Chapter X: Part 10

=TURK.= It is a remarkable evidence of the extent to which the Turks and the Turkish assault upon Christendom had impressed themselves on the minds of men, of the way in which they stood as representing the entire Mahometan world, that ‘Turk,’ being in fact a national, is constantly employed by the writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a religious, designation, as equivalent to, and coextensive with, Mahometan; exactly as Ἔλλην in the New Testament means continually not of Greek nationality, but of Gentile religion.

Have mercy upon all Jews, _Turks_, infidels, and
heretics.--_Collect for Good Friday._

It is no good reason for a man’s religion, that he was
born and brought up in it; for then a _Turk_ would have
as much reason to be a _Turk_ as a Christian to be a
Christian.--CHILLINGWORTH, _Religion of Protestants_, part i.
c. 2.

=TUTOR=, }
TUITION. }

The ‘tutor’ of our forefathers was rather a caretaker and guardian than an instructor: but seeing that one defends another most effectually who imparts to him those principles and that knowledge whereby he shall be able to defend himself, our modern use of the word must be taken as a deeper than the earlier.

This is part of the honour that the children owe to their
parents and _tutors_ by the commandment of God, even to be
bestowed in marriage as it pleaseth the godly, prudent and
honest parents or _tutors_ to appoint.--BECON, _Catechism_,
Parker Soc. ed., p. 871.

What shall become of the lambs under the _tuition_ of
wolves?--ADAMS, _Sermons_, vol. ii. p. 117.

_Tutors_ and guardians are in the place of parents; and what
they are in fiction of law they must remember as an argument
to engage them to do in reality of duty.--Bishop TAYLOR, _Holy
Living_, iii. 2.

As though they were not to be trusted with the king’s brother,
that by the assent of the nobles of the land were appointed, as
the king’s nearest friends, to the _tuition_ of his own royal
person.--Sir T. MORE, _History of King Richard III._, p. 36.

Afterwards turning his speech to his wife and his son, he
[Scanderbeg] commended them both with his kingdom to the
_tuition_ of the Venetians.--KNOLLES, _History of the Turks_,
vol. i. p. 274.

=UMBRAGE=, }
UMBRAGEOUS. }

‘To take umbrage’ is, I think, the only phrase in which the word ‘umbrage’ is still in use among us, the only one at least in which it is ethically employed; but ‘umbrage’ in its earlier use coincides in meaning with the old French ‘ombrage’ (see the quotation from Bacon), and signifies suspicion, or rather the disposition to suspect; and ‘umbrageous,’ as far as I know, is constantly employed in the sense of suspicious by our early authors; having now no other but a literal sense. Other uses of ‘umbrage,’ as those of Fuller and Jeremy Taylor which follow, must be explained from the classical sympathies of these writers; out of which the Latin etymology of the word gradually made itself felt in the meaning which they ascribed to it, namely as anything slight and _shadowy_. [For the development of meaning of the French ‘ombrage’ from shadow to suspicion, see Darmesteter, _Vie des Mots_, p. 77.]

I say, just fear, not out of _umbrages_, light jealousies,
apprehensions afar off, but out of clear foresight of imminent
danger.--BACON, _Of a War with Spain_.

To collect the several essays of princes glancing on that
project [a new Crusade], were a task of great pains and small
profit; especially some of them being _umbrages_ and state
representations rather than realities, to ingratiate princes
with their subjects, or with the oratory of so pious a project
to woo money out of people’s purses.--FULLER, _Holy War_, b. v.
c. 25.

You look for it [truth] in your books, and you tug hard for
it in your disputations, and you derive it from the cisterns
of the Fathers, and you inquire after the old ways; and
sometimes are taken with new appearances, and you rejoice in
false lights, or are delighted with little _umbrages_ or peep
of day.--Bishop TAYLOR, _Sermon preached to the University of
Dublin_.

There being in the Old Testament thirteen types and _umbrages_
of this Holy Sacrament, eleven of them are of meat and
drink.--Id., _The Worthy Communicant_, c. ii. § 2.

At the beginning some men were a little _umbrageous_, and
startling at the name of the Fathers; yet since the Fathers
have been well studied, we have behaved ourselves with more
reverence toward the Fathers than they of the Roman persuasion
have done.--DONNE, _Sermons_, 1640, p. 557.

That there was none other present but himself when his master
De Merson was murdered, it is _umbrageous_, and leaves a spice
of fear and sting of suspicion in their heads.--REYNOLDS,
_God’s Revenge against Murther_, b. iii. hist. 13.

=UNCOUTH.= Now unformed in manner, ungraceful in behaviour; but once simply unknown. The change in signification is to be traced to the same causes which made ‘barbarous,’ meaning at first only foreign, to have afterwards the sense of savage and wild. Almost all nations regard with disfavour and dislike that which is outlandish, and generally that with which they are unacquainted; so that words which at first did but express this fact of strangeness, easily acquire a further unfavourable sense.

The vulgar instruction requires also vulgar and communicable
terms, not clerkly or _uncouth_, as are all these of the Greek
and Latin languages.--PUTTENHAM, _Art of English Poesy_, b.
iii. c. 10.

Wel-away the while I was so fonde,
To leave the good that I had in honde
In hope of better that was _uncouth_;
So lost the Dogge the flesh in his mouth.

SPENSER, _The Shepherd’s Calendar, September_.

