Chapter II: Part 2

=AWFUL=, }
AWFULNESS. }

This used once to be often employed of that which _felt_ awe; it is only employed now of that which _inspires_ it.

The kings sat still with _awful_ eye,
As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by.

MILTON, _On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity_.

The highest flames are the most tremulous, and so are the most
holy and eminent religious persons more full of _awfulness_,
of fear and modesty and humility.--Bishop TAYLOR, _Life of
Christ_, part i. § 5.

=AWKWARD.= In its present signification, unhandy, ungainly, maladroit; but formerly[7] untoward, and that, whether morally or physically, perverse, contrary, sinister, unlucky.

With _awkward_ wind and with sore tempest driven
To fall on shore.

MARLOWE, _Edward II._ act iv. sc. 7.

The beast long struggled, as being like to prove
An _awkward_ sacrifice,[8] but by the horns
The quick priest pulled him on his knees and slew him.

MARLOWE, _The First Book of Lucan_.

Was I for this nigh wrecked upon the sea,
And twice by _awkward_ wind from England’s bank
Drove back again unto my native clime?

SHAKESPEARE, _1 Henry VI._ act iii. sc. 2.

But time hath rooted out my parentage,
And to the world and _awkward_ casualties
Bound me in servitude.

Id., _Pericles, Prince of Tyre_, act v. sc. 1.

=BABE=, }
BABY. }

‘Doll’ is of late introduction into the English language, is certainly later than Dryden. ‘Babe,’ ‘baby,’ or puppet supplied its place.

True religion standeth not in making, setting up, painting,
gilding, clothing, and decking of dumb and dead images, which
be but great puppets and _babies_ for old fools, in dotage and
wicked idolatry, to dally and play with.--_Homilies; Against
Peril of Idolatry._

_Babes_ of clouts are good enough to keep children from
crying.--FULLER, _Holy War_, b. iv. c. 17.

But all as a poore pedler he did wend,
Bearing a trusse of tryfles at hys backe,
As bells, and _babes_, and glasses in hys packe.

SPENSER, _The Shepherd’s Calendar, May_.

Think you that the child hath any notion of the strong
contents of riper age? or can he possibly imagine there are
any such delights as those his _babies_ and rattles afford
him?--ALLESTREE, _Sermons_, part ii. p. 148.

=BACCHANAL.= Used now generally of a drunken reveller or votary of Bacchus; but it was once more accurately applied to the ‘bacchanalia,’ or orgies celebrated in his honour.

Do not ye, like those heathen in their _bacchanals_, inflame
yourselves with wine.--HAMMOND, _Paraphrase on the N. T._,
Ephes. v. 18.

So _bacchanals_ of drunken riot were kept too much in London
and Westminster, which offended many, that the thanks due
only to God should be paid to the devil.--HACKET, _Life of
Archbishop Williams_, part i. p. 165.

Well, I could wish that still in lordly domes
Some beasts were killed, though not whole hecatombs;
That both extremes were banished from their walls,
Carthusian fasts, and fulsome _bacchanals_.

POPE, _Satires of Dr. Donne_.

=BAFFLE.= Now to counterwork and to defeat; but once not this so much as to mock and put to shame, and, in the technical language of chivalry, it expressed a ceremony of open scorn with which a recreant or perjured knight was visited. [See quotation from Hall, _Chron._ in N.E.D.]

First he his beard did shave and foully shent,
Then from him reft his shield, and it renverst,
And blotted out his armes with falshood blent,
And himselfe _baffuld_, and his armes unherst,
And broke his sword in twaine, and all his armour sperst.

SPENSER, _Fairy Queen_, v. 3, 37.

He that suffers himself to be ridden, or through pusillanimity
or sottishness will let every man _baffle_ him, shall be
a common laughing-stock to flout at.--BURTON, _Anatomy of
Melancholy_, part ii. § 3.

Alas, poor fool, how have they _baffled_ thee!

SHAKESPEARE, _Twelfth Night_, act v. sc. 1.

=BANQUET.= At present the entire course of any solemn or sumptuous entertainment; but ‘banquet’ (O. Fr. _banquet_, cp. It. ‘banchetto,’ a small bench or table) used generally to be restrained to a slighter repast, to the lighter and ornamental dessert or refection, or the ‘banquet of wine’ (Esth. vii. 2), which followed and crowned the more substantial repast.

I durst not venture to sit _at supper_ with you; should
I have received you then, coming as you did with armed
men to _banquet_ with me? [_Convivam_ me tibi committere
ausus non sum; _comissatorem_ te cum armatis venientem
recipiam?]--HOLLAND, _Livy_, p. 1066.

Then was the banqueting-chamber in the tilt-yard at Greenwich
furnished for the entertainment of these strangers, where they
did both sup and banquet.--CAVENDISH, _Life of Cardinal Wolsey_.

We’ll _dine_ in the great room; but let the music
And _banquet_ be prepared here.

MASSINGER, _The Unnatural Combat_, act iii. sc. 1.

=BASE=, }
BASENESS. }

The aristocratic tendencies of speech (tendencies illustrated by the word ‘aristocracy’ itself), which reappear in a thousand shapes, on the one side in such words, and their usages, as καλοκἀγαθός, ἐπιεικής, ‘noble,’ on the other in such as ‘villain,’ ‘boor,’ ‘knave,’ ‘churl,’ and in this ‘base,’ are well worthy of accurate observation. Thus ‘base’ always now implies moral unworthiness; but did not so once. ‘Base’ men were no more than men of humble birth and low degree.

But vertuous women wisely understand
That they were borne to _base_ humilitie,
Unlesse the heavens them lift to lawful soveraintie.

SPENSER, _Fairy Queen_, v. 5, 25.

