magnus i. 23 Tana repeats a small bridal rhyme, a rune of fertility, the meaning of which is not at all clear but she has learned it from her grandmother. 1977 P. Fitzgerald Knox Brothers i. 32 Eddie had begun on Kennedy's Latin Grammar; there were more inexplicable runes for Wilfred to repeat in the nursery: ‘Caesar adsum jam forte—Cæsar had some jam for tea.’

3. attrib. and Comb. a. Objective, as rune-bearer, -carver, -collector, -cutter, -rister (= cutter), -singer, -writer; rune-bearing adj.

1851 D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) II. iv. iv. 287 To this, subsequent Rune-writers have made additions. Ibid. 294 The Rune-carver by whom many of these Memorial Stones were executed. c1865 E. Charlton in Archæologia Æliana VI. 131 The ignorance of the Rune cutter has transposed one or two of the letters. 1866 G. Stephens Runic Mon. I. p. ix, Till these rune-bearers gradually disappeared before Roman-lettered pieces. Ibid. 199 Only one can have been the real meaning of the rune-rister. 1872 Archaeol. Cant. VIII. 223 The rune-bearing boss at Thorsbjerg. 1883 Vigfusson & Powell Corpus Poeticum Boreale I. 571 Bali, a Swedish Rune carver from Upland, appears to have lived about the end or middle of the eleventh century. 1898 I. M. Anderton tr. Comparetti's Trad. Poetry of Finns i. i. 5 The first rune collectors+only considered and published detached songs, and did not think of classifying them. 1904 Saga-Bk. of Viking Club III. iii. 320 The+uniformity can only be explained by supposing that there were professional rune-writers, travelling over the country and inscribing stones. 1908 Ibid. V. ii. 258 To the right of the stem is an inequality in the stone, which the rune-cutter (rune-rister) apparently wished to avoid. 1927 E. V. Gordon tr. runic inscription in Introd. Old Norse 170 Biari has the temple, a wise rune-carver. 1962 C. L. Wrenn in Davis & Wrenn Eng. & Medieval Stud. presented to J. R. R. Tolkien 316 If the ‘first fronting’ had in fact not yet been completed in the dialect of the rune-cutter. 1963 S. B. F. Jansson in Browne & Foote Early Eng. & Norse Stud. ix. 112 In all probability the rune-carver wished his rune-ribbon to start and end at the same level on the stone. 1972 Funk's Stand. Dict. Folklore 382/1 Lönnrot himself said, ‘Because I am sure that not one of the rune-singers could surpass me in the knowledge of the runes, I used my right to put together the songs as it seemed best.’

b. Attrib., in sense ‘inscribed with runes’, as rune-clog, font, -stick, -stone. Also rune-staff a.

1851 D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) II. iv. iv. 294 The Rune Stones of the Norse fatherland. 1857 Borrow Romany Rye iv, I have, what some people would dread much more, an Armenian rune-stick. 1866 G. Stephens Runic Mon. I. p. ix, Rune-clogs of all sorts of material and of every size. 1883 Vigfusson & Powell Corpus Poeticum Boreale II. 589 A Swedish Rune-stone has the roasting-scene of l. 4 carved upon it. 1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 9 July 548/1 The discovery of the Eggjum rune-stone in 1917. 1962 P. G. Foote tr. S. V. B. Jansson's Runes of Sweden 163 The finest of the rune fonts is the one+carved by the Gotlander Sigraf. 1980 K. Randsborg Viking Age in Denmark 32 The persons mentioned on the early rune-stones were connected with royal power.

c. Misc., as rune-craft, -folk, -inscription, -letter, -lore, -magic, -maiden, -master, -name, -poem, -smith, -song, -word, -worship; rune-blazoned, -inscribed, -less, -like adjs.; rune-ribbon, the carved scroll on a runic stone in which the runes are engraved; rune-row, a runic alphabet; rune-tree, (a) = tree-rune s.v. tree n. 10c; (b) (see quot. 1899).

1938 W. de la Mare Memory 76 A subtle Serpent+Raised its *rune-blazoned head. 1871 G. Stephens in Archaeologia XLIII. 98 Modern Swedish *runecraft largely depends upon his many and valuable publications. 1866 I Runic Mon. I. p. xi, There is therefore neither time nor place for a certain *Runefolk to carry its letters from land to land. 1872 Archaeol. Cant. VIII. 266 The *rune-inscribed horn was found in 1734. 1898 Saga-Bk. of Viking Club II. ii. 337 Asfrid+raised a+gravehaugh over the body of her husband, whereon she set up a rune-inscribed stone in his honour. 1931 C. L. Ewen Hist. Surnames iii. 65 The rune-inscribed crosses. 1925 Saga-Book of Viking Soc. IX. ii. 272 The *rune-inscriptions+must be assigned to the first part of the 11th century. 1866 G. Stephens Runic Mon. I. p. x, The *runeless bronze-wielding populations they found in Scandinavia. 1937 J. R. R. Tolkien Hobbit iii. 64 ‘What are moon-letters?’+ ‘Moon-letters are *rune-letters.’ 1877 Rep. Brit. Assoc., Trans. 117 Some *Rune-like Characters on Chalk. 1965 C. L. Wrenn in Bessinger & Creed Medieval & Linguistic Stud. 50 The seven rune-like symbols just mentioned. 1868 G. Stephens Runic Mon. I. 94 (heading) *Rune-lore. 1959 R. W. V. Elliott Runes iii. 30 Other pagan rites and customs that went hand in hand with rune-lore. 1877 Skeat Will. Palerne Pref. p. xxix, This might be classed amongst the instances of *Rune-magic. 1906 C. M. Doughty Dawn in Britain I. ii. 80 Her covert image+and holy cart Shall her *rune-maiden ministers, in the lake, Wash. 1965 R. Derolez in Bessinger & Creed Medieval & Linguistic Stud. 33 A simple formula such as+‘unknown Danish *runemaster > Hrabanus Maurus’, is tempting but dangerous. Ibid. 34 One might+suppose that a ‘rune master’+would resort to runes if asked to write the names in full. 1970 Foote & Wilson Viking Achievement ix. 312 Once the act of carving stone had developed in southern Scandinavia, Swedish sculptors and rune~masters experimented to bring it to fruition. 1879 I. Taylor Greeks & Goths xviii. 117 Let us compare these+Ogham names with the corresponding *rune names. 1927 E. V. Gordon Introd. Old Norse 161 The first letter of each rune-name gives the value of the rune. 1974 Eng. Stud. LV. 512 The inscriber of the Franks Casket normally represented the voiceless dorsal fricative by ‘g’, so that for him the rune-name would have been eg. 1861 D. H. Haigh Anglo-Saxon Sagas 16 In the Anglo-Saxon *rune-poem, the following stanza occurs:- Ing wæs ærest, mid East-Denum, (etc.). 1879 Vigfusson & Powell Icelandic Prose Reader 457 The idea is+possibly taken from some such English poem as the Exeter Codex Rune Poem. 1962 C. L. Wrenn in Davis & Wrenn Eng. & Medieval Stud. presented to J. R. R. Tolkien 316 The Old English, Old Norse, and Icelandic rune-poems. 1963 S. B. F. Jansson in Browne & Foote Early Eng. & Norse Stud. ix. 111 All that was visible+was a short section of the *rune ribbon, with some carved lines above it. 1868 G. Stephens Runic Mon. I. 105 All the oldest written *Runerows are Futhorcs. 1955 J. R. R. Tolkien Return of King 397 It was often called Angerthas Moria or the Long Rune-rows of Moria. 1973 R. I. Page Introd. Eng. Runes xii. 190 The common English rune-row had twenty-eight [characters] or more to the Germanic twenty-four. 1866 G. Stephens Runic Mon. I. p. vi, The later or Scandinavian Runic Monuments, which+are now being gradually collected and publisht by competent *runesmiths. 1868 G. Stephens Runic Mon. I. 105 As for there being any ‘German’ people whatsoever+who+practist heathen rites and used *Rune-songs and Rune-books and Rune-carvings in incantations and divinations—why the thing is ridiculous. 1892 S. A. Brooke Hist. Early Eng. Lit. I. 192 These phrases are from the Rune Song. 1927 E. V. Gordon Introd. Old Norse 161 The usual forms of this fuþark+are given in the Rune-Song. 1863 J. M. Mitchell tr. runic inscription in Mesehowe 51 Cut to our late Father these *Rune Trees, (He was a) leader on the West Sea. 1879 I. Taylor Greeks & Goths xviii. 129 The characteristic of the five classes of the rune trees would be (1) branches; (2) forks; (3) loops; (4) crooks; (5) roots. 1899 A. H. Keane Man, Past & Present ix. 341 A great feature of the system were the ‘rune-trees’, made of pine or birch bark, inscribed with figures of gods, men, or animals, which were consulted on all important occasions. 1883 G. Stephens Bugge's Stud. North. Mythol. 67 The principal *runewords on this Bewcastle Cross are plain enough. 1940 F. Scott Fitzgerald Let. Dec. (1964) 100 But be sweet to your mother at Xmas despite her early Chaldean *rune-worship which she will undoubtedly inflict on you.

Hence runed (ru;nd) a., inscribed with runes.

1886 N. & Q. 7th Ser. II. 50 A leaden bulla of Archdeacon Boniface and a runed ivory comb.

Germanic

[ad. L. GermQnic-us, f. GermQnus German a.2 Cf. F. germanique.]

A. adj. 1. a. Of or pertaining to Germany or to the Germans, German. Now chiefly Hist. in Germanic Confederation, Germanic Empire.

1633 in Crt. & Times Chas. I (1848) II. 214 Setting up the Germanic liberty, and levelling of the House of Austria. 1652 Benlowes Theoph. v. xlix, Fifty milions of Germanick leagues. 1756–7 tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) IV. 217 The association of the Germanic states would not be a sufficient security to the empire against a foreign enemy. 1777 Watson Philip II (1839) 13 He laboured+to establish concord among the several princes of the Germanic body. 1845 S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. III. 251 Least of all could the German nation boast that the Germanic empire had recovered its ancient character and powers.

b. Marked by German characteristics. Germanic region (see quot.).

1851–6 Woodward Mollusca 383 Germanic Region. The whole of Northern Europe and Asia, bounded by the Pyrenees, Alps, Carpathians, Caucasus, and Altai.

2. Of or pertaining to the Teutonic race, or any of the Teutonic peoples. With reference to language, often used by philologists as = ‘Primitive Germanic’. Also with limiting word, in the designations of the subordinate groups into which the Germanic family of langs. is divided: the East Germanic, including Gothic (and some langs. of which only traces remain, as Burgundian, Vandal), the North Germanic = ‘Scandinavian’ (by some treated as a subdivision of East Germanic), and the West Germanic, including High and Low German, English, Frisian, Dutch, etc. Now tending to supersede Teutonic in scholarly work.

a1773 A. Butler Moveable Feasts Cath. Ch. (1839) iii. 80 Roman conquerors often took names+from countries which they had subdued,+as the African,+the Germanic,+&c. 1774 R. Henry Hist. Gt. Brit. ii. iii. 215 But though these Germanic nations differed very much from one another+yet they appear to have sprung from the same origin. 1841 W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. II. 26 The Roman empire during the Germanic invasions. 1842 B. Thorpe Codex Exoniensis 513 To suppose it a translation from another Germanic dialect, would be giving+credit for a kind of knowledge hardly+in existence among our simple fore~fathers. 1879 Sir G. Scott Lect. Archit. I. 6 [Gothic] is the architecture of the Germanic nations. 1888 J. Wright Old High-Ger. Primer §70 The Germanic combination kw was represented in Franconian by qu, and in Upper German by chu. 1894 Trans. Philol. Soc. 1891–4 383 Germanic verse occasionally allows the freedom that syllables which in the spoken language are short, are, for the purposes of versification, treated as long. 1909 F. B. Gummere Oldest Eng. Epic p. viii, These two poems [sc. Deor and Widsith]+contain many references to persons and stories of Germanic heroic legends. 1928 W. W. Lawrence Beowulf & Epic Trad. 4 Anglo-Saxon verse+was+rooted in the traditions of professional singers, the main features of whose craft were shared by the poets of the other peoples of Germanic stock. 1948 Mod. Philol. XLVI. 73, I shall not try to relate this meter to that of other Anglo-Saxon poetry or of the poetry in the other early Germanic dialects. 1963 R. W. V. Elliott in S. B. Greenfield Stud. in Honor of A. G. Brodeur 64 Originality of invention was not the Germanic scop's aim.

B. n. The language of the Germanic people; Teutonic: see A. 2.

1892 J. Wright Primer Gothic Lang. §108 From an Indo-Germanic point of view the series I–V belong to one and the same series which underwent in Germanic various modifications upon clearly defined lines.

Dane-law

Also 1 Dena la¼u, 3 DenelaŠe, Dene lawe, 6 Dane lawe, 8 Dane-lage, (-lege), 9 Dane-lagh. Latinized 2 Denelaga, 2–9 Danelaga. [OE. D£na la¼u Danes' law, of which Dane-law is a modern equivalent.]

1. The Danish law anciently in force over that part of England which was occupied or held by the Danes.

c1050 Laws of Edw. & Guthr. 7 (Bosw.) Gylde lahslihte inne on Dena la¼e and wite mid Englum. a1135 Leges Hen. I, vi. 2 in Stubbs Sel. Chart. iii. 100 Legis etiam Anglicae trina est partitio+alia enim Westsexiae, alia Mircena, alia Denelaga est. a1300 Shires of Eng. in O.E. Misc. 146 Þes .xxxij. schire syndon to delede on þreo lawan. On is west-sexene lawe, oþer Dene lawe, þe þrydde Mercena lawe+To Dene lawe bilympeþ .xv. schire. 1576 Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) p. xvi, The Dane lawe, West-Saxon lawe, and Merchen lawe: The first of which was brought in by the Danes. 1765 Blackstone Comm. (1830) I. Introd. 66 The Dane-Lage, or Danish law, the very name of which speaks its original and composition.

2. Hence, The part of England over which this law prevailed, being the district north-east of Watling Street, ceded by the Treaty of Wedmore, 878, or perhaps the Northumbrian territory in Danish occupation. This use appears explicitly only in modern historians (chiefly under the barbarous forms Dane-lage, Dane-lagh, which are neither Old nor modern English), though founded on ancient passages, such as those of quots. 1050, 1300, in 1. [In Icelandic lög ‘law’ had, according to Vigfusson, the sense ‘law-district’, ‘almost as a local name’ in Gulaþings-lög, þrænda-lög, etc.]

1837 Penny Cycl. VIII. 299/2 The eastern part of England retained long after the name of Danelagh, or Danish law. 1874 Green Short Hist. i. 50 The Danelagh, as the district occupied by the Danes began to be called. 1877 Freeman Norm. Conq. (ed. 3) II. 663 Danes in the sense of being inhabitants of the Denalagu. 1886 F. York Powell Hist. Eng. to 1509, i. vi. 37 He [K. Eadmund] got the whole Danelaw south of Humber into his hands.

velar

Also 9 erron. vellar. [ad. It. velare, F. vélaire, or L. vUlQr-is, f. L. vUlum sail, curtain, etc.: cf. velum.]

1. Arch. (See quots.)

1726 Leoni Alberti's Archit. I. 55/1 A Vault+which for its resemblance to a swelling Sail, we+call a Velar Cupola. 1823 P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 595 Vellar cupola, a cupola or dome, terminated by four or more walls. 1842 Gwilt Archit. 1050.

2. a. Phonetics. Of sounds: Produced by means of the soft palate. Applied specifically to one of the two sets of guttural sounds existing in the original Indo-European language.

1876 Academy 4 Nov. 457/1 The author begins with the now well-known distinction of the k sounds into two sets, which he calls velar and palatal. 1883 I. Taylor Alphabet I. 160 The Semitic alphabets+have no symbols for certain classes of sounds, such as the velar gutturals. 1888 King & Cookson Sounds & Infl. vi. 117 According to place of articulation they can be divided into labial, dental, palatal, and velar sounds.

b. As n. A velar guttural.

1886 T. Le M. Douse Introd. Gothic 37 The guttural element of a velar may vanish. Ibid., The velars themselves may be palatalized. 1888 King & Cookson Sounds & Infl. vi. 118 The distinction between palatals and velars is comparatively recent and of great importance in the history of modern philology.

3. Zool. Of or pertaining to a velum.

1878 F. J. Bell Gegenbaur's Comp. Anat. 328 The cilia in the velar circlet are those that are most markedly developed. 1880 Nature XXII. 147/2 Velar centrifugal canals+are peculiar to this genus. 1883 Encycl. Brit. XVI. 663/1 The post-oral hemisphere of the Trochosphere grows more rapidly than the anterior or velar area.

Hence ve"larity, velar quality.

1952 Archivum Linguisticum IV. 72 The apostrophe after n and g indicates velarity. 1964 [see alveolarity s.v. alveolar a. and n.].

palatal

[a. F. palatal (1752 Dict. Trévoux), f. L. palQt-um palate + -al1.]

A. adj. 1. a. Anat., Zool., etc. Pertaining to the palate: = palatine a.2 1.

1828–32 Webster, Palatal, pertaining to the palate. 1834 R. Mudie Brit. Birds (1841) II. 19 Bill+having the palatal knob very large. 1874 Lyell Elem. Geol. xxi. 358 A terrestrial reptile having numerous palatal teeth. 1888 Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life 360 [In Mammalia] The præmaxillary, maxillary and palatine bones possess palatal plates which constitute the hard palate.

b. Conchol. (See quot.)

1854 Woodward Mollusca ii. 165 Pupa Uva:+Shell+aperture rounded, often toothed. (Dr. Pfeiffer terms those teeth ‘parietal’ which are situated on the body-whirl; those on the outer lip, ‘palatal’.)

2. Phonetics. a. Of a consonant or vowel sound: Produced by placing the tongue against the palate, esp. the hard palate. The palatal consonants are formed further forward in the mouth than the velar or gutturals, and are represented by (c, ƒ, ç, and j). In the DevanQgarW or Sanskrit alphabet the palatal consonants are those of the second row c, ch, j, jh, ñ, with the semivowel y and sibilant ç; the name is also often given to the sounds into which these have passed in modern Indian languages. palatal vowels are our (i, I, e, E, &), more commonly called front vowels.

1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v. T., The T is one of the five Consonants which the Abbot de Dangeau calls Palatal. 1828–32 Webster, Palatal,+ uttered by the aid of the palate. 1844 Key Alphabet, etc. 25 In the Sanskrit alphabet, the series of guttural, palatal, lingual, dental, and labial consonants, have an n belonging to each class. 1875 Whitney Life &c. Lang. iv. 46 A sibilant with following palatal mute. 1876 T. Le M. Douse Grimm's L. §60. 146 The palatal semi~vowel (y).

b. Of a sound change: occurring in the environment of a palatal consonant or vowel.

1888 H. Sweet Hist. Eng. Sounds 124 This c-smoothing is by the Germans called ‘palatal-umlaut’. 1894 I Anglo-Saxon Reader (ed. 7) p. xiv, Why then continue+to call the change of weorc into werc ‘palatal mutation’, when the change is not a mutation, and is caused not by front, but invariably by back consonants? 1908 J. & E. M. Wright Old Eng. Gram. iv. 28 Umlaut is of two kinds: Palatal and Guttural. Palatal umlaut, generally called i-umlaut, is the modification (palatalization) of an accented vowel through the influence of an 2 or j which originally stood in the following syllable. 1914 H. C. Wyld Short Hist. Eng., v. 75 ‘Palatal Mutation’. This term was suggested by Bülbring to denote primarily the loss in Anglian of the second element of the diphthong ea (which thus appears merely as e) before the consonant~groups ht, hs, hþ, when followed by a front vowel, or when final. 1939 Trans. Philol. Soc. 126 By the assumption that ‘Breaking’, ‘Palatal Diphthongization’, and ‘Back-Mutation’ were developments which can be dated within limits, a system of ‘sound-changes’ has been built up, which in some cases may be purely fictitious, in others only part of a long-drawn-out process. 1959 A. Campbell Old Eng. Gram. v. 70 SWp sheep, presumably from *sWep with palatal diphthongization of nW-S sUp. 1975 Lass & Anderson Old Eng. Phonol. iv. 123 ‘Palatal diphthongization’ of /. As we show+there is no very good evidence for such a process in OE.

B. n. 1. Anat. Short for palatal bone: = palatine n.2 1.

1886 in Cassell's Encycl. Dict. 1890 Cent. Dict. s.v., In their simplest form the palatals are mere rods or plates extending horizontally from the pterygoids to the maxilliaries.

2. Phonetics. A palatal sound; usually, a palatal consonant. (See A. 2.)

1828–32 Webster, Palatal, a letter pronounced by the aid of the palate. 1844 Key Alphabet, etc. 23 The other letters+according to their organs: 1st, the guttural and palatals,+2ndly, dentals,+3rdly, labials. 1862 Marsh Eng. Lang. 492 The combination gh was originally a guttural or perhaps a palatal.

Hence "palatalism, pala"tality, palatal quality or character; "palatally adv., towards the palate; by means of the palate.

1864 F. Hall in Lauder's Tractate Notes (1869) 32 A device for preserving the palatality of its g. 1876 T. Le M. Douse Grimm's L. §64. 171 Different destinies of the combinations kya and kwa, according as the palatalism and gutturalism represented by y and w, attack the consonant or the vowel. 1934 Dental Items of Interest LVI. 206 Any extension of the preparation under the gingiva+palatally is to be avoided as being unnecessary. 1940 J. Osborne Dental Mech. xiv. 156 The use of black rubber palatally and lingually will give a better appearance to the finished denture. 1963 C. R. Cowell et al. Inlays, Crowns, & Bridges iv. 39 The withdrawal path must be inclined palatally. 1970 Archivum Linguisticum I. 7 When the following syllable contained an i the medial vowel could be palatally coloured.

allusion

[ad. L. allGsiZn-em, n. of action f. allGdSre to allude. Cf. mod.Fr. allusion.]