‘_Uncouthe_, unkiste,’ sayde the old famous poete Chaucer;
which proverb very well taketh place in this our new poete,
who for that he is _uncouthe_ (as said Chaucer) is unkist;
and, _unknown_ to most men, is regarded but of a few.--E. K.,
_Epistle Dedicatory prefixed to Spenser’s Shepherd’s Calendar_.

=UNEQUAL.= From the constant use made of ‘unequal’ by our early writers, for whom it was entirely equivalent to unjust, unfair, one might almost suppose they were influenced by sense association with ‘iniquus’ in their naturalization of ‘inæqualis.’ At any rate they had no scruple in using it in a sense, which ‘inæqualis’ never has, but ‘iniquus’ continually.

To punish me for what you make me do
Seems most _unequal_.

SHAKESPEARE, _Antony and Cleopatra_, act ii. sc. 5.

These imputations are too common, sir,
And easily stuck on virtue when she’s poor:
You are _unequal_ to me.

BEN JONSON, _The Fox_, act iii. sc. 1.

Jerome, a very _unequal_ relator of the opinion of his
adversaries.--WORTHINGTON, _Life of Joseph Mede_, p. xi.

=UNEASY.= This has lost the sense of ‘difficult,’ and means now restless or anxious. But the objective signification is to be found in our Bible and in Shakespeare.

The town was hard to besiege and uneasy to come unto.--_2
Macc._ xii. 21. (A.V.)

This swift business
I must _uneasy_ make, lest too light winning
Make the prize light.

SHAKESPEARE, _The Tempest_, act i. sc. 2.

=UNHANDSOME.= See ‘Handsome.’

A narrow straight path by the water’s side, very _unhandsome_
[οὐ ῥᾳδίαν] for an army to pass that way, though they found not
a man to keep the passage.--NORTH, _Plutarch’s Lives_, p. 317;
cf. p. 378.

The ships were unwieldy and _unhandsome_.--HOLLAND, _Livy_, p.
1188.

=UNHAPPY=, }
UNHAPPINESS. }

A very deep truth lies involved in the fact that so many words, and I suppose in all languages, unite the meanings of wicked and miserable, as the Greek σχέτλιος, our own ‘wretch’ and ‘wretched.’ So, too, it was once with ‘unhappy,’ although its use in the sense of ‘wicked’ has now passed away.

Fathers shall do well also to keep from them [their children]
such schoolfellows as be _unhappy_, and given to shrewd turns;
for such as they are enough to corrupt and mar the best natures
in the world.--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 16.

Thou old _unhappy_ traitor,
Briefly thyself remember; the sword is out
That must destroy thee.

SHAKESPEARE, _King Lear_, act iv. sc. 6.

The servants of Dionyse, king of Sicily, which although they
were inclined to all _unhappiness_ and mischief, yet after the
coming of Plato, perceiving that for his doctrine and wisdom
the king had him in high estimation, they thus counterfeited
the countenance and habit of the philosopher.--Sir T. ELYOT,
_The Governor_, b. ii. c. 14.

[Man] from the hour of his birth is most miserable, weak, and
sickly; when he sucks, he is guided by others; when he is grown
great, practiseth _unhappiness_ and is sturdy; and when old,
a child again and repenteth him of his past life.--BURTON,
_Anatomy of Melancholy; Democritus to the Reader_.

=UNION.= The elder Pliny (_H. N._ ix. 59) tells us that the name ‘unio’ had not very long before his time begun to be given to a pearl in which all chiefest excellencies, size, roundness, smoothness, whiteness, weight, met and, so to speak, were _united_; and as late as Jeremy Taylor the word ‘union’ was often employed to designate a pearl of a rare and transcendent beauty. See Skeat’s _Dictionary_ (_s. v._ ‘Onion’).

And in the cup an _union_ shall he throw,
Richer than that which four successive kings
In Denmark’s crown have worn.

SHAKESPEARE, _Hamlet_, act v. sc. 2.

Pope Paul II. in his pontifical vestments outwent all his
predecessors, especially in his mitre, upon which he had laid
out a great deal of money in purchasing at vast rates diamonds,
sapphires, emeralds, crysoliths, jaspers, _unions_, and all
manner of precious stones.--Sir PAUL RYCAUT, _Platina’s History
of the Popes_, p. 114.

Perox, the Persian king, [hath] an _union_ in his ear worth an
hundred weight of gold.--BURTON, _Anatomy of Melancholy_, mem.
ii. sect. 3.

=UNKIND=, }
UNKINDNESS. }

‘Unkind’ has quite forfeited now its primary meaning, namely that which violates the law of kind, thus ‘_unkind_ abominations’ (Chaucer), meaning incestuous unions and the like; and has taken up with the secondary, that which does not recognise the duties flowing out of this kinship. In its primary meaning it moves in a region where the physical and ethical meet; in its secondary in a purely ethical sphere. How soon it began to occupy this the passages which follow will show; for out of a sense that nothing was so unnatural or ‘unkind’ as ingratitude, the word early obtained use as a special designation of this vice.

_Unkynde_ [ingrati, Vulg.], cursid, withouten affeccioun.--_2
Tim._ iii. 2, 3. WICLIF.

It is all one to sey _unkinde_,
As thing whiche doone is againe kinde,
For it with kinde never stoode
A man to yelde evill for goode.

GOWER, _Confessio Amantis_, b. v.

