Trinculo.O worthy Stephano, look what a wardrobe here is for thee.Caliban.Let it alone, thou fool, it is but trash.Trinculo.O, ho, monster! we know what belongs to afrippery.Shakespeare,The Tempest, act iv. sc. 1.Enter Luke, with shoes, garters, fans, and roses.Gold.Here he comes, sweating all over,He shows like a walkingfrippery.Massinger,The City Madam, act i. sc. 1.Hast thou foresworn all thy friends in the Old Jewry? or dost thou think us all Jews that inherit there? Yet, if thou dost, come over, and but see ourfrippery. Change an old shirt for a whole smock with us.—Ben Jonson,Every Man in his Humour, act i. sc. 1.
Trinculo.O worthy Stephano, look what a wardrobe here is for thee.Caliban.Let it alone, thou fool, it is but trash.Trinculo.O, ho, monster! we know what belongs to afrippery.
Trinculo.O worthy Stephano, look what a wardrobe here is for thee.Caliban.Let it alone, thou fool, it is but trash.Trinculo.O, ho, monster! we know what belongs to afrippery.
Trinculo.O worthy Stephano, look what a wardrobe here is for thee.
Trinculo.O worthy Stephano, look what a wardrobe here is for thee.
Caliban.Let it alone, thou fool, it is but trash.
Caliban.Let it alone, thou fool, it is but trash.
Trinculo.O, ho, monster! we know what belongs to afrippery.
Trinculo.O, ho, monster! we know what belongs to afrippery.
Shakespeare,The Tempest, act iv. sc. 1.
Enter Luke, with shoes, garters, fans, and roses.Gold.Here he comes, sweating all over,He shows like a walkingfrippery.
Enter Luke, with shoes, garters, fans, and roses.Gold.Here he comes, sweating all over,He shows like a walkingfrippery.
Enter Luke, with shoes, garters, fans, and roses.
Enter Luke, with shoes, garters, fans, and roses.
Gold.Here he comes, sweating all over,He shows like a walkingfrippery.
Gold.Here he comes, sweating all over,
He shows like a walkingfrippery.
Massinger,The City Madam, act i. sc. 1.
Hast thou foresworn all thy friends in the Old Jewry? or dost thou think us all Jews that inherit there? Yet, if thou dost, come over, and but see ourfrippery. Change an old shirt for a whole smock with us.—Ben Jonson,Every Man in his Humour, act i. sc. 1.
I have seen it questioned whether in the first syllable of ‘fulsome’ we are to find ‘foul’ or ‘full.’ There should be no question on the matter; seeing that ‘fulsome’ is properly no more than ‘full,’ and then secondly that which by its fulness and overfulness produces first satiety, and then loathing and disgust. This meaning of ‘fulsome’ is still retained in our only present application of the word, namely to compliments and flattery, which by their grossness produce this effect on him who is their object; but the word had once many more applications than this. See the quotation from Pope,s. v.‘Bacchanal.’
His lean, pale, hoar, and withered corpse, grewfulsome, fair, and fresh.Golding,Ovid’s Metamorphosis, b. vii.The next is Doctrine, in whose lips there dwellsA spring of honey, sweeter than its name,Honey which neverfulsomeis, yetfillsThe widest souls.Beaumont,Psyche, b. xix. st. 210.Chaste and modest as he [Persius] is esteemed, it cannot be denied but that in some cases he is broad andfulsome. No decency is considered; nofulsomenessomitted.—Dryden,Dedication of Translations from Juvenal.Making her soul to loathe dainty meat, or putting a surfeit andfulsomenessinto all which she enjoys.—Rogers,Naaman the Syrian, p. 32.
His lean, pale, hoar, and withered corpse, grewfulsome, fair, and fresh.
His lean, pale, hoar, and withered corpse, grewfulsome, fair, and fresh.
His lean, pale, hoar, and withered corpse, grewfulsome, fair, and fresh.
His lean, pale, hoar, and withered corpse, grewfulsome, fair, and fresh.
Golding,Ovid’s Metamorphosis, b. vii.
The next is Doctrine, in whose lips there dwellsA spring of honey, sweeter than its name,Honey which neverfulsomeis, yetfillsThe widest souls.
The next is Doctrine, in whose lips there dwellsA spring of honey, sweeter than its name,Honey which neverfulsomeis, yetfillsThe widest souls.
The next is Doctrine, in whose lips there dwellsA spring of honey, sweeter than its name,Honey which neverfulsomeis, yetfillsThe widest souls.
The next is Doctrine, in whose lips there dwells
A spring of honey, sweeter than its name,
Honey which neverfulsomeis, yetfills
The widest souls.
Beaumont,Psyche, b. xix. st. 210.
Chaste and modest as he [Persius] is esteemed, it cannot be denied but that in some cases he is broad andfulsome. No decency is considered; nofulsomenessomitted.—Dryden,Dedication of Translations from Juvenal.
Making her soul to loathe dainty meat, or putting a surfeit andfulsomenessinto all which she enjoys.—Rogers,Naaman the Syrian, p. 32.
Garb.One of many words, all whose meaning has run to the surface. A man’s dress was once only a portion, and a very insignificant portion, of his ‘garb,’ which included his whole outward presentment to other men; now it is all.
First, for yourgarb, it must be grave and serious,Very reserved and locked; not tell a secretOn any terms, not to your father.Ben Jonson,Volpone, act iv. sc. 1.The greatest spirits, and those of the best and noblest breeding, are ever the most respective and obsequious in theirgarb, and the most observant and grateful in their language to all.—Feltham,Resolves, lxxxv.Have thy observing eyesE’er marked the spider’sgarb, how close she liesWithin her curious web, and by and byHow quick she hastes to her entangled fly?Quarles,History of Samson, sect. 19.A σεμνοπρέπεια in his person, a grave and a smilinggarbcompounded together to bring strangers into a liking of their welcome.—Hacket,Life of Archbishop Williams, part ii. p. 32.Horace’s wit and Virgil’s stateHe did not steal but emulate,And when he would like them appear,Theirgarb, but not their clothes, did wear.Denham,On the Death of Cowley.
First, for yourgarb, it must be grave and serious,Very reserved and locked; not tell a secretOn any terms, not to your father.
First, for yourgarb, it must be grave and serious,Very reserved and locked; not tell a secretOn any terms, not to your father.
First, for yourgarb, it must be grave and serious,Very reserved and locked; not tell a secretOn any terms, not to your father.
First, for yourgarb, it must be grave and serious,
Very reserved and locked; not tell a secret
On any terms, not to your father.
Ben Jonson,Volpone, act iv. sc. 1.
The greatest spirits, and those of the best and noblest breeding, are ever the most respective and obsequious in theirgarb, and the most observant and grateful in their language to all.—Feltham,Resolves, lxxxv.
Have thy observing eyesE’er marked the spider’sgarb, how close she liesWithin her curious web, and by and byHow quick she hastes to her entangled fly?
Have thy observing eyesE’er marked the spider’sgarb, how close she liesWithin her curious web, and by and byHow quick she hastes to her entangled fly?
Have thy observing eyesE’er marked the spider’sgarb, how close she liesWithin her curious web, and by and byHow quick she hastes to her entangled fly?