He that is ashamed of _base_ and simple attire, will be proud
of gorgeous apparel, if he may get it.--_Homilies; Against
Excess of Apparel._

By this means we imitate the Lord Himself, who hath abased
Himself to the lowest degree of _baseness_ in this kind,
emptying Himself (Phil. ii. 8), that he might be equal to them
of greatest _baseness_.--ROGERS, _Naaman the Syrian_, p. 461.

=BATTLE.= Used, not as now, of the hostile shock of armies; but often of the army itself; or sometimes in a more special sense, of the main body of the army, as distinguished from the van and rear.

Each _battle_ sees the other’s umbered face.

SHAKESPEARE, _King Henry V._ act iv. Chorus.

Richard led the vanguard of English; Duke Odo commanded in the
main _battle_ over his French; James of Auvergne brought on the
Flemings and Brabanters in the rear.--FULLER, _Holy War_, b.
iii. c. 11.

Where divine blessing leads up the van, and man’s valour
brings up the _battle_, must not victory needs follow in the
rear?--Id., _A Pisgah Sight of Palestine_, vol. i. p. 174.

=BAWD.= Not confined once to one sex only, but could have been applied to pandar and pandaress alike.

He was if I schal yive him his laude,
A theef, a sompnour and eek a _baude_.

CHAUCER, _The Freres Tale_.

One Lamb, a notorious impostor, a fortune-teller, and an
employed _bawd_.--HACKET, _Life of Archbishop Williams_, part
ii. p. 81.

A carrion crow he [the flatterer] is, a gaping grave,
The rich coat’s moth, the court’s bane, trencher’s slave,
Sin’s and hell’s winning _bawd_, the devil’s factoring knave.

P. FLETCHER, _The Purple Island_, c. viii.

=BEASTLY=, }
BEASTLINESS. }

We translate σῶμα ψυχικόν (1 Cor. xv. 44) ‘a _natural_ body;’ some have regretted that it was not rendered ‘an _animal_ body;’ [so R.V. margin, Jude 19.] This is exactly what Wiclif meant when he translated the ‘corpus animale’ which he found in his Vulgate, ‘a _beastly_ body.’ The word had then no ethical tinge; nor, when it first acquired such, had it exactly that which it now possesses; in it was rather implied the absence of reason, the prerogative distinguishing man from beast.

It is sowun a _beestli_ bodi; it schal rise a spiritual
bodi.--_1 Cor._ xv. 44. WICLIF.

These ben, whiche departen hemsilf, _beestli_ men, not havynge
spirit.--_Jude_ 19. WICLIF.

Where they should have made head with the whole army upon the
Parthians, they sent him aid by small companies; and when
they were slain, they sent him others also. So that by their
_beastliness_ and lack of consideration they had like to have
made all the army fly.--NORTH, _Plutarch’s Lives_, p. 769.

=BEDLAM.= An old pronunciation of Bethlehem. The Priory known by this name was in 1546 converted into a hospital for lunatics. But it was not the place only, but the unhappy occupants of it, to whom this name used often to be applied. Such a use has now quite died out.

Ha, art thou _bedlam_? dost thou thirst, base Trojan,
To have me fold up Parca’s fatal web?

SHAKESPEARE, _Henry V._ act v. sc. 1.

Is not all for thy good, if thou be not a _bedlam_?
ROGERS, _Naamam the Syrian_, p. 30.

=BENEFICE=, }
BENEFICIAL. }

[In Middle English _benefice_ often occurs in the senses of kindness, favour, benefit, a gift, gratuity.] Persons are not now ‘beneficial,’ which word is reserved for things, but ‘beneficent.’

The _benefices_ that God did tham here
Sal tham accuse on sere manere.

RICHARD ROLLE DE HAMPOLE, _Pricke of Conscience_, 5582.

Nowe thanne, Lord, Thou art God, and hast spoke to thy servant
so grete _benefices_.--_1 Chron._ xvii. 26. WICLIF.

The proper nature of God is always to be helpful and
_beneficial_.--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 600.

I wonder
That such a keech can with his very bulk
Take up the rays of the _beneficial_ sun,
And keep it from the earth.

SHAKESPEARE, _Henry VIII._ act i. sc. 1.

Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name; then
shall the righteous come about me when Thou art _beneficial_
unto me.--_Ps._ cxlii. 7. Geneva.

=BLACKGUARD.= The scullions and other meaner retainers in a great household, who, when progress was made from one residence to another, accompanied and protected the pots, pans, and other kitchen utensils, riding among them and being smutted by them, were contemptuously styled the ‘black guard.’ It is easy to trace the subsequent history of the word. With a slight forgetfulness of its origin, he is now called a ‘blackguard,’ who would have been once said to belong to the ‘black guard.’

Close unto the front of the chariot marcheth all the sort of
weavers and embroderers; next unto whom goeth the _black guard_
and kitchenry.--HOLLAND, _Ammianus_, p. 12.

A lousy slave, that within this twenty years rode with the
_black guard_ in the Duke’s carriage, ’mongst spits and
dripping-pans!--WEBSTER, _The White Devil_.

Thieves and murderers took upon them the cross to escape
the gallows; adulterers did penance in their armour. A
lamentable case that the devil’s _black guard_ should be God’s
soldiers!--FULLER, _Holy War_, b. i. c. 12.

Where the apologist meets with this _black guard_, these
factors for error and sin, these agitators for the Prince
of darkness, God forbid he should give place to them, or
not charge them home, and resist them to the face.--GAUDEN,
_Hieraspistes_, To the Reader.

Dukes, earls, and lords, great commanders in war, common
soldiers and kitchen boys were glad to trudge it on foot in the
mire hand in hand, a duke or earl not disdaining to support or
help up one of the _black guard_ ready to fall, lest he himself
might fall into the mire, and have none to help him.--JACKSON,
_A Treatise of the Divine Essence and Attributes_, b. vi. c. 28.

We have neither school nor hospital for the distressed
children, called the _black guard_.--NELSON, _Address to
Persons of Quality_, p. 214.