Whar-for ilk man, bathe lered and lewed,
Suld thinke on that love that He man shewed,
And love Hym and thank Hym als he can,
And elles es he an _unkynd_ man.

RICHARD ROLLE DE HAMPOLE, _Pricke of Conscience_, 117.

The most damnable vice and most against justice, in mine
opinion, is ingratitude, commonly called _unkindness_. He
is _unkind_ that denieth to have received any benefit, that
indeed he hath received; he is _unkind_ that dissimuleth; he is
_unkind_ that recompenseth not; but he is most _unkind_ that
forgetteth.--Sir T. ELYOT, _The Governor_, b. ii. c. 13.

God might have made me even such a foule and unreasonable
beast as this is; and yet was I never so _kynde_ as to thancke
Him that He had not made me so vile a creature; which thing I
greatly bewayle, and my _unkindenesse_ causeth me now thus to
weepe.--FRITH, _Works_, 1573, p. 90.

We have cause also in England to beware of _unkindnesse_,
who have had in so fewe yeares the candel of Goddes woorde,
so oft lightned, so oft put out; and yet will venture by
our unthankfulnesse in doctrine, and sinfull life, to leese
againe lighte, candle, candlesticke, and all.--ASCHAM, _The
Scholemaster_, b. i.

=UNTHRIFTY=, }
UNTHRIFTINESS. }

As the ‘thrifty’ will probably be the thriving, so the ‘unthrifty’ the unthriving; but the words are not synonymous any more, as once they were. See ‘Thrifty.’

What [is it] but this self and presuming of ourselves causes
grace to be _unthrifty_, and to hang down the head? what but
our ascribing to ourselves in our means-using, makes them so
unfruitful?--ROGERS, _Naaman the Syrian_, p. 146.

Staggering, non-proficiency, and _unthriftiness_ of profession
is the fruit of self.--Id., _Index_.

=UNVALUED.= This and ‘invaluable’ have been usefully desynonymized; so that ‘invaluable’ means now having a value greater than can be estimated, ‘unvalued’ esteemed to have no value at all. Yet it was not so once; though in Shakespeare (see _Hamlet_, act i. sc. 3) our present use of ‘unvalued’ occasionally obtained.

Two golden apples of _unvalued_ price.

SPENSER, _Sonnet 77_.

Go, _unvalued_ book,
Live, and be loved; if any envious look
Hurt thy clear fame, learn that no state more high
Attends on virtue than pined envy’s eye.

CHAPMAN, _Dedication of Poems_.

Each heart
Hath from the leaves of thy _unvalued_ book
Those Delphic lines with deep impression took.

MILTON, _An Epitaph on Shakespeare_.

=USURY=, }
USURER. }

This, which is now the lending of money upon inordinate interest, was once the lending it upon any. The man who did not lend his money for nothing was then a ‘usurer,’ not he, as now, who makes unworthy profit by the necessities of the needy or the extravagance of the foolish. It is true that the word was as dishonourable then as it is now; and it could not be otherwise, so long as all receiving of interest was regarded as a violation at once of divine and of natural law. When at length the common sense of men overcame this strange but deep-rooted prejudice, the word was too deeply stained with dishonour to be employed to express the lawful receiving of a measurable interest; but ‘usury,’ taking up a portion only of its former meaning, was now restricted to that which still remained under a moral ban, namely the exacting of an excessive interest for money lent.

On the other side, the commodities of _usury_ are: first, that
howsoever _usury_ in some respects hindereth merchandising,
yet in some other it advanceth it; for it is certain that
the greatest part of trade is driven by young merchants upon
_borrowing at interest_; so as if the _usurer_ either call in
or keep back his money, there will ensue presently a great
stand of trade.--BACON, _Essay_, 41.

Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that
at my coming I might have required mine own with _usury_ [σὺν
τόκῳ]?--_Luke_ xix. 23. (A.V.)

Brokers, takers of pawns, biting _usurers_ I will not admit;
yet because we converse here with men, not with gods, and for
the hardness of men’s hearts, I will tolerate some kind of
_usury_.--BURTON, _Anatomy of Melancholy; Democritus to the
Reader_.

=VARLET.= Littré, dealing with this very word, has truly said, ‘Les mots, soit en changeant de pays, soit en changeant de siècle, s’ennoblissent ou s’avilissent d’une façon singulière’ (_Hist. de la Langue Française_, vol. ii. p. 166). There could be no more signal proof of this than that which the word ‘varlet’ supplies. I continue to quote his words, ‘_Vaslet_, ou, par une substitution non rare de l’_r_ à l’_s_, _varlet_, est un diminutif de _vassal_; _vassal_ signifiait un vaillant guerrier, et _varlet_ un jeune homme qui pouvait aspirer aux honneurs de la chevalerie.’ From this it fell to the use in which we find it in the passage quoted below from Shakespeare of squire or attendant, which is also the continually recurring use in the Old English translation of Froissart. In this sense it survives as ‘valet;’ but not pausing here, ‘varlet’ is now tinged with contempt, and implies moral worthlessness in him to whom it is applied.

Call here my _varlet_; I’ll unarm myself.

SHAKESPEARE, _Troilus and Cressida_, act i. sc. 1.

Right so there came in a _varlet_; and told Sir Tristram how
there was come an errant knight into the town with such colours
upon his shield.--Sir T. MALORY, _Morte d’Arthur_, b. x. c. 56.