†1. Illusion. Obs.

1618 Hist. P. Warbeck in Harl. Misc. (1793) 59 Resolved in the error of his allusion, he strongly conjectured that, etc.

†2. A play upon words, a word-play, a pun. Obs.

1556 Recorde Cast. Knowl. 4 So dooth that sentence leese his beautye by the translation, for there canne be no suche allusion of woordes in the englyshe. 1576 Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 426 The battail (in memorie that they threw away their coates) was called by allusion Losecoatefield. 1605 Verstegan Dec. Intell., Some refer Adolescens to Adokervèm, ‘fond of chit-chat.’ This is not a derivation, but an Allusion. 1677 Gale Crt. Gentiles II. iii. 25 ‘As they did not like,’ etc. Here is an elegant Paronomasia or allusion on the words edojilarax and adojilom. 1731 Bailey, Allusion, a dalliance or playing with words alike in sound but unlike in sense.

†3. A symbolical reference or likening; a metaphor, parable, allegory. Obs.

1548 Udall etc. Erasm. Par. Luke Pref. (R.) By reason of sundry allusions, diuers prouerbes, many figures. 1611 Cotgr., Allusion, an allusion, or likening; an alluding, or applying of one thing unto another. 1635 Quarles Embl. Introd. (1718) 2 To see the Allusion to our blessed Saviour figured in these Types. 1641 French Distill. v. (1651) 117 By a sutable allusion the nutriment is taken for the life of man. 1736 Butler Anal. i. iii. 87 Virtue, to borrow the Christian allusion, is militant here. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. II. 67 If he had pursued the allusion, he must have painted many of the Gallic nobles with the hundred heads of the deadly Hydra.

4. A covert, implied, or indirect reference; a passing or incidental reference (cf. allude v. 5). Also attrib. in allusion book, a collection of references to a writer or his works.

1612 Drayton Poly-olb. A2 The verse oft, with allusion, as supposing a full knowing reader, lets slip. 1624 Gataker Transubst. 95 With more special allusion and application to the water of Baptism. 1703 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 142 Those frequent allusions made to them in the Word of God. 1766 Sir A. Mitchell in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 515 IV. 499 His+Majesty smiling, said, I understand your allusion. 1790 Paley Hor. Paul. I. i. 5 The frequent allusions to the incidents of his private life. 1824 Dibdin Libr. Comp. 214 To which some allusion has been made in a preceding page. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 730 A very intelligible allusion to the compromise proposed by France. 1874 C. M. Ingleby Shaksp. Allusion-Books i. p. i, A Section of our Reprints appears under the title of Allusion-Books. By this term we intend to cover not only those books which afford some allusion, or indirect reference, to Shakspere or to a work of his, but also those which directly deal with either: i.e. which mention him by name as the author of such and such a play, or as a poet worthy of praise or of blame. 1939 H. Macdonald Dryden Bibliogr. Pref. p. viii, This book is therefore an allusion book as well as a bibliography.

Angle

[ad. L. Angl-us, pl. Angl-i (Tacitus), a. OTeut. *angli-, in OE. regularly £ngle (occas., after L., Angle), the people of Angul, -ol, -el, ON. Öngull (‘illa patria quæ Angulus dicitur,’ Bæda) a district of Holstein, so called from its shape, the word being the same as angle n.1; whence also Angul-cynn, Angul-þéod, orig. ‘the race or people of Angul’; afterwards, the race of this and kindred descent in Britain, the ‘English’ race.]

1. pl. One of the Low-German tribes that settled in Britain, where they formed the kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, and East Anglia, and finally gave their name to the whole ‘English’ people.

c885 K. Ælfred Bæda iv. xxvi, Þæt land, ðætte Angle r hæfdon. 1794 Sullivan View Nat. V. 116 The Angles, from whom the majority of the English derive their blood, and the whole their name. 1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. I. 24 North of the Thames lay the three great Kingdoms of the Angles.

2. pl. Rhetorically for: The English.

1823 Byron Juan xiv. xxxviii, All foreigners excel The serious Angles in the eloquence Of pantomine.

Mercian

Also 6 Mercyen, -tian. [f. Mercia (latinized from OE. M£rce, Mierce, pl., lit. ‘people of the march, marchers, borderers’, f. mearc mark n.1) + -an.]

A. adj. Of or belonging to the Old English kingdom of Mercia or its language. Although the political limits of Mercia were different at different periods, it may broadly be said to have occupied the middle of South Britain, between Deira on the north and Wessex on the south, and between Wales on the west and Lindsey and East Anglia on the east. The Mercian dialect of Old English belongs to the Anglian (as opposed to the Saxon) division, and is the dialect from which modern standard English mainly descends.

1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. ii. 89 Wolphere, the Mercian King. 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XI. 400/2 The extent of the Mercian territories was so ample as to admit+the constituting subordinate rulers. 1842 Wright Lyric P. Pref. 6 We have another Mercian legend in Latin, De Martyrio Sancti Wistani. 1887 Skeat Holy Gosp. in A.S. Pref. 7 The Old Mercian dialect. Ibid., The Old Mercian glosses in the Rushworth MS. are of peculiar interest.

B. n. 1. A native or inhabitant of Mercia.

1513 Bradshaw St. Werburge i. 121 Her fathers kyngedome the realme of Mercyens. 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. iii. 30 It shall make The warlike Mertians for feare to quake. 1656 Blount Glossogr. s.v. Merchenlage, The third [division of England] was possessed and governed by the Mercians. 1876 Lumby Introd. to Higden (Rolls) VI. p. xxxv, Victory declared for the Mercians.

2. The dialect of Old English spoken in Mercia.

1887 Skeat Holy Gosp. in A.S. Pref. 7 A man whose ordinary dialect was Mercian. 1889 Ibid. Introd., The present edition of the Four Gospels (in Latin, Anglo-Saxon, Northumbrian and Old Mercian) brings together [etc.].

Northumbrian

[f. prec. + -ian.]

A. adj. Of or pertaining to Northumbria or Northumberland.

1622 Drayton Poly-olb. xxiv. 937 The Roll of these Northumbrian Kings. Ibid. 1238 Of the Northumbrian Line so have we many more. 1776 Sir D. Dalrymple Annals Scotl. I. 7 Maerleswegen, Gospatrick, and other Northumbrian nobles. 1818 Scott Rob Roy v, The monsters of heraldry, embodied by the art of some Northumbrian chisel. Ibid. xviii, A snug comfortable Northumbrian cottage. 1845 R. Garnett in Proc. Philol. Soc. II. 78 This admixture of the Northmen in the population of the Northumbrian provinces. 1884 Encycl. Brit. XVII. 567/2 The management of many Northumbrian farms is excellent.

B. n. 1. An inhabitant or native of ancient Northumbria or modern Northumberland.

1752 Life Bernard Gilpin 207 These wild Northumbrians indeed went beyond the ferocity of their ancestors. 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XIII. 111/2 The Northumbrians were anciently stigmatized as a savage, barbarous people. 1828–43 Tytler Hist. Scot. (1864) I. 56 The Scots+delayed their advance; and the Northumbrians+returned home. 1884 Encycl. Brit. XVII. 567/1 In physique the Northumbrian is stalwart and robust.

2. The northern dialect of English current in ancient Northumbria; also, the modern dialect of Northumberland.

1845 Kemble in Proc. Philol. Soc. II. 125 The most extensive monument of pure Northumbrian which we possess. 1889 Skeat Gospels Introd., The other three Gospels are glossed in Old Northumbrian.

Hence Nor"thumbrianism.

1845 R. Garnett in Proc. Philol. Soc. II. 84 The Northumbrianisms swa, gude, sall, swilke, til.

Saxon

Forms: 3–5 Saxoyn(e, 4–5 Saxoun, Sessoyne, 5–6 Saxson(e, 4– Saxon. [a. F. Saxon, ad. L. Saxon-em (nom. sing. Saxo, pl. SaxonUs, Gr. in Ptolemy R0nome|), a. WGer. *Saxon- (OE. Seaxan, Seaxe pl., OHG. Sahsûn pl., G. Sachse).

It has been conjectured that the name may have been derived from *sahsom sax n.1, as the name of the weapon used by the Saxons; cf. the probable derivation of the German tribe-name Cherusci from OTeut. *heru sword.] A. n. 1. a. One of a Germanic people which in the early centuries of the Christian era dwelt in a region near the mouth of the Elbe, and of which one portion, distinguished as Anglo-Saxons (see Anglo-Saxon) conquered and occupied certain parts of South Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries, while the other, the Old Saxons (med.L. Antiqui Saxones, Beda; OE. Ealdseaxe) remained in Germany. Often, like Anglo-Saxon, applied indiscriminately to all the Germanic peoples that settled in Britain. Also, an Englishman who is presumed to be descended from this people.

1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 2540 Hit was of grace þat þe saxoyns þus com verst to londe. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 184 A Saxon and a worthi knyht. ?a1400 Morte Arth. 3530 Sarazenes and Sessoynes. c1420 Chron. Vilod. 99 Saxsones were y-clepud Engestis men. c1450 Merlin xii. 173 Oure werres a-gein the saxoyns. Ibid. xiii. 193 That day Gawein slowgh many a sarazin of the saxouns. 1547 Boorde Introd. Knowl. xvi. (1870) 164, I do maruel greatly how the Saxsons should conquere Englonde. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. xxv. (1787) II. 522 The sea-coast of Gaul and Britain was exposed to the depredations of the Saxons. Ibid. xxxviii. III. 613 Three valiant tribes or nations of Germany; the Jutes, the old Saxons, and the Angles. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Ability Wks. (Bohn) II. 33 The Norman has come popularly to represent in England the aristocratic—and the Saxon the democratic principle. 1862 W. H. Jervis Hist. France v. §6 (1872) 65 Divided into the three confederacies of Westphalians, Ostphalians, and Angarians, the Saxons occupied at this time the greater part of Northern Germany.

b. In mod. use spec. (primarily as the term used by Celtic speakers). An Englishman as distinct from a Welshman or Irishman, a Lowland Scot as distinct from a Highlander. Cf. Sassenach. Also, an Englishman as distinct from a ‘Latin’.

1810 Scott Lady of L. iv. xxxi, He gave him of his Highland cheer+And bade the Saxon share his plaid. 1862 Thackeray Philip xxx, Scores of [Irish] gentlemen+who would not object to take the Saxon's pay until they finally shook his yoke off. 1908 Beerbohm Let. 23 Dec. (1964) 180 The Latins are born actors, while the Saxons have to train themselves up to the scratch. 1977 Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Apr. 394/3 In 1962 Ewart Milne returned to Ireland after more than twenty years in the land of the Saxon.

2. A native or inhabitant of Saxony in its modern German sense. (Saxony formerly included the kingdom of Saxony, the Prussian province of Saxony, and certain principalities; it existed as a state of the German Democratic Republic until 1952, when it was replaced as an administrative district by Leipzig, Karl-Marx-Stadt, and Dresden.)

1737 Gentl. Mag. VII. 4/1 The Saxons, who long since have done great damage to your coarser sorts of Cloths.

3. Pyrotechnics. (See quot. 1839.)

1839 Ure Dict. Arts 480 The saxons are cartridges clayed at each end, charged with the brilliant turning fire, and perforated with one or two holes at the extremity of the same diameter. 1873 W. H. Browne Pyrotechny viii. 87 Saxons+[are] used largely in the construction of set pieces; they are sometimes called Chinese flyers.

4. Ent. A night-moth, Hadena rectilinea.

1869 E. Newman Brit. Moths 423.

B. adj. 1. a. Of or belonging to the Saxons (see A. 1). Formerly often used (like Anglo-Saxon) as the distinctive epithet of the Old English language, and of books written in it, and of the period of English history between the conquest of Britain by the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes, and the Norman Conquest. †Saxon Angles = Anglo-Saxons. Old Saxon: pertaining to the Old Saxons or their language: see A. 1 and B. 2b.

1568 Jewel Let. to Abp. Parker 18 Jan., Wks. 1848 VIII. 193, I+have found+one book, written in the Saxon tongue.+ It may be Alfricus for all my cunning. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. vi. (Arb.) 90 Ryme is a borrowed word from the Greeks by the Latines and French, from them by vs Saxon angles. 1605 Camden Rem., Languages 24 The Saxon letter Thorne. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. xxv. (1787) II. 523 The Saxon pirates. Ibid. xxxviii. III. 610 The obscure hints of the Saxon laws and chronicles. 1819 Scott Ivanhoe xliii, The last scion of Saxon royalty. 1824 Johnson Typogr. II. 581 Greek, Hebrew, Saxon, &c., or any of the dead characters. 1840 Rituale Eccl. Dunelm. (Surtees) p. xii, An interlinear version into the Saxon language. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. vi. II. 130 In Ireland Scot and Southron were strongly bound together by their common Saxon origin. 1862 W. H. Jervis Hist. France v. §6 (1872) 65 Witikind became the hero of the Saxon resistance.

b. Used to denote the element of the English tongue which is derived from Anglo-Saxon. †Saxon-English, †English-Saxon = Anglo-Saxon.

1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. xxx. (Arb.) 72 This word (song) which is our naturall Saxon English word. Ibid. ii. xiii. 126 Our vulgar Saxon English standing most vpon wordes monosillable. Ibid. 130 Not content with the vsual Normane or Saxon word. ?1595–6 R. Carew Excell. Engl. Tongue in G. G. Smith Elizab. Crit. Ess. II. 287 In our natiue Saxon language. 1840 Carlyle Heroes v. (1841) 307 Wheresoever a Saxon dialect is spoken. 1849 F. W. Newman Soul 71 Poetry must have Saxon vocables. 1860 G. J. Whyte-Melville Mkt. Harb. 2 Mr. Sawyer's fluency in all Saxon expletives is undeniable.

c. Used (primarily by Celtic speakers: see A. 1b) for ‘English’ in contradistinction to Welsh and Irish or Gaelic. Also, in wider sense, applied, like Anglo-Saxon, to the people of England and of the other English-speaking communities, chiefly in contradistinction to ‘Latin’.

1787 Burns ‘When Guilford good’ vii, The Saxon lads, wi' loud placads, On Chatham's Boy did ca', man. a1845 C. G. Duffy in Spirit of Nation 3 Saxon wiles or Saxon powers Can enslave our land no longer Than your own dissensions wrong her. 1847 Emerson Repr. Men, Uses of Gt. Men Wks. (Bohn) I. 282 Every child of the Saxon race is educated to wish to be first. 1862 Calverley Verses & Transl. (1894) 49 Then nectar—was that beer, or whisky~toddy? Some say the Gaelic mixture, I the Saxon. 1893 Leland Mem. II. 64, I never found a Saxon-Englishman who had this step.

d. Arch. Used to designate the special variety of Romanesque architecture used in England in the ‘Saxon period’. (Formerly often misapplied to early Norman buildings.)

17+ Warburton Note on Pope's Ep. Ld. Burlington 29 This, by way of distinction, I would call the Saxon Architecture. 1762–71 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) I. 181 This Saxon style begins to be defined by flat and round arches. 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) II. 222/1 Those arcades we see in the early Norman or Saxon buildings or walls. 1825 Scott Betrothed xiii, With doors and windows forming the heavy round arch which is usually called Saxon.

2. absol. (quasi-n.). The language of the Saxons: a. = Anglo-Saxon in its various applications. Often used for Modern English speech of Saxon or Anglo-Saxon origin; English diction derived chiefly from the Saxon stock, as distinct from the Latin and French elements. †English Saxon = Anglo-Saxon.

1388 Purvey Prol. Bible 59 Bede translatide the bible, and expounide myche in Saxon, that was English, either comoun langage of this lond. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 206 For Couste in Saxoun is to sein Constance upon the word Romein. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. v. (Arb.) 90 For this purpose serue the monosillables of our English Saxons [sic] excellently well. Ibid. iii. iv. (Arb.) 157 Neither shall he take the termes of Northern-men,+nor in effect any speach vsed beyond the riuer of Trent, though no man can deny but that theirs is the purer English Saxon at this day. 1624 Fletcher Wife for a Month 1, A Letter, But 'tis a womans, Sir, I know by the hand, And the false Orthography, they write old Saxon. 1662 M. W. Marriage Broaker 72 He in olde Saxon's call'd a match-maker. 1819 Scott Ivanhoe xxvi, Here is a letter, and, if I mistake not, it is in Saxon. 1820 Gentl. Mag. Apr. 312/1 Maund. This word being derived from the Saxon, deserves to be in more frequent and general use.

b. Old Saxon: the language of the Old Saxons (see A. 1), especially as exemplified in the remains of 9th century poetry, including the Heliand and some fragments of paraphrases of the story of Genesis.

1841 R. G. Latham Eng. Lang. iii. 51 Grammatical Structure of Old Saxon, as compared with Anglo-Saxon. 1908 Wright O.E. Grammar 2 Low German.+ Up to about 1300 it is generally called Old Saxon.

3. a. Of or belonging to Saxony in its modern German sense. (See A. 2.)

a1634 Chapman Alphonsus iii. i. 271 With Saxon lans~knights and brunt-bearing Switzers. 1737 Gentl. Mag. VII. 3/1 The thriving+Trade of all sorts of Saxon Cloths. 1842 Macaulay Ess., Fredk. Gt. (near beginning), Even Frederic William, with all his rugged Saxon prejudices, thought it necessary that his children should know French. 1842 J. Bischoff Woollen Manuf. II. 363 The indigenous Saxon breed [of sheep] resembled that of the neighbouring states.

b. Saxon blue = Saxony blue s.v. Saxony n. 2. Saxon green: cobalt green.

1753 Hanway Trav. (1762) I. vii. xciv. 432 The blues and greens, commonly called Saxon, are best dyed in this place. 1766 W. Gordon Gen. Counting-ho. 428, 2 Saxon-green durants. 1771 Woulfe in Phil. Trans. LXI. 127 Saxon blues+are made by dissolving indigo in oil of vitriol. 1775 Romans Hist. Florida App. 19 The color of the water changes+to a beautiful saxon blue. 1804 tr. Tingry's Painter & Varnisher's Guide 302 Smalt, or the vitreous oxide of saffer, reduced to coarse powder, is distinguished by the name of coarse Saxon blue, or enamel blue. 1968 E. Brill Old Cotswold v. 85 It is sometimes mixed with indigo, or in the old days with woad, to give what dyers call Saxon Green. 1976 Southern Even. Echo (Southampton) 12 Nov. (Advt. Suppl.) 14/3, 1973 Vauxhall Viva. Saxon blue.+ £1095.

Jute

[In pl. Jutes, a mod. rendering of Bæda's Jutæ and Juti, in OE. Eotas, Iótas, ?Iútan (gen. pl. Iútna), also Geátas; = Icel. Iótar people of Jutland on the mainland of Denmark.]

In pl. One of the three Low German tribes which, according to the account preserved by Bæda, invaded and settled in Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries; they are said to have occupied districts now included in Kent and Hampshire.

[c731 Bæda Hist. Angl. i. xv, Advenerant autem de tribus Germaniæ populis fortioribus, id est Saxonibus, Anglis, Jutis. De Jutarum origine sunt Cantuari et Victuari.] c900 tr. Bæda's Hist. i. xv. (1890) 52 Comon hi of þrim folcum ðam strangestan Germanie, þæt [is] of Seaxum, of Angle, & of Geatum. Of Geata fruman syndon Cantware & Wihtsætan. (Cf. O. E. Chron. an. 449 Of Ald Seaxum, of Anglum, of Iotum. Of Iotum comon Cantwara, and Wihtwara+& þæt cyn on West Sexum þe man nu ¼it hæt Iutna cynn.) [c731 Bæda H.A. iv. xvi, Fuga lapsi sunt de insula [Vecte] et in proximam Jutorum provinciam translati.] c900 tr. Bæda's Hist. iv. xvi[ii]. (1890) 308 Þa flu¼on þa cneohtas ut of [Wiht] þæm ealonde, & wæron ¼elædde in þa neah~mæ¼ðe, seo is ¼ece¼d Eota lond. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) V. 265 Of þe Iutes com þe Kentiche men, and þe men of the yle of Wight. 1670 Milton Hist. Eng. iii. Wks. (1847) 507/2 The Saxons+and+two other tribes+Jutes and Angles. 1839 Penny Cycl. XIII. 167/2 The first Germanic invaders of Britain after the departure of the Romans were Jutes. 1874 Green Short Hist. i. 1 To the north of the English [in Sleswick] lay the tribe of the Jutes, whose name is still preserved in their district of Jutland.

earl

Forms: 1–4 eorl, 2 ærl, 3 Šierl, 3–6 erl, (4 erldl, erld, erel, errel, 5 erell, errille), 4–6 Šerl, 5–7 erle, 5 urle, Šorle, 6–7 yerle, earle, 9 Sc. yerl, 7– earl. See also jarl, yarl. [OE. eorl = OSax. erl (= sense 1b below), ON. earl, later iarl, nobleman, chieftain:—OTeut. *erlo-z.

Some scholars refer the word to the Aryan root *ers, comparing Gr. “qrgm, 4qrgm male; cf. also earnest a. and n.1 The ON. runic spelling erilar seems however unfavourable to this view. The notion that eorl is a corruption of ealdor is wholly untenable.] †1. A man of noble rank, as distinguished from a ceorl, churl, or ordinary freeman. Only in OE.

?a616 Laws of Ethelbert 313 Gif on eorles tune man mannan ofsleæhþ xii scillinga ¼ebete. a1000 Byrhtnoth 132 Eode swa anræd eorl to þam ceorle.

†b. In OE. poetry used for: A warrior, a brave man, a man generally.

Beowulf 357 Þær Hroðgar sæt+mid his eorla ¼edriht. a1000 Riddles xlvii. 6 (Gr.) Ealra wæron fife eorla and idesa. a1000 Crist 546 (Gr.) Hwite cwoman eorla eadgiefan englas togeanes. a1000 Cædmon's Gen. 1844 Þa com ellenrof eorl siðian Abraham.