Have thy observing eyes
E’er marked the spider’sgarb, how close she lies
Within her curious web, and by and by
How quick she hastes to her entangled fly?
Quarles,History of Samson, sect. 19.
A σεμνοπρέπεια in his person, a grave and a smilinggarbcompounded together to bring strangers into a liking of their welcome.—Hacket,Life of Archbishop Williams, part ii. p. 32.
Horace’s wit and Virgil’s stateHe did not steal but emulate,And when he would like them appear,Theirgarb, but not their clothes, did wear.
Horace’s wit and Virgil’s stateHe did not steal but emulate,And when he would like them appear,Theirgarb, but not their clothes, did wear.
Horace’s wit and Virgil’s stateHe did not steal but emulate,And when he would like them appear,Theirgarb, but not their clothes, did wear.
Horace’s wit and Virgil’s state
He did not steal but emulate,
And when he would like them appear,
Theirgarb, but not their clothes, did wear.
Denham,On the Death of Cowley.
Garble.Writings only are ‘garbled’ now; and ‘garbled’ extracts are extracts dishonestly made, so shifted, mutilated, or in other ways tampered with, that, while presented as fair specimens, they convey a false impression. It is not difficult to trace the downward progress of the word. It is derived from the Low Latin ‘garbellare,’ to sift or cleanse corn from any dust or rubbish which may have becomemingled with it. It was then applied to any separation of the good from the bad, retaining that, rejecting this, and used most commonly of spices; then generally to picking and choosing, but without any intention to select the better and to dismiss the worse: and lastly, as at present, to picking and choosing with the distinct purpose of selecting that which should convey the worse impression, and dismissing that which should have conveyed a truer and a better. It is a very favourite word in its earlier uses with Fuller.
Garblingof bow-staves (anno 1 R. 3, cap. 11) is the sorting or culling out of the good from the bad.—Cowell,The Interpreter, s.v.There was a fair hospital, built to the honour of St. Anthony in Bennet’s Fink, in this city; the protectors and proctors whereof claimed a privilege to themselves, togarblethe live pigs in the markets of the city; and such as they found starved or otherwise unwholesome for man’s sustenance they would slit in the ear, tie a bell about their necks, and turn them loose about the city.—Fuller,Worthies of England: London.Garblingmen’s manners you did well divide,To take the Spaniards’ wisdom, not their pride;With French activity you stored your mind,Leaving to them their fickleness behind;And soon did learn, your temperance was such,A sober industry even from the Dutch.Id.,Worthies of England. A Panegyric on Charles II.Togarble, to cleanse from dross and dirt, as grocers do their spices, to pick or cull out.—Phillips,New World of Words.
Garblingof bow-staves (anno 1 R. 3, cap. 11) is the sorting or culling out of the good from the bad.—Cowell,The Interpreter, s.v.
There was a fair hospital, built to the honour of St. Anthony in Bennet’s Fink, in this city; the protectors and proctors whereof claimed a privilege to themselves, togarblethe live pigs in the markets of the city; and such as they found starved or otherwise unwholesome for man’s sustenance they would slit in the ear, tie a bell about their necks, and turn them loose about the city.—Fuller,Worthies of England: London.
Garblingmen’s manners you did well divide,To take the Spaniards’ wisdom, not their pride;With French activity you stored your mind,Leaving to them their fickleness behind;And soon did learn, your temperance was such,A sober industry even from the Dutch.
Garblingmen’s manners you did well divide,To take the Spaniards’ wisdom, not their pride;With French activity you stored your mind,Leaving to them their fickleness behind;And soon did learn, your temperance was such,A sober industry even from the Dutch.
Garblingmen’s manners you did well divide,To take the Spaniards’ wisdom, not their pride;With French activity you stored your mind,Leaving to them their fickleness behind;And soon did learn, your temperance was such,A sober industry even from the Dutch.
Garblingmen’s manners you did well divide,
To take the Spaniards’ wisdom, not their pride;
With French activity you stored your mind,
Leaving to them their fickleness behind;
And soon did learn, your temperance was such,
A sober industry even from the Dutch.
Id.,Worthies of England. A Panegyric on Charles II.
Togarble, to cleanse from dross and dirt, as grocers do their spices, to pick or cull out.—Phillips,New World of Words.
Garland.At present we know no other ‘garlands’ but of flowers; but ‘garland’ was at one time a technical name for the royal crown or diadem, andnot a poetical one, as might at first sight appear; as witness these words of Matthew of Paris in hisLife of Henry III.: Rex veste deauratâ, et coronulâ aureâ, quæ vulgaritergarlandadicitur, redimitus.
In the adoption and obtaining of thegarland, I being seduced and provoked by sinister counsel did commit a naughty and abominable act.—Grafton,Chronicle of King Richard III.In whose [Edward the Fourth’s] time, and by whose occasion, what about the getting of thegarland, keeping it, losing and winning again, it hath cost more English blood than hath twice the winning of France.—SirT. More,History of King Richard III.p. 107.What in me was purchased,Falls unto thee in a more fairer sort;So now thegarlandwear’st successively.Shakespeare,2 Henry IV.act iv. sc. 4.
In the adoption and obtaining of thegarland, I being seduced and provoked by sinister counsel did commit a naughty and abominable act.—Grafton,Chronicle of King Richard III.
In whose [Edward the Fourth’s] time, and by whose occasion, what about the getting of thegarland, keeping it, losing and winning again, it hath cost more English blood than hath twice the winning of France.—SirT. More,History of King Richard III.p. 107.
What in me was purchased,Falls unto thee in a more fairer sort;So now thegarlandwear’st successively.
What in me was purchased,Falls unto thee in a more fairer sort;So now thegarlandwear’st successively.
What in me was purchased,Falls unto thee in a more fairer sort;So now thegarlandwear’st successively.
What in me was purchased,
Falls unto thee in a more fairer sort;
So now thegarlandwear’st successively.
Shakespeare,2 Henry IV.act iv. sc. 4.
Garret.The Old French ‘garite,’ which is our ‘garret,’ is properly a place of refuge or safety, being derived from the verb ‘garir;’ thus ‘gagner la guérite,’ to save oneself by flight. But this place of safety would be often on a high wall, in a watch-tower, upon the tops of houses; and thus the notion of the ‘garret’ was connected with that of the highest stage or storey. The subaudition of its being the poorest and meanest place in the house is an afterthought, and certainly has no place in any of the following uses of the word.
Thanne walkede y ferrer, and went al abouten,And seigh halles full hyghe, and houses ful nobleWith gaiegaritesand grete, and iche hole y-glased.Peres the Plowman’s Crede, l. 214 (Skeat).Thegarettesaboven the ghates bryghtOf the ceté of heven, I lyken thus ryghtTylle thegarettesof a ceté of gold,That wroght war als I before told.Richard Rolle de Hampole,Pricke of Conscience, 9101-9104.It is nat possible algate to have highegarettes, or toures, or highe places for watche men; therefor it nedethe to have out watche.—Vegetius, quoted in Way’sPromptorium, p. 187.
Thanne walkede y ferrer, and went al abouten,And seigh halles full hyghe, and houses ful nobleWith gaiegaritesand grete, and iche hole y-glased.