=VASSALAGE.= This, like the Old French ‘vasselage,’ had once the meaning of courage, prowess, superiority. See in explanation the quotation from Littré under ‘Varlet.’

And certeynly a man hath most honour
To deyen in his excellence and flour,
Thanne whan his name appalled is for age;
For all forgeten is his _vasselage_.

CHAUCER, _The Knightes Tale_, 2189 (Clar. Press).

And Catoun seith is noon so great encress
Of worldly tresour, as for to live in pees,
Which among vertues hath the _vasselage_.

LYDGATE, _Minor Poems_, Halliwell’s ed., p. 176.

=VERMIN.= Now always noxious offensive animals of the _smaller_ kind, but employed formerly with no such limitation.

But he shouke of the _vermen_ into the fyre and felt no
harme.--_Acts_ xxviii. 5. Geneva Version.

This crocodile is a mischievous four-footed beast, a dangerous
_vermin_ used to both elements.--HOLLAND, _Ammianus_, p. 212.

Wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth,
and _vermin_ [καὶ τὰ θηρία], and worms, and fowls of the
air.--_Acts_ x. 12. Geneva.

The Lord rectifies Peter, and frames him to go by a vision of
all crawling _vermin_ in a clean sheet.--ROGERS, _Naaman the
Syrian_, p. 42.

=VILIFY.= This now implies a great deal more than to hold morally cheap, which was all that in the seventeenth century it involved.

Can it be imagined that a whole people would ever so _vilify_
themselves, depart from their own interests to that degree as
to place all their hopes in one man?--MILTON, _Defence of the
People of England_, c. 7.

The ears of all men will be filled with deceitful figments and
gainful lies, the merits of Christ’s passion will be _vilified_
and maimed.--H. MORE, _The Mystery of Iniquity_, b. ii. c. 7, §
11.

The more I magnify myself, the more God _vilifies_ me.--ROGERS,
_Naaman the Syrian_, p. 469.

=VILLAIN=, }
VILLANY. }

A word whose story, like that of ‘churl,’ is so well known that one may be spared the necessity of repeating it. It was, I think, with ‘villany’ that there was first a transfer into an ethical sphere, though it is noticeable how ‘villany’ till a very late day expressed _words_ foul and disgraceful to the utterer much oftener than _deeds_.

Pour the blood of the _villain_ in one basin, and the blood
of the gentleman in another; what difference shall there be
proved?--BECON, _The Jewel of Joy_.

We yield not ourselves to be your _villains_ and slaves [non
_in servitutem_ nos tradimus], but as allies to be protected by
you.--HOLLAND, _Livy_, p. 935.

[He] was condemned to be degraded of all nobility, and not only
himself, but all his succeeding posterity declared _villains_,
and clowns, taxable and incapable to bear arms.--FLORIO,
_Montaigne_, b. i. c. 15.

In our modern language it [foul language] is termed _villany_,
as being proper for rustic boors, or men of coarsest education
and employment, who, having their minds debased by being
conversant in meanest affairs, do vent their sorry passions in
such strains.--BARROW, _Of Evil-speaking in general_, Sermon 16.

=VIRTUOUS.= Virtue is still occasionally used as equivalent to might or potency; but ‘virtuous’ has quite abdicated the meaning of valorous or potent which it once had, and which its etymology justified.

With this all strengths and minds he moved; but young Deiphobus,
Old Priam’s son, amongst them all was chiefly _virtuous_.

CHAPMAN, _Homer’s Iliad_, xiii. 147.

Or call up him that left half told
The story of Cambuscan old,
Of Camball and of Algarsife,
And who had Canace to wife,
That owned the _virtuous_ ring and glass.

MILTON, _Il Penseroso_.

Tho lifting up his _vertuous_ staffe on hye
He smote the sea, which calmèd was with speed.

SPENSER, _Fairy Queen_, ii. 12, 26.

=VIVACIOUS=, }
VIVACITY. }

‘Longevity’ is a comparatively modern word. ‘Vivacity,’ which has now acquired the mitigated sense of liveliness, served instead of it; keeping in English the original sense which ‘vivacitas’ had in the Latin.

James Sands, of Horborn in this county, is most remarkable for
his _vivacity_, for he lived 140 years.--FULLER, _Worthies of
England: Staffordshire_.

Fables are raised concerning the _vivacity_ of the deer; for
neither are their gestation nor increment such as may afford an
argument of long life.--Sir T. BROWNE, _Vulgar Errors_.

Hitherto the English bishops had been _vivacious_ almost to
wonder. For, necessarily presumed of good years before entering
on their office in the first year of Queen Elizabeth, it was
much that but five died for the first twenty years of her
reign.--FULLER, _Church History of Britain_, b. ix. § 27.

=VOLUBLE.= This epithet always insinuates of him to whom it is now applied that his speech is freer and faster than is meet; but it once occupied that region of meaning which ‘fluent’ does at present, without any suggestion of the kind. Milton (_P. L._ ix. 436) recalls the word, as he does so many, to its primary meaning.

He [Archbishop Abbott] was painful, stout, severe against bad
manners, of a grave and a _voluble_ eloquence.--HACKET, _Life
of Archbishop Williams_, part i. p. 65.

=VOYAGE.= All journeys, those alike by land and by water, were ‘voyages’ once. The word is restricted now to journeys made by water. ‘Voyage’ is the French form of the late Latin ‘viaticum.’

Holofernes went forth with his chariots and horses to go before
King Nebuchodonosor in the _voyage_.--_Judith_ ii. 19. (A.V.)