†2. In late OE.: A Danish under-king (see jarl); hence (under Cnut and his successors) the viceroy or governor of one of the great divisions of England, Wessex, Northumbria, Mercia, etc. (In this sense practically synonymous with the native title of alderman.) Obs. exc. Hist.

c906 Laws of Edw. & Guthrum 312 Gif man ¼ehadodne+forræde+Þonne sceal him cyng beon oþþon eorl þær on lande+for mæ¼ and for mund boran. c1042 Chart. Leofric in Cod. Dipl. IV. 72 Leofric eorl and his ¼ebedda habbað ¼eunnen twa land for Godes lufan. a1123 O.E. Chron. (Laud) an. 1048 Man sette þa Odda to eorle ofer Defenascire, & ofer Sumersæton, etc. 1761 Hume Hist. Eng. I. iii. 72 Canute+created Thurkill earl or duke of East Anglia.

3. After the Norman Conquest regarded as equivalent to the Lat. comes count. †a. generally. Applied to all feudal nobles and princes bearing the Romanic title of Count; also Hist. to the officers called comites under the later Roman empire. In ME. often used as the typical designation of a great noble. Obs. (In Hist. use count is now always employed in this sense.)

c1175 Cott. Hom. 231 Se hlaford into þar halle come, mid his dierewurd Šeferede, mid ærlen and aldren. a1200 Moral Ode 324 in Trin. Coll. Hom. 230 We mihten habben more+þan Šierles and kinges. a1300 Cursor M. 13270 Noght o riche kinges kin Ne of erel þan gret baron. c1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 386 Dukis & erlis, barons & knyŠtis. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VI. 251 Rouland eorl of þe paleys. c1400 Destr. Troy 4068 Ascalaphus, a skathil duke+And Helminus, a hede vrle, hadyn to-gedur Thretty shippes. c1420 Chron. Vilod. 269, Duke, Errelle, and eke Baroun. c1440 Promp. Parv. 141 Erle, lorde, comes. 1483 Caxton G. de la Tour Evj, The sone of an erle of that land. 1577 Holinshed Chron. I. 72/2 Nectaridus one of the emperours house earle of the sea coast, hauing charge of the parties towards the sea, was slaine. 1655 M. Carter Hon. Rediv. (1660) 51 We used the word Earl for gentle or noble. 1799 H. Hunter tr. St. Pierre I. 354 Christianity+wrested in France enormous possessions out of the hands of the Earls and Barons.

b. spec. In England, Scotland, and Ireland, the title of a specific order of rank, corresponding to Count in the nobility of other European nations; in the modern peerage an earl ranks next below a marquis, and next above a viscount. Under the Norman kings the title of earl (count) implied the governorship or the feudal lordship of a county; subsequently the territorial designation (Earl of Derby, of Leicester) became, as in other degrees of the peerage, purely formal, and in some cases a surname is used instead (as Earl Brownlow, Earl Cowper). When a duke or a marquis has an earldom as his second title, this is ‘by courtesy’ given to his eldest son: thus the heir of the Duke of Northumberland is Earl Percy, of the Marquis of Winchester, the Earl of Wiltshire.

a1123 O.E. Chron. an. 1101 Þurh þone eorl Rodbert of Normandie þe mid unfriðe hider to lande fundode. 1140 Ibid., On þis ¼ær wolde þe king Stephne tæcen Rodbert eorl of Gloucestre. 1297 R. Glouc. 523 He+bileuede the erl marschal & the erl of Chestre there. 1375 Barbour Bruce ii. 234 Twa Erlis alsua with him war. 1473 J. Warkworth Chron. 1 Lord Stafforde was made Erle of Devynshire. 1536 Wriothesley Chron. (1875) I. 41 Moste of the Kings Councell, as erles, lordes and nobles of this realme. 1556 Chron. Gr. Friars 54 Sir John Dudley that was amrelle of the see was made yerle of Warwyk. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, ii. ii. 79 The Earle of Warwick Shall one day make the Duke of Yorke a King. 1768 Blackstone Comm. I. i. xii. 310 An earl is a title of nobility. 1816 Scott Old Mort. 293 Levied an armed regiment under the Yerl of Angus.

†4. A director, superintendent.

1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 382/1 Thenne the erle of the sacrefyses gaue moche money.

5. Comb. †earl-right. (Only in OE. and Hist.)

c1030 Laws of Cnut in Thorpe Laws 81 Gif þe¼en ¼eþeah þæt he wearð to eorle þonne wæs he syþþan eorl-rihtes weorðe. 1875 Stubbs Const. Hist. I. v. 80 The+man who has ‘thriven to eorl-right’, or who has his forty hides.

Kentish

Also 1 Centisc, 3 Kentisc, -iss, 4 Kentissh(e. [OE. C£ntisc, f. C£nt, ad. L. Cantia Kent + isc, -ish1.]

1. Of or belonging to Kent. Chiefly of the inhabitants or speech. Kentish man (see quot. 1887).

a1100 O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) an. 999 Com þa seo Centisce fyrde þær on¼ean. c1205 Lay. 7441 Kentisce [later text Kentisse] leoden. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) V. 355 Þis Ethelbertus regnede among Kentisshe men fyfe and fifty Šere. 1590 Swinburne Testaments 71 At last also the kentish-men yeelded. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 346 The wives and daughters of the Kentish farmers. 1887 Kent. Gloss., Man of Kent, a title claimed by the inhabitants of the Weald as their peculiar designation: all others they regard as Kentish men.

2. absol. as n. a. pl. The natives or inhabitants of Kent. rare. b. The dialect of Kent.

905 O.E. Chron. (Parker MS.) an. 905 Þa ætsæton ða Centiscan þær beæftan. 1670 Ray Collect. Prov. 233 Kentish long-tails+A note of disgrace on all English men, though it chanceth to stick onely on the Kentish at this day. 1735 Pegge Kenticisms 15 Thus the Kentish would have many particularities in their speech. 1866 Morris Ayenb. Introd. 6 In the Old Kentish of the Ayenbite an e takes the place of the Southern u. 1887 Kent. Gloss. Introd. 8 The specimens of Kentish in the Early and Middle English Periods.

3. a. Common in, or peculiar to, Kent, as Kentish ague, cherry, codlin, pippin, tracery, tree; made or manufactured in Kent, as Kentish brick, cloth, etc. b. Kentish balsam, Dog's Mercury, Mercurialis perennis (Britt. & Holl.); †Kentish cap, a species of paper (see quot.); Kentish cousins, distant relatives; Kentish crow, one of the many names of the hooded crow, Corvus cornix; Kentish fire, a prolonged and ordered salvo or volley of applause, or demonstration of impatience or dissent (said to have originated in reference to meetings held in Kent in 1828–9, in opposition to the Catholic Relief Bill: see N. & Q. series 2, I. 182, 423; VIII. 278); Kentish glory, a large beautiful moth, Endromis versicolor; †Kentish Knocker [f. Kentish Knock the sand-bank before the mouth of the Thames], a Kentish smuggler; Kentish long-tails, a phrase embodying the old belief that the natives of Kent had tails; also, the Bearded Wild Oat-grass, Avena fatua (E.D.D.); Kentish nightingale, the blackcap; Kentish plover, a ring-plover, Ægialitis cantianus, in Britain chiefly confined to Kent; Kentish rag, a hard compact limestone found in Kent, used for paving and building; Kentish tern, the Sandwich tern, Sterna cantiaca.

1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 239 Plain Work is done with the Grey *Kentish Bricks. 1766 C. Leadbetter Royal Gauger ii. xiv. (ed. 6) 372 Names of Paper: *Kentish Cap. Dimensions of each Sheet—Length 21 1 / 2 Bread. 18. 1566 Act 8 Eliz. c. 6 §2 Anye Clothe commonly called *Kentyshe Clothe or Suffolke Clothe. 1803 J. Abercrombie Ev. Man his own Gard. 671/1 Apples,+Holland Pippin, Kentish pippin, *Kentish codlin. a1796 Pegge Kenticisms, Proverbs (E.D.S.), *Kentish Cousins. The sense of this is much the same with that [of]+ cousins germans quite remov'd. 1893 P. H. Emerson Lagoons (1896) 156 (E.D.D.) We saw a hawk chasing a *Kentish crow. 1834 Ld. Winchelsea Sp. at Dublin, 15 Aug. (Reddall Fact, Fancy & Fable, 1889, 301) Let it be given with *Kentish Fire. 1883 Chamberlain Sp. at B'ham 30 Mar., The cheers+are your prompt reply to the Kentish-fire with which Birmingham Tories are wont to solace themselves. 1775 M. Harris Eng. Lepidoptera 27 (heading) *Glory, Kentish. 1869 E. Newman Illustr. Nat. Hist. Brit. Moths 47 The Kentish Glory.—Fore wings of the male brown; hind wings orange-colour: all the wings of the female alike, pale smoky-brown. 1899 D. Sharp Cambr. Nat. Hist. VI. vi. 406 The ‘Kentish glory’, Endromis versicolor,+is a large and strong moth, and flies wildly in the daytime in birch-woods. 1971 Times 28 Jan. 12/6 The birch which provides the last English home of the Kentish glory moth. 1891 W. C. Sydney Eng. in 18th C. I. 358 Gangs of forty or fifty ‘*Kentish Knockers’, as these smugglers were called. 1844 Zoologist II. 620 Blackcap.+ It is frequently called the ‘*Kentish nightingale’, which epithet it deserves. 1837 Gould Birds Europe IV. pl. 40 The habits of the *Kentish Plover are similar to those of the Ring Dottrel. 1893 Newton Dict. Birds 341 The Kentish Plover+has its breeding place in Britain limited to the pebbly beach between Sandwich and Hastings. 1769 De Foe's Tour Gt. Brit. I. 158 From the Weald of Kent+they bring+A Kind of Paving Stone, called *Kentish-rags. 1879 Rutley Study Rocks iii. 20 Some+as the Kentish rag, afford good building stones. 1720 Gay Poems (1745) II. 100 Thy trembling lip+Red as the cherry from the *Kentish tree.

Hence "Kentishly adv., in the Kentish manner.

1588 W. Kempe Educ. Childr. Civ, Yea, in one house, we heare one speake Northernly, another Westernly, another Kentishly.

haplography

[f. haplo- + -graphy.]

Single writing; the unintentional writing of a letter or word, or series of letters or words, once, when it should be written twice. (The opposite of dittography.)

1888 J. Gow Comp. Classics 55 Haplography or Lipography+is a special and very common case of omission. 1896 W. M. Lindsay Introd. Latin Textual Emend. iii, The commonest kind of omission is that known as Haplography+In Virgil G. iv. 311, for example, Miscentur, tenuemque magis, magis aera carpunt. Some MSS. offer tenuemque magis aera, omitting the second magis.

myth

[ad. mod.L. mLthus: see mythus. Cf. F. mythe.

The pronunc. (maIT), formerly prevalent, is still sometimes heard. The corresponding spelling mythe was affected by Grote and Max Müller (among others). Cf. also the following:—

1838 T. Keightley Mythol. (ed. 2) 1 Mythology is the science which treats of the mythes+current among a people. 1846 I Notes on Bucol. & Georg. Virg. p. vii, From the Greek lÕho| I have made the word mLthe, in which however no one has followed me, the form generally adopted being mth.]

1. a. A purely fictitious narrative usually involving supernatural persons, actions, or events, and embodying some popular idea concerning natural or historical phenomena. Properly distinguished from allegory and from legend (which implies a nucleus of fact) but often used vaguely to include any narrative having fictitious elements. For the Platonic myth see quot. 1905.

1830 Westm. Rev. XII. 44 These two stories are very good illustrations of the origin of myths, by means of which, even the most natural sentiment is traced to its cause in the circumstances of fabulous history. 1849 Miss Mulock Ogilvies II. ii. 20 There is a German fairy fable of the Elle-women, who are all fair in front, but if you walk round them hollow as a piece of stamped leather. Perhaps this is a myth of young-lady-hood. 1856 Max Müller Chips (1880) II. xvi. 84 Many mythes have thus been transferred to real persons, by a mere similarity of name. 1856 E. M. Cope in Cambr. Ess. 147 One of those myths or fables in which+Plato shadows forth the future condition of the human soul. 1866 Edin. Rev. CXXIII. 312 The celebrated mythe or apologue called ‘The Choice of Hercules’, one of the most impressive exhortations in ancient literature to a life of labour and self-denial. 1899 Baring-Gould Vicar of Morwenstow vii. 195 It is chronicled in an old Armenian myth that the wise men of the East were none other than the three sons of Noe. 1905 J. A. Stewart Myths of Plato 1 The Myth is a fanciful tale, sometimes traditional, sometimes newly invented, with which Socrates or some other interlocutor interrupts or concludes the argumentative conversation in which the movement of the [Platonic] Drama mainly consists. Ibid. 2 The Platonic Myth is not illustrative—it is not Allegory rendering pictorially results already obtained.

b. in generalized use. Also, an untrue or popular tale, a rumour (colloq.).

1840 W. H. Mill Observ. i. 118 The same non-historical region of philosophical myth. 1846 Grote Greece i. i. I. 67 It is neither history nor allegory, but simple mythe or legend. 1854 Geo. Eliot Let. 23 Oct. (1954) II. 179 Of course many silly myths are already afloat about me, in addition to the truth, which of itself would be thought matter for scandal. 1885 Clodd Myths & Dr. 7 Myth was the product of man's emotion and imagination, acted upon by his surroundings. 1939 J. S. Huxley ‘Race’ in Europe 28 Napoleon, Shakespeare, Einstein, Galileo—a dozen great names spring to mind which in themselves should be enough to disperse the Nordic myth. The word myth is used advisedly, since this belief frequently plays a semi-religious role, as basis for a creed of passionate racialism. 1940 C. S. Lewis Problem of Pain v. 64, I offer the following picture—a ‘myth’ in the Socratic sense, a not unlikely tale. 1941 H. G. Wells You can't be too Careful v. i. 240 As the New Deal unfolded, American myth and reality began to take on an increasing parallelism with Europe. 1950 Scot. Jrnl. Theol. III. 37 To this inner fellowship of disciples the ‘mystery’ of the Kingdom of God is disclosed, whereas to outsiders this same Kingdom remains veiled in parables, remains, that is, a figure of speech, a colourful vision, an imaginative dream, or, as we might say, a myth. 1959 Listener 31 Dec. 1171/2 The theme of Sacrilege in Malaya+is that any institution of this kind needs some myth, that is some nonsense, to make it work. 1961 Ibid. 2 Nov. 739/2 Disraeli set himself to recreate a national political party out of the wreckage of Peel's following. A new myth had to be evolved. 1963 Brit. Jrnl. Sociol. XIV. 27 We use myth in a sense a little different from the popular one. To us it does not mean an untrue or impossible tale, but a tale which is told to justify some aspect of social order or of human experience. 1973 Times 13 Nov. 6/6 There is a myth going around that there are an awful lot of empty houses in Windsor Great Park. Ibid. 4 Dec. 7/4 Egypt's decision to sit at the table with Israel would ‘shatter the myth’ surrounding Israel's constant call for ‘direct negotiations’.

2. A fictitious or imaginary person or object.

1849 Lytton Caxtons x. iii, As for Mrs. Primmins's bones, they had been myths these twenty years. 1874 Sayce Compar. Philol. iv. 165 The pronominal root is a philological myth. 1888 Times (weekly ed.) 3 Feb. 9/3 Parliamentary control was a myth.

3. attrib. and Comb., as myth-addict, -addiction, -criticism, -maker, -monger, -pattern, -play, -removal, -stage, -system, -talk, -transcriber; myth-bound, -creating, -destroying, -haunted, -making (also vbl. n.), -producing, -provoking adjs.; myth-history (see mythistory).

1945 Koestler Yogi & Commissar ii. i. 133 Almost every discussion with myth-addicts, whether public or private, is doomed to failure. 1954 I Invisible Writing ii. 31 It does not matter by what name one calls this mental process—double-think, controlled schizophrenia, myth addiction, or semantic perversion. 1964 Economist 8 Aug. 551/2 Trying to educate the myth-bound Americans. 1874 H. R. Reynolds John Bapt. ii. 74 The myth-creating tendencies of the age. 1846 Grote Greece i. i. I. 75 The Athenian mythe-creators. 1957 N. Frye Anat. Criticism 72 The most conspicuous today being fantastical learning, or myth criticism. 1949 Koestler Insight & Outlook x. 153 The only [myth] which his myth-destroying genius embodied into his system. 1940 G. Barker Lament & Triumph 33 The Avalon haven I have in the grave Is now myth~haunted by God like Arthur. 1871 Tylor Prim. Cult. I. 20 That the earliest myth-maker arose and flourished among more civilized nations. 1961 Guardian 22 Sept. 10/5 The myth-makers are always quick to produce a propaganda image of the Leader. 1972 Listener 10 Aug. 183/1 Why did Buonarroti, who had started life as a court page, become a professional revolutionary and myth~maker, to bore historians for the next 130 years? 1865 Tylor Early Hist. Man. xi. 308 The myth-making power of the human mind. 1881 J. Royce Let. 28 Dec. in R. B. Perry Tht. & Char. of W. James (1935) I. 791 Ontology, whereby I mean any positive theory of an external reality as such, is of necessity myth-making. 1965 Times Lit. Suppl. 25 Nov. 1068/4 The myth-making gestures in her work. 1974 Listener 24 Jan. 111/3 There is+no causal connection between art and revolution+to suppose there is one is to take a step towards mythmaking. 1961 Ibid. 28 Sept. 479/3 They find their natural allies in the political myth-mongers and the political gangsters. 1951 M. McLuhan Mech. Bride 5/2 This urgent appetite to have the cake and eat it, too, is widely prevalent in the myth patterns+of industrial society. 1957 N. Frye Anat. Criticism 282 The scriptural play is a form of a spectacular dramatic genre which we may provisionally call a ‘myth-play’. 1954 Koestler Invisible Writing xxxvi. 390 An indication of the deep, myth-producing forces that were and still are at work. 1966 Punch 26 Jan. 139/1 Author explores the myth-provoking north-west coast of Spain. 1951 Myth-removal [see demythologize v.]. 1950 Scot. Jrnl. Theol. III. 39 We have seen that+Christians are to+get beyond the myth-stage of spiritual understanding. 1953 A. K. C. Ottaway Education & Society 42 Every society is held together by a myth-system. 1970 Jrnl. Ecumen. Studies VII. 822/1 In this essay, Gilkey is the theologian who establishes guidelines for myth-talk. 1924 D. H. Lawrence in N.Y. Times Mag. 26 Oct. 3/2 White people always, or nearly always write sentimentally about the Indians—all of them, anthropologists, and myth-transcribers and all.

dialect

[a. F. dialecte (16th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), or ad. L. dialectus, Gr. di0kejso| discourse, conversation, way of speaking, language of a country or district, f. diakŒcerhai to discourse, converse, f. dia- through, across + kŒceim to speak.]

1. Manner of speaking, language, speech; esp. a manner of speech peculiar to, or characteristic of, a particular person or class; phraseology, idiom.

1579 E. K. Ded. to Spenser's Sheph. Cal., Neither+must+the common Dialect and manner of speaking [be] so corrupted thereby, that [etc.]. 1599 Nashe Lenten Stuffe (1599) 41 By corruption of speech they false dialect and missesound it. 1638 Penit. Conf. vii. (1657) 191 Such a dialect which neither Men nor Angels understand. 1663 Butler Hud. i. i. 93 A Babylonish Dialect, Which learned Pedants much affect. 1740 J. Clarke Educ. Youth (ed. 3) 172 The Lawyer's Dialect would be too hard for him. 1805 Foster Ess. iv. iv. 163 Naturalized into the theological dialect by time and use. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. iii. vii. (1858) 155 Knowest thou no Prophet, even in the vesture, environment, and dialect of this age? 1857 H. Reed Lect. Eng. Poets iii. 87 They lay aside the learned dialect and reveal the unknown powers of common speech. fig. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. i. ii. 188 In her youth There is a prone and speechlesse dialect, Such as moue men. 1860 Emerson Cond. Life, Behaviour Wks. (Bohn) II. 384 The ocular dialect needs no dictionary.

2. a. One of the subordinate forms or varieties of a language arising from local peculiarities of vocabulary, pronunciation, and idiom. (In relation to modern languages usually spec. A variety of speech differing from the standard or literary ‘language’; a provincial method of speech, as in ‘speakers of dialect’.) Also in a wider sense applied to a particular language in its relation to the family of languages to which it belongs.

1577 Hanmer Anc. Eccles. Hist. 70 Certaine Hebrue dialectes. 1641 Raleigh Hist. World ii. 496 The like changes are very familiar in the Aeolic Dialect. 1635 E. Pagitt Christianogr. 73 The Slavon tongue is of great extent: of it there be many Dialects, as the Russe, the Polish, the Bohemick, the Illyrian+and others. 1716 Lond. Gaz. No. 5497/1 He made a Speech+which was answered by the Doge in the Genoese Dialect. 1794 S. Williams Vermont 200 A language may be separated into several dialects in a few generations. 1841 Elphinstone Hist. Ind. I. iv. 203 Páli, or the local dialect of Maghada, one of the ancient kingdoms on the Ganges. 1847 Halliwell Dict. Eng. Dialects (1878) 17 The Durham dialect is the same as that spoken in Northumberland. 1873 Hale In His Name viii. 71 That dialect of rustic Latin which was already passing into Italian.

b. attrib., as dialect speech, speaker, poems, specimens; dialect atlas, geography: see quots. 1933; hence dialect-geographer, dialect-geographical adj.