Thanne walkede y ferrer, and went al abouten,And seigh halles full hyghe, and houses ful nobleWith gaiegaritesand grete, and iche hole y-glased.
Thanne walkede y ferrer, and went al abouten,And seigh halles full hyghe, and houses ful nobleWith gaiegaritesand grete, and iche hole y-glased.
Thanne walkede y ferrer, and went al abouten,
And seigh halles full hyghe, and houses ful noble
With gaiegaritesand grete, and iche hole y-glased.
Peres the Plowman’s Crede, l. 214 (Skeat).
Thegarettesaboven the ghates bryghtOf the ceté of heven, I lyken thus ryghtTylle thegarettesof a ceté of gold,That wroght war als I before told.
Thegarettesaboven the ghates bryghtOf the ceté of heven, I lyken thus ryghtTylle thegarettesof a ceté of gold,That wroght war als I before told.
Thegarettesaboven the ghates bryghtOf the ceté of heven, I lyken thus ryghtTylle thegarettesof a ceté of gold,That wroght war als I before told.
Thegarettesaboven the ghates bryght
Of the ceté of heven, I lyken thus ryght
Tylle thegarettesof a ceté of gold,
That wroght war als I before told.
Richard Rolle de Hampole,Pricke of Conscience, 9101-9104.
It is nat possible algate to have highegarettes, or toures, or highe places for watche men; therefor it nedethe to have out watche.—Vegetius, quoted in Way’sPromptorium, p. 187.
Gazette.The French form of an Italian word ‘gazzetta,’ designating a small piece of tin money current at Venice, of the value of less than a farthing (see Florio). This word ‘gazzetta’ may possibly be quite distinct in origin from ‘gazzetta,’ the name of a monthly bill of news printed commonly at Venice (see Skeat’sDictionary). We see the word in this latter sense, but not as yet thoroughly at home in English, for it still retains [as it retained much later] an Italian termination, in Ben Jonson’sVolpone(act v. sc. 2), of which the scene is laid at Venice. Curiously enough the same play gives also an example, quoted below, of ‘gazette’ in the sense of a coin.
If you will have a stool, it will cost you a gazet, which is almost a penny.—Coryat,Crudities, vol. ii. p. 15.What monstrous and most painful circumstanceIs here to get some three or fourgazets,Some threepence in the whole.Ben Jonson,Volpone, act ii. sc. 2.
If you will have a stool, it will cost you a gazet, which is almost a penny.—Coryat,Crudities, vol. ii. p. 15.
What monstrous and most painful circumstanceIs here to get some three or fourgazets,Some threepence in the whole.
What monstrous and most painful circumstanceIs here to get some three or fourgazets,Some threepence in the whole.
What monstrous and most painful circumstanceIs here to get some three or fourgazets,Some threepence in the whole.
What monstrous and most painful circumstance
Is here to get some three or fourgazets,
Some threepence in the whole.
Ben Jonson,Volpone, act ii. sc. 2.
Gelding.Restrained at present tohorseswhich have ceased to be entire; but until ‘eunuch,’ which is of somewhat late adoption, had been introduced into the language, serving also the needs which that serves now.
Thanne Joseph was lad in Egepte, and bought him Potiphar, thegeldingof Pharao.—Gen.xxxix. 1.Wiclif.And whanne thei weren come up of the watir, the spirit of the Lord ravyschide Filip, and thegeldingsay hym no more.—Actsviii. 39.Wiclif.Lysimachus was very angry, and thought great scorn that Demetrius should reckon him agelding.—North,Plutarch’s Lives, p. 741.
Thanne Joseph was lad in Egepte, and bought him Potiphar, thegeldingof Pharao.—Gen.xxxix. 1.Wiclif.
And whanne thei weren come up of the watir, the spirit of the Lord ravyschide Filip, and thegeldingsay hym no more.—Actsviii. 39.Wiclif.
Lysimachus was very angry, and thought great scorn that Demetrius should reckon him agelding.—North,Plutarch’s Lives, p. 741.
Generosity.We still use ‘generous’ occasionally in the sense of highly or nobly born; but ‘generosity’ has quite lost this its earlier sense, and acquired a purely ethical meaning. Its history illustrates, as does the history of so many other words, what one may call the aristocratic tendencies of language.
Nobility began in thine ancestors and ended in thee: and thegenerositythat they gained by virtue, thou hast blotted by vice.—Lyly,Euphues and his England.Their eyes are commonly black and small, noses little, nails almost as long as their fingers, but serving to distinguish theirgenerosity.—Harris,Voyages, vol. i. p. 465.
Nobility began in thine ancestors and ended in thee: and thegenerositythat they gained by virtue, thou hast blotted by vice.—Lyly,Euphues and his England.
Their eyes are commonly black and small, noses little, nails almost as long as their fingers, but serving to distinguish theirgenerosity.—Harris,Voyages, vol. i. p. 465.
Genial.It is curious to find ‘genial’ used in a sense not merely so different, but so directly opposed to that in which we employ it now, as in the quotation which follows we do. Whether there are other examples of the same use, I am unable to say.
There are not a few very much to be pitied, whose industry being not attended with natural parts, they have sweat to little purpose, and rolled the stone in vain, which chiefly proceedeth from natural incapacity andgenialindisposition, at least to those particulars whereunto they apply their endeavours.—SirT. Browne,Vulgar Errors, b. i. c. 5.
There are not a few very much to be pitied, whose industry being not attended with natural parts, they have sweat to little purpose, and rolled the stone in vain, which chiefly proceedeth from natural incapacity andgenialindisposition, at least to those particulars whereunto they apply their endeavours.—SirT. Browne,Vulgar Errors, b. i. c. 5.
Gestation.Now a technical word applied only to the period during which the females of animals carry their young; but acknowledging no such limitation once.
Gestationin a chariot or wagon hath in it a shaking of the body, but some vehement, and some more soft.—SirT. Elyot,Castle of Health, b. ii. c. 34.Gestation, an exercise of the body, by being carried in coach, litter, upon horseback, or in a vessel on the water.—Holland,Pliny, Explanation of the Words of Art.
Gestationin a chariot or wagon hath in it a shaking of the body, but some vehement, and some more soft.—SirT. Elyot,Castle of Health, b. ii. c. 34.
Gestation, an exercise of the body, by being carried in coach, litter, upon horseback, or in a vessel on the water.—Holland,Pliny, Explanation of the Words of Art.
Ghost.It is only in the very highest acceptation of all that ‘Ghost’ and ‘Spirit’ are now synonymous and exchangeable. They once were so through the entire range of their several uses.
And in this manere was man made,And thus God gaf hym agoost.Piers Plowman, B-text, Passus ix. 45 (Skeat).As wel in body asgoost, chaste was sche.Chaucer,The Doctoures Tale(Morris, iii. p. 77).He sawe that the heavens opened, and thegoostas a dove commynge downe upon Him.—Marki. 10.Coverdale.
And in this manere was man made,And thus God gaf hym agoost.
And in this manere was man made,And thus God gaf hym agoost.
And in this manere was man made,And thus God gaf hym agoost.
And in this manere was man made,
And thus God gaf hym agoost.