My life hath not been unexpensive in learning, and _voyaging_
about.--MILTON, _An Apology for Smectymnuus_.

This is the poynt, to speken schort and pleyn,
That ech of yow to schorte with oure weie
In this _viage_ schal telle tales tweye
To Caunterburi-ward, I mene it so,
And homward he schal tellen othere tuo.

CHAUCER, _Canterbury Tales_, Prologue.

=WAINSCOT.= I transcribe a correction of the brief and inaccurate notice of this word in my first edition, which a correspondent, with the best opportunity of knowledge, has kindly sent me: ‘“Wainscot” is always in the building trade applied to oak only, but not to all kinds of oak. The wainscot oak grows abroad, chiefly, I think, in Holland, and is used for wainscoting, or wood lining, of walls of houses, because it works very freely under the tool, and is not liable to “cast” or rend, as English oak will do. It is consequently used for all purposes where expense is no object. Formerly all panelling to walls was done in wainscot, and was called “wainscoting.” It was never painted. In modern times it was imitated in deal, and was painted to represent real wainscot, or of any other colour, while the name of “wainscoting” adhered to it, though the material was no longer wainscot. At present, however, the word “wainscot” is always used to designate the real wainscot oak.’ It will be seen from this very interesting explanation that within the narrow limits of a particular trade, the old meaning of ‘wainscot,’ which has everywhere else disappeared, still survives. It would be curious to trace how much in this way of earlier English within limited technical circles lives on, having everywhere else died out. For a further account of ‘wainscot,’ see Skeat’s _Dictionary_, p. 833.

A wedge of _wainscot_ is fittest and most proper for cleaving
of an _oaken_ tree.--Sir T. URQUHART, _Tracts_, p. 153.

Being thus arrayed, and enclosed in a chest of _wainscot_, he
[Edward the Confessor] was removed into the before-prepared
feretry.--DART, _History of St. Peter’s, Westminster_, c. 3.

=WANT.= Among other differences between ‘carere’ and ‘egere,’ this certainly is one, that the former may be said of things evil as well as good, as well of those whose absence is desirable as of those whose absence is felt as a loss, while ‘egere’ always implies not merely the absence but the painful sense of the absence. ‘To want,’ which had once the more colourless use of ‘carere,’ has passed now, nearly though not altogether, into this latter sense, and is = ‘egere.’

If he be lost, and _want_, thy life shall go for his life.--_1
Kings_ xx. 39. Geneva.

The happy and fortunate _want_ of these beasts [wolves] in
England is universally ascribed to the politic government of
King Edgar.--HARRISON, _Description of England_, b. iii. c. 4.

In a word, he [the true gentleman] is such, that could we
_want_ him, it were pity but that he were in heaven; and yet I
pity not much his continuance here, because he is already so
much in heaven to himself.--CLEMENT ELLIS, _Character of a True
Gentleman_.

Friend of my life, which did you not prolong,
The world had _wanted_ many an idle song.

POPE, _Lines to Arbuthnot_.

=WENCH.= In Middle English this term (in the older form ‘wenchel’), like ‘girl,’ ‘coquette,’ ‘slut,’ ‘flirt,’ and so many more, might be ascribed to either sex; and when afterwards restrained to one, was rather a word of familiarity, or even of passion, than of slight and contempt, which now it has grown to be. See Mayhew-Skeat’s _Dict. of Middle English_.

And, wretched _wench_, she thinks she has obtained such a thing
As both to Progne and herself should joy and comfort bring.

GOLDING, _Ovid’s Metamorphosis_, b. vi.

O, ill-starred _wench_,
Pale as thy smock, when we shall meet at compt
This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven.

SHAKESPEARE, _Othello_, act v. sc. 2.

The tongues of mocking _wenches_ are as keen
As is the razor’s edge invisible.

Id., _Love’s Labours Lost_, act v. sc. 2.

And going in, He saith to them: Why make ye this ado, and
weepe? The wenche is not dead, but sleepeth.... And holding the
wenches hand, He saith to her, Talitha Cumi.--_Mark_ v. 39, 41.
Rheims.

=WHIRLPOOL.= Formerly used in the sense of some huge sea-monster of the whale kind. Thus in the margin of our Bible, there is on _Job_ xli. 1 (‘Canst thou draw out _leviathan_?’) a gloss, ‘that is, a whale or _whirlpool_.’ In Harrison’s _Description of England_, b. iii. c. 5, the ‘thirlepole’ is mentioned with the porpoise and whale as among the great fishes of the sea. See Wright’s _Bible Word Book_.

The Indian Sea breedeth the most and the biggest fishes
that are, among which the whales and _whirlpools_, called
balænæ, take up in length as much as four acres or arpens of
land.--HOLLAND, _Pliny_, vol. i. p. 235.

Great _whirlpooles_ which all fishes make to flee.

SPENSER, _Fairy Queen_, ii. 12, 23.

The ork, _whirlpool_, whale, or huffing physeter.

SYLVESTER, _Du Bartas, First Day of the Week_.

About sunset, coming near the Wild Island, Pantagruel spied
afar off a huge monstrous _physeter_, a sort of whale, which
some call a _whirlpool_.--RABELAIS, _Pantagruel_, b. iv. c. 33.
[This creature is suggested by ‘Leviathan descript par le noble
prophete Moses en la vie du sainct home Job.’]