=BLEAK.= This, a northern form, the equivalent of O.E. _blāc_ (cp. O.N. _bleikr_, Mod. German _bleich_, pale, colourless), comes out clearly in its original relationship with ‘bleach’ in the following quotations.

When she came out, she looked as pale and as _bleak_ as one
that were laid out dead.--FOXE, _Book of Martyrs_; _The Escape
of Agnes Wardall_.

And as I looked forth, I beheld a pale horse, whom I took for
the universal synagogue of hypocrites, pale as men without
health, and _bleak_ as men without that fresh spirit of life
which is in Christ Jesus.--BALE, _The Image of Both Churches_,
P. S. p. 321.

=BLUNDERBUSS.= In the 17th and 18th centuries a man who blunders in his work, does it in a boisterous violent way; transferred from the name given to a short, wide-mouthed, noisy gun. [This word for a gun is due to the Dutch _donderbus_, i.e. thunder-gun, perverted in form from sense association with _blunder_, perhaps with allusion to its random, casual firing.]

We could now wish we had a discreet and intelligent adversary,
and not such a hare-brained _blunderbuss_ as you, to deal
with.--MILTON, _A Defence of the People of England_, Preface.

Jacob, the scourge of grammar, mark with awe,
Nor less revere him, _blunderbuss_ of law.

POPE, _Dunciad_, b. iii. 150.

=BOISTOUS=, }
BOISTEROUS. }

The sense of noisy, turbulent, blustering, is a later superaddition on ‘boisterous,’ or ‘boistous,’ as was its earlier form. Of old it meant no more than rude, rough, strong, uncompliant; thus the ‘boisterous wind’ of Matt. xiv. 30, is simply a violent wind, ἄνεμος ἰσχυρός in the original.

No man putteth a clout of _buystous_ clothe [panni rudis,
Vulg.] into an elde clothing.--_Matt._ ix. 16. WICLIF.

O Clifford, _boisterous_[9] Clifford, thou hast slain
The flower of Europe for his chivalry.

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

His _boistrous_ body shines in burnished steel.

SYLVESTER, _Du Bartas’ Weeks, The Magnificence_, p. 460.

The greatest danger indeed is from those that are _stolide
feroces_, full of those _boisterous_, rude, and brutish
passions, which grow as bristles upon hogs’ backs, from
ignorance, pride, rusticity, and prejudice.--GAUDEN,
_Hieraspistes_. To the Reader.

The leathern outside, _boisterous_ as it was,
Gave way, and bent beneath her strict embrace.

DRYDEN, _Sigismunda and Guiscardo_, 159, 160.

The other thing in debate seemed very hard and _boisterous_ to
his Majesty, that sundry leaders in the House of Commons would
provoke him to proclaim open war with Spain.--HACKET, _Life of
Archbishop Williams_, part i. p. 79.

=BOMBAST.= Now inflated diction, words which, sounding lofty and big, have no real substance about them. This, which is now the sole meaning, was once only the secondary and the figurative, ‘bombast’ being literally the cotton wadding with which garments are stuffed out and lined, and often so used by our writers of the Elizabethan period, and then by a vigorous image transferred to what now it exclusively means.

Certain I am there was never any kind of apparel ever invented,
that could more disproportion the body of man than these
doublets, stuffed with four, five, or six pound of _bombast_ at
the least.--STUBBES, _Anatomy of Abuses_, p. 23.

We have received your letters full of love!
Your favours, the ambassadors of love;
And, in our maiden council, rated them
At courtship, pleasant jest, and courtesy,
As _bombast_, and as lining to the time.

SHAKESPEARE, _Love’s Labour’s Lost_, act v. sc. 2.

_Bombast_, the cotton-plant growing in Asia.--PHILLIPS, _New
World of Words_.

=BOOT.= Not the luggage, but the attendants, used once to ride in the ‘boot,’ or rather the boots, of a carriage, for there were two. Projecting from the sides of the carriage and open to the air, they derived, no doubt, their name from their shape.

His coach being come, he causeth him to be laid in softly, and
so he in one _boot_, and the two chirurgeons in the other, they
drive away to the very next country house.--REYNOLDS, _God’s
Revenge against Murder_, b. i. hist.

He [James the First] received his son into the coach, and found
a slight errand to leave Buckingham behind, as he was putting
his foot in the _boot_.--HACKET, _Life of Archbishop Williams_,
part i. p. 196.

=BOUNTY.= The tendency to accept freedom of giving in lieu of all other virtues, or at least to regard it as the chiefest of all, the same which has brought ‘charity’ to be for many identical with almsgiving, displays itself in our present use of ‘bounty,’ which, like the French ‘bonté,’ meant goodness once.

For God it woot that childer ofte been
Unlik her worthy eldris hem bifore;
_Bounté_ cometh al of God, nought of the streen,
Of which thay ben engendrid and i-bore.

CHAUCER, _Clerkes Tale_ (Morris, p. 283).

Nourishing meats and drinks in a sick body do lose their
_bounty_, and augmenteth malady.--Sir T. ELYOT, _The Governor_,
b. ii. c. 7.

=BRAT.= This word is now used always in contempt, but was not so once.

O Israel, O household of the Lord,
O Abraham’s _brats_, O brood of blessed seed,
O chosen sheep that loved the Lord indeed.

GASCOIGNE, _De Profundis_.

Take heed how thou layest the bane for the rats,
For poisoning thy servant, thyself, and thy _brats_.

TUSSER, _Points of Good Husbandry_.

=BRAVE=, }
BRAVERY. }

The ultimate derivation of ‘brave’ is altogether uncertain (see N.E.D.); we obtained it in the fifteenth century, the Germans in the seventeenth, (Grimm [_s. v._ ‘brav’] says during the Thirty Years’ War,) from one or other of the Romance languages, probably from the It. _bravo_. I do not very clearly trace by what steps it obtained the meaning of showy, gaudy, rich, which once it so frequently had, in addition to that meaning which it still retains.