Piers Plowman, B-text, Passus ix. 45 (Skeat).
As wel in body asgoost, chaste was sche.
As wel in body asgoost, chaste was sche.
As wel in body asgoost, chaste was sche.
As wel in body asgoost, chaste was sche.
Chaucer,The Doctoures Tale(Morris, iii. p. 77).
He sawe that the heavens opened, and thegoostas a dove commynge downe upon Him.—Marki. 10.Coverdale.
Girl.A child, and this of either sex. In Middle English the phrase ‘knave gerlys’ occurs in the sense of boys. It fared in early English not otherwise with ‘wench’ (which see).
Thorw wyn and thorw women there was Loth acombred,And there gat in glotonyegerlisthat were cherlis.Piers Plowman, B-text, Passus i. 32 (Skeat).In daunger he hadde at his owne assiseThe yongegurlesof the diocise,And knew here counseil.Chaucer,Canterbury Tales, The Prologue, 663(Morris, ii. p. 21).
Thorw wyn and thorw women there was Loth acombred,And there gat in glotonyegerlisthat were cherlis.
Thorw wyn and thorw women there was Loth acombred,And there gat in glotonyegerlisthat were cherlis.
Thorw wyn and thorw women there was Loth acombred,And there gat in glotonyegerlisthat were cherlis.
Thorw wyn and thorw women there was Loth acombred,
And there gat in glotonyegerlisthat were cherlis.
Piers Plowman, B-text, Passus i. 32 (Skeat).
In daunger he hadde at his owne assiseThe yongegurlesof the diocise,And knew here counseil.
In daunger he hadde at his owne assiseThe yongegurlesof the diocise,And knew here counseil.
In daunger he hadde at his owne assiseThe yongegurlesof the diocise,And knew here counseil.
In daunger he hadde at his owne assise
The yongegurlesof the diocise,
And knew here counseil.
Chaucer,Canterbury Tales, The Prologue, 663(Morris, ii. p. 21).
Gist.This, the Old French ‘giste,’ from the old ‘gésir’ (Latin ‘jacēre’) meant formerly, as the French word ‘gîte’ means still, the place where one lodges for the night. A scroll containing the route and resting placesof a royal party during a progress was sometimes so called. For the connexion between ‘gist’ in this sense and ‘gist’ as we use it now see Skeat’sDictionary.
After he had sent Popilius before in spial, and perceived that the avenues were open in all parts, he marched forward himself, and by the secondgistcame to Dium [secundiscastrispervenit ad Dium].—Holland,Livy, p. 1174.The guides who were to conduct them on their way had commandment so to cast theirgistsand journeys that by three of the clock in the morning of the third day they might assail Pythoum.—Id.,ib.p. 1193.
After he had sent Popilius before in spial, and perceived that the avenues were open in all parts, he marched forward himself, and by the secondgistcame to Dium [secundiscastrispervenit ad Dium].—Holland,Livy, p. 1174.
The guides who were to conduct them on their way had commandment so to cast theirgistsand journeys that by three of the clock in the morning of the third day they might assail Pythoum.—Id.,ib.p. 1193.
‘Glory’ is never employed now in the sense of ‘vain-glory,’ nor ‘glorious’ in that of ‘vain-glorious,’ as once they often were.
In military commanders and soldiers,vain-gloryis an essential point; for as iron sharpens iron, so bygloryone courage sharpeneth another.—Bacon,Essays, 54.So commonly actions begun ingloryshut up in shame.—BishopHall,Contemplations, On Babel.To that intent God maid him thus,That man suld nocht beglorious,Nor in himself na thing suld seBut mater of humilitie.Lyndesay,The Monarchie.Some took this for agloriousbrag; others thought he [Alcibiades] was like enough to have done it.—North,Plutarch’s Lives, p. 183.Likewisegloriousfollowers, who make themselves as trumpets of the commendation of those they follow, are full of inconveniences. For they taint business through want of secrecy; and they export honour from a man, and make him a return in envy.—Bacon,Essays, 48 (Abbott, ii. p. 66).He [Anselm] little dreamt then that the weeding-hook of Reformation would after two ages pluck up hisgloriouspoppy [prelacy] from insulting over the good corn [presbytery].—Milton,Reason of Church Government, b. i. c. 5.I speak it notgloriously, or out of affectation.—Ben Jonson,Every Man out of his Humour, act ii. sc. 1.
In military commanders and soldiers,vain-gloryis an essential point; for as iron sharpens iron, so bygloryone courage sharpeneth another.—Bacon,Essays, 54.
So commonly actions begun ingloryshut up in shame.—BishopHall,Contemplations, On Babel.
To that intent God maid him thus,That man suld nocht beglorious,Nor in himself na thing suld seBut mater of humilitie.
To that intent God maid him thus,That man suld nocht beglorious,Nor in himself na thing suld seBut mater of humilitie.
To that intent God maid him thus,That man suld nocht beglorious,Nor in himself na thing suld seBut mater of humilitie.
To that intent God maid him thus,
That man suld nocht beglorious,
Nor in himself na thing suld se
But mater of humilitie.
Lyndesay,The Monarchie.
Some took this for agloriousbrag; others thought he [Alcibiades] was like enough to have done it.—North,Plutarch’s Lives, p. 183.
Likewisegloriousfollowers, who make themselves as trumpets of the commendation of those they follow, are full of inconveniences. For they taint business through want of secrecy; and they export honour from a man, and make him a return in envy.—Bacon,Essays, 48 (Abbott, ii. p. 66).
He [Anselm] little dreamt then that the weeding-hook of Reformation would after two ages pluck up hisgloriouspoppy [prelacy] from insulting over the good corn [presbytery].—Milton,Reason of Church Government, b. i. c. 5.
I speak it notgloriously, or out of affectation.—Ben Jonson,Every Man out of his Humour, act ii. sc. 1.
As metaphysics have yielded us ‘common sense,’ and logic ‘formal’ and ‘formality,’ so we owe to theology ‘good-nature.’ By it our elder divines understood far more than we understand by it now; even all which it is possible for a man to have, without having the grace of God. The contrast between grace and nature was of course unknown to the Greeks; but, this being kept in mind, we may say that the ‘good-nature’ of our theology two centuries ago was as nearly as possible expressed by the εὐφυΐα of Aristotle (Eth. Nic.iii. 7; compare the ‘heureusement né’ of the French); the genial preparedness for the reception of every high teaching. In the paper ofThe Spectator, quoted below, which treats exclusively of ‘good-nature,’ the word is passing, but has by no means passed, into its modern meaning. See ‘Ill-nature.’