=WHISPERER=, }
WHISPERING. }

There lay in ‘whisperer’ once, as in the ψιθυριστής of the Greeks, the ‘susurro’ of the Latins, the suggestion of a slanderer or false accuser, which has now quite passed away from the word.

Now this Doeg, being there at that time, what doeth he? Like
a _whisperer_ or man-pleaser goeth to Saul the king, and told
him how the priest had refreshed David in his journey, and
had given unto him the sword of Goliath.--LATIMER, _Sermons_,
Parker edit., p. 486.

A _whisperer_ separateth chief friends.--_Prov._ xvi. 28; cf.
Ecclus. v. 14. (A.V.)

Kings in ancient times were wont to put great trust in eunuchs.
But yet their trust towards them hath rather been as to good
_whisperers_ than good magistrates and officers.--BACON,
_Essay, 44, Of Deformity_.

Lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings,
_whisperings_, swellings, tumults.--_2 Cor._ xii. 20. (A. V.)

=WHITEBOY.= Formerly a cockered favourite (compare Barnes’s use of ‘white son,’ Works, 1572, p. 192), but in later years one of the many names which the perpetrators of agrarian outrages in Ireland either assumed to themselves, or had given to them by others.

His first address was An humble Remonstrance by a
dutiful son of the Church, almost as if he had said her
_whiteboy_.--MILTON, _Prose Works_, vol. i. p. 172.

The Pope was loath to adventure his darlings into danger. Those
_whiteboys_ were to stay at home with his Holiness, their
tender father.--FULLER, _Holy War_, i. 13.

=WIFE.= It is a very profound testimony, yielded by language, to the fact that women are intended to be wives, and only find the true completion of their being when they are so, that in so many languages there is a word which, meaning first a woman, means afterwards a wife, as γυνή, ‘mulier,’ ‘femme,’ ‘weib,’ and our English ‘wife.’ With us indeed the secondary use of the word has now overborne and swallowed up the first, which only survives in a few such combinations as ‘mid_wife_,’ ‘fish_wife_,’ ‘hus_wife_,’ and the like; but it was not always so; nor in our provincial dialects is it so now. An intelligent correspondent who has sent me a ‘Glossary of Words used in Central Yorkshire’ writes as follows: ‘In rural districts a grown woman is a young wife, though she be unmarried.’

And with that word upstart this olde _wife_.

CHAUCER, _The Wife of Bath’s Tale_.

Like as a _wife_ with childe, when hir travaile commeth upon
her, is ashamed, crieth, and suffreth the payne, even so are
we, O Lorde, in thy sight.--_Isai._ xxvi. 17. COVERDALE.

=WIGHT.= The best discussion on this interesting word is in Grimm’s _Teutonic Mythology_, pp. 439-442, who has a chapter [ch. xvii.], ‘On _Wights_ and Elves.’ ‘Wight’ has for us lost altogether its original sense of a preternatural or supernatural being, and is used, but always slightingly, of men. It is easy to see how, with the gradual contempt for the old mythology, the dying-out of the superstitions connected with it, words such as ‘elf’ and ‘wight’ should have lost their weight and honour as well.

I crouche thee from elves and from _wights_.

CHAUCER, _The Miller’s Tale_.

The poet Homer speaketh of no garlands and chaplets but due to
the celestial and heavenly _wights_.--HOLLAND, _Pliny_, vol. i.
p. 456.

A black horse cometh, and his rider hath a balance, and a voice
telleth among the four _wights_ that corn shall be dear [_Rev._
vi. 6].--BROUGHTON, _Of Consent upon Apocalypse_.

When the four _wights_ are said to have given glory, honour,
and thanks to Him that sate upon the throne [_Rev._ v. 14],
what was their ditty but this?--MEDE, _Sermons_.

=WILFUL=, }
WILFULLY. }

‘Wilful’ and ‘willing,’ ‘wilfully’ and ‘willingly,’ have been conveniently desynonymized by later usage in our language; so that in ‘wilful’ and ‘wilfully’ there now lies ever the sense of will capriciously exerted, deriving its motives merely from itself; while the examples which follow show there was once no such implication of _self_-will in the words.

Alle the sones of Israel halewiden _wilful_ thingis to the
Lord.--_Exod._ xxxv. 29. WICLIF.

A proud priest may be known when he denieth to follow Christ
and his apostles in _wilful_ poverty and other virtues.--FOXE,
_Book of Martyrs; Examination of William Thorpe_.

Fede ye the flok of God, that is among you, and purvey ye, not
as constreyned, but _wilfulli_.--_1 Pet._ v. 2. WICLIF.

And so, through his pitiful nailing, Christ shed out _wilfully_
for man’s life the blood that was in his veins.--FOXE, _Book of
Martyrs; Examination of William Thorpe_.

=WINCE.= Now to shrink or start away as in pain from a stroke or touch; but, as far as I know, used always by our earlier authors in the sense of to kick.

Poul, whom the Lord hadde chosun, long tyme _wynside_ agen the
pricke.--WICLIF, _Prolog on the Dedis of Apostlis_.

For this flower of age, having no forecast of thrift, but set
altogether upon spending, and given to delights and pleasures,
_winseth_ and flingeth out like a skittish and frampold
horse in such sort that it had need of a sharp bit and short
curb.--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 14.