The habit also and attire of his body, manly and soldier-like,
not _brave_ nor tricked up daintily and delicately, much
adorned and set him out.--PLUTARCH, _Lives_, 695.

His clothes [St. Augustine’s] were neither _brave_, nor base,
but comely.--FULLER, _Holy State_, b. iv. c. 10.

If he [the good yeoman] chance to appear in clothes above his
rank, it is to grace some great man with his service, and then
he blusheth at his own _bravery_.--Id. _ib._ b. ii. c. 18.

Traffic encreaseth wonderfully here, with all kind of _bravery_
and building.--HOWELL, _Letters_, i. 6, 36.

Man is a noble animal, splendid in ashes, and pompous in the
grave, solemnizing nativities and deaths with equal lustre,
not omitting ceremonies of _bravery_ in the infamy of his
nature.--Sir T. BROWNE, _Hydriotaphia_.

There is a great festival now drawing on, a festival designed
chiefly for the acts of a joyful piety, but generally made only
an occasion of _bravery_.--SOUTH, _Sermons_, vol. ii. p. 285.

=BRIBE=, }
BRIBERY. }

‘To bribe’ was to rob, a ‘bribour’ a robber, and ‘bribery’ robbery, once. For an ingenious history of the steps by which the words left their former meaning, and acquired their present, see Marsh, _Lectures on the English Language_, 1st Series, p. 249.

They that delight in superfluity of gorgeous apparel and dainty
fare, commonly do deceive the needy, _bribe_, and pill from
them.--CRANMER, _Instruction of Prayer_.

Woe be to you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, for ye
make clean the utter side of the cup and of the platter; but
within they are full of _bribery_ [ἁρπαγῆς, and in the E. V.
‘extortion’] and excess.--_Matt._ xxiii. 25. Geneva Version.

=BRITAIN=, }
BRITANY. }

The distinction between these is perfectly established now: by the first we always intend _Great_ Britain; by the second, the French duchy, corresponding to the ancient Armorica. But it was long before this usage was accurately settled and accepted by all. By ‘Britany’ Great Britain was frequently intended, and _vice versâ_. Thus, in each of the passages which follow, the other word than that which actually is used would be now employed.

He [Henry VII.] was not so averse from a war, but that he
was resolved to choose it, rather than to have _Britain_
carried by France, being so great and opulent a duchy, and
situate so opportunely to annoy England, either for coast or
trade.--BACON, _History of King Henry VII._

The letter of Quintus Cicero, which he wrote in answer to
that of his brother Marcus, desiring of him an account of
_Britany_.--Sir T. BROWNE, _Musæum Clausum_.

And is it this, alas! which we
(O irony of words!) do call _Great Britany_?

COWLEY, _The Extasy_.

=BROOK.= This, the O.E. _brūcan_ (cp. German _brauchen_), has now obtained a special limitation, meaning not so much, as once it did, to use, as to endure to use.

But none of all those curses overtooke
The warlike Maide, th’ ensample of that might;
But fairely well she thryvd, and well did _brooke_
Her noble deeds, ne her right course for ought forsooke.

SPENSER, _Fairy Queen_, iii. 4, 44.

Forasmuch as many _brooked_ divers and many laudable ceremonies
and rites heretofore used and accustomed in the Church of
England, not yet abrogated by the king’s authority, his Majesty
charged and commanded all his subjects to observe and keep
them.--STRYPE, _Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer_, vol. i. p.
412.

And, as a German writer well observes, the French kings might
well brook that title of _Christianissimi_ from that admirable
exploit of Carolus Martellus, the next means under God’s
providence that other parts of Europe had not Saracen tyrants
instead of Christian princes.--JACKSON, _The Eternal Truth of
Scriptures_, b. i. c. 26.

Let us _bruik_ the present hour,
Let us pou’ the fleeting flouir,
Youthheid is love’s holiday,
Let us use it, when we may.

PINKERTON, _Scotch Comic Ballads_, p. 149.

[=BULLION.= This word is now generally used in the sense of metal, specially precious metal in the mass: ‘gold or silver in the lump, as distinguished from coin or manufactured articles, also applied to coined or manufactured gold or silver when considered simply with reference to its value as raw material,’ N.E.D. The word was once frequently used of gold or silver below the standard purity. _Bullion_ has no connexion etymologically either with Fr. _billon_ or with Lat. _bulla_; it appears to be identical with Fr. _bouillon_, Late Lat. _bullionem_, a boiling, hence, a melting, a melted mass of metal. The Fr. _billon_, debased metal, meant originally mass, having the same stem as _billet_ (of wood). No doubt the word _billon_ has influenced the sense of the English _bullion_.]

Base _bullion_ for the stamp’s sake we allow.

MARLOWE, _Hero and Leander_. _First Sestyad._

For alchymy, though’t make a glorious gloss,
Compared with gold is _bullion_ or base dross.

WILLIAM HODGSON, _Verses on Ben Jonson_.

Words, whilom flourishing,
Pass now no more, but, banished from the court,
Dwell with disgrace among the vulgar sort;
And those which eld’s strict doom did disallow,
And damn for _bullion_, go for current now.

SYLVESTER, _Du Bartas’ Weeks, Babylon_.

Nigh on the plain, in many cells prepared,
That underneath had veins of liquid fire
Sluiced from the lake, a second multitude
With wondrous art founded the massy ore,
Severing each kind, and scummed the _bullion_ dross.

MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, i. 699.

=BURIAL.= This designates now the act, but formerly the place, of interment, being the O.E. _byrgels_, a tomb, see N.E.D. (s. v. _buriels_).

And the kyng seide, What is this _biriel_ which Y se? And the
citeseyns of that citee answerèd ento him, It is the sepulcre
of the man of God that cam fro Juda.--_2 Kin._ xxiii. 17.
WICLIF.