Good-nature, being the relics and remains of that shipwreck which Adam made, is the proper and immediate disposition to holiness. Whengood-natureis heightened by the grace of God, that which was natural becomes now spiritual.—BishopTaylor,Sermon preached at the Funeral of Sir George Dalstone.Good-nature!alas, where is it? Since Adam fell, there was never any such thing in rerum naturâ; if there be any good thing in any man, it is all from grace. We may talk of this and that, ofgood-natured men, and I know not what; but the very truth is, set grace aside (I mean all grace, bothrenewing grace and restraining grace), there is no moregood-naturein any man than there was in Cain and in Judas. That thing which we use to callgood-natureis indeed but a subordinate means or instrument, whereby God restraineth some men more than others, from their birth and special constitution, from sundry outrageous exorbitances, and so is a branch of this restraining grace whereof we now speak.—Sanderson,Sermons, 1671, vol. i. p. 279.If any good did appear in the conversation of some men who followed that religion [the Pagan], it is not to be imputed to the influence of that, but to some better cause; to the relics ofgood-nature, to the glimmerings of natural light, or (perhaps also) to secret whispers and impressions of divine grace on some men’s minds vouchsafed in pity to them.—Barrow,Sermon 14 on the Apostles’ Creed.They [infidels] explode all natural difference of good and evil; deriding benignity, mercy, pity, gratitude, ingenuity; that is, all instances ofgood-nature, as childish and silly dispositions.—Id.,Sermon 6 on the Apostles’ Creed.Xenophon, in the Life of his imaginary Prince, is always celebrating the philanthropy orgood-natureof his hero, which he tells us he brought into the world with him.—Spectator, no. 169.
Good-nature, being the relics and remains of that shipwreck which Adam made, is the proper and immediate disposition to holiness. Whengood-natureis heightened by the grace of God, that which was natural becomes now spiritual.—BishopTaylor,Sermon preached at the Funeral of Sir George Dalstone.
Good-nature!alas, where is it? Since Adam fell, there was never any such thing in rerum naturâ; if there be any good thing in any man, it is all from grace. We may talk of this and that, ofgood-natured men, and I know not what; but the very truth is, set grace aside (I mean all grace, bothrenewing grace and restraining grace), there is no moregood-naturein any man than there was in Cain and in Judas. That thing which we use to callgood-natureis indeed but a subordinate means or instrument, whereby God restraineth some men more than others, from their birth and special constitution, from sundry outrageous exorbitances, and so is a branch of this restraining grace whereof we now speak.—Sanderson,Sermons, 1671, vol. i. p. 279.
If any good did appear in the conversation of some men who followed that religion [the Pagan], it is not to be imputed to the influence of that, but to some better cause; to the relics ofgood-nature, to the glimmerings of natural light, or (perhaps also) to secret whispers and impressions of divine grace on some men’s minds vouchsafed in pity to them.—Barrow,Sermon 14 on the Apostles’ Creed.
They [infidels] explode all natural difference of good and evil; deriding benignity, mercy, pity, gratitude, ingenuity; that is, all instances ofgood-nature, as childish and silly dispositions.—Id.,Sermon 6 on the Apostles’ Creed.
Xenophon, in the Life of his imaginary Prince, is always celebrating the philanthropy orgood-natureof his hero, which he tells us he brought into the world with him.—Spectator, no. 169.
Gospeller.Now seldom used save in ritual language, and there designating the priest or deacon who in the divine service reads the Gospel of the day; but employed once as equivalent to ‘Evangelist,’ and subsequently applied to adherents of the Reformed faith; both which meanings have since departed from it.
Marke, thegospeller, was the goostli sone of Petre in baptysm.—Wiclif,The Prologe of Marke.The persecution was carried on against thegospellerswith much fierceness by those of the Roman persuasion.—Strype,Memorial of Archbishop Cranmer, b. iii. c. 16.
Marke, thegospeller, was the goostli sone of Petre in baptysm.—Wiclif,The Prologe of Marke.
The persecution was carried on against thegospellerswith much fierceness by those of the Roman persuasion.—Strype,Memorial of Archbishop Cranmer, b. iii. c. 16.
Gossip.It would be interesting to collect instances in which the humbler classes of society have retained the correct use of a word, which has been let go by those of higher education. ‘Gossip’ is one, being still used by our peasantry in its first and etymological sense, namely as a sponsor in baptism—onesibor akin inGod, according to the doctrine of the medieval Church, that sponsors contracted a spiritual affinity with the child for whom they stood. ‘Gossips,’ in this primary sense, would often be familiar with one another—and thus the word was applied to all familiars and intimates. At a later day it came to signify such idle talk, the ‘commérage’ (which word has exactly the same history), which too often would find place in the intercourse of such.
They had mothers as we had; and those mothers hadgossips(if their children were christened), as we are.—Ben Jonson,The Staple of News, The Induction.Thus fareth the golden mean, through the misconstruction of the extremes. Well-tempered zeal is lukewarmness; devotion is hypocrisy; charity, ostentation; constancy, obstinacy; gravity, pride; humility, abjection of spirit; and so go through the whole parish of virtues, where misprision and envy aregossips, be sure the child shall be nicknamed.—Whitlock,Zootomia, p. 3.Should a great lady that was invited to be agossip, in her place send her kitchen-maid, ’twould be ill-taken.—Selden,Table-Talk, Prayer.
They had mothers as we had; and those mothers hadgossips(if their children were christened), as we are.—Ben Jonson,The Staple of News, The Induction.
Thus fareth the golden mean, through the misconstruction of the extremes. Well-tempered zeal is lukewarmness; devotion is hypocrisy; charity, ostentation; constancy, obstinacy; gravity, pride; humility, abjection of spirit; and so go through the whole parish of virtues, where misprision and envy aregossips, be sure the child shall be nicknamed.—Whitlock,Zootomia, p. 3.
Should a great lady that was invited to be agossip, in her place send her kitchen-maid, ’twould be ill-taken.—Selden,Table-Talk, Prayer.
Grave.The O.E. ‘grafan’ (compare German ‘graben,’ ‘to grave’) was once used in the senses which ‘graben’ still retains. See ‘Engrave.’
They sette mark hir metyng sholde beTher King Nynus wasgraven, under a tree.Chaucer,Legend of Good Women, 784 (Skeat, p. 50).I wil laye sege to the rounde aboute, andgraveup dykes against ye.—Isai.xxix. 3.Coverdale.He hathgravenand digged up a pit, and is fallen himself into the destruction that he made for other.—Ps.vii. 16. (P. B. V.)
They sette mark hir metyng sholde beTher King Nynus wasgraven, under a tree.
They sette mark hir metyng sholde beTher King Nynus wasgraven, under a tree.
They sette mark hir metyng sholde beTher King Nynus wasgraven, under a tree.
They sette mark hir metyng sholde be
Ther King Nynus wasgraven, under a tree.
Chaucer,Legend of Good Women, 784 (Skeat, p. 50).
I wil laye sege to the rounde aboute, andgraveup dykes against ye.—Isai.xxix. 3.Coverdale.
He hathgravenand digged up a pit, and is fallen himself into the destruction that he made for other.—Ps.vii. 16. (P. B. V.)
Grope.Now to feelfor, and uncertainly, as does a blind man or one in the dark; but once simply to feel, to grasp.
Tho han hondis, and schulen notgrope[et nonpalpabunt, Vulg.]—Ps.cxiii. 7.Wiclif.I have touched and tasted the Lord, andgropedHim with hands, and yet unbelief hath made all unsavoury.—Rogers,Naaman the Syrian, p. 231.
Tho han hondis, and schulen notgrope[et nonpalpabunt, Vulg.]—Ps.cxiii. 7.Wiclif.
I have touched and tasted the Lord, andgropedHim with hands, and yet unbelief hath made all unsavoury.—Rogers,Naaman the Syrian, p. 231.