1932 Missouri Alumnus Apr. 232/1 The American Council of Learned Societies is financing a Dialect Atlas of the United States and Canada. 1933 Bloomfield Lang. iii. 51 Dialect atlases, collections of maps of a speech area with isoglosses drawn in, are an important tool for the linguist. 1948 South. Folklore Q. Dec. 231 The project was+inspired by the great European dialect atlases. 1929 Germanic Rev. I. 291 In 1898 Carl Haag introduced the term ‘Kernland~schaften’+into the treatment of dialect geography. 1933 Bloomfield Lang. xix. 321 The study of local differentiations in a speech-area, dialect geography, supplements the use of the comparative method. 1936 Language XII. 245 The dialect-geographers+have found variations. 1948 Neophilologus XXXII. 183 The results of the English dialect-geographical inquiry.

†3. = dialectic n.1 1. Obs.

1551 T. Wilson Logike (1580) 2b, Logike otherwise called Dialecte (for thei are bothe one) is an Arte to trie the corne from the chaffe. 1677 Gale Crt. Gentiles II iv. 223 We may draw forth the force of this Platonic Argument, in Plato's own dialect thus. 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. I. 395 He had a Tutor to teach him Grammar, and another Dialect. 1698 J. Fryer Acc. E. Ind. & P. 362 [They] teach Aristotle's Dialect, and the Four Figures of Syllogism. attrib. 1761 Sterne Tr. Shandy IV. 35 The learned+busy in pumping her [Truth] up thro' the conduits of dialect induction.

gloss

[var. of glose, gloze n., refashioned in 16th c. after L. glZssa, Gr. ckèrra in the same sense. (In the 15th c. the spelling glosse appears occas. for glos(e gloze n. and v.; see those words.)]

1. A word inserted between the lines or in the margin as an explanatory equivalent of a foreign or otherwise difficult word in the text; hence applied to a simliar explanatory rendering of a word given in a glossary or dictionary. Also, in a wider sense, a comment, explanation, interpretation. Often used in a sinister sense: A sophistical or disingenuous interpretation. (Cf. gloze n. 1.)

1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Matt. xxiii. 108 Like as by a glosse ye subuerte the commaundement. 1598 Drayton Heroic. Ep. vi. 109 The Canon Text shall have a common Glosse. 1608 Bp. Hall Vert. & Vices i. 15 Neither doth his tongue+make good a lie with the secret glosses of double or reserved senses. 1622 Sparrow Bk. Com. Prayer (1661) 66 The Church rather uses this+then any other Glosse or Paraphrase. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. §49 Malicious Glosses made upon all he had said. 1647 N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. i. ii. (1739) 2 The ways of future providence may be looked upon as a gloss of those Prophecies. 1667 Milton P.L. v. 435. 1695 Kennett Par. Antiq. ix. 641 The gloss indeed destroys the text, by pretending the word [etc.]. a1708 Beveridge Priv. Th. ii. (1730) 41 Nothing being more needful than to rescue the Words of our blessed Saviour from those false Glosses. 1767 Blackstone Comm. II. 495 A gloss of pope Innocent IV, written about the year 1250. a1834 Coleridge Shaks. Notes (1875) 134 A parenthesis or gloss slipt into the text. 1837–9 Hallam Hist. Lit. I. i. i. §68. 63 Irnerius began the practice of making glosses, or short marginal explanations, on the law books. 1868 Kirk Chas. Bold III. v. ii. 363 Secret glosses+intended to make that part of the contract a nullity. 1875 Whitney Life Lang. x. 183 The Cymric includes the Welsh, with ‘glosses’ from the ninth century.

b. A collection of such explanations, a glossary; also, an interlinear translation of, or series of verbal explanations upon, a continuous text.

1579 E. K. in Spenser's Sheph. Cal. Ep. Ded. §4 A+Glosse or scholion, for the exposition of old wordes. 1756–7 tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) II. 55 A manuscript Homer, with a gloss interlined, said to be five hundred years old. 1774 Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry Diss. ii. I. sig. E3b, A manuscript of Ovid's Art of Love, in very antient Saxon characters, accompanied with a British gloss. 1841 D'Israeli Amen. Lit. (1859) II. 95 E. K.+whose gloss has preserved much curious knowledge of ancient English terms and phrases. 1894 Clarke Hall Ags. Dict. Pref., Mostly obscure words only found in glosses.

¶c. In the sense of Gr. ckèrra: A foreign or other obscure word, requiring explanation. Obs.—1 (Hardly an Eng. sense, though given in some recent Dicts., app. on the ground of quot. 1837–9).

1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 28 The interpretations of obscure termes, which we call Glosses. 1837–9 Hallam Hist. Lit. I. i. i. (1847) 62 A gloss, ckèrra, properly meant a word from a foreign language, or an obsolete or poetical word, or whatever requires interpretation.

2. A poetical composition in which a stanza of some well-known poem is treated as a text for amplification, each of the successive stanzas of the ‘gloss’ being made to end with one of the lines or couplets of the text.

1598 Yong Diana 437 He sung a glosse vpon this Dittie. 1823 Roscoe Sismondi's Lit. Eur. (1846) II. xxxix. 538 Each verse is intended to form the subject of a strophe, in the gloss, or comment.

3. attrib. and Comb.

1624 Bedell Lett. iii. 64 Although the Glosse writer were no excellent Calculator. 1648 W. Jenkyn Blind Guide iv. 87 According to G. the glossmaker. 1888 G. W. Prothero Life Bradshaw 237 A gloss-hunt was a genuine relaxation to him.

homonym

[ad. late L. homZnym-um (Quintilian), a. Gr. ÁlÝmtl-om, neut. of ÁlÝmtlo| homonymous. Cf. F. homonyme ‘an equiuocation, or word of diuers significations’ (Cotgr.).]

1. a. The same name or word used to denote different things. b. Philol. Applied to words having the same sound, but differing in meaning: opp. to heteronym and synonym.

1697 tr. Burgersdicius his Logic i. xxv. 100 Those [words] that differ not in termination; as grammatica, the art of grammar, and grammatica, a woman, are not conjugates, but homonyms. 1851 Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. I. 350 During the later periods of the Empire there are so many homonyms as to confuse the most attentive investigator. 1876 T. Le M. Douse Grimm's L. §17. 34 A monosyllabic language, indeed, like the Chinese, is but, as it were, a cluster of homonyms.

c. Taxonomy. A generic name or a binomial that duplicates a name attached to a different plant or animal.

1892 Bull. Torrey Bot. Club XIX. 290 Homonyms.—The publication of a generic name or a binomial invalidates the use of the same name for any subsequently published genus or species respectively. 1920 Jrnl. Bot. LIX. 156 Specific names should be rejected when they are homonyms. 1951 G. H. M. Lawrence Taxon. Vascular Plants ix. 213 A name of a taxon is illegitimate and must be rejected if it is a later homonym, that is, if it duplicates a name previously and validly published for a taxon of the same rank based on a different type. 1967 R. E. Blackwelder Taxonomy xxii. 463 Priority determines which homonym can be retained as an acceptable name. 1972 W. T. Stearn A. W. Smith's Gardener's Dict. Plant Names (rev. ed.) 13 Similar names applied to different plants are called homonyms. The rejection of later homonyms has caused a number of unavoidable but regrettable name changes.

2. A person or thing having the same name as another; a ‘namesake’.

1851 F. Hall in Benares Mag. V. 27 It is to this Mushtáq that Mannú Lála+alludes, and not to his titular homonym of Azímábád, as our author imagines. 1864 Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. III. 118 He bestowed the Duchy upon his Father's homonym Robert the Younger. 1865 W. G. Palgrave Arabia II. 138 The locust of Arabia is+twice or three times the size of its northern homonym.

Hence †ho"monymal a., agreeing in name.

1641 H. L'Estrange God's Sabbath 102 For Island+their dayes are homonymall with ours in England+as derived from the same idoles.

heteronym

[f. as next, after synonym.]

1. A word having the same spelling as another, but a different sound and meaning: opp. to homonym and synonym.

1889 in Cent. Dict.

2. A name of a thing in one language which is a translation of the name in another language.

1885 B. G. Wilder Jour. Nerv. Dis. xii. (Cent.), Vernacular names which are more or less precise translations of Latin names, or of names in any other language, may be called heteronyms.

homophone

[ad. Gr. Ál¾uxmo| of the same sound, f. Álo- homo- + uxm– sound. Cf. F. homophone.]

A. adj. Having the same sound. rare.

1623 Cockeram, Homophon, of one sound. 1880 Encycl. Brit. XI. 796 Ten homophone letters were added.

B. n. 1. Philol. (Usually in pl.) Applied to words having the same sound, but differing in meaning or derivation; also to different symbols denoting the same sound or group of sounds.

1843 Gliddon Anc. Egypt (1850) 6/2 An alphabet composed of 16 distinct articulations, for each of which there was a number more or less great of homophones—i.e. symbols differing in figure, though identical in sound. 1866 Felton Anc. & Mod. Gr. I. i. iii. 45 Each syllable or word [in Chinese] has+a considerable number of characters, made up originally of different elements+Practically each of these homophones may be used for the word, in whatever sense that word may be employed. 1873 F. Hall Mod. Eng. 170 note, Homophones, identical to the ear only; as ail and ale. 1883 I. Taylor Alphabet I. 29 We have in English the four homophones rite, write, right, and wright. By the aid of the variant spelling a child readily learns that these homophones are really four different words.

2. Mus. = homophony 1. rare.

1879 Grove Dict. Mus. I. 746 Homophone+voices or instruments sounding alike—unison+sometimes applied to music written in what was formerly called the Monodic style+now ordinarily employed for music in plain harmony+as opposed to the Polyphonic treatment.

homograph

[f. homo- + Gr. -cqauo| written, -graph.]

†1. (See quot. 1823.) Obs.

1810 J. Spratt in Nicholson's Jrnl. XXV. 325 (title) Invention of a Homograph, or Method of Communication by Signals, on Sea or Land. 1823 Crabb Technol. Dict., Homograph (Mil.), a sort of telegraphic signals performed by means of a white pocket handkerchief.

2. Philol. A word of the same spelling as another, but of different origin and meaning.

1873 F. Hall Mod. Eng. 170 Homographs, identical to the eye; as base, bore, dun, fair+in their various senses.

lipography

[f. Gr. kip-, weak stem of ke¬peim to leave, be wanting + -graphy.]

The omission of a letter or syllable in writing.

1888 J. Gow Compan. to Classics 55 Haplography or Lipography, writing once a letter or syllable which should be written twice, is a special and very common case of omission. 1893 Classical Rev. Oct. 360/2 The reading+is invoked as evidence for ancient tradition: is it not simply a case of lipography?

orthoepy

[ad. Gr. ÀqhoŒpeia correctness of diction, f. *Àqhoep–| speaking correctly, f. Àqh¾-| ortho- + “po|, “pe- word.]

1. That part of grammar which deals with pronunciation; phonology. Also, the study of the relationship between pronunciation and a writing system.

1668 Wilkins Real Char. iii. i. 298 Parts of Grammar+Concerning the most convenient marks or sounds for the expression of such names or words; whether by writing, Orthography; or by speech, Orthoepy. 1711 J. Greenwood Eng. Gram. 35 Orthoepy+ought to have been reckon'd as a Part of Grammar before Orthography, since Speech preceeds Writing. 1784 R. Nares (title) Elements of Orthoepy, containing a Distinct View of the whole Analogy of the English Language. 1832–4 De Quincey Cæsars i. Wks. 1862 IX. 51 The grammar and orthoepy of the Latin Language. 1915 D. Agate in H. C. O'Neill Guide to Eng. Lang. i. v. 74/1 To these four divisions of grammar many grammarians have added Orthoëpy, which treats of pronunciation generally. 1957 E. J. Dobson Eng. Pronunc. 1500–1700 I. ii. 193 In spite of his title Orthoepia Anglicana+what he [sc. Daines] sets out to teach is orthography, not orthoepy. 1969 A. C. Partridge Tudor to Augustan English viii. 181 Though his was not the last shot fired in the hundred years' war of English orthoepy, Cooper's Grammar established that the criterion of correct Standard English rests firmly on its pronunciation. 1976 Visible Language X. 20 Phonetization of the alphabet and other writing systems is a province of orthoepy.

2. Correct, accepted, or customary pronunciation.

[1773 W. Kenrick (title) A new Dictionary of the English Language: containing not only the explanation of words+but likewise their orthoepia or pronunciation in speech.] 1801 Chenevix in Phil. Trans. XCI. 195 note, Without offending the radical orthoepy of our language. 1830 D'Israeli Chas. I, III. viii. 177 Formerly they regulated their orthography by their orthoepy. 1875 Whitney Life Lang. iii. 37 Changes which have altered the whole aspect of our orthoëpy and orthography.

phonology

[f. Gr. uxm– voice (see phono-) + -logy. So F. phonologie (Littré).]

Orig., the science of vocal sounds (= phonetics), esp. of the sounds of a particular language; the study of pronunciation; transf. the system of sounds in a language. Now, that branch of linguistics which deals with sound systems, or with sound systems and phonetics; the study of the sound system of a particular language. The domain of phonology is variously limited by different linguists and linguistic schools of thought. In the writings of the Prague school it is used to mean phonemics.

1799 E. Fry Pantographia (title-p.), Specimens of all well authenticated oral languages; forming a comprehensive digest of phonology. 1828 in Webster. 1845 Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc. IV. 168 Observations on General Phonology and alphabetical notation. 1862 Marsh Eng. Lang. 64 In our enquiries into extinct phonologies we have no such guide. 1879 Addr. Philol. Soc. 1 Contributions to Old English Phonology and Etymology. 1924, etc. [see phonetics n. pl.]. 1933 L. Bloomfield Language viii. 138 The description of a language, then, begins with phonology, which defines each phoneme and states what combinations occur. 1937 J. Orr tr. Iordan's Introd. Romance Linguistics iv. 287 The great majority of linguists and all the phoneticians+use ‘phonetics’ for the physiology of sounds, and although all do not adopt the term ‘phonology’ for their historical study, those who use the term ‘phonetics’ for the latter avoid confusion by speaking of ‘historical phonetics’. Ibid. 288 This matter of terminology has become complicated still further by the special meaning given to ‘phonology’ by the Prague philologists. 1939 Language XV. 1 We use the term phonology to refer to alternations (synchronic phonology) or changes (historical, diachronic phonology) in sounds, rather than for the theory of the nature and permutations of the sounds. The latter we call phonemics. Those who use ‘phonology’ in this sense+ deprive themselves of a convenient means of distinguishing two fundamentally distinct subjects. 1949 G. L. Trager Field of Linguistics 5 The phonetics and phonemics of a language are its phonological systems, its phonology. 1953 J. B. Carroll Study of Lang. ii. 43 Some languages have only a limited number of phonemes, while some others appear to possess extremely complex phonologies, offering a large number of finely differentiated phonemes. 1962 E. F. Haden et al. Resonance-Theory for Linguistics iii. 29 Phonology is the true-structure whose contributing members are phonemics and phonotactics. 1968 Chomsky & Halle Sound Pattern Eng. p. vii, In the course of this detailed investigation of English sound patterns and their underlying structure, certain rules of English phonology are developed. 1972 M. L. Samuels Linguistic Evol. i. 3 For some, at present, phonology is less important than grammar or lexis.

Hence pho"nologer (rare—0) = phonologist; phono"logic, phono"logical adjs., of, pertaining or relating to phonology; phono"logically adv., in respect of phonology; pho"nologist, one learned in phonology; phonologi"zation, (a) shift to phonemic status; (b) development (of a phonetic feature) to the status of the distinguishing feature in a phonemic opposition.

1864 Webster, *Phonologer, one versed in phonology; a phonologist. 1846 Worcester, *Phonologic. 1875 A. J. Ellis E.E. Pronunc. xi. 1336 Indian Phonologic Alphabet. 1936 Amer. Speech XI. 110 A ‘phonologic system’ is defined as the ensemble of phonologic oppositions proper to a given language. 1955 [see minimal a. b (a)]. 1970 Language XLVI. 312 Some phonologic features are closely related to an articulatory maneuver that involves a specific muscle. 1977 Archivum Linguisticum VIII. 50 ‘Generative grammar’ in the second sense is concerned with the description of rules for sentence-structures which include the phonologic level as well as the semantic one. 1818 Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc. I. 246 These modifications+may be distinguished in a *phonological alphabet by particular signs. 1880 E. L. Brandreth in Academy 19 June 459/2 The Prakrits+are separated from Sanskrit by very important phonological and other changes. 1888 Athenæum 26 May 657/3 Modern Kentish+is strikingly different *phonologically from the language of the same district as written in the fourteenth century. 1818 Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc. I. 241 This Sheva, the English *phonologists (if I may be allowed to use the name) have almost uniformly represented by u short. 1880 R. G. White Every-Day Eng. 137 Alexander Ellis, whose preeminence as a phonologist is questioned by no one. 1936 Proc. 2nd Internat. Congr. Phonetic Sci. 63 The *phonologization of Middle English voiced spirants is an isolated process in the development of Germanic languages. 1964 B. Trnka in D. Abercrombie et al. Daniel Jones 190 The phonologization of voice of spirants. 1976 Archivum Linguisticum VII. 95 Preaspiration+was consequently inadmissible in kampur, etc., but since it had been distinctive its loss was accompanied by phonologization of the devoicing of the sonant.

phonetics

[See phonetic and -ics.]

That department of linguistic science which treats of the sounds of speech; phonology; the phonetic phenomena (of a language or dialect). Now usu. restricted to the study of speech sounds as physical phenomena, and distinguished from phonology.

1841 Latham Eng. Lang. ii. ii. 113 Phonetics+determines (amongst other things) the systematic relation of Articulate Sounds+Between sounds like b and v, s and z, there is a connexion in Phonetics. 1848 A. J. Ellis (title) EsenSalz ov Fxnetics [= Essentials of Phonetics]. 1871 Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue §138 Provincial phonetics go still further, and call a gown gownd. 1875 Whitney Life Lang. iv. 60 Phonetics, as a branch of linguistic science. 1924 O. Jespersen Philos. Gram. ii. 35 It would, perhaps, be advisable to restrict the word ‘phonetics’ to universal or general phonetics and to use the word phonology of the phenomena peculiar to a particular language (e.g. ‘English Phonology’), but this question of terminology is not very important. Some writers would discriminate between the two words by using ‘phonetics’ of descriptive (static), and ‘phonology’ of historical (dynamic) ‘lautlehre’, but this terminology is reversed by some (de Saussure, Sechehaye). 1937 J. Orr tr. Iordan's Introd. Romance Linguistics 287 Generally, ‘phonetics’ is used to designate the physiology of sounds, and ‘phonology’ the history of sounds. Saussure reverses the use of the two terms. 1953 J. B. Carroll Study of Lang. ii. 25 General phonetics, in fact, is virtually a science in its own right, with two chief branches, motor phonetics (or articulatory phonetics) and acoustic phonetics. 1962 A. C. Gimson Introd. Pronunc. Eng. i. i. 2 Our primary concern will be the production, transmission, and reception of the sounds of English—in other words, the phonetics of English. 1964 P. Strevens in D. Abercrombie et al. Daniel Jones 120 There seem to be two main kinds of use of the term.+ ‘Phonetics’ for some means ‘making sounds’, while for others it refers to a component of the discipline of linguistics. 1970 G. C. Lepschy Survey Structural Linguistics iii. 59 Trubeckoj mentions a number of linguists who preceded him+in distinguishing between sound and phoneme, and thus between phonetics and phonology.

orthology

rare. [ad. Gr. Àqhokoc¬a correctness of language, f. *Àqhok¾co| speaking correctly, f. Àqh¾-| + -k¾co| speaking. So mod.F. orthologie.]

Correct speaking; that part of grammar which deals with the correct use of words.

a1619 M. Fotherby Atheom. ii. xiii. §1 (1622) 346 The natural, and as it were the homogeneal, parts of grammar be two; orthology, and orthography:+orthology+teaching men the right imposition of names. 1884 A. J. Patterson in 13th Addr. Philol. Soc. 42 The struggle between the respective partizans of ‘orthology’ and ‘neology’.

So or"thologer, orthologian (O;T@U"l@UdZI@n), one who speaks correctly, or who treats of the correct use of words; ortho"logical a., relating to correct speaking.

1844 L. A. J. Mordacque (title) French Orthologer: or Complete Course of Theory and Practice on the French Language. 1884 A. J. Patterson in 13th Addr. Philol. Soc. 43 Even at the outset of Kazinczy's career as a ‘neologian’, there was an opposition on the part of those who called themselves ‘orthologians’. 1873 Forster Life of Dickens II. 241 Victims of orthological impropriety.

mere

[OE. m£re str. masc., corresp. to OS. meri fem., sea (MDu., MLG. mere fem., neut., Du. meer neut., sea, pool), OHG. meri, marW (MHG., mod.G. meer) neut., sea, ON. mar-r masc., sea (MSw. mär, MDa. mær are from MLG.), Goth. mari- (nom. *mar) in mari-saiws sea (also the derivative marei:—OTeut. type *marîn- wk. fem.):—OTeut. *mari-:— WAryan *mori- or *m@ri-, represented in OSl. and Russ. more, OIrish muir, Welsh mor, L. mare neut. (It. mare, Pr., Sp., Pg. mar, F. mer fem.).

The word is often referred to the Indogermanic root *mer- (: mor-, mr-) to die, and supposed to have originally designated the sea as ‘lifeless’ in contrast with the land as abounding in vegetable life; but this is very doubtful; Brugmann suggests that the r may belong to the suffix. The form mar(r (14th c. marre), occurring in senses 2 and 4, is abnormal. Cf. ON. marr (which, however, is known only in the sense ‘sea’), and F. mare pond (from 12th c.).] †1. The sea. Obs. Mere Mediterane in quot. c1425 is prob. from French.

a1000 Andreas 283, & þu wilnast nu ofer widne mere? c1205 Lay. 21773 Þer walleð of þan mæren a moniare siden. [c1425 Wyntoun Cron. ix. xii. 1332 The Lord wes of the Oryent, Of all Jude, and to Jordane And swa to the Mere Mediterane.] 1447 O. Bokenham Seyntys (Roxb.) 74 O lord+Wych+pharoo+drynklyddyst in the salt mere.