And _birielis_ weren openyd, and many bodies of seyntis
that hadden slepte rysen up, and thei yeden out of her
_birielis_.--_Matt._ xxvii. 51, 52. WICLIF.

It happed after that upon the _buryels_ grewe a right fayr
flourdelis.--CAXTON, _Legenda Aurea_, 151. 2.

=BUTCHERY.= Now a massacre where there is little or no resistance on the part of those who are its victims. It was used once as the place where animals were slaughtered. [But see N.E.D. for modern quotations of the word in this latter sense.]

Al thing that is seld in the _bocherie_ ete ye, axynge nothing
for conscience.--_1 Cor._ x. 25. WICLIF.

Whence came it that they call the shambles or _butcherie_ at
Rome where flesh is to be sold, macellum?--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s
Morals_, p. 869.

=BUXOM.= The modern spelling of ‘buxom’ (it was somewhat, though not much better, when it was spelt ‘bucksome’) has quite hidden its identity with the German ‘biegsam,’ ‘beugsam,’ bendable, pliable, and so obedient. Ignorant of the history of the word, and trusting to the feeling and impression which it conveyed to their minds, men spoke of ‘_buxom_ health’ and the like, meaning by this, having a cheerful comeliness. The epithet in this application is Gray’s, and Johnson justly finds fault with it. [See N.E.D. for the two quotations.] Milton, when he joins ‘buxom’ with ‘blithe and debonair,’ and Crashaw, in his otherwise beautiful line,

‘I am born
Again a fresh child of the _buxom_ morn,’

show that already for them the true meaning of the word, common enough in our earlier writers, was passing away; yet Milton still uses it in its proper sense in _Paradise Lost_,--‘winnowing the _buxom_ air,’ that is, the _yielding_ air.

I submit myself unto this holy Church of Christ, to be ever
_buxom_ and obedient to the ordinance of it, after my knowledge
and power, by the help of God.--FOXE, _Book of Martyrs;
Examination of William Thorpe_.

_Buxom_, kind, tractable, and pliable one to the
other.--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s Morals_, 316.

[Love] tyrannizeth in the bitter smarts
Of them that to him _buxome_ are and prone.

SPENSER, _Fairy Queen_, iii. 2, 23.

=BY.= The first clause in the quotation which follows from the Authorized Version of the Bible must often either fail to convey any meaning, or must convey a wrong meaning, to the English reader of the present day. The ‘nil conscire sibi’ is what the Apostle would claim for himself; and the other passages quoted show that this idiomatic use of ‘by,’ as equivalent to ‘concerning’ (it is probably related to ἀμφὶ), but with also a suggestion of ‘against,’ was not peculiar to our Translators.

I think S. Paul spake these words [‘who mind earthly things’]
_by_ the clergymen that will take upon them the spiritual
office of preaching, and yet meddle in worldly matters too,
contrary to their calling.--LATIMER, _Sermons_, p. 529.

Thou hast spoken evil words _by_ the Queen.
No man living upon earth can prove any such things _by_ me.

FOXE, _Book of Martyrs; Examination of Elizabeth
Young by Martin Hussie_.

This angry prior told the archbishop to his face, in a good
audience, concerning what he had preached of the bishop of
Rome’s vices, that he knew no vices _by_ none of the bishops of
Rome.--STRYPE, _Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer_, b. i. c. 8.

For all the wealth that ever I did see,
I would not have him know so much _by_ me.

SHAKESPEARE, _Love’s Labour’s Lost_, act iv. sc. 3.

I know nothing _by_ myself [οὐδὲν ἐμαυτῷ σύνοιδα]; yet am I not
hereby justified; but He that judgeth me is the Lord.--_1 Cor._
iv. 4 (A. V.) R. V. has here ‘_against_ myself.’

God is said to be greater than our hearts, and knoweth all
things. He knows more _by_ us than we _by_ ourselves.--GURNALL,
_The Christian in Complete Armour_, iii. 2, 8.

=BY AND BY.= Now a future more or less remote; but when our Version of the Bible was made, the nearest possible future. The inveterate procrastination of men has put ‘by and by’ farther and farther off. Already in Barrow’s time it had acquired its present meaning.

And some counselled the archbishop to burn me _by and by_,
and some other counselled him to drown me in the sea, for it
is near hand there.--FOXE, _Book of Martyrs; Examination of
William Thorpe_.

Give me _by and by_ [ἐξαυτῆς] in a charger the head of John the
Baptist.--_Mark_ vi. 25 (A.V.) [R. V. has _forthwith_.]

These things must first come to pass; but the end is not
_by and by_ [εὐθέως].--_Luke_ xxi. 9 (A.V.) [R. V. has
_immediately_.]

When Demophantus fell to the ground, his soldiers fled _by and
by_ [εὐθὺς ἔφυγον] upon it.--NORTH, _Plutarch’s Lives_, p. 308.

[=CAITIFF.= According to present usage the word expresses contempt, often involving strong moral disapprobation. It means a base, mean, despicable wretch, a contemptible villain. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the word has often a tinge of pity, meaning a wretched, miserable person. Originally _caitiff_ meant a captive, a prisoner, being in fact the same word as _captive_, the latter being derived directly from the Latin _captivus_, while _caitiff_ is its Anglo-Norman form _caitif_, used in the sense of captive, weak, miserable; cp. It. _cattivo_, captive, lewd, bad, and Mod. Fr. _chétif_, of little value, wretched, miserable.]

Aristark, myne evene _caytyf_ [concaptivus meus, Vulg.],
greetith you wel.--_Col._ iv. 10. WICLIF (earlier version).

The riche Cresus, _caytif_ in servage.

CHAUCER, _The Knightes Tale_.

Avarice doth tyrannize over her _caitiff_ and slave, not
suffering him to use what she commanded him to win.--HOLLAND,
_Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 208.

Alas, poore _Caitiffe_.

SHAKESPEARE, _Othello_, act iv. sc. 1.