Grudge.Now to repine at the good which others already have, or which we may be required to impart to them; but it formerly impliedopenutterances of discontent and displeasure against others, and did the work which ‘to murmur’ does now. Traces of this still survive in our English Bible.
And the Farisees and scribisgrutchiden; seiynge, For this resseyveth synful men, and etith with hem.—Lukexv. 2.Wiclif.After bakbytyng comethgrucchingor murmuracioun, and somtyme it springith of impacience agayns God, and somtyme agains man.—Chaucer,The Persones Tale(Morris, iii. p. 305).Yea withoutgrudgingChrist suffered the cruel Jews to crown Him with most sharp thorns, and to strike Him with a reed.—Foxe,Book of Martyrs: Examination of William Thorpe.Use hospitality one to another withoutgrudging[ἄνευ γογγυσμῶν].—1 Pet.iv. 9. (A.V.)
And the Farisees and scribisgrutchiden; seiynge, For this resseyveth synful men, and etith with hem.—Lukexv. 2.Wiclif.
After bakbytyng comethgrucchingor murmuracioun, and somtyme it springith of impacience agayns God, and somtyme agains man.—Chaucer,The Persones Tale(Morris, iii. p. 305).
Yea withoutgrudgingChrist suffered the cruel Jews to crown Him with most sharp thorns, and to strike Him with a reed.—Foxe,Book of Martyrs: Examination of William Thorpe.
Use hospitality one to another withoutgrudging[ἄνευ γογγυσμῶν].—1 Pet.iv. 9. (A.V.)
Guard.Is ‘guard,’ in the sense of welt or border to a garment, nothing more than aspecialapplicationof ‘guard,’ as it is familiar to us all? or is it altogether a different word with its own etymology, and only by accident offering the same letters in the same sequence? I have assumed, though not with perfect confidence, the former; for indeed otherwise the word would have no right to a place here.
Antipater wears in outward show his apparel with a plain white welt orguard, but he is within all purple, I warrant you, and as red as scarlet.—Holland,Plutarch’s Morals, p. 412.Then were the fathers of those children glad men to see their sons apparelled like Romans, in fair long gowns,gardedwith purple.—North,Plutarch’s Lives, p. 492.Give him a liveryMoreguardedthan his fellows.Shakespeare,Merchant of Venice, act ii. sc. 2.
Antipater wears in outward show his apparel with a plain white welt orguard, but he is within all purple, I warrant you, and as red as scarlet.—Holland,Plutarch’s Morals, p. 412.
Then were the fathers of those children glad men to see their sons apparelled like Romans, in fair long gowns,gardedwith purple.—North,Plutarch’s Lives, p. 492.
Give him a liveryMoreguardedthan his fellows.
Give him a liveryMoreguardedthan his fellows.
Give him a liveryMoreguardedthan his fellows.
Give him a livery
Moreguardedthan his fellows.
Shakespeare,Merchant of Venice, act ii. sc. 2.
Hag.One of the many words applied formerly to both sexes, but now restrained only to one. See ‘Coquet,’ ‘Girl,’ ‘Harlot,’ ‘Hoyden,’ ‘Termagant,’ ‘Witch.’
And that oldhag[Silenus] that with a staff his staggering limbs doth stay,Scarce able on his ass to sit for reeling every way.Golding,Ovid’s Metamorphosis, b. iv.Curst be thy throte and soule. Raven,Schriech-owle,hag[addressed to a man].Chapman,Byron’s Conspiracies, act iii.
And that oldhag[Silenus] that with a staff his staggering limbs doth stay,Scarce able on his ass to sit for reeling every way.
And that oldhag[Silenus] that with a staff his staggering limbs doth stay,Scarce able on his ass to sit for reeling every way.
And that oldhag[Silenus] that with a staff his staggering limbs doth stay,Scarce able on his ass to sit for reeling every way.
And that oldhag[Silenus] that with a staff his staggering limbs doth stay,
Scarce able on his ass to sit for reeling every way.
Golding,Ovid’s Metamorphosis, b. iv.
Curst be thy throte and soule. Raven,Schriech-owle,hag[addressed to a man].
Curst be thy throte and soule. Raven,Schriech-owle,hag[addressed to a man].
Curst be thy throte and soule. Raven,Schriech-owle,hag[addressed to a man].
Curst be thy throte and soule. Raven,
Schriech-owle,hag[addressed to a man].
Chapman,Byron’s Conspiracies, act iii.
Now referred exclusively to comeliness, either literal or figurative. It is of course closely connected with ‘handy,’ indeed differs from it only in termination, and in all early uses means having prompt and dexterous use of the hands, and then generally able, adroit. In Cotgrave’sDictionary, ‘habile,’ ‘adroit,’ ‘maniable,’ take precedence of ‘beau,’ ‘belle,’ as its French equivalents. See ‘Unhandsome.’
Few of them [the Germans] use swords or great lances; but carry javelins with a narrow and short iron, but so sharp andhandsome, that, as occasion serveth, with the same weapon they can fight both at hand and afar off.—Greenwey,Tacitus, vol. i. p. 259.A light footman’s shield he takes unto him, and a Spanish blade by his side, morehandsometo fight short and close [ad propioremhabilipugnam].—Holland,Livy, p. 255.Philopœmen sought to put down all exercise, which made men’s bodies unmeet to take pains, and to become soldiers to fight in defence of their country, that otherwise would have been very able andhandsomefor the same.—North,Plutarch’s Lives, p. 306.Both twain of them made haste,And girding close forhandsomenesstheir garments to their waist,Bestirred their cunning hands apace.Golding,Ovid’s Metamorphosis, b. vi.
Few of them [the Germans] use swords or great lances; but carry javelins with a narrow and short iron, but so sharp andhandsome, that, as occasion serveth, with the same weapon they can fight both at hand and afar off.—Greenwey,Tacitus, vol. i. p. 259.
A light footman’s shield he takes unto him, and a Spanish blade by his side, morehandsometo fight short and close [ad propioremhabilipugnam].—Holland,Livy, p. 255.
Philopœmen sought to put down all exercise, which made men’s bodies unmeet to take pains, and to become soldiers to fight in defence of their country, that otherwise would have been very able andhandsomefor the same.—North,Plutarch’s Lives, p. 306.
Both twain of them made haste,And girding close forhandsomenesstheir garments to their waist,Bestirred their cunning hands apace.
Both twain of them made haste,And girding close forhandsomenesstheir garments to their waist,Bestirred their cunning hands apace.
Both twain of them made haste,And girding close forhandsomenesstheir garments to their waist,Bestirred their cunning hands apace.
Both twain of them made haste,
And girding close forhandsomenesstheir garments to their waist,
Bestirred their cunning hands apace.
Golding,Ovid’s Metamorphosis, b. vi.
Harbinger.This word belongs at present to our poetical diction, and to that only; its original significance being nearly or quite forgotten: as is evident from the inaccurate ways in which it has come to be used; as though a ‘harbinger’ were merely one who announced the coming, and not always one who prepared a place and lodging, a ‘harbour,’ for another. He did indeed announce the near approach, but only as an accidental consequence of his office. Our Lord, if we may reverently say it, assumed to Himself precisely the office of a ‘harbinger,’ when He said, ‘I go to prepare a place for you’ (Johnxiv. 2).