2. A sheet of standing water; a lake, pond. Now chiefly poet. and dial. Freq. used of Grendel's abode in the Old English poem Beowulf.

Beowulf 1362 Nis þæt feor heonon mil¼emearces, þæt se mere standeð. a700 Epinal Gloss. 962 Stagnum, staeg vel meri. c1000 Ags. Gosp. John ix. 7 Ga & þweah þe on syloes mere. c1205 Lay. 21739 Þat is a seolcuð mere iset a middelærde mid fenne & mid ræode. 13+ E.E. Allit. P. A. 158, I seŠ by-Šonde þat myry mere, A crystal clyffe ful relusaunt. a1400–50 Alexander 4093 Sone was he dreuyn with his dukis in-to a dryi meere. 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Matt. xvi. 85b, He came vnto a meere which is called the sea of Galile. 1581 Mulcaster Positions xxiii. (1887) 95 Swimming in lakes and standing meres. 1651–7 T. Barker Art of Angling (1820) 23 Either in mayre, or pond. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VI. 40 The meres of Shropshire and Cheshire. 1823 Scott Peveril i, As a tempest influences the sluggish waters of the deadest meer. 1842 Tennyson Sir Galahad iv, Sometimes on lonely mountain-meres I find a magic bark. 1849 A. D. Wackerbarth tr. Beowulf 53 It is not far,—a Mile from here, Where stands the Monster's sluggish Meer. 1855 B. Thorpe tr. Beowulf 107/2 Departed home thence the gold-friend of men,+and on the mere they gaz'd. 1888 A. S. Swan Doris Cheyne iii. 53 She loved to+watch the lovely shadows in the silent depths of the placid mere. 1896 T. Blashill Sutton-in-Holderness 4 Dotted over with sedgy marrs, of which Hornsea Marr, a veritable lake, is practically the last survivor. 1898 G. Saintsbury Short Hist. Eng. Lit. i. i. 5 Beowulf+soon hears from the King that his adventure is not done, and determines to finish it in the mere itself. 1912 PMLA XXVII. 208 (title) The haunted mere in Beowulf. 1951 Speculum XXVI. 33 Grendel's mere has other attributes.+ The hart pursued by hounds chooses rather to give up its life than to hide its head in the grove surrounding the pool. 1957 Rev. Eng. Stud. VIII. 6 All this radiance is eclipsed when under cover of darkness Grendel's mother carries off Æschere to her retreat below the mere.

†3. An arm of the sea. Obs.

1573–80 Baret Alv. M 271 A Mere, or water whereunto an arme of the sea floweth. 1622 Callis Stat. Sewers (1824) 70, I take it that a Bay and a Creek be all one, and that a Mere and a Fleet be also of that nature. a1676 Hale De Jure Maris i. v. in Hargrave's Tracts (1787) I. 21 The abbot+had+the fishing, yea and the soil of an arm or creek of the sea called a meere or fleete.

4. A marsh, a fen. Now dial.

13+ Childh. Jesus 598 in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr. LXXIV. 335, I salle the gyffe bothe+Marre and mosse, bothe feldes and fene. 1609 Holland Amm. Marcell. xxii. viii. 201 The seventh [mouth of the Danube] is a mightie great one, and in manner of a meere, blacke. 1629 Maxwell tr. Herodian (1635) 360 Being come to a mighty great Meare or Marish, whither the Germanes had fled. 1670 Evelyn Diary 22 July, We rod out to see the greate meere or levell of recover'd fen lande. 1706 Phillips, Meer or Mear,+a low marshy Ground. 1876 Mid-Yorksh. Gloss., Mere, heard, at times, applied to ground permanently under water.

5. attrib., as †mere-rush.

1555 W. Watreman Fardle Facions i. v. 72 They feede them [children] with the rootes of mererusshes.

dragon

[a. F. dragon:—L. dracZn-em (nom. draco), a. Gr. dq0jxm, -omsa; usually referred to dqaj- strong aorist stem of dŒqjerhai to see clearly.]

I. †1. A huge serpent or snake; a python. Obs. (exc. in etymol. use).

c1220 Bestiary 759 Ðe dragunes one ne stiren nout+oc daren stille in here pit. c1250 Gen. & Ex. 2924 And worpen he ðor wondes dun, fro euerilc ðor crep a dragun. a1300 Cursor M. 5900 (Cott.) Dun þai kest a wand ilkan, And þai wex dragons [v.rr. -onis, -ownes, -ouns] son onan. c1400 Mandeville (1839) v. 40 It is alle deserte & fulle of Dragouns & grete serpentes. 1508 Dunbar Tua Mariit Wemen 263 Be dragonis baitht and dowis, ay in double forme. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 529 Hee+Now Dragon grown, larger than whom the Sun Ingenderd in the Pythian Vale on slime, Huge Python. 1700 Bp. Patrick Comm. Deut. xxxii. 33 Many authors+say that dragons have no poison in them. 1849 Kingsley Misc., Poet. Sacred & Leg. Art I. 265 Why should not these dragons have been simply what the Greek word dragon means—what+the superstitions of the peasantry in many parts of England to this day assert them to have been—‘mighty worms’, huge snakes?

2. a. A mythical monster, represented as a huge and terrible reptile, usually combining ophidian and crocodilian structure, with strong claws, like a beast or bird of prey, and a scaly skin; it is generally represented with wings, and sometimes as breathing out fire. The heraldic dragon combines reptilian and mammalian form with the addition of wings. It is difficult to separate senses 1 and 2 in early instances.

a1225 St. Marher. 158 Þe deuel com to þis maide swye In aforme of a dragoun. 1297 R. Glouc. (1724) 151 Out of the dragone's mouth twei leomes ther stode there. 1382 Wyclif Dan. xiv. 28 „eue to vs Danyel that distruyede Bel and slewŠ the dragoun. c1400 Destr. Troy 166 A derfe dragon drede to be-holde. 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, i. i. 11 His Armes spred wider than a Dragons Wings. 1595 I John ii. i. 288 Saint George that swindg'd the Dragon. 1607 Topsell Serpents (1658) 705 There be some Dragons which have wings and no feet, some again have both feet and wings. 1762 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. I. i. (R.), On a rising ground above the tents is St. George on a brown steed striking with his sword at the dragon, which is flying in the air. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VII. 156 The Dragon, a most terrible animal, but most probably not of Nature's formation. 1813 Scott Trierm. iii. xix, They+faced the dragon's breath of fire. 1895 A. H. S. Landor Corea 116 In shape, as the natives picture it, the dragon is not unlike a huge lizard, with long-nailed claws, and a flat long head+possessed of horns and a long mane of fire.

b. Hence frequent allusions to ancient and mediæval tales of dragons, as those which watchfully guarded the Gardens of the Hesperides, those which drew the chariot of Cynthia or the moon, those fought and slain by Beowulf, St. George, and other champions.

1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iii. ii. 379 Night-swift Dragons cut the Clouds full fast. 1611 I Cymb. ii. ii. 48 Swift, swift, you Dragons of the night, that dawning May beare the Rauens eye. 1663 Flagellum, or O. Cromwell (ed. 2) 5 He was very notorious for robbing of Orchards+the frequent spoyls and damages of Trees+committed by this Apple-Dragon. 1837 H. Martineau Soc. Amer. III. 240 The other public buildings being guarded by the dragon of bigotry. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Wealth Wks. (Bohn) II. 75 Harder still it has proved to resist and rule the dragon Money, with his paper wings. 1860 I Cond. Life, Fate II. 320 Every brave youth is in training to ride, and rule this dragon [Fate].

c. like a dragon: fiercely, violently.

1711 Swift Lett. (1767) III. 213 We ate roast beef like dragons. 1741 tr. De Mouhy's Fort. Country Maid I. 165 The poor Boy+seeing himself collar'd, fought like a Dragon. 1827 Scott Jrnl. 8 Oct., I even made a work of necessity and set to the Tales like a dragon.

3. In the Bible versions reproducing draco of the Vulgate and dq0jxm of the Septuagint, where the Hebrew has (a) tannWn a great sea- or water-monster, a whale, shark, or crocodile, also a large serpent; or (b) tan a desert mammalian animal, now understood to be the jackal, and so rendered in the Revised Version.

a1340 Hampole Psalter lxxiii[i]. 14 Þou angird þe heuedis of dragunys [1382 Wyclif dragounys, 1611 dragons, 1885 R.V. dragons (marg. sea-monsters)] in watirs. 1382 Wyclif Ps. xc[i]. 13 Thou shalt to-trede the leoun and the dragoun [1611 dragon, 1885 R.V. serpent]. I Job xxx. 29 Brother I was of dragouns [1611 dragons, 1885 R.V. jackals]. I Isa. xxxiv. 13 It shal be the bed place of dragownes [1611 dragons, 1885 R.V. jackals]. 1885 Bible (R.V.) Ps. cxlviii. 7 Praise the Lord from the earth, Ye dragons [marg. sea-monsters] and all deeps.

4. a. An appellation of Satan, the ‘Old Serpent’.

1340 Ayenb. 174 Ine þe þrote of þe lyone of helle, and of þe dragoune þet him wyle uorzuelŠe. 1382 Wyclif Rev. xx. 2 And he cauŠte the dragoun, the olde serpent, that is the deuel and Sathanas. c1440 York Myst. xxi. 157 The dragons poure+Thurgh my baptyme distroyed haue I. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxxviii. 1 Done is a battell on the dragon blak. 1667 Milton P.L. iv. 3 The Dragon, put to second rout, Came furious down to be reveng'd on men. 1707 Watts Hymn ‘How sad our State’ v, The old Dragon+With all his hellish crew.

b. transf. A devilish person; a ‘fiend’.

1508 Kennedie Flyting w. Dunbar 249 Dathane deuillis sone, and dragon dispitous. Ibid. 283 Corspatrick+That dampnit dragone drew him in diserth. 1715 I. Mather Sev. Serm. (Boston) i. ii. 40 Has not the Dragon of France boasted, that he caused Twenty hundred thousand Persons to renounce their Religion?

c. An evil power embodied. rare.

c1470 Henry Wallace xi. 287 Inwy the wyle dragoun, In cruell fyr he byrnys this regioun.

5. An appellation of Death. arch.

1500–20 Dunbar Poems viii. 17 O duilfull death! O dragon dolorous! Ibid. lviii. 28 Off deathe+the dragoun stang thame. 1878 Browning La Saisiaz 43 The serpent pains which herald, swarming in, the dragon death.

6. A fierce violent person; esp. a fiercely or aggressively watchful woman; a duenna. dragon of virtue (F. dragon de vertu), a woman of austere and aggressive virtue.

1755 Johnson, Dragon+3. A fierce violent man or woman. 1837 Thackeray Ravenswing vi, Lady Thrum, dragon of virtue and propriety. 1848 Life Normandy (1863) I. 178 She will keep her husband in as tight order as the handsome old dragon we met just now. 1887 Mrs. C. Reade Maid of Mill II. xxvii. 116 Confronted by the dragon, in her not least dragonesque mood.

7. a. A representation or figure of the mythical creature.

c1320 Sir Tristr. 1042 Tristrem+Bar him þurch þe dragoun In þe scheld. c1540 Inv. Westm. Abb. in Trans. Lond. & Middlesex Archæol. Soc. (1875) IV, Hym that beryth the Dragon on Easter Evyn. 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VII, 1b, A red firye dragon beaten upon white and grene sarcenet. 1766 Porny Heraldry (1787) 203 The Eleventh is Or, a Dragon passant Vert. 1870 H. W. Henfrey Eng. Coins (1891) 38 The dragon on some of the coins [of Henry VII] was the ensign of Cadwallader, the last King of the Britons. 1888 J. T. Fowler in Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 234 note, On the three Rogation Days the dragon was carried ‘in principio processionis’.

†b. An ensign or standard, having the figure of a dragon. Obs.

1297 R. Glouc. (1724) 303 Edmond ydyŠt hys standard+And hys dragon vp yset. c1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 13345 A-mong þo was þe dragoun Þat Arthur bar for gonfanoun. 13+ K. Alis. 4300 Theo kyng dude sette out his dragoun. 1609 Holland Amm. Marcell. xvi. xi. 74 The purple ensigne of a dragon fitted to the top of a+high launce, as if it had beene the pendant slough of a serpent.

c. dragon china, a kind of porcelain decorated with designs of dragons.

1786 F. Tytler Lounger No. 79 38 Ringing it to try if it was without a flaw, she returned it into the auctioneer's hands, declaring it a piece of true Dragon. 1853 E. M. Sewell Experience of Life ix. 80 Tea came, and+the wide cups of dragon china.

d. to chase the dragon (slang): to take heroin by inhalation (see quot. 1961).

1961 Harney & Cross Narcotic Officer's Handbk. iii. 58 The method of smoking heroin called ‘chasing the dragon’ or its variant, ‘playing the mouth organ’.+ In ‘chasing the dragon’ the heroin and any diluting drug are placed on a folded piece of tinfoil. This is heated with a taper and the resulting fumes inhaled through a small tube of bamboo or rolled paper. The fumes move up and down the tinfoil with the movements of the molten powder, resembling the undulating tail of the mythical Chinese dragon. When a matchbox cover instead of a tube is used to assist in inhaling the vapour, that operation is called ‘playing the mouth organ’, which the action suggests. 1982 T. Mo Sour Sweet vi. 50 Probably the stuff was now only twenty per cent pure. Still, good enough for ‘chasing the dragon’ Hong Kong style with match, silver foil, and paper tube. 1984 Times 8 Oct. 13/3 More [heroin] is taken by sniffing the powder—snorting; or by ‘chasing the dragon’+less through intravenous injection. 1985 R. Lewis Blurred Reality iii. 105 There's this myth among the kids that if they inhale the burned skag it isn't going to hurt them. Chasing the dragon, they call it.

8. Astron. a. A northern constellation, Draco.

1551 Recorde Castle Knowl. (1556) 263 Aboute these 2 Beares is there a long trace of 31 starres, commonly called the Dragon. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 334 Around our Pole the Spiry Dragon glides, And like a winding Stream the Bears divides. 1786–7 Bonnycastle Astron. 420.

†b. The part of the moon's path which lies south of the ecliptic: see dragon's head, tail. Obs.

c1391 Chaucer Astrol. ii. §4 Whan that no wykkid planete, as+the tail of the dragoun, is in [the] hous of the assendent. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. viii. xix. (1495) 330 The heed of the dragon and the taylle+meue wyth the fyrmament and folowe his course. 1594 Blundevil Exerc. iii. i. xv. (ed. 7) 306 The Dragon then signifieth none other thing but the intersection of two Circles, that is to say, of the Ecliptique and of the Circle that carrieth the Moon+and that part towards the South is called of some the belly of the Dragon.

†c. Applied to a shooting star with a luminous train. Obs. Cf. drake1 2.

1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. viii. xxiii. (1495) 335 Amonge the mydle sterres of Artos fallyth downe as it were a dragon other a fleenge sterre in lyknesse of lyghtenynge. 1563 W. Fulke Meteors (1640) 7, 10. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 119 Fiery dragons were seene fliyng in the ayre. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1862) I. xxi. 134 Floating bodies of fire, which assume different names+The draco volans, or fliyng dragon, as it is called.

9. A paper kite. [Ger. drache.] Sc.

1756 M. Calderwood Jrnl. (1884) 145 A peice of brocade+in the shape of a dragon the boys let fly. 1868 G. Macdonald R. Falconer I. 253 The dragon broke its string+and drifting away, went+downwards in the distance.

10. †a. An early fire-arm; = dragoon 1. Obs. †b. A soldier armed with this; = dragoon 2. Obs.

1604–28 W. Yonge Diary (Camden) 35 Colonel Francis his regiment, especially the soldiers called Dragons, do continually make incursions upon the enemy. 1834 J. R. Planché Brit. Costume 270 The dragon received its name from its muzzle, being generally ornamented with the head of that fabled monster, and the troops who used it+acquired the name of Dragons and Dragoons from this circumstance. 1849 J. Grant Kirkaldy of Gr. xviii. 198. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Dragon, an old name for a musketoon.

c. A very powerful armoured tractor.

1926 Glasgow Herald 8 Apr. 11 The tanks, dragons, light and heavy guns, cookers, etc. 1927 Sunday Express 1 May 7 Just as these ‘tankettes’ will largely supersede the infantry, so will the ‘dragons’ supersede horse-teams for bringing up the guns.

11. Zool. A lizard of the genus Draco, having on each flank a broad wing-like membrane, which enables it to leap some distance in the air.

1819 Pantologia, Draco volans, flying dragon. 1823 Crabb Technol. Dict., Dragon (Zool.) the Draco of Linnæus, a four-footed beast of the lizard tribe+able, by means of its lateral membrane, to support itself for a short time in the air. 1841 Penny Cycl. XX. 457/2 The canines of the Dragon are proportionally longer than those of Stellio. 1847 Carpenter Zool. §468 The Dragons of zoologists, instead of being formidable animals, like those of poets, are of very small size, and only attack insects.

12. Ichthyol. (Also dragon-fish.) a. = dragonet 2. †b. The angler, Lophius (obs.).

1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 198 Dragon+the flesh is hard and dry, but if prepared, pleasant. 1694 Acc. Sev. Late Voy. ii. (1711) 132 Of the Dragon-fish. 1769 Pennant Zool. III. 130.

13. A fancy variety of pigeon; = dragoon n. 3.

1867 Tegetmeier Pigeons viii. 80 The Dragon most closely resembles+the Carrier, and it is stated+that it was produced by mating a Tumbler with a Horseman or a Carrier. 1895 Daily News 10 Oct. 5/4 A splendid collection of dragons and tumblers, both short-faced and flying.

14. (Also green dragon.) The plant Dracunculus vulgaris (formerly Arum Dracunculus); = dragons, dragonwort. Also applied to species of Dracontium.

1538 Turner Libellus, Dracontia latine dracunculus dicitur, anglice Dragon. 1551 I Herbal i. Ovja, Dragon hath a certayne lykenes vnto aron, bothe in the lefe and also in the roote. 1626 Bacon Sylva §632 The Spirits doe but weaken, and dissipate, when they come to the Air and Sunne; As we see it in Onions, Garlick, Dragon, &c. 1858 Hogg Veg. Kingd. 796 Dracunculus vulgaris, or Green Dragon, is a native of the South of Europe, and receives its name from spots on the stem. 1866 Treas. Bot., Dragon, Dracunculus vulgaris; also applied to the orontiaceous genus Dracontium.

†15. A disease of the eye of the horse: see quots.

1639 T. de la Grey Compl. Horsem. 94 Dimnesse of sight, filmes, pearles, pin and web, dragons, serpentines. c1720 W. Gibson Farrier's Guide ii. xxiv. (1738) 80 Cataract+is the same which the Farriers distinguish by the different Names of a Speck, Pearl, or Dragon. Ibid. 81 When it is very small, and shows itself only in the Bottom of the watry humour, it is then called a Dragon.

16. (Also dragon cane): see quot.

1851 Offic. Catal. Gt. Exhib. II. 798 From Singapore+Ratans, dragons, and Penang lawyers are stems of various species of Calamus. Ibid. 800 Dragon canes mounted.

17. slang. A sovereign: from the device of St. George and the Dragon.

1827 Maginn Transl. Vidocq. (Farmer) Collar his dragons clear away. 1859 Matsell Vocabulum (Farmer).

II. attrib. and Comb. 18. attrib. or as adj. Of or as of a dragon, of the nature of a dragon; dragon-like, dragonish. dragon boat = drake1 5.

1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. v. viii. 17 The dragon wing of night ore-spreds the earth. 1632 Milton Penseroso 59 Cynthia checks her dragon yoke. 1777 Potter Æschylus (1779) I. 110 (Jod.) Fierce with dragon rage. 1822 W. Irving Braceb. Hall (1823) II. 174 They+kept a dragon watch on the gipsies. 1832 Tennyson Dream Fair Women 255 Those dragon eyes of anger'd Eleanor. 1848 Dickens Dombey xxiii, Two dragon sentries keeping ward. 1868 Tennyson Lucretius 50 Dragon warriors from Cadmean teeth. 1895 Æ. Mackay Fife & Kinross I. 20 Norse Vikings whose dragon boats preyed on the coasts. 1903 Folk-Lore Sept. 293 A dragon-horse carrying on its back a scroll. 1937 Burlington Mag. Oct. 162/1 The ch'i-lui, also called dragon-horse, is known to us from classic writings.

19. General Combs.: a. attributive, as dragon-bought, -coil, -face, -feet, †-hame (covering), -hole, -killer, -kind, -legend, -mail, -race, -scale, -seed, tooth (see 21b), -whelp, -womb; b. similative, as dragon-green adj.; c. instrumental, as dragon-guarded, -ridden, -wardered adjs.; d. parasynthetic, as dragon-eyed, -mouthed, -penned, -winged, adjs.; also dragon-like adj. and adv.