=CAPITULATE.= There is no reason why the reducing of any agreement to certain heads or ‘capitula’ should not be called to ‘capitulate,’ the victor thus ‘capitulating’ as well as the vanquished; and the present limitation of the word’s use, by which it means to surrender on certain specified terms, is quite of modern introduction.

Gelon the tyrant, after he had defeated the Carthaginians
near to the city Himera, when he made peace with them,
_capitulated_, among other articles of treaty, that they should
no more sacrifice any infants to Saturn.--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s
Morals_, p. 405.

He [the Emperor Charles V.] makes a voyage into England,
and there _capitulates_ with the King, among other things,
to take to wife his daughter Mary.--HEYLIN, _History of the
Reformation_.

Wonder He will condescend to it! To _capitulate_ with dust and
ashes! To article with his own creature, with whom He may do
what He will!--HOWE, _The Redeemer’s Dominion_, &c.

=CAPTIVATE.= This is not used any longer in a literal, but always in a more or less allegorical sense.

They that are wise had rather have their judgments at liberty
in differences of readings, than to be _captivated_ to the one
when it may be the other.--_The Translators [of the Authorized
Version] to the Reader._

How ill beseeming is it in thy sex
To triumph, like an Amazonian trull,
Upon their woes whom Fortune _captivates_.

SHAKESPEARE, _3 Henry VI._ act i. sc. 4.

O tame my heart:
It is thy highest art
To _captivate_ strongholds to Thee.

HERBERT, _The Temple_.

=CAREFUL=, }
CAREFULNESS. }

Now, full of diligence and attention; but once of anxiety.

The stretes of Sion mourn; her priests make lamentacions,
her maydens are _carefull_, and she herself is in great
hevynesse.--_Lament._ i. 4. COVERDALE.

He shall be as a tree planted by the waters, ... and shall not
be _careful_ in the year of drought.--_Jer._ xvii. 8. (A.V.)

Pale as he is, here lay him down,
Oh, lay his cold head on my pillow;
Take off, take off, these bridal weeds,
And crown my _careful_ head with willow.

HAMILTON, _The Braes of Yarrow_.

This petition is a remedy against this wicked _carefulness_ of
men when they seek how to get their livings, in such wise like
as if there was no God at all.--LATIMER, _Sermons_, p. 400.

=CARP.= The _Promptorium_ gives ‘fabulor,’ ‘confabulor,’ ‘garrulo’ as Latin equivalents; nor do we anywhere before the sixteenth century find the subaudition of fault-finding or detraction, which now is ever implied in the word.

Ac to _carpe_ moore of Cryst, and how He come to that name
Faithly for to speke, his firste name of Iesus.

_Piers Plowman_, B Passus, xix. 65 (Skeat).

Now we leven the kyng, and of Joseph _carpen_.--_Joseph of
Arimathie_, 212.

So gone thei forthe, _carpende_ fast
On this, on that.

GOWER, _Confessio Amantis_, 1.

=CARPET.= The covering of floors only at present, but once of tables as well. It was in this sense that a matter was ‘on the carpet’ (i.e. of the council-table). For the etymology see N.E.D.

In the fray one of their spurs engaged into a _carpet_ upon
which stood a very fair looking-glass and two noble pieces of
porcelain, drew all to the ground, broke the glass.--_Harleian
Miscellany_, vol. x. p. 189.

Private men’s halls were hung with altar-cloths; their
_tables_ and beds covered with copes, instead of _carpets_ and
coverlets.--FULLER, _Church History of Britain_, b. vii. § 2, 1.

And might not these [copes] be handsomely converted into
private uses, to serve as _carpets_ for their tables, coverlids
to their beds, or cushions to their chairs or windows?--HEYLIN,
_History of the Reformation_, To the Reader.

=CARRIAGE.= Now, that which carries, or the act of carrying; but once, that which was carried, and thus baggage. From ignorance of this, the Authorized Translation, at Acts xxi. 15, has been often found fault with, but unjustly.

Spartacus charged his [Lentulus’] lieutenants that led the
army, gave them battle, overthrew them, and took all their
_carriage_ [τὴν ἀποσκευὴν ἅπασαν, LXX.].--NORTH, _Plutarch’s
Lives_, p. 470.

And David left his _carriage_ [τὰ σκεύη αὐτοῦ, LXX.] in the
hand of the keeper of the _carriage_.--_1 Sam._ xvii. 22 (A.V.)

An index is a necessary implement, and no impediment of a
book, except in the same sense in which the _carriages_ of an
army are termed _impedimenta_.--FULLER, _Worthies of England:
Norfolk_.

[=CATTLE.= This and ‘chattel’ are only different forms of the same word. In Middle English as in Old French the forms _catel_ and _chatel_ are dialectal variants of the same Late Latin original _capitale_, the word in all its forms meaning simply capital, principal, property, substance, wealth. In the time of Chaucer and Wiclif _catel_ was still used in the sense of wealth, substance generally, whereas now its equivalent _cattle_ is only used to express property in living animals, the form _chattel_ being reserved for non-living personal property. It may be here noted that we have in the word _fee_ another interesting instance of the intimate connexion between the ideas of property generally and of cattle (live stock). The word _fee_ means now a reward or payment in money, in Middle English it meant property in general, including money and live stock; the Old English _feoh_, the phonetic equivalent of the Latin _pecus_, meant originally cattle, live stock; see Kluge, s. v. _vieh_.]

Though a man give al the _catel_ of his hous [omnem
_substantiam_, domûs suæ, Vulg.] for love, he schal despise
that _catel_ as nought.--_Cant._ viii. 7. WICLIF.

A womman that hadde a flux of blood twelve yeer, and hadde
spendid all hir _catel_ [omnem _substantiam_ suam, Vulg.] in
leechis.--_Luke_ viii. 43, 44. WICLIF.