There was aharbingerwho had lodged a gentleman in a very ill room; who expostulated with him somewhat rudely; but theharbingercarelessly said, ‘You will take pleasure in it when you are out of it.’—Bacon,Apophthegms.I’ll be myself theharbinger, and make joyfulThe hearing of my wife with your approach.Shakespeare,Macbeth, act i. sc. 4.The fame of Frederick’s valour and maiden fortune, never as yet spotted with ill success, like aharbingerhastening before, had provided victory to entertain him at his arrival.—Fuller,Holy War, b. iii. c. 31.A wingedharbingerfrom bright heaven flownBespeaks a lodging-roomFor the mighty King of love,The spotless structure of a virgin womb.BishopTaylor,On the Annunciation.
There was aharbingerwho had lodged a gentleman in a very ill room; who expostulated with him somewhat rudely; but theharbingercarelessly said, ‘You will take pleasure in it when you are out of it.’—Bacon,Apophthegms.
I’ll be myself theharbinger, and make joyfulThe hearing of my wife with your approach.
I’ll be myself theharbinger, and make joyfulThe hearing of my wife with your approach.
I’ll be myself theharbinger, and make joyfulThe hearing of my wife with your approach.
I’ll be myself theharbinger, and make joyful
The hearing of my wife with your approach.
Shakespeare,Macbeth, act i. sc. 4.
The fame of Frederick’s valour and maiden fortune, never as yet spotted with ill success, like aharbingerhastening before, had provided victory to entertain him at his arrival.—Fuller,Holy War, b. iii. c. 31.
A wingedharbingerfrom bright heaven flownBespeaks a lodging-roomFor the mighty King of love,The spotless structure of a virgin womb.
A wingedharbingerfrom bright heaven flownBespeaks a lodging-roomFor the mighty King of love,The spotless structure of a virgin womb.
A wingedharbingerfrom bright heaven flownBespeaks a lodging-roomFor the mighty King of love,The spotless structure of a virgin womb.
A wingedharbingerfrom bright heaven flown
Bespeaks a lodging-room
For the mighty King of love,
The spotless structure of a virgin womb.
BishopTaylor,On the Annunciation.
When used ofpersons, ‘hardy’ means now enduring, indifferent to fatigue, hunger, thirst, heat, cold, and the like. But it had once a far more prevailing sense of bold, which now only remains to it in connexion withthings, as we should still speak of a ‘hardy,’ meaning thereby a bold, assertion; though never now of a ‘hardy,’ if we intended a bold or daring person. Lord Bacon’s Charles theHardyis Charles leTéméraire, or Charles theBold, as we always style him now.
Hap helpethhardyman alday, quod he.Chaucer,Legend of Good Women(Skeat, p. 86).It is not to be forgotten that Commineus observeth of his first master, duke Charles theHardy, namely, that he would communicate his secrets with none.—Bacon,Essays, 27.Hardily[audacter, Vulg.] he entride in to Pilat, and axide the body of Jhesu.—Markxv. 43.Wiclif(earlier version).
Hap helpethhardyman alday, quod he.
Hap helpethhardyman alday, quod he.
Hap helpethhardyman alday, quod he.
Hap helpethhardyman alday, quod he.
Chaucer,Legend of Good Women(Skeat, p. 86).
It is not to be forgotten that Commineus observeth of his first master, duke Charles theHardy, namely, that he would communicate his secrets with none.—Bacon,Essays, 27.
Hardily[audacter, Vulg.] he entride in to Pilat, and axide the body of Jhesu.—Markxv. 43.Wiclif(earlier version).
Harlot.I have no desire to entangle myself in the question of this word’s etymology; it is sufficient to observe that it was used of both sexes alike; and though for the most part a word of slight and contempt, signifying generally a low fellow, vagabond, buffoon, acrobat (in thePromptorium‘scurrus’ is the Latin equivalent of it), implied nothing of that specialformof sin to which it now exclusively refers.
Salle neverharlottehave happe, thorowe helpe of my Lord,To kille a crownde kynge, with crysome enoynttede.Morte Arthure, 2446.That nonharlotwere so hardy to leyne hande uppon hym.Piers Plowman, B-text, Passus 18, 77 (Skeat).He was a gentilharlotand a kynde.Chaucer,Prologue, 647.Thou lord (God) has done mare wondire than theherlot: he lerid to ga in a corde, thou makis men to ga abouen the watire.—Hampole,Psalmxxxix. 7 (ed. Bramley, 1884).No man but he and thou and such other falseharlotspraiseth any such preaching.—Foxe,Book of Martyrs; Examination of William Thorpe.About this time [A.D.1264] a redress of certain sects was intended, among which one by name specially occurreth, and called the assembly ofharlots,16a kind of people of a lewd disposition and uncivil.—Id.,ib.vol. i. p. 435.
Salle neverharlottehave happe, thorowe helpe of my Lord,To kille a crownde kynge, with crysome enoynttede.
Salle neverharlottehave happe, thorowe helpe of my Lord,To kille a crownde kynge, with crysome enoynttede.
Salle neverharlottehave happe, thorowe helpe of my Lord,To kille a crownde kynge, with crysome enoynttede.
Salle neverharlottehave happe, thorowe helpe of my Lord,
To kille a crownde kynge, with crysome enoynttede.
Morte Arthure, 2446.
That nonharlotwere so hardy to leyne hande uppon hym.
That nonharlotwere so hardy to leyne hande uppon hym.
That nonharlotwere so hardy to leyne hande uppon hym.
That nonharlotwere so hardy to leyne hande uppon hym.
Piers Plowman, B-text, Passus 18, 77 (Skeat).
He was a gentilharlotand a kynde.
He was a gentilharlotand a kynde.
He was a gentilharlotand a kynde.
He was a gentilharlotand a kynde.
Chaucer,Prologue, 647.
Thou lord (God) has done mare wondire than theherlot: he lerid to ga in a corde, thou makis men to ga abouen the watire.—Hampole,Psalmxxxix. 7 (ed. Bramley, 1884).
No man but he and thou and such other falseharlotspraiseth any such preaching.—Foxe,Book of Martyrs; Examination of William Thorpe.
About this time [A.D.1264] a redress of certain sects was intended, among which one by name specially occurreth, and called the assembly ofharlots,16a kind of people of a lewd disposition and uncivil.—Id.,ib.vol. i. p. 435.
Harness.In French the difference between the ‘harness’ of a man and of a horse is expressed by a slight difference in the spelling, ‘harnois’ in one case, ‘harnais’ in the other. In English we only retain the word now in the second of these uses.
But when a stronger then he cometh apon hym and overcommeth him, he taketh from him hisharneswherin he trusted, and devideth his gooddes.—Lukexi. 22.Tyndale.When Abram herde that his brother was taken, heharnessedhis bonde-servauntes, and followed after them untill Dan.—Gen.xiv.Coverdale.Those that sleep in Jesus shall God bring with Him, andharnessthem with the bright armour of life and immortality.—H. More,Grand Mystery of Godliness, b. iv. c. 18.And all about the courtly stableBright-harnessedangels sit in order serviceable.Milton,On the Nativity.