=WIT=, }
WITTY. }

The present meaning of ‘wit’ as compared with the past, and the period when it was in the act of transition from one to the other, cannot be better marked than in the quotation from Bishop Reynolds which is given below. It is a protest, an impotent one, as such invariably are, against a change in the word’s meaning, going on before his eyes. Cowley’s Ode, _Of Wit_, is another very important document, illustrating the history of the word.

Who knew the _wit_ of the Lord, or who was his
counselour?--_Rom._ xi. 34. WICLIF.

I take not _wit_ in that common acceptation, whereby men
understand some sudden flashes of conceit whether in style
or conference, which, like rotten wood in the dark, have
more shine than substance, whose use and ornament are,
like themselves, swift and vanishing, at once both admired
and forgotten. But I understand a settled, constant, and
habitual sufficiency of the understanding, whereby it is
enabled in any kind of learning, theory, or practice, both to
sharpness in search, subtilty in expression, and despatch in
execution.--REYNOLDS, _Passions and Faculties of the Soul_, c.
xxxix.

For the world laghes on man and smyles,
Bot at the last it him bygyles;
Tharfor I hald that man noght _witty_
That about the world is over bysy.

RICHARD ROLLE DE HAMPOLE, _Pricke of Conscience_, 1092.

I confess notwithstanding, with the _wittiest_ of the school
divines, that if we speak of strict justice God could no way
have been bound to requite man’s labours in so large and ample
manner.--HOOKER, _Ecclesiastical Polity_, b. i. c. 11.

=WITCH.= This was not restrained formerly, as it now is, to the _female_ exerciser of unlawful magical arts, but would have been as freely applied to Balaam or Simon Magus as to her whom we call ‘the Witch of Endor.’ ‘She-witch’ was not uncommon in our Elizabethan literature, when such was intended. In the dialect of Northumbria ‘witches’ are of both sexes still (Atkinson).

There was a man in that citee whos name was Symount, a
_witche_.--_Acts_ viii. 9. WICLIF.

Item, he is a _witch_, asking counsel at soothsayers.--FOXE,
_Book of Martyrs; Appeal against Boniface_.

Then the king commanded to call together all the soothsayers,
charmers, _witches_, and Caldees, for to shew the king his
dream.--_Dan._ ii. 2. COVERDALE.

Who can deny him a wisard or _witch_, who in the reign of
Richard the Usurper foretold that upon the same stone where he
dashed his spur riding toward Bosworth field he should dash his
head in his return?--COTTA, _The Trial of Witchcraft_, p. 49.

=WIZARD.= A title not necessarily used in times past with any dishonourable subaudition of _perverted_ wisdom on his part to whom it was given, as is now the case.

Then Herod, calling the _wisards_ privily, did narrowly search
of them the time of the star’s appearing.--_Matt._ ii. 7. Sir
J. CHEKE.

When Jeremy his lamentation writ,
They thought the _wizard_ quite out of his wit.

DRAYTON, _Elegies, To Mr. G. Sandys_.

See how from far upon the eastern road
The star-led _wizards_ haste with odours sweet.

MILTON, _On the Nativity_.

=WOMB.= This is now only the ὑστέρα, but once could be ascribed to both sexes, having as wide a meaning as the κοιλία of the Greeks.

And he coveitide to fille his _wombe_ of the coddis that the
hoggis eeten, and no man gaf hym.--_Luke_ xv. 16. WICLIF.

Of this matere, o Paul, wel canstow trete;
Mete unto _wombe_, and _wombe_ eek unto mete.

CHAUCER, _Pardoneres Tale_ (Clar. Press).

_Falstaff._ An I had but a belly of any indifferency, I were
simply the most active fellow in Europe. My _womb_, my _womb_,
my _womb_ undoes me.--SHAKESPEARE, _2 Henry IV._, act iv. sc. 3.

=WORM.= This, which designates at present only smaller and innoxious kinds of creeping and crawling things, once, as the German ‘wurm,’ was employed of all the serpent kind; and indeed in some of our northern dialects all snakes and serpents are ‘worms’ to the present day. In ‘blind_worm_,’ ‘slow_worm_,’ ‘hag_worm_,’ we have tokens of the earlier use.

There came a _viper_ out of the heat and leapt on his hand.
When the men of the country saw the _worm_ hang on his hand,
they said, This man must needs be a murderer.--_Acts_ xxviii.
3, 4. TYNDALE.

’Tis slander,
Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue
Outvenoms all the _worms_ of Nile.

SHAKESPEARE, _Cymbeline_, act iii. sc. 4.

O Eve, in evil hour thou didst give ear
To that false _worm_, of whomsoever taught
To counterfeit man’s voice.

MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, ix. 1067.

=WORSHIP.= At present we ‘worship’ none but God; there was a time when the word was employed in so much more general a sense that it was not profane to say that God ‘worshipped,’ that is honoured, man. This, of course, is the sense of the word in the Marriage Service, ‘with my body I thee _worship_.’

If ony man serve me, my fadir schal _worschipe_ hym.--_John_
xii. 26. WICLIF.

But I yow pray and charge upon your lyf,
That what wyf that I take, ye me assure
To _worschippe_ whil that hir lif may endure.

CHAUCER, _The Clerkes Tale_, 108.

Man, that was made after the image and likeness of God, is full
worshipful in his kind; yea, this holy image that is man God
_worshippeth_.--FOXE, _Book of Martyrs; Examination of William
Thorpe_.