The avarous man hath more hope in his _catel_ than in Jhesu
Crist.--CHAUCER, _The Persones Tale_ (Morris, p. 330).

=CENSURE.= It speaks ill for the charity of men’s judgments, that ‘censure,’ which designated once favourable and unfavourable judgments alike, is now restricted to unfavourable; for it must be that the latter, being by far the most frequent, have in this way appropriated the word exclusively to themselves.

Take each man’s _censure_, but reserve thy judgment.

SHAKESPEARE, _Hamlet_, act i. sc. 3.

His [Richard, Earl of Cornwall’s] voyage was variously
_censured_; the Templars, who consented not to the peace,
flouted thereat, as if all this while he had laboured about a
difficult nothing; others thought he had abundantly satisfied
any rational expectation.--FULLER, _Holy War_, b. iv. c. 8.

Which could not be past over without this _censure_; for it is
an ill thrift to be parsimonious in the praise of that which is
very good.--HACKET, _Life of Archbishop Williams_, part ii. p.
13.

=CHAFFER.= Once, simply to buy, to make a bargain, now to higgle or dispute about the making of a bargain.

That no man overgo, nethir disseyve his brothir in _chaffaring_
[in negotio, Vulg.].--_1 Thess._ iv. 6. WICLIF.

He comaundide his servauntis to be clepid, to whiche he
hadde yive monei; to wite hou myche ech hadde wonne bi
_chaffaryng_.--_Luke_ xix. 15. WICLIF.

Where is the fayre flocke thou was wont to leade?
Or bene they _chaffred_, or at mischiefe dead?

SPENSER, _Shepherd’s Calendar_, September.

=CHAOS.= The earliest meaning of χάος in Greek, of ‘chaos’ in Latin, was empty infinite space, the _yawning_ kingdom of darkness; only a secondary, that which we have now adopted, namely, the rude, confused, indigested, unorganized matter out of which the universe according to the heathen cosmogony was formed. But the primary use of ‘chaos’ was not strange to the scholars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Beside all these things, between us and you there is fixed a
great _chaos_, that they which will pass from hence to you may
not.--_Luke_ xvi. 26. RHEIMS.

And look what other thing soever besides cometh within the
_chaos_ of this monster’s mouth, be it beast, boat, or stone,
down it goeth incontinently that foul great swallow of
his.--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 975.

To the brow of heaven
Pursuing, drive them out from God and bliss
Into their place of punishment, the gulf
Of Tartarus, which ready opens wide
His fiery _chaos_ to receive their fall.

MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, vi. 51.

=CHEAT=, }
CHEATER. }

The steps by which ‘escheat’ has yielded ‘cheat,’ and ‘escheatour’ ‘cheater,’ are interesting to trace. The ‘escheatour’ was an officer in each county who took notice of fines and forfeitures technically called ‘escheats’ on the royal manors, which had _fallen in_ to the Crown, and certified these to the Exchequer. But he had commonly such a reputation for fraud and extortion in the execution of his office, that by an only too natural transition the ‘escheatour’ passed into the ‘cheater,’ and ‘escheat’ into ‘cheat.’ The quotation from Gurnall is curious as marking the word in the very act of this transition.

And yet the taking off these vessels was not the best and
goodliest _cheat_ of their victory; but this passed all, that
with one light skirmish they became lords of all the sea along
those coasts.--HOLLAND, _Livy_, p. 444.

This man who otherwise beforetime was but poor and needy,
by these windfalls and unexpected _cheats_ became very
wealthy.--Id. _Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 1237.

_Falstaff._ Here’s another letter to her. She bears the purse
too; she is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty. I will
be _cheaters_ to them both, and they shall be exchequers to
me.--SHAKESPEARE, _Merry Wives of Windsor_, act i. sc. 2.

By this impudence they may abuse credulous souls into a
belief of what they say, as a _cheater_ may pick the purses
of innocent people, by showing them something like the King’s
broad seal, which was indeed his own forgery.--GURNALL, _The
Christian in Complete Armour_, 1639, vol. ii. p. 201.

=CHEER.= Cicero, who loves to bring out superiorities, where he can find them, of the Latin language over the Greek, urges this as one, that the Greek has no equivalent to the Latin ‘vultus’ (_Leg._ i. 9, 27); the countenance, that is, ethically regarded, as the ever-varying index and exponent of the sentiments and emotions of the soul (‘imago animi vultus est,’ _De Orat._ iii. 59, 221). Perhaps it may be charged on the English, that it too is now without such a word. But ‘cheer,’ in its earlier uses, of which vestiges still survive, was exactly such.

In swoot of thi _cheer_ thou schalt ete thi breed, till thou
turne ayen in to the erthe of which thou art takun.--_Gen._
iii. 19. WICLIF.

And Cayn was wrooth greetli, and his _cheer_ felde
doun.--_Gen._ iv. 5. WICLIF.

Each froward threatening _cheer_ of fortune makes us plain;
And every pleasant show revives our woful hearts again.

SURREY, _Ecclesiastes_, c. 3.

=CHEMIST=, }
CHEMISTRY. }

The distinction between the alchemist and the ‘chemist,’ that the first is the fond searcher after the philosopher’s stone or the elixir vitæ, the other the follower of a true and scientific method in a particular region of nature, is of comparatively recent introduction into the language. ‘Chemist’ is = ‘alchemist’ in the quotations which follow.

Five sorts of persones he [Sir Edward Coke] used to
foredesign to misery and poverty; _chemists_, monopolizers,
concealers,[10] promoters, and rythming poets.--FULLER,
_Worthies of England: Norfolk_.

I have observed generally of _chymists_ and theosophists, as
of several other men more palpably mad, that their thoughts
are carried much to astrology.--H. MORE, _A Brief Discourse of
Enthusiasm_, sect. 45.

Visions and inspirations some expect,
Their course here to direct;
Like senseless _chemists_ their own wealth destroy,
Imaginary wealth to enjoy.