But when a stronger then he cometh apon hym and overcommeth him, he taketh from him hisharneswherin he trusted, and devideth his gooddes.—Lukexi. 22.Tyndale.
When Abram herde that his brother was taken, heharnessedhis bonde-servauntes, and followed after them untill Dan.—Gen.xiv.Coverdale.
Those that sleep in Jesus shall God bring with Him, andharnessthem with the bright armour of life and immortality.—H. More,Grand Mystery of Godliness, b. iv. c. 18.
And all about the courtly stableBright-harnessedangels sit in order serviceable.
And all about the courtly stableBright-harnessedangels sit in order serviceable.
And all about the courtly stableBright-harnessedangels sit in order serviceable.
And all about the courtly stable
Bright-harnessedangels sit in order serviceable.
Milton,On the Nativity.
Harvest.It is remarkable that while spring, summer, winter, have all their home-bred names, we designate the other quarter of the year by its Latin title ‘autumn,’ ‘hærfest’ (= the German ‘Herbst’) having been appropriated to the ingathering of thefruitsof this season, not to the season itself. In this indeed we are truer to the proper meaning of ‘harvest’ than the Germans, who have transferred the word from the former to the latter; for it is closely related with the Greek καρπός. Occasionally, however, as in the passages which follow, ‘harvest’ assumes with us also the signification of autumn.
These benhervesttrees [arbores autumnales, Vulg.] with out fruyt, twies deed, drawun up bi the roote.—Jude12.Wiclif.There stood the Springtime with a crown of fresh and fragrant flowers;There waited Summer naked stark, all save a wheaten hat;AndHarvestsmeared with treading grapes late at the pressing fat;And lastly quaking for the cold stood Winter all forlorn.Golding,Ovid’s Metamorphosis, b. ii.
These benhervesttrees [arbores autumnales, Vulg.] with out fruyt, twies deed, drawun up bi the roote.—Jude12.Wiclif.
There stood the Springtime with a crown of fresh and fragrant flowers;There waited Summer naked stark, all save a wheaten hat;AndHarvestsmeared with treading grapes late at the pressing fat;And lastly quaking for the cold stood Winter all forlorn.
There stood the Springtime with a crown of fresh and fragrant flowers;There waited Summer naked stark, all save a wheaten hat;AndHarvestsmeared with treading grapes late at the pressing fat;And lastly quaking for the cold stood Winter all forlorn.
There stood the Springtime with a crown of fresh and fragrant flowers;There waited Summer naked stark, all save a wheaten hat;AndHarvestsmeared with treading grapes late at the pressing fat;And lastly quaking for the cold stood Winter all forlorn.
There stood the Springtime with a crown of fresh and fragrant flowers;
There waited Summer naked stark, all save a wheaten hat;
AndHarvestsmeared with treading grapes late at the pressing fat;
And lastly quaking for the cold stood Winter all forlorn.
Golding,Ovid’s Metamorphosis, b. ii.
Hassock.Already in Phillips’sNew World of Words, 1706, the ‘hassock’ was what it is now, ‘a kind of straw cushion used to kneel upon in churches;’ and some of us may remember to have seen in country churches ‘hassocks’ of solid tufts of coarse black grass which had so grown and matted together that they served this purpose sufficiently well. But this is only the secondary and transferred use of the word. It was once the name by which this coarse grass growing in these rank tufts was itself called; and this name, as Forby tells us, in Norfolk it still bears. See Way’sPromptorium, s. v. ‘Hassok.’
Land so full of hassocks as to be impossible to find the deer among them.—Hutchinson,Drainage of Land.Thesehassocks, in bogs, were formerly taken up with a part of the soil, matted together with roots, shaped, trimmed, and dressed, a sufficient part of their shaggy and tufted surface being left to make kneeling much easier than on the pavement of the church or the bare-boarded floor of a pew.—Forby,East Anglia.
Land so full of hassocks as to be impossible to find the deer among them.—Hutchinson,Drainage of Land.
Thesehassocks, in bogs, were formerly taken up with a part of the soil, matted together with roots, shaped, trimmed, and dressed, a sufficient part of their shaggy and tufted surface being left to make kneeling much easier than on the pavement of the church or the bare-boarded floor of a pew.—Forby,East Anglia.
Hateful.This has undergone exactly the same limitation of meaning as ‘Dreadful’ and ‘Frightful,’ which see.
Little officeThehatefulCommons will perform for us,Except like curs to tear us all to pieces.Shakespeare,Richard II., act ii. sc. 2.No more shall nation against nation rise,Nor ardent warriors meet withhatefuleyes.Pope,Messiah, 57.
Little officeThehatefulCommons will perform for us,Except like curs to tear us all to pieces.
Little officeThehatefulCommons will perform for us,Except like curs to tear us all to pieces.
Little officeThehatefulCommons will perform for us,Except like curs to tear us all to pieces.
Little office
ThehatefulCommons will perform for us,
Except like curs to tear us all to pieces.
Shakespeare,Richard II., act ii. sc. 2.
No more shall nation against nation rise,Nor ardent warriors meet withhatefuleyes.
No more shall nation against nation rise,Nor ardent warriors meet withhatefuleyes.
No more shall nation against nation rise,Nor ardent warriors meet withhatefuleyes.
No more shall nation against nation rise,
Nor ardent warriors meet withhatefuleyes.
Pope,Messiah, 57.
Hear.Our scholars of the seventeenth century occasionally use the Latin idiom, ‘to hear well,’ or‘to hear ill,’i.e.concerning oneself (bene audire, male audire), instead of, to be praised, or to be blamed.
[Fabius] was well aware, that not only within his own camp, but also now at Rome, heheard illfor his temporizing and slow proceedings.—Holland,Livy, p. 441.What more national corruption, for which Englandhears illabroad, than household gluttony?—Milton,Areopagitica, p. 431.The abbot made his mind known to the Lord Keeper, that he would gladly be present in the Abbey of Westminster on our Christmas-day in the morning, to behold and hear how that great feast was solemnized in our congregations, whichheardveryillbeyond the seas for profaneness.—Hacket,Life of Archbishop Williams, part i. p. 210.
[Fabius] was well aware, that not only within his own camp, but also now at Rome, heheard illfor his temporizing and slow proceedings.—Holland,Livy, p. 441.
What more national corruption, for which Englandhears illabroad, than household gluttony?—Milton,Areopagitica, p. 431.
The abbot made his mind known to the Lord Keeper, that he would gladly be present in the Abbey of Westminster on our Christmas-day in the morning, to behold and hear how that great feast was solemnized in our congregations, whichheardveryillbeyond the seas for profaneness.—Hacket,Life of Archbishop Williams, part i. p. 210.
Hearse.Now the carriage in which the dead are conveyed to the grave, but this was not the meaning from the first. The origin is the French ‘herse,’ a harrow; this implement in France being made in a triangular form, not square as with us. Hence the name of ‘herce’ or ‘herche’ was given to a triangular framework, generally of iron, used for holding a number of candles at funerals; and which, being elaborately fashioned and framed, was allowed afterwards to remain in the church for a longer or shorter period.