=WRETCHED.= What has been observed on ‘Unhappy’ explains and accounts also for the use of ‘wretched’ as = wicked. ‘Wretch’ still continues to cover the two meanings of one miserable and one wicked, though ‘wretched’ does so no more.

Nero regned after this Claudius, of alle men _wrechidhest_,
redy to alle maner vices.--CAPGRAVE, _Chronicle of England_, p.
62.

To do evil gratis, to do evil for good, is the _wretchedest_
wickedness that can be.--ANDREWES, _Of the Conspiracy of the
Gowries_, serm. 4.

=YOUNKER.= Now, as far as it is used at all, equivalent to ‘youngster;’ but the ‘younker’ of our Elizabethan and earlier literature was much more nearly the German ‘junker,’ or Jung Herr, the young lord,--or perhaps ‘squire’ would be nearer the mark,--or youthful gallant. [We borrowed the word from the Dutch ‘jonker’ or ‘jonkheer’ (= ‘jong’ young + ‘heer’ gentleman). See Skeat’s _Dictionary_.]

Yf some of them can get a fox tale or two, or that he may have
a capons feder or a goose feder, or any long feder on his
cap, than he is called a _yonker_.--BOORDE, _The Boke of the
Introduction of Knowledge_, 1547.

How like a _younker_ or a prodigal
The scarfèd bark puts from her native bay,
Hugged and embracèd by the strumpet wind.

SHAKESPEARE, _Merchant of Venice_, act ii. sc. 6.

See how the morning opes her golden gates,
And takes her farewell of the glorious sun!
How well resembles it the prime of youth,
Trimmed like a _younker_, prancing to his love.

Id., _3 Henry VI._, act ii. sc. 1.

Venus loved the _younker_ Adonis better than the warrior
Mars.--DODOEN, _History of Plants_, p. 656.

As Rehoboam’s _yonkers_ carried that weighty business of his
kingdom and overthrew it, so do the unruly and rebellious
humours of most youth miscarry this.--ROGERS, _Matrimonial
Honour_, p. 31.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] [For early instances and uses of the verb _actuate_ see N.E.D.]

[2] Deabus _artificibus_ similes, as S. WALKER (_Criticisms on Shakespeare_, vol. i. p. 96) gives it well.

[3] [The word is a derivative of O. Fr. _artillier_ = Late Lat. _articularius_, a form of doubtful origin. Dr. Murray hesitates between _articulum_, dimin. of _ars_, _artem_, and _articulus_, joint, see N.E.D.]

[4] [_Assassins_ is the rendering adopted in R.V.]

[5] [_Astonish_ represents an O. Fr. *_estonnir_, _estonniss_-, used for _estoner_, Late Lat. *_ex-tonare_, to stupefy as with a thunderbolt.]

[6] [Of course the words _authentic_ and _author_ (_authority_) are entirely unrelated: αὐθεντικός is from αὐθέντης (= αὐτο- self + ἑντης), whereas _author_ is O. Fr. _autor_, Lat. _auctorem_, cp. _augēre_, to make, to grow.]

[7] [See however on this point N.E.D.]

[8] ‘Non grati victima sacri.’

[9] ‘_Rough_ Clifford’ he is called a few lines before.

[10] ‘Concealers be such as find out concealed lands, that is such lands as privily are kept from the king by common persons, having nothing to shew for them.’--COWELL, _The Interpreter_, s. v.

[11] [This story rests on the sole authority of Gifford, the editor of Ben Jonson. For further information see N.E.D.]

[12] [This is a gloss on Spenser’s line, ‘Nor in all Kent nor in Christendome,’ which repeats a very common proverbial saying.]

[13] [It has been revived; for examples see N. E. D.]

[14] [The words _deal_ and _dole_ probably owe their difference of form to an original slight variation of suffix (-_li_, -_lo_), see Kluge (s. v. _teil_).]

[15] Vinegar.

[16] ‘Qui se _harlotos_ appellant’ are the important words in Henry the Third’s letter to the Sheriff of Oxfordshire, requiring their dispersion.

[17] For the cognates of ‘loiter’ see Franck’s Dutch Etym. Dict. (s. v. _leuteren_).

[18] One would willingly know a little more of this phrase ‘lucid interval,’ which had evidently about the time of the first of my quotations recently come into the language, but from what quarter, whether from the writings of physicians or naturalists, or from what other source, I am unable to say. Of its recent introduction I find evidence in the following passage:--‘The saints have their _turbida intervalla_, their ebbing and flowing, their full and their wane; but yet all their cloudings do but obscure their graces, not extinguish them. All the goodness of other men that seem to live, are but _lucida intervalla_, they are good but by fits.’ (PRESTON, _Description of Spiritual Death and Life_, 1636, p. 73.) No one would have used this Latin phrase in a sermon had ‘lucid interval’ been already familiar in English, or had ‘lucidum intervallum’ not already somewhere existed. The word ‘interval,’ it may be here remarked, was only coming into use at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Holland in his _Pliny_ uses, but using explains it; while Chillingworth still regards it as Latin, and writes ‘intervalla.’

[19] Edward, George, Richard, and Edmund.

[20] ‘Taryinge, _morosus_.’--Catholicon.

[21] There is allusion here to the Latin proverb Medice vivere est misere vivere.

[22] In heaven.

Transcriber’s Notes

Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected.
Variations in spelling and punctuation from the various sources
cited have been left unchanged.

Italics are represented thus _italic_, bold is represented thus
=bold=.