1872 Tennyson Gareth & Lynette 228 The *dragon-boughts and elvish emblemings Began to move. 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) I. 149 Those grotesque figures and *dragon-faces. 1820 W. Tooke tr. Lucian I. 107 Hecate+stamped with her *dragon-feet. 1884 Pall Mall G. 1 Dec. 5/1 *Dragon-green great coats with red linings. 1901 Daily News 22 Feb. 6/3 Their places of captivity stand for *dragon-guarded castles. 1914 W. B. Yeats Responsibilities 32 In a dragon-guarded land. a1400–50 Alexander 487 Anec[t]anabus+Did on him his *dragon-hame and drafe thurŠe þe sale. 1483 Cath. Angl. 106/2 A *Dragon hole. 1687 T. Brown Saints in Uproar Wks. 1730 I. 81 Ten times more troublesome than+the *dragon-killer. 1963 Times 17 May 24/2 (Advt.), Every quarter it reviews, comprehensively and authoritatively, the latest developments in pure and applied science. It is the best dragon-killer sixpence can buy. 1848 A. Jameson Sacr. & Leg. Art (1850) 424 The *dragon-legend of the Gargouille. 1607 Shakes. Cor. iv. vii. 23 He+Fights *Dragon-like, and does atcheeue as soone As draw his Sword. 1795 Southey Joan of Arc vii. 392 Clad in his *dragon mail. 1886 W. J. Tucker Life in E. Europe 236 The prodigious, *dragon-mouthed water-pipes. 1922 W. B. Yeats Seven Poems 8 Now days are *dragon-ridden. 1885 I in Dublin Univ. Rev. Apr., Until afar appear the gleaming *dragon-scales. 1855 Milman Lat. Chr. ix. viii. (1864) V. 389 Had only sowed the *dragon seed of worse heresies. 1607 Topsell Serpents (1658) 709 A little *Dragon-whelp bred in Arcadia. 1605 Play Stucley 1191 in Simpson Sch. Shaks. I. 206 His dauntless *dragon-winged thoughts. 1634 Milton Comus 131 The *dragon womb Of Stygian darkness.

20. Special Combs.: dragon arum, the plant Dracunculus vulgaris (sense 14); dragon-beam, dragon-piece, ‘a short beam lying diagonally with the wall-plates at the angles of the roof for receiving the heel or foot of the hip-rafter’ (Gwilt); dragon-bushes, Linaria vulgaris (Miller); dragon claw = dragon's claw (see 21); dragon-fish (see sense 12); dragon-plant, a name for the species of Dracæna; †dragon serpentine = dragonwort; dragon-shell (see quot.); dragon-stone, draconites; †dragon-volant (see quot.); †dragon-water, a medicinal preparation popular in 17th c. Also dragon-fly, etc.

1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 160 *Dragon-beams, are two strong Braces or Struts+meeting in an angle upon the shoulder of the King-piece. 1823 P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 222 *Dragon-piece, a beam bisecting the wall-plate, for receiving the heel or foot of the hip-rafters. 1598 Florio, Dragontea, the herb dragon wort, or *dragon serpentine. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., *Dragon-shell+a name given+to a species of concamerated patella or limpet. This has its top very much bent, and is of an ash-colour on the outside, but of an elegant and bright flesh-colour within. 1632 Sherwood, *Dragon stone, draconite. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Dragon-volant, the old name for a gun of large calibre used in the French navy. 1607 Dekker Westw. Hoe ii. ii. Wks. 1873 II. 308 Will you send her a Box of Mithridatum and *Dragon water. 1615 Markham Eng. Housew. ii. i. (1668) 6 For the Quartan Fever, Take+Dragon water.

21. Comb. with dragon's. a. In names of plants, as dragon's-claw, dragon's-herb (= dragonwort); dragon's-mouth (see quot.). b. dragon's belly, dragon's skin (see quots.); dragon's teeth, the teeth of the dragon fabled to have been sown by Cadmus, from which sprang armed men; also the colloquial name given to the cone-shaped anti-tank obstacles used in the war of 1939–45 (see also quot. 1971); dragon's tongue, ?the tongue of a buckle. See also dragon's blood, -head, -tail.

1766 Croker Dict. Arts, Venter Draconis, *Dragon's Belly, in astronomy+that part [of a planet's orbit] most remote from the nodes, that is, from the dragon's head and tail. 1832 Comstock Bot. (1850) 424 Corallorhiza, *Dragon's claw. 1600 Vaughan Direct. Health (1633) 166 Rosemary, Myrrh, Masticke, Bolearmoniacke, *Dragons hearbe, Roach Allom. 1857–84 Henfrey Bot. (ed. 4) 301 The Snap-dragon, or *Dragon's mouth. 1884 Miller Plant-n., Dragon's-mouth, Antirrhinum majus, Arum crinitum, and Epidendrum macrochilum. 1865 Page Handbk. Geol. Terms, *Dragons' Skin, a familiar term among miners and quarrymen for the stems of Lepidodendron, whose rhomboidal leaf-scars somewhat resemble the scales of reptiles. 1644 Milton Areop. (Arb.) 35 They are as lively, and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous *Dragons teeth. 1853 Marsden Early Purit. 290 Jesuits+sowed the dragon's teeth which sprung up into the hydras of rebellion and apostasy. 1943 Hunt & Pringle Service Slang 28 Dragon's teeth, a form of anti-tank obstacle. 1944 Times 28 Nov. 4/2 Extensive minefields, road blocks, dragons' teeth, tank ditches, [etc.]. 1971 Oxf. Univ. Gaz. 18 Feb. 671/1 ‘Dragon's teeth’, that is to say, sharp hinged teeth which+protrude from the ground but can be made to sink into it for a car to pass. 1794 W. Felton Carriages (1801) I. 101 The small splinter-sockets, shewing the hook, the eye and *dragon's-tongue, which are for one and the same use.

Hence "dragonhood, the condition or quality of a dragon; "dragonship, the office or occupation of a dragon (as strict guardian).

1862 ‘C. Bede’ College Life 103 The same mysterious dragonship was maintained over her in-doors. 1894 G. Allen in Westm. Gaz. 23 Oct. 1/3 What are the visible signs and credentials of his dragonhood?

byrnie

Obs. exc. Hist. [Sc. variant of ME. brynie, brinie, with metathesis of r. The word was thus brought nearer to OE. byrne, from which however it could not directly come, as this gave only the monosyllabic *byrn, burne, bryn.]

A cuirass, corslet, coat of mail; = brinie.

1375 Barbour Bruce ii. 352 The blud owt at thar byrnys brest. c1470 Henry Wallace ii. 106 Into ye byrneis [v.r. birny] ye formast can he ber. 1513 Douglas Æneis vii. xi. 95 His breistplayt strang and his byrnie. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. I. 140 With breistplait, birny, as the buriall brycht. 1864 G. W. Dasent Jest & Earn. (1873) II. 273 He had armed himself in two byrnies or shirts of mail. 1870 Magnusson & Morris Volsungs xi. 37 No shield or byrny might hold against him.

nominative (of nouns)

[a. F. nominatif, -ive (13th c.), or ad. L. nZminQtWv-us (casus): see nominate v. and -ive.]

A. adj. 1. Gram. a. nominative case, that case of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns, which stands as, or is connected with, the subject of a verb.

1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 327 Þat ylond of Ynde hatte Tilis in þe nomenatyf caas; and þe ilond of occean hatte Tyle in þe nominatyf caas. c1440 Gesta Rom. xci. 416 (Add. MS.), And so we han the nominatif case. ?1481 in Flügel Neuengl. Lesebuch (1895) 297 Sum tymys they be verbys parsonallys and haue nominatiffe casys before them. 1520 Whitinton Vulg. (1527) 1 The verbe shall accorde with his nominative+case. 1588 Fraunce Lawiers Log. ii. i. 86 The nominative case and the verbe be placed grammatically, according to the prescription of Syntaxis. 1668 Wilkins Real Char. iii. ix. 355 The Nominative Case before the Verb, and the Accusative after. 1751 Harris Hermes (1841) 168 Hence the reason why every verb+has in language a necessary reference to some noun for its nominative case. 1817 Selwyn Law Nisi Prius (ed. 4) II. 835 Doubts had been entertained whether the words other person in this statute should be taken to be in the nominative or in the genitive case. 1886 T. Le M. Douse Introd. Gothic 209 Its inflectional characteristic is the Nominative case.

b. Of the nature of, characteristic of, pertaining to, the (or a) nominative case.

1824 L. Murray Eng. Gram. (ed. 5) I. 219 These sentences, or clauses, thus constituting the subject of an affirmation, may be termed nominative sentences. 1872 Morris Hist. Eng. Accid. 101 The nominative ending s+is connected with the demonstrative pronouns.

2. Nominated; appointed by nomination.

1660 Trial Regic. 124 The case is instant in Philip who was a nominative King. 1735 Col. Rec. Pennsylv. IV. 45 Even so this Nominative Court may pass with the learned as Justifiable. 1883 W. E. Baxter Winter in India ii. 21 The municipality of Bombay is partly elective and partly nominative. 1892 Daily News 6 Aug. 4/8 The Second Chamber was still nominative in parts where it should have been elective.

3. Appellative, denominative. rare—1.

1844 Tupper Heart xi. 115 Their latest noms de guerre will serve all nominative purposes as well as any other.

4. Bearing the name of a person.

1872 Daily News 30 Sept., A nominative personal invitation from M. Vogeli to meet M. Gambetta. 1879 Standard 10 June, The Shares are nominative, but they can be converted into Share Warrants ‘to Bearer’.

B. n. 1. The nominative case.

c1620 A. Hume Brit. Tongue (1865) 29 The nominative hath no other noat but the particle of determination. 1751 Harris Hermes (1786) ii. iv. 281 The Nominative is that Case, without which there can be no regular and perfect Sentence. 1768 Holdsworth Virg. 161 This is certainly used in the nominative plural. 1841 Latham Eng. Lang. 216 The Nominative Plural and the Genitive Singular are, in the present language of England, identical. 1872 Morris Hist. Eng. Accid. 101 The nominative and accusative have no formative particles to distinguish them.

2. a. A word in the nominative case; a form which is the nominative case of a word.

1668 Wilkins Real Char. 448 Some words requiring a Nominative, others a Dative, others an Accusative. 1699 Bentley Phal. 320 To put Nominatives instead of Oblique Cases. 1751 Harris Hermes (1841) 193 Hence+arises the grammatical regimen of the verb by its nominative, and of the accusative by its verb. 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) VIII. 51 note, The preposition in this case+governs a nominative and a verb. 1889 Proc. Philol. Soc. 322 Brugmann explains the Nominatives ager, Qcer as standing for *agros, *Qcris.

b. A subject (to a verb).

1824 L. Murray Eng. Gram. (ed. 5) I. 225 That a sentence, or part of a sentence, may be the nominative to a verb, is undoubtedly true.

3. nominative absolute.

1843 Proc. Philol. Soc. 153 Other idioms+have the indeterminate pronoun preceded by a nominative absolute. 1858 C. P. Mason Eng. Gram. 97 This adverbial relation may be sustained.+ By a substantive (accompanied by some attributive adjunct) in the nominative absolute; as ‘The sun having risen, we commenced our journey’. 1916 E. A. Sonnenschein New Eng. Gram. iii. 44 The nominative absolute construction is an equivalent of an adverb-clause: We sitting, as I said, the cock crew loud. 1949 Bailey & Horn Eng. Handbk. vii. 266 Begin some sentences with a nominative absolute.+ Dr. Carver having proved his point, sweet potatoes and peanuts were planted in abundance. 1963 Pence & Emery Gram. Present-Day Eng. ii. 62 The nominative absolute is a perfectly proper construction as far as grammar is concerned.+ Although a nominative absolute has no grammatical function in the statement in which it appears, it should have a logical function. 1972 Hartmann & Stork Dict. Lang. & Linguistics 152/2 Nominative absolute, absolute construction.

Hence "nominatively adv., ‘in the manner of the nominative’ (Webster 1847).

accusative (of nouns)

[a. Fr. accusatif, -ive, ad. L. accGsQtWv-us, lit. of the nature of accusation, a verbal rendering of the Gr. (psèri|) a®si‰sij– (the case) ‘of accusing,’ but also ‘of or pertaining to that which is caused or effected (s¿ a®si‰s¾m)’; hence, prop. the case of the effect, or thing directly affected by verbal agency.]

1. Grammar. In inflected languages the name of the case whose primary function was to express destination or the goal of motion; hence the case which follows prepositions implying motion towards, and expresses the object of transitive verbs, i.e. the destination of the verbal action; sometimes applied, in uninflected languages, to the relation in which the object stands, as shown by its position alone. By omission of the word case, accusative is commonly used substantively.

c1440 Gesta Rom. (1879) 417 The fourte case is accusatif case. a1535 More Confut. Barnes viii. 742/1 (1557) Some vnlearned vse thys worde learne for thys worde teache, with his accusatyue case set oute, as Richarde learneth Robert. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iv. i. 45 Evans. Well, what is your Accusatiue case? William. Accusatiuo hinc. c1620 A. Hume Orthogr. Brit. Tong. 29 (1865) The accusative hath noe other noat then the nominative; as, the head governes the bodie. 1751 Harris Hermes ii. iv. 283 (1786) The Accusative is that Case, which to an efficient Nominative and a Verb of Action subjoins either the Effect or the passive Subject. 1879 J. A. H. Murray Address to Philol. Soc. 60 The use of the Accusative to supply a Nominative, originally wanting in neuter nouns, is probably connected with the appearance of the passive voice in the verb.

†2. (From accuse v.) Pertaining, tending, or addicted to accusation; accusatory. Obs. rare.

a1400 Cov. Myst. 84 (1841) The elefnte [degree] is accusatyf confessyon of iniquite of whiche ful noyous is the noyis. a1576 Sir E. Dering Speeches 112 (T.) This hath been a very accusative age. 1641 ‘Smectymnuus’ Vindic. Answ. ‘Humb. Remonst.’ §13, 168 Episcopacy and their Cathedrals, with whom it is now the Accusative age.

genitive (of nouns)

[ad. L. genetWv-um, genitWv-um belonging to birth or generation (f. *gen- root of gignSre to beget); genetWvus (casus) was used by Lat. grammarians to render Gr. cemij— (psèri|), which however properly means ‘generic case’. Varro's patricus casus is a similar mistranslation. The earliest Eng. forms may be a. OF. genetif (F. génitif, It. and Sp. genitivo).]

A. adj. 1. genitive case: a grammatical form of substantives and other declinable parts of speech, chiefly used to denote that the person or thing signified by the word is related to another as source, possessor, or the like, but in different languages also employed in a variety of idiomatic usages.

1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. xcvi. (1495) 663 Lens, that is a nytte, and is wryte wyth D. in the genitif case. c1440 Gesta Rom. xci. 416 (Add. MS.) The seconde case is genetife case. 1520 Whitinton Vulg. (1527) 11b, The hauer or ye owner gouerneth somtyme a genytyue case of the thynge that is had. 1562 Turner Herbal ii. 23a, The poticaries+call it [Iris] Irios in the genitiue case. 1645 Digby Mans Soul ii. 367 The Hebrewes do expresse this vnion+of two different apprehensions+by putting in the genitiue case, the word which expresseth one of them. 1711 J. Greenwood Eng. Gram. 51 Of the English Genitive Case, with a Note concerning Gender. 1771 Sir W. Jones Gram. Pers. Lang. Wks. 1799 II. 147 There is no genitive case in Persian. 1898 Earle Simple Gram. Eng. 15 To express the Genitive Case of these plurals no further sound is added.

†2. Pertaining to generation (so OF. genetif, parties genitives). Obs.

1536 Bellenden Cron. Scot. (1541) Proheme Cosmogr. xv, As ane beist, so is ane man consaue Of seid infuse in membris genitiue. 1560 Rolland Crt. Venus iv. 44 He ordanit sum be of kind genitiue, And fill the warld efter thair qualitie. 1612 Benvenuto's Passenger i. 103 Sparage+prouokes vrine, increaseth genetiue seed, cleanseth the reynes from sand [etc.]. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Genitive, natural, engendring, of an ingendring faculty, that hath power to ingender.

B. n. = genitive case; also, a part of speech in the genitive case. genitive absolute, a construction in Greek similar to the Latin ablative absolute.

c1620 A. Hume Brit. Tongue (1865) 29 Our genitive is alwayes joyned with an other noun, and is noated with of, or s. 1749 Power Pros. Numbers 71 The Concurrence of many Genitives with their Sign of prefixed, should be avoided as an inelegance. 1824 L. Murray Eng. Gram. (ed. 5) I. 266 When this plurality is neither intimated, nor necessarily supposed, the double genitive+should not be used. 1860 W. W. Goodwin Syntax Greek Verb vi. 297 We sometimes find the Participle in the Genitive Absolute with ã|. 1866 Masson tr. Winer's Gram. N.T. Dict. 209 Even in Greek prose the Genitive is usually employed to denote separation or removal. 1892 Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue (ed. 5) 547 The Cumulative or Double Genitive, a peculiarly English combination, where both the of and the s are retained, as ‘that boy of Norcott's’. 1897 A. N. Jannaris Hist. Greek Gram. iii. 499 The Greek genitive absolute substantially corresponds to the Latin ablative absolute. attrib. 1872 Morris Eng. Accid. 101 It is probable that the genitive ending was nothing more than an adjective termination.

dative (of nouns)

[ad. L. datWv-us of or belonging to giving, f. dat-us given; in grammar rendering Gr. dosij–(psèri|), from dosij¾| of giving nature, f. dos-¾| given.]

A. adj. 1. Gram. The name of that case of nouns in Aryan and some other languages which commonly denotes the indirect or more remote object of the action of a verb, that to or for whom or which we do a thing, or to whom we give a thing.

c1440 Gesta Rom. xci. 416 (Add. MS.) The thrid Falle is datif case, for there are some that are prowde for they mow gyve. 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, A+serueth many times to expresse the Datiue case: as Je l'ay donne à mon pere, I gaue it to my father. 1668 Wilkins Real Char. 352 The Dative Case is expressed by the Preposition (To). 1879 Roby Lat. Gram. iv. ix. §1130 The Dative case is used in two senses only: (A) It expresses the indirect object +(B) It is used predicatively in a quasi-adjectival sense. Mod. The pronouns me, thee, him, her, us, you, them, which we now use both as direct and indirect objectives, were originally dative forms; the original accusatives are disused.

†2. Disposed to give; having the right to give. Obs. rare. (In first quot. with play on sense 1.)

14+ Piers of Fullham 368 in Hazl. E.P.P. II. 15 To knowen folke that ben datyff: Their purches be called ablatif: They haue their iŠen vocatif. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Dative, that giveth, or is of power to give.

†3. Of the nature of a gift; conferred or bestowed as a gift. (Freq. opposed to native.) Obs.

1570–6 Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 453 All Nobilitie and Gentrie is either, Native, or Dative, that is to say, commeth either by Discent, or by Purchase [i.e. acquisition]. 1661 Morgan Sph. Gentry iii. iii. 28 The first Native+the second Dative, being given in rewards.

4. Law. a. That may be given or disposed of at pleasure; in one's gift. b. Of an officer: Appointed so as to be removable at pleasure: opposed to perpetual. c. Sc. Law. Given or appointed by a magistrate or a court of justice, not by a testator or by the mere disposition of law; pertaining to such appointment: as in executor dative, an executor appointed by decree of the commissary when none has been appointed by the deceased, an administrator; decree dative, a decree appointing an executor dative; testament dative, the decree confirming and conferring full title on an executor dative; tutor dative, a tutor appointed by the Court on the failure of tutors-nominate and tutors-at-law; tutory dative, the office of a tutor dative. d. tutor dative, in Rom. Law, one appointed by the testator, as distinguished from tutor optive.

1535–6 Act 27 Hen. VIII, c. 28 §15 Pryours or governours datyff & removable from tyme to tyme. 1575 T. Huntar v. D. Hunter in Balfour Practicks 115 Sum tutoris ar testamentaris, sum tutoris of law, and sum ar tutoris dative. The tutor dative is maid and gevin be the King. 1651 N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. ii. vi. (1739) 29 They shall certify+whether a Prior be perpetual, or dative. 1726 Ayliffe Parergon 265 Those are term'd Dative Executors who are appointed such by the Judges Decree, as Administrators with us here in England. 1754 Erskine Princ. Sc. Law (1809) 85 If no tutor of law demands the office, any person+may apply for a tutory-dative. 1796 (title), The Testament Dative, and Inventory of the debts+justly owing to umquhile Robert Burns+at the time of his decease+faithfully made out and given up by Jean Armour, widow of the said defunct, and executrix qua relict, decerned to him by decreet dative of the Commissary of Dumfries. 1848 Wharton Law Lex., Dative+that which may be given or disposed of at will and pleasure. 1861 Sat. Rev. 25 May 542 In the fourth year of Henry V, all the dative alien priories were dissolved and granted to the Crown. 1880 Muirhead Gaius i. §154 Tutors appointed in a testament by express nomination are called tutors dative; those selected in virtue of a power of option, tutors optive.

B. n. (ellipt. use of the adj.) 1. Gram. Short for dative case: see A.

1520 Whitinton Vulg. (1527) 11 Somtyme in the stede of genytiue case he wyll haue a datyue. 1751 Harris Hermes ii. iv. (1786) 287 The Dative, as it implies Tendency to, is employed+to denote the Final Cause. 1861 Max Müller Sc. Lang. vi. 208 The locative may well convey the meaning of the dative. attrib. 1868 G. Stephens Runic. Mon. I. 260 Other examples of this+dative-ending.

†2. Sc. Law. A decree dative: see A. 4c. Obs.

1564 Act of Sederunt 24 July (Jam.), We haif given+power to our saids Commissaries of Edinburgh, to give datives, and constitute+executors-datives. 1666 Instruct. Commissaries in Acts Sedt. 1553–1790 p. 95 If neither nearest of kin, executor or creditor shall desire to be confirmed+ye shall confirm your procurator fiscal, datives always being duly given thereto before+After the said datives (but before confirmation).

C. Comb. dative absolute, in some inflected languages, a construction resembling the Latin ablative absolute, in which a substantive and participle in the dative case form an adverbial clause of time, cause, or coexistence; dative-accusative a., having the functions of both the dative and the accusative case; n., such a grammatical form; dative-object, an object governed by the verb and in the dative case; dative-phrase, a phrase in which a preposition has a function equivalent to that of a dative case-ending in a language like Latin (cf. case-phrase); dative-verb, a verb regularly constructed with the dative.

1870 F. A. March Compar. Gram. Anglo-Saxon iii. 152 Dative absolute.— A substantive and participle in the dative may make an adverbial clause of time, cause, or coexistence. 1918 M. Callaway Syntax Lindisfarne Gospels i. 14 As before 1889, so in these later discussions, two views as to the dative absolute construction in Gothic are advocated. 1965 B. Mitchell Guide to Old English v. 105 The dative absolute is used in imitation of the Latin absolute, e.g. gewunnenum sige ‘victory having been gained’. 1933 L. Bloomfield Lang. xxiv. 437 Nominative ye: dative-accusative you. 1940 C. C. Fries Amer. Eng. Gram. 88 The six distinctive dative-accustive forms of pronouns (me, us, him, them, her, whom). 1959 M. Schlauch Eng. Lang. i. 32 Prepositions ceased to ‘control’ more than one following case (a single form serving as dative-accusative, which for nouns had become identical with the nominative). 1927 E. A. Sonnenschein Soul of Gram. 29 In English, in Greek, and occasionally in Latin the dative-object may become the subject.+ I was shown the way. 1940 C. C. Fries Amer. Eng. Gram. 254 Nouns which formerly stood before the so-called impersonal verbs as dative-objects+now+functioned as subjects. 1927 E. A. Sonnenschein Soul of Gram. 49 The dative-phrases of French and Spanish are simply developments of dative-phrases found in all periods of Latin. 1804 I Gr. Gram. ii. 168 (heading) Verbs taking the Dative (Dative Verbs).

preterite (of verbs)

[= F. prétérit (13th c. in Littré), ad. L. præterit-us gone by, past, pa. pple. of præterWre, f. præter, preter- + Wre to go.]

1. Of or pertaining to bygone time; occurring or existing previously; past, bygone, former; = past a. 2.

1340 Ayenb. 59 On is preterit, þet is to zigge, of þinge ypased+þe oþer is of present, þet is to zigge, of nou. 1387–8 T. Usk Test. Love iii. iv. (Skeat) l. 56 In+heven+There is nothing preterit ne passed, there is nothing future ne comming; but al thinges togider in that place ben present everlasting, without any meving. 1490 Caxton Eneydos vi. 26 The swete mayntene and semblaunce of the sayd Sychee, her preteryte husbonde. c1500 Kennedy Poems (Schipper) ii. 10 Þroch ignorance and foly youþ My preterit tyme I wald nevir spair. 1657 M. Hawke Killing is M. 25 Compare the store and cheapnesse of our present Commodities, with the Scarcenesse and dearnesse of the preterit times. a1693 Urquhart's Rabelais iii. xiii. 102 What is preterit, and gone. 1811 L. M. Hawkins C'tess & Gertr. (1812) I. 266 To return to the preterite gala-days of Lady Luxmore. 1854 Lowell Cambridge Thirty Y. Ago Prose Wks. 1890 I. 52 You shall go back with me thirty years, which will bring you among things and persons as thoroughly preterite as Romulus or Numa.

2. Gram. Expressing past action or state; past; as preterite tense [L. præteritum tempus (Quint.)], preterite participle; = past a. 4.

1388 Wyclif Prol. 57 A participle of a present tens either preterit, of actif vois eithir passif, mai be resoluid into a verbe+and a coniunccioun copulatif. 1530 Palsgr. 86 The participle preterit after the tenses of je ay remayneth for the most part unchanged. 1562 Pilkington Expos. Abdyas 42 Al the prophets use to speake by the preterit temps. 1728 Pope Dunc. iii. 337 note, Wks. 1736 IV. 225 In the style of other prophets, [he] hath used the future tense for the preterit. 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xix. iii. (1872) VIII. 131 Friedrich finds that Loudon was there last night—preterite tense, alas.

b. So preterite perfect = preterperfect.

1530 Palsgr. Introd. 42 The preterit parfyte tens of the infynityve mode.

B. n. [ellipt. use of the adj.] †1. Past time, the past (= past n. 1); also pl. past times or events. Obs. rare.

c1374 Chaucer Boeth. v. pr. vi. 133 (Camb. MS.) It+procedith fro preteritz in to futuris, þat is to seyn fro tyme passed in to tyme comynge. Ibid. 134 Thilke thing+to whom ther nis nawht of þe preterite escapyd nor I-passed. c1400 Rom. Rose 5011 She wepeth the tyme that she hath wasted, Compleyning of the preterit.

2. Gram. = Preterite tense: see A. 2.

1530 Palsgr. Introd. 37 The preterites and supines of suche verbes. 1661 Milton Accedence Wks. 1738 I. 613 The Preterit speaketh of the time past, and is distinguish'd by three degrees: the Preterimperfect, the Preterperfect, and the Preterpluperfect. 1875 Whitney Life Lang. ii. 13 It is an era in his education when he first begins to employ preterits and plurals and their like.

3. Theol. One who is passed over or not elected by God; cf. preterition 4. rare—1.

1864 Fraser's Mag. May 533 The reprobates who are damned because they were always meant to be damned, and the preterites who are damned because they were never meant to be saved.

definite (of articles)

[ad. L. dUfWnWt-us defined, bounded, limited, distinct, precise, pa. pple. of dUfWnWre: see define. Cf. obs. F. définit, -ite (1504 in Godef.).]

2. Gram. a. Applied, in German and Early English grammar, to those inflexions of the adjective which are used when preceded by the definite article or some equivalent. b. Of verbs: = Finite. rare. c. definite article: a name for the demonstrative adjective the, and its equivalents in other languages, as indicating a defined or particularized individual of the species denoted by the noun. d. past or preterite definite: the name in French Grammar of the tense which coincides historically with the Latin preterite or perfect, and corresponds in sense to the Greek aorist and English simple past: e.g. il vint, he came.

1727–51 in Chambers Cycl. 1765 W. Ward Grammar i. xxii. 103 ‘The’ is called the definite article. Ibid. iv. ii. 158 The verb in this character [i.e. infinitive] may be+used as a nominative case, on which a definite verb depends. 1824 L. Murray Eng. Gram. (ed. 5) I. 68 The is called the definite article; because it ascertains what particular thing or things are meant: as, ‘Give me the book’. 1855 Forbes Hindústání Gram. (1868) 18 Arabic nouns have frequently the definite article+of the language prefixed to them. 1874 R. Morris Chaucer's Prol., etc. (Clar. Press Ser.) Introd. 33 Adjectives, like the modern German, have two forms—Definite and Indefinite. The definite form preceded by the definite article, a demonstrative adjective, or a possessive pronoun, terminates in -ë in all cases of the singular.

indefinite (of articles)

[ad. L. indUfWnWt-us, f. in- (in-3) + dUfWnWt-us definite. Cf. F. indéfini (Montaigne, 16th c.).]

Undefined, unlimited: the opposite of definite. I. generally. 3. Grammar. a. Applied to various adjectives, pronominal words, and adverbs, which do not define or determine the actual person or thing, the place, time, or manner, to which they refer; as any, other, some, such, somewhere, anyhow, otherwise, etc.: esp. in indefinite article, a name for the individualizing adjective a, an (a adj.2), or its equivalents in other languages. b. Applied to those tenses or inflexions of verbs which merely denote an action taking place at some time (past, present, or future), without specifying whether it is continuous or complete (thus distinguished from both imperfect and perfect), e.g. the Greek aorist and the English simple past; in French grammar formerly (as by Palsgrave) to the simple past tense corresponding to these, now called past or preterite definite; in modern French, past or preterite indefinite is applied to the compound tense corresponding to that called perfect in English, e.g. il a parlé, he has spoken. c. In the Slavonic verb formerly applied to one of the branches or aspects. d. Sometimes applied, in German and Old English grammar, to that declension of the adjective which is used when it is preceded by the indefinite article, possessive adjective, pronouns, etc.: the strong declension of the adj.

1530 Palsgr. Introd. 32 The indiffynite indicatyve of the thyrde conjugation endeth ever in S. Ibid. 84 The indiffinite tens, as je parlay, I spake. Ibid. 382 To knowe therfore howe and whan the frenche men use their preter imparfyte tence, and whan their indiffynyte tence, whiche name I borowe of the grekes, for they have a tence whiche they call aoristus, that is to say, indifinitus, whiche moche resembleth this tence in the frenche tonghe. 1727 Bailey vol. II, Indefinite Pronouns. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Article, The article a is said to be indefinite, because applied to names taken in their more general, and confused signification. 1827 J. Heard Gram. Russ. Lang. v. §1. 141 There are four branches: the indefinite, the perfect, the semelfactive, and the iterative. The indefinite expresses the action indeterminately with regard to its completion; as [on trogal], he moved. 1874 R. Morris Chaucer's Prol. etc. (Clar. Press Ser.) Introd. 33 Adjectives, like the modern German, have two forms—Definite and Indefinite. 1877 Moulton tr. Winer's Gram. N.T. iii. §25. 2 The indefinite pronoun si|, si, is joined to abstract nouns.

conjugation (of verbs)

[ad. L. conjugQtiZn-em yoking together, connexion, mingling, coupling of sexes, etymological relationship between words, n. of action from conjugQre to conjugate. Cf. F. conjugaison (in 16th c. also conjugation).]

3. Grammar. a. A connected scheme of all the inflexional forms belonging to a verb; a division of the verbs of any language according to the general differences of inflexion. A table of the series of ‘conjugate’ forms of a verb was called by the Greeks rtftc¬a, and this was in Commianus and Charisius, Latin grammarians of the 4th c., rendered by the corresponding L. term conjugatio. The former says ‘conjugationes quas Græci rtftc¬a| appellant, sunt apud nos tres’; the latter reckons 4, as in subsequent Lat. grammars. (Charisius Inst. Gramm., ed. Keil, 168, 175.)

a1528 Skelton Sp. Parrot (R.), Can skantly the tensis of his conjugations. 1570 Levins Manip. Pref. 5 To know the coniugations: we haue set ouer (e) the infinitiue moode of the seconde coniugations, this circumflex (ê) as docêre, etc. 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong. Introd., The examples of all the Coniugations declyned at length through all moods and tenses. 1612 Brinsley Lud. Lit. vi. 61 They will by this meanes goe through all the coniugations. 1872 R. Morris Hist. Outlines (1879) 168 The verbs of the strong conjugation+form the past tense by a change of the root-vowel.

b. The setting forth (in speech or writing) of the various inflected forms of a verb, or of one of its moods, tenses, etc.; verbal inflexion.

1530 Palsgr. Introd. 31 Conjugation is the dyvers alteryng of the last ende of a theme, by reason of these thre accidentes, mode, tens and declination personall. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict. Cjb, A Coniugation is the course of declining a verbe, by mood and tense. 1824 L. Murray Eng. Gram. (ed. 5) I. 131 The Conjugation of a verb, is the regular combination and arrangement of its several numbers, persons, moods, and tenses. 1883 J. Parker Tyne Ch. 290 Faith+is not a transient mood in the conjugation of life's throbbing verb.

c. In the Semitic langs., the name given to the simple form, and to each of the derivative forms which express a modification of meaning such as is expressed in Aryan languages by derivative verbs and by the distinction of voice. Each of these has its full inflexion for tense and person. In Hebrew, the conjugations normally belonging to a verb are seven, expressing 1. Simple Active, 2. Passive, 3. an Emphatic derivative, 4. its Passive, 5. Causal derivative, 6. its Passive, 7. a Reflexive voice.

[c1500 Zamorra Introd. art. gram. hebr. (in Bibl. Complutens) fol. vi. a. 1 Conjugationes verborum quatuor sunt.] 1593 J. Udall Key Holy Tongue i. x. 45 Everie of these several verbs are declined thorow divers conjugations. The conjugation of a verb is either Levis or gravis. 1854 Arabic Reading Lessons (Bagster) p. xv, There are thirteen forms or species of conjugation most of them having their passives, and every verb may be inflected according to one or more of them. 1859 Nicholls Samaritan Gram. (Bagster) 31 A Paradigm of a regular verb through its different conjugations.

declension (of nouns)

[Represents L. dUclWnQtiZn-em (n. of action f. dUclWnQre to decline), F. déclinaison (13th c.). The form is irregular, and its history obscure: possibly it came from the F. word, by shifting of the stress as in comparison, orison, benison, and loss of V, as in venVson, ven'son, giving declin'son (cf. 1565 in 4), with subsequent assimilative changes; the grammatical sense was the earliest, and the word had no doubt a long colloquial existence in the grammar schools before the English form appears in print. Cf. conster.]

II. 4. Gram. a. The variation of the form of a noun, adjective, or pronoun, constituting its different cases (see case n.1 9); case-inflexion. b. Each of the classes into which the nouns of any language are grouped according to their inflexions. c. The action of declining, i.e. setting forth in order the different cases of, a noun, adjective, or pronoun.

1565–78 Cooper Thesaurus Introd., Substantives may be perceyved by their gender and declenson. 1569 J. Sandford tr. Agrippa's Van. Artes 10 Rules of Declensions. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iv. i. 76 Show me now (William) some declensions of your Pronounes. 1612 Brinsley Lud. Lit. 58 The seueral terminations of euery case in euery Declension. 1640 G. Watts tr. Bacon's Adv. Learn. vi. i. (R.), Ancient languages were more full of declensions, cases, conjugations, tenses, and the like. 1845 Stoddart in Encycl. Metrop. 187/1 Those inflections, which grammarians call declensions and conjugations. 1871 Roby Lat. Gram. I. 113 §334 The ordinary division of nouns substantive was into five declensions. Ibid. 116 §344 Ordinary declension of -o stems.

†d. Formerly, in a wider sense: Change of the form or of the ending of a word, as in derivation. (Cf. note under case n.1 9.) Obs. rare. [So L. declinatio in early use.]

1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. 524 The God+was called not Bellum but Bellona+not Cuna but Cunina+At other times, this was done without any Declension of the Word at all.

recto

[a. L. recto (sc. folio), abl. of rectus right.]

A. n. In Printing, the right-hand page of an open book; hence, the front of a leaf, as opposed to the back or verso. Also in Palæogr., the front of a leaf of manuscript.

1824 J. Johnson Typogr. I. 217 This+volume commences on the recto of the first leaf. 1849 D. Rock Ch. of Fathers I. i. iii. 280 The verses, in a very old hand, at the recto of fol. 258. 1889 H. B. Wheatley How to catalogue iii. 60 The recto of the additional leaf will range with the verso of the old leaf. 1964 F. Bowers Bibliogr. & Textual Crit. iii. vi. 84 A textual critic can find the most desirable combination of recto and verso settings. 1978 Bodl. Libr. Record IX. 324 The writing exercises+are confined to the rectos of the pages. fig. 1873 Henry Æneidea I. Pref. 77 The verso of this agreeable recto of one leaf of my library life.

B. adv. On or to the right-hand side.

1888 Academy 16 June 405/1 The map is placed+at the end of the volume opening rectò, and not, as too often, made to turn its back upon the reader.

verso

[L. verso (sc. folio leaf), abl. sing. neut. of versus, pa. pple. of vertSre to turn. So F. and Pg. verso.]

1. The back of a leaf in a manuscript or printed book; the side presented to the eye when the leaf has been turned over. Also abbrev. v., vo. The left-hand page of a book is the verso of that leaf, and faces the recto of the next.

1839 Halliwell Maundevile Introd. p. xiii, See f.2, vo. 1850 Forshall & Madden Wycliffite Bible I. p. lxi, The verso commences with the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. 1873 Rep. Brit. Assoc. i. 43 Sines, cosines, and secants are given on the versos of the pages in columns. 1898 Athenæum 12 Nov. 676 The text begins on the verso of the title-page. fig. 1873 J. Henry Aeneidea I. Pref. 77 It was not long before I had the verso of this agreeable recto of one leaf of my library life.

2. The reverse of a coin, medal, or the like.

1891 Cent. Dict. 1914 P. E. Newberry in Anc. Egypt 6 On the verso of the same palette there is a scene [etc.].

quire

[a. OF. quaer, quaier (later caier, mod. cahier a quire of six sheets, a copy-book, writing-book, etc.) = Prov. cazern, It. quaderno:—pop.L. *quaternum (med.L. quaternus, -um), f. L. quaternW a set of four, f. quattuor four: see quaternion. The loss of the final -n in F. quaer for *quaern is normal; cf. chair, enfer, etc. Icel. kver a quire, little book, is from F. or Eng. There are three main forms of the word in Eng., quair, quear (quere), quire. The second of these arises from a narrowing of the vowel after the k- sound (cf. quail and queal, quaisy and queasy, kay and key, kayles and keals, kaiser and keasar), and the further change to quier, quire is similar to that of brere, frere to briar, friar.]

1. a. A set of four sheets of parchment or paper doubled so as to form eight leaves, a common unit in mediæval manuscripts; hence, any collection or gathering of leaves, one within the other, in a manuscript or printed book. Also, twenty-four (formerly sometimes twenty-five) sheets of writing-paper.

a c1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 1549–50 Of quayers seuen I haue a boke We may ilk a day a quayer loke. 1469 Paston Lett. II. 335, I did write to quairs of papir of witnessis, every quair conteynyng xiiij leves. 1531 Elyot Gov. 172 Muche more he wrote, as it seemed, for diuers quaires lacked in the boke. 1613 Mem. St. Giles's, Durham (Surtees) 42 A quaire of paper for the use of the parishe. b 1530 Palsgr. 164 Mayn, bothe for a hande and for a queare of paper. 1575 Churchyard Chippes (1817) 106 If heere I should all skirmishes expresse+Of paper sure, a quere would not suffice. 1597 Bp. Hall Sat. ii. i. 10 Lo what it is that makes white rags so deare, That men must giue a teston for a queare. 1696 in Pall Mall G. (1889) 8 Jan. 7/2 A Queer of paper+A Coppy Booke. 1825 Brockett N.C. Gloss., Queer, a quire of paper. c 1497 Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 128, j reame & vij quires of small paper. 1560 Ludlow Churchw. Acc. (Camden) 96 A quyer of paper+iiij d. 1589 Pappe w. Hatchet B, Hee'le spend all he hath in a quire of paper. 1646 J. Hall Poems 1 How better were it for you to remain (Poore Quires) in ancient raggs. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 120/1 Cassie Quires, are the two outside Quires in a Ream, called also Cording Quires. 1772 Junius Lett. lxviii. 354 He was charged+for feloniously stealing eleven quires of writing paper. 1879 Print. Trades Jrnl. No. 26. 20 The cost of paper from one quire to one ream.

b. in quires: Unbound, in sheets.

c1480 Paston Lett. III. 301 Item, in quayers, Tully de Senectute. Ibid., Item, in qwayers, a Boke de Sapiencia. 1549 Bk. Com. Prayer (Grafton) colophon, The Imprinter to sell this Booke in Queres for two shillynges and sixe pence. 1679 Wood Life 10 Feb. (O.H.S.) II. 439, I gave my book+to the Heralds Office in quires. 1733 Swift On Poetry 144 Your poem sunk, And sent in quires to line a trunk. 1885 Bookseller 5 Mar. 313 Advt., The valuable publication stock, in Cloth and Quires. fig. 1682 Grew Anat. Plants Ep. Ded., So that a Plant is, as it were, an Animal in Quires.

†2. A small pamphlet or book, consisting of a single quire; a short poem, treatise, etc., which is or might be contained in a quire. Obs.

a1225 Ancr. R. 248 Þeo ancre þet wernde an oðer a cwaer uorto lenen. Ibid. 282 „if þu hauest knif oðer cloð+scrowe oðer quaer. c1430 Lydg. Compl. Bl. Knt. xcvii, Go litel quayre, go unto my lyves queene. c1430 Life St. Kath. (1884) 1 Ther was take to me a quayere. Where yn was drawe in to englesshe+hire martirdom. c1500 MS. Selden B. 24 lf. 191 Heirefter followis the quair maid be King James of Scotland the first, callit the kingis quair. a1529 Skelton Sp. Parrot 280 Go litell quayre, namyd the Popagay. c1535 Fisher Wks. (E.E.T.S.) 429 Who so euer ye be, yt shall fortune to rede this queare. 1570 Foxe A. & M. 1393/2 The bishop of Salis. drewe out a quire of the Concordance, and layd it before the bishop of Harford.

3. Comb., as quire signature [signature n. 6a], -work; quire-folded adj.; quire stock, books in quires; quire-wise adv., on double leaves, which can be formed into quires to be sewed.

1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 124/1 When quire work is Printed. 1882 J. Southward Pract. Printing xiii. 117 Folio sheets are sometimes required to be+folded within each other, or quirewise. 1885 Bookseller 5 Mar. Advt., Bookselling Business for Sale+including+bound and quire Stock. 1888 C. T. Jacobi Printers' Vocab. 108 Quire folded+, folded in quires—not sent in ‘flat’. Ibid. 109 Quirewise, jobs of single leaves printed on both sides of the paper. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 120 The nethermost deck of the first machine jogged forward its flyboard with sllt [sic] the first batch of quirefolded papers. 1957 N. R. Ker Catal. MSS. containing Anglo-Saxon p. xl (heading) Quire-Signatures and Leaf-Numbers. 1978 Anglo-Saxon England VII. 232 It may have its own series of quire signatures.

minuscule

[a. F. minuscule, ad. L. minuscula (sc. littera), fem. of minusculus rather less, dim. of minor (neut. minus): see minor a. and minus a.] A. adj.

1. †a. Printing. Of a letter: Small, not capital, ‘lower-case’. Obs. b. Palæogr. Of a letter: Small (see B. b). Also, written in minuscules.

1727–41 [see majuscule a.]. 1850 A. Way in Archæol. Jrnl. VII. 356 A little mark at the close of the first line, resembling a minuscule C is somewhat indistinct. 1883 I. Taylor Alphabet I. 71 The letters of the beautiful minuscule manuscripts of the 10th and 11th centuries. These minuscule letters are cursive forms of the earlier uncials. 1900 Expositor Mar. 175 Annotations are found in the minuscule codices.

2. gen. Extremely small. Also, unimportant. See also miniscule.

1893 Nation (N.Y.) 20 July 51/1 The theories that are put forth by minuscule scholars as personal contributions to the advance of science. 1898 Edin. Rev. Apr. 420 Only think of the minuscule touches of advance that Ictinus added to his predecessors' designs. 1904 Nutt's Catal. Sept. p. ix, Sir Gawain at the Grail Castle. Three Versions, translated+by Jessie L. Weston. Minuscule 4to. 1963 Ann. Reg. 1962 17 Such minuscule militants as the boot and floor polish manufacturers. 1969 Listener 30 Jan. 155/3 One is impressed inevitably by the intensity and concentration of human effort on a project whose rewards, however satisfying, are bound to be minuscule. 1972 Time 17 Apr. 24/1 The Gallup organization, in all of its national soundings, has shown McGovern running between a minuscule 3% and 6% when pitted against his rivals for the nomination.

B. n. †a. Printing. A small or ‘lower-case’ letter as opposed to a capital. Obs. b. Palæogr. A small letter, as opposed to a capital or uncial; the small cursive script which was developed from the uncial during the 7th–9th centuries; also, a manuscript in this writing.

1705 H. Wanley in Phil. Trans. XXV. 1996 Some MSS. written with Minuscules. [1727–41 Chambers Cycl., Minusculæ, in printing, denotes the small, or running letters.] 1782 Burney Hist. Mus. II. 32 A notation for three octaves, the gravest of which he expressed by capitals, the mean by minuscules, and the highest by double letters. 1851 Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. I. 228 The initial difference of a minuscule or a capital. a1876 Eadie Comm. Thess. (1877) 23 A few minuscules read aÌsoË| ™l8|. 1883 I. Taylor Alphabet II. 160 The minuscule arose in the 7th century as a cursive monastic script.

majuscule

[a. F. majuscule, ad. L. mQjuscula (sc. littera), fem. of mQjusculus somewhat larger, dim. of mQjor (neut. mQjus): see major a.]

A. adj. †a. Printing. Of a letter: Capital. Obs. b. Palæogr. Of a letter: Large (whether capital or uncial). Also, written in majuscules.

1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Letter, Printers distinguish their letters into capital, majuscule, initial or upper-case letters+and minuscule, small, or under-case letters. 1850 Madden tr. Silvestre's Univ. Palæogr. I. 140 To the first class [inscriptions] belong the capital or square majuscule characters; to the second [books], the uncial characters (which are majuscules intermixed with rounded letters); and to the third [documents], the conjoined, cursive writing. 1885 E. M. Thompson in Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 145 In Latin majuscule writing there exist both capitals and uncials. 1892 I Gr. & Lat. Palæogr. xiv. 196 Early majuscule MSS.

B. n. †a. Printing. A large or capital letter. Obs. b. Palæogr. A large letter, whether capital or uncial.

1825 W. Hamilton Dict. Terms Arts & Sci., Majuscules, in Printing, large letters, sometimes ornamented, usually placed at the beginning of chapters. 1850 [see A above]. 1851 Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. I. 433 A few firm majuscules inscribed by Roman Power. 1892 E. M. Thompson Gr. & Lat. Palæogr. viii. 117 In both Greek and Latin palæography, large letters are called ‘majuscules’; small letters, ‘minuscules’.

insular

[ad. L. insulQr-is, f. insula island: see -ar1. Cf. F. insulaire.] A. adj.

4. a. Pertaining to islanders; esp. having the characteristic traits of the inhabitants of an island (e.g. of Great Britain); cut off from intercourse with other nations, isolated; self-contained; narrow or prejudiced in feelings, ideas, or manners.

1775 Johnson Journ. West. Isl., Coriatachan, The relief given to the mind in the penury of insular conversation by a new topick. 1829 Lytton Disowned xxxv, Percy Bobus, with true insular breeding, took up the newspaper. 1847 James J. Marston Hall ix, My English accent, and my insular notions, as he called them. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. ix. II. 427 They were a race insular in temper as well as in geographical position. 1856 Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh vi. 1 The English have a scornful insular way Of calling the French light. 1870 Lowell Study Wind. 252 Without ceasing to be English, he has escaped from being insular. 1890 Boldrewood Col. Reformer (1891) 136, I am not sufficiently insular to deny a foreign nobility all the graces and virtues that add lustre to our own.

b. Palæogr. (See quots.)

1908 W. M. Lindsay Contractions in Early Latin Minuscule MSS. 1 The most fertile source of error+is the unfamiliarity of the writers with the contractions used in the Irish or pre-Carolingian script.+ The correct term is Insular, for English MSS. are included and Welsh too. 1913 F. W. Hall Compan. Classical Texts 167 Insular hands+i.e. Irish and Anglo-Saxon; a peculiar type of the half-uncial developed in the sixth century. 1960 G. A. Glaister Gloss. Bk. 195/1 Insular hand, the name given to the Hiberno-Saxon script widely used in England until the Norman Conquest for non-Latin texts. Its origins may be traced to 6th-century Ireland. An example is the first London Charter, 1066, which may be seen in the Guildhall Library. 1960 E. A. Lowe Eng. Uncial 14 By Insular symptoms we mean features and practices peculiar to Anglo-Saxon (and Irish) scribes. 1971 T. A. M. Bishop Eng. Caroline Minuscule p. xiii, The most extensive repertories of Insular abbreviations in Caroline minuscule are MSS. of probably Continental origin.

Caroline

[f. Carol-us Charles.]

1. Of or pertaining to Charles: esp. a. of Charles the Great (Charlemagne); spec. designating a style of minuscule handwriting developed in France at the time of Charlemagne; b. of Charles I. and II. of England, or their period.

1652 Needham tr. Selden's Mare Cl. 322 Under the Caroline kings. 1805 W. Saunders Min. Waters 314 The village of Carlsbad+as well as+the Caroline Waters [named after] the emperor Charles IV. in 1370. 1839 Hallam Hist. Lit. IV. iv. v. §22. 234 Waller has a more uniform elegance+than any [other] of the Caroline era. 1850 F. Madden tr. J. B. Silvestre's Univ. Palæogr. I. cxxix. 346 The text is in clear, well proportioned, Caroline minuscules, with the words not divided, the tails and tops of the letters of proper length, and the strokes of the m and n inclined towards the left; graphic characters which indicate the ninth century, and the kind of writing termed Caroline. 1874 F. Hall in N. Amer. Rev. CXIX. 310 Our Caroline divines. 1883 I. Taylor Alphabet II. viii. 181 Owing to its manifold excellencies+the rapidity with which it could be written, the ease with which it could be read, and economy of parchment, the Caroline minuscule, as it is usually called, grew rapidly in favour. 1884 Courthope Addison i. 20 The Caroline dramatists. 1897 [see Carolingian A]. 1957 N. R. Ker Catal. MSS. containing Anglo-Saxon p. xxii, It should be assumed that+writing dated s. xi or later is caroline minuscule. 1962 D'Ardenne in Davis & Wrenn Eng. & Medieval Studies 85 The manuscript is written in Latin on parchment in a smooth round English form of the caroline minuscule.

collation

[a. OF. collation, -cion action of conferring, etc., ad. L. collQtiZn-em, n. of action f. collQt- ppl. stem of confer-re to bring together: see confer, and -ation. This word has had many developments of meaning in med. Latin, French, and English; with us, it appears first as an ecclesiastical term, in sense 6. (In mod.F. collation is used in senses 3, 4; 8, 9; 10, 11. According to Littré in senses 8, 9, it is pronounced with one l only, whereas in the other senses both l's are heard; consequently he treats collation the repast as a distinct word (so far as modern use is concerned) from the other senses. In English, 8 and 9 are closely articulated to other senses.)]

I. Bringing together, comparison.

3. esp. Textual comparison of different copies of a document; critical comparison of manuscripts or editions with a view to ascertain the correct text, or the perfect condition of a particular copy.

1532 W. Thynne Chaucer's Wks. Ded., The contrarietees and alteracions founde by collacion of the one [edition] with the other. 1568 in H. Campbell Love-lett. Mary Q. Scots App. 52 The originals+were duly conferred and compared+with sundry other lettres+in collation whereof no difference was found. 1717 Atterbury Let. to Pope 8 Nov., I return you your Milton, which, upon collation, I find to be revised and augmented in several places. 1768 Johnson Pref. to Shaks. Wks. IX. 292 By collation of copies, or sagacity of conjecture. 1868 Furnivall Temp. Pref. Canterb. T. (Chaucer Soc.) 5, The MS. was old and good enough to deserve collation for the next edition of Chaucer.

b. The recorded result of such comparison; a set of corrections or various readings obtained by comparing different copies.

1699 Bentley Phal. Pref. Wks. 1836 I. 2 The collation, it seems, was sent defective to Oxon. 1758 Jortin Erasm. I. 392 Erasmus desires Aldrige to get him a Collation of Seneca+from a Manuscript of King's College. 1875 Scrivener Lect. Grk. Test. 54 Bentley's collation [of Codex A]+is yet in manuscript at Trinity College, Cambridge.

4. Printing and Bookbinding. a. The action of collating the sheets or quires of a book or MS.

b. A description of a book or manuscript by its signatures or the number of its quires, and a statement of the sheets or leaves in each quire; also, a list of the various contents of a book and of the pages or parts of pages occupied by them.

1834 Lowndes Bibliogr. Manual Pref., He gives neither the collation nor prices of books. 1882 Blades Caxton 131 In Caxton's books the collation of the sheets preceded the folding. Ibid. 133 These indications+enable us to decide, even where printed signatures are wanting, the true collation of a book. Ibid. 173 The Game and Play of the Chess moralised+Collation.—Eight 4ns and one 5n = 74 leaves.

irony

[ad. L. WrZnWa (Cicero), a. Gr. e®qxme¬a ‘dissimulation, ignorance purposely affected’. Cf. F. ironie (yronie, Oresme, 14th c.).]

1. A figure of speech in which the intended meaning is the opposite of that expressed by the words used; usually taking the form of sarcasm or ridicule in which laudatory expressions are used to imply condemnation or contempt.

1502 [see 3]. 1533 More Debell. Salem v. Wks. 939/1 When he calleth one self noughty lad, both a shreud boy & a good sonne, the tone in ye proper simple spech, the tother by the fygure of ironye or antiphrasis. 1540 Coverdale Confut. Standish Wks. (Parker Soc.) II. 333 Now is ironia as much to say as a mockage, derision. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xviii. (Arb.) 199 By the figure Ironia, which we call the drye mock. 1617 Moryson Itin. i. 160 Your quip+that you were ashamed to write to mee for your rude stile. Very good, I finde the Irony. 1620 Middleton & Rowley World Tost at Tennis 124 By his needle he understands ironia, That with one eye looks two ways at once. 1788 F. Burney Diary 13 Feb., He believed Irony the ablest weapon of oratory. 1828 Whately Rhet. in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) I. 265/1 Aristotle mentions+Eironeia, which in his time was commonly employed to signify, not according to the modern use of ‘Irony, saying the contrary to what is meant’, but, what later writers usually express by Litotes, i.e. ‘saying less than is meant’. 1837 Macaulay Ess., Bacon (1887) 428 A drayman, in a passion, calls out, ‘You are a pretty fellow’, without suspecting that he is uttering irony. 1876 J. Weiss Wit, Hum, & Shaks. ii. 44 It is irony when Lowell, speaking of Dante's intimacy with the Scriptures, adds, ‘They do even a scholar no harm’.

b. with an and pl. An instance of this; an ironical utterance or expression.

1551 Gardiner Sacram. 22 He spake it by an Ironie or skorne. 1612–15 Bp. Hall Contempl., O.T. xix. iii, Ironies deny strongest in affirming. 1656 E. Reyner Rules Govt. Tongue 227 An Irony is a nipping jeast, or a speech that hath the honey of pleasantnesse in its mouth, and a sting of rebuke in its taile. 1706–7 Reflex. upon Ridicule 221 Subtil and delicate Ironies. 1738 Warburton Div. Legat. I. Ded. 9 A thorough Irony addressed to some hot Bigots. 1894 W. J. Dawson Making of Manhood 29 Smart sneers and barbed ironies at the expense of every movement which seeks to meliorate the common lot.

2. fig. A condition of affairs or events of a character opposite to what was, or might naturally be, expected; a contradictory outcome of events as if in mockery of the promise and fitness of things. (In F. ironie du sort.)

1649 G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. V, cxcviii, Yet here: (and 'tis the Ironie of Warre Where Arrowes forme the Argument,) he best Acquitts himselfe, who doth a Horse præfer To his proud Rider. 1833 Thirlwall in Philol. Museum II. 483 (title) On the Irony of Sophocles. Ibid. 493 The contrast between man with his hopes, fears, wishes, and undertakings, and a dark, inflexible fate, affords abundant room for the exhibition of tragic irony. 1860 W. Collins Wom. White iii. xi. 413 The irony of circumstances holds no mortal catastrophe in respect. 1878 Morley Carlyle 194 With no eye for+the irony of their fate. 1884 Nonconf. & Indep. Lit. Suppl. 6 Nov. 1/1 The irony of time is wonderful. 1894 T. Hardy (title) Life's Little Ironies.

3. In etymological sense: Dissimulation, pretence; esp. in reference to the dissimulation of ignorance practised by Socrates as a means of confuting an adversary (Socratic irony).

1502 Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W. 1506) iv. xxii. 293 To say of hym selfe ony thynge of his feblenesses & necessytes, or of his synnes+to the end that a man be renowmed & reputed humble abiect & grete thynge in merytes & deuocyons before god+such synne is named yronye, not that the whiche is of grammare, by the whiche a man sayth one & gyueth to understande the contrarye. 1655 Stanley Hist. Philos. iii. (1701) 76/1 The whole confirmation of the Cause, even the whole Life seems to carry an Irony, such was the Life of Socrates, who was for that reason called e®qàm; that is, one that personates an unlearned Man, and is an admirer of others as Wise. 1848 H. Rogers Ess. I. vi. 318 The irony of Socrates+may be not unfittingly expressed by saying, that it is a logical masked battery. 1860 Emerson Cond. Life, Considerat. Wks. (Bohn) II. 416 Like Socrates, with his famous irony; like Bacon, with life-long dissimulation.

appellation

[a. Fr. appellation (13th c.), ad. L. appellátion-em, n. of action f. appelláre: see appeal v. and -tion.]

I. Appealing, appeal. [from OFr. apeler.] Obs.

†1. The action of appealing to a higher court or authority against the decision of an inferior one; the appeal so made; = appeal n. 3. Obs.

1494 Fabyan vii. 479 In iugement vpon the appellacions before made by the erle of Armenak+agayne prynce Edwarde. 1538 Starkey England 125 Another grete mysordur, in appellatyon of such as be callyd spiritual causys. 1547 Homilies i. ix. (1859) 92 The condemnation both of body and soul, without either appellation or hope of redemption. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj. 65 In Ecclesiasticall causes appellation is admitted within fourtie dayes. 1669 Honyman Surv. Naphtali II. 105 Pauls appellation to Cæsar, Acts xxv. ii. 1679 Filmer Freeholder 66 There might be Appellation made to the Kings Person.

†b. Ground of appeal, title, claim. Obs. rare.

1630 Naunton Fragm. Reg. (Arb.) 26 He could not find out any appellation to assume the Crown in his own Person.

†2. gen. The action or process of appealing or calling on; entreaty, or earnest address. Obs.

1587 M. Grove Pelops & Hipp. (1878) 18 No god there was but him they had in appellation. 1589 Hay any Work 43 His appellation to the obedient cleargie. 1671 True Non-Conf. 399 Master Knox his reasoning+in his appellation and admonition to the commonalty.

II. Calling, designation. [from later Fr. appeler, or L. appelláre.]

3. The action of calling by a name; nomenclature.

1581 Campion in Confer. iii. (1584) Uiiij, Euery piece of bread is called bread+because it was bread by appellation. 1630 Prynne Anti-Armin, 126 If it be grace in truth, as well as in appellation. 1742 Hume Ess. (1817) I. 36 The government, which in common appellation receives the appellation of free. 1875 Whitney Life Lang. ii. 27 They must be carefully distinguished in appellation.

4. A designation, name, or title given: a. to a particular person or thing.

1447 O. Bokenham Lyvys of Seyntys 44 Anne is as myche to seyn as grace And worthyly thys appellacyoun To hyr pertenyth. 1610 Histriom. i. 136 Seri. Your appellations? Post. Your names he meanes. The man's learn'd. a1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. I. i. 15 Stenny, an appellation he allways used of and towards the Duke. 1774 Priestley Observ. Air 178 By the common appellation of phlogisticated air. 1833-48 H. Coleridge North. Worth. (1852) I. 69 Which entitles him to the appellation of a prose Juvenal.

b. to a class: A descriptive or connotative name.

1581 Marbeck Bk. of Notes 665 Manes the Hereticke, whereof the Maniches haue their appellation. 1651 Hobbes Govt. & Soc. vii. §3. 112 If he+Rule well+they afford him the appellation of a King; if not, they count him a Tyrant. 1709 Swift T. Tub. iii. 50 These men seem+to have understood the appellation of critic in a liberal sense. 1841 Borrow Zincali I. vi. §1. 102 If not sorcerers, they have always done their best to merit that appellation.

epithet

n. Forms: 6-7 epithete, -thite, epethite, (6 epithat, epythite, -the), 6- epithet. [ad. L. epitheton, a. Gr. Žphesom adj., neut. of Žpheso| attributed, f. ŽpisihŒmai, f. Žp upon + sihŒmai to place. Cf. Fr. epithète. The Gr. word was used by grammarians for 'adjective', but they did not distinguish between adjs. and descriptive ns. in apposition with a name.]

1. An adjective indicating some quality or attribute which the speaker or writer regards as characteristic of the person or thing described.

1588 Fraunce Lawiers Log. Ded., Your two last Epithetes wherein you disgrace the law with rudenesse and barbarisme. 1612 Dekker If it be not good, etc. Wks. 1873 III. 305 T'expresse+whose vilenes, there's no epithite. a1661 Fuller Worthies (1840) II. 240 His epithets were pregnant with metaphors. 1718 Lady M. W. Montague Lett. II. xlix. 56, I admired the exact geography of Homer+almost every epithet he gives to a mountain or plain is still just for it. 1788 Reid Aristotle's Log. iv. §6. 95 The epithets of pure and modal are applied to syllogisms as well as to propositions. 1839 Thirlwall Greece I. 173 The term barbarous+in Homer+is only used as an epithet of language. 1863 Geo. Eliot Romola i. v, Hollow, empty-is the epithet justly bestowed on Fame.

b. nonce-use. That which gives an epithet to.

1615 Chapman Odyss. i. 154 To Sparta, then, and Pylos, where doth beat Bright Amathus, the flood, and epithet To all that kingdom.

2. A significant appellation. (A spurious word 'Epithite, a plotter, traitor', given in mod. Dicts., originated in a misunderstanding of quot. 1607.)

1579 G. Harvey Letter-bk.< (1884) 61 Christen them by names and epithites nothing agreable or appliante to the thinges themselves. 1607 G. Wilkins Miseries Inforst Marriage Fiij, Sir Will. Like to a swine. Lord Faulconb. A perfect Epythite: hee feeds on draffe, And wallowes in the mire. 1634 W. Wood New Eng. Prosp.< i. v, Many of these trees+have epithites contrary to the nature of them as they grow in England. 1683 Pettus Fleta Min. ii. 2 Before we fix our Title or Epithite to the Master of this Science. 1728 Morgan Algiers I. vi. 201 He assumed the proud Epithet of Sultan or Monarch of Tunis and all Barbary. 1862 Sir B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. II. iv. 129 We+employ the French term of ennui, for want of an equally appropriate epithet in English.

†3. Used for: A term, phrase, expression. Obs.

1599 Shakes. Much Ado v. ii. 67 Suffer loue! a good epithite; I do suffer loue indeede; for I loue thee against my will. 1604 --- Oth. i. i. 14 A bumbast Circumstance Horribly stufft with Epithites of warre.

4. attrib.

1874 Sayce Compar. Philol. vi. 227 The epithet-period points to a vast series of bygone ages. 1884 Manch. Exam. 26 May 3/1 To increase the epithet power of our tongue in coining adjectives.

metonym

[ad. assumed Gr. see metonymy and cf. paronym.]

A word used in a transferred sense. In quot. 1837-8 misused (? misprinted) for metonymy.

1837-8 Sir W. Hamilton Logic xxxiii. (1860) II. 177 The term testimony, I may notice, is sometimes, by an abusive metonym employed for witness. 1862 Merivale Rom. Emp. liv. (1865) VI. 434 Tertullian and Lactantius explain this word as a metonym for Christ, signifying just or good.

metonymy

Also 6-7 metonymie, -imie, -imy, 9 metonomy. Also 6-7 in Lat. form. [ad. late L. metónymi-a, lit. 'change of name'.]

A figure of speech which consists in substituting for the name of a thing the name of an attribute of it or of something closely related.

[1547 Hooper Answ. Winchester's Bk. D1b, Men seyth that they admyt metonomian, and say under the forme of breade is the trew bodye of Christ.] 1562 Cooper Answ. Def. Truth 106b, The figure is named Metonymia: when the name of the thynge is geuen vnto the signe. 1573 Cartwright Reply to Whitgift 14 The Apostle by a metonimie Subiecti pro adiuncto, dothe giue to vnderstand from whence ye assured persuasion doth spring. 1625 Gill Sacr. Philos. ii. 156 Shebet signifies either a staffe, a truncheon, or Scepter,+and so by a metonymia it may signifie authority. 1657 J. Smith Myst. Rhet. 15 A metonymie of the effect, is when the effect or thing caused, is put for its cause. 1668 H. More Div. Dial., Schol. 575 Here is a double Metonymie, Christ is put for the Doctrine of Christ, and Hope for the Cause of Hope. 1676 W. Hubbard Happin. People 4 By times we are to understand things done in those times, by a metonimy of the adjunct. 1868 Bain Ment. & Mor. Sci. iv. xi. 403 By what is called 'metonymy', the fact intended to be expressed is denoted by one of the adjuncts.

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