COWLEY, _Use of Reason in Divine Matters_.

Hence the fool’s paradise, the statesman’s scheme,
The air-built castle, and the golden dream,
The maid’s romantic wish, the _chemist’s_ flame,
The poet’s vision of eternal fame.

POPE, _The Dunciad_, b. iii. 9-12.

He that follows _chemistry_ must have riches to throw away upon
the study of it; whatever he gets by it, those furnaces must be
fed with gold.--SOUTH, _Sermons_, 1644, vol. ix. p. 277.

=CHEST.= I am not aware that ‘cista’ was ever used in the sense of a coffin, but ‘chest’ is continually so used in our early English; and ‘to chest,’ for to place in a coffin, occurs in the heading of a chapter in our Bibles, _Gen._ l. 26: ‘He [Joseph] dieth, and is _chested_.’

He is now deed and nayled in his _chest_.

CHAUCER, _The Clerkes Prologue_.

Your body is now wrapt in _chest_,
I pray to God to give your soul good rest.

HAWES, _Pastime of Pleasure_, cap. 14.

=CHIMNEY.= This, which means now the gorge or vent of a furnace or fire, was once in frequent use for the furnace itself: in this more true to its origin; being derived from the Greek κάμινος, a furnace, as it passed into the Latin ‘caminus,’ whence the Late Latin _caminata_, a room with a stove, the French ‘cheminée.’ The fact that it is the ‘chimney,’ in the modern use of the word, which, creating a draught, alone gives activity or fierceness to the flame, probably explains the present limitation of the meaning of the word. In Scotland ‘chimney’ still is, or lately was, ‘the grate, or iron frame that holds the fire’ (_Scoticisms_, Edinburgh, 1787).

And hise feet [were] lijk to latoun as in a brennynge
_chymney_.--_Rev._ i. 15. WICLIF.

The Son of Man shall send his angels, and shall gather
all hindrances out of his kingdom and all that worketh
unlawfulness, and shall cast them into the _chimney_ of
fire.--_Matt._ xiii. 50. Sir JOHN CHEKE.

=CHIVALRY.= It is a striking evidence of the extent to which in the feudal times the men-at-arms, the mounted knights, were esteemed as the army, while the footmen were regarded as little better than a supernumerary rabble,--another record of this contempt probably surviving at the other end in the word ‘infantry,’--that ‘chivalry,’ which of course is but a doublet of ‘cavalry,’ could once be used as convertible with army. It needed more than one Agincourt to teach that this was so no longer. ‘Knighthood’ in like manner is continually used by Wiclif as a rendering of ‘exercitus;’ thus Gen. xxi. 33.

Abymalach forsothe aroos, and Phicol, the prince of his
_chyvalrye_ [princeps _exercitûs_ ejus, Vulg.], and turneden
ayen into the loond of Palestynes.--_Gen._ xxi. 33. WICLIF.

Sobach, the prynce of _chyvalrye_ [principem _militiæ_].--_2
Kings_ x. 18. WICLIF.

=CHOUSE.= The history of the introduction of this word into the popular, or at all events the schoolboy, language of England, and the quarter from whence derived, are now sufficiently well known. A ‘chiaus,’ or interpreter, attached to the Turkish Embassy, in 1609 succeeded in defrauding the Turkish and Persian merchants resident in England of 4,000_l._ From the vast dimensions of the fraud, vast, that is, as men counted fraudulent vastness then, and the notoriety it acquired, a ‘chiaus’ (presently spelt ‘chouse’ to look more English) became equivalent to a swindler, and somewhat later to the act of swindling.[11] It is curious that a correspondent of Skinner (_Etymologicon_, 1671), though quite ignorant of this story, suggests a connexion between ‘chouse’ and the Turkish ‘chiaus.’ The quotation from Ben Jonson gives us the word in its passage from the old meaning to the new; while the ‘errant chouse’ in Butler’s _Hudibras_, iii. 1, 1249, is rather the cheated than the cheater.

About this time the Turks proposed at the instigation of the
French ambassador to send a _chiaus_ into France, England, and
Holland, to acquaint those princes with the advancement of
Sultan Solyman to the throne.--RYCAUT, _History of the Turks_,
vol. iii. p. 261.

_Dapper._ What do you think of me,
That I am a _chiaus_?

_Face._ What’s that?

_Dapper._ The Turk was here;
As one would say, do you think I am a Turk?

BEN JONSON, _The Alchemist_, act i. sc. 1.

=CHRISTEN=, }
CHRISTENDOM. }

By ‘Christendom’ we now understand that portion of the world which makes profession of the faith of Christ, as contradistinguished from all heathen and Mahomedan lands. But it was often used by our early writers as itself the profession of Christ’s faith, or sometimes for baptism, inasmuch as in that this profession was made; which is also the explanation of the use of ‘christen’ as equivalent to ‘christianize’ below. In Shakespeare our present use of ‘Christendom’ very much predominates, but once or twice he uses it in its earlier sense, as do authors much later than he.

Most part of England in the reigne of King Ethelbert was
_christened_, Kent onely except, which remayned long after in
mysbeliefe and _unchristened_.--E. K., _Glossary to Spenser’s
Shepherd’s Calendar, September_.[12]

Sothli we ben togidere biried with him bi _christendom_ [per
baptismum, Vulg.] in to death.--_Rom._ vi. 4. WICLIF (earlier
version).

He that might have his body wrapped in one of their old
coats at the houre of death, it were as good to him as his
_christendom_.--TYNDALE, _Exposition upon Matthew VI._

They all do come to him with friendly face,
When of his _christendom_ they understand.

Sir J. HARINGTON, _Orlando Furioso_, b. xliii. c. 189.

The draughts of intemperance would wash off the water of my
_christendom_; every unclean lust does as it were bemire and
wipe out my contract with my Lord.--ALLESTREE, _Sermons_, vol.
ii. p. 161.

=CHURCH.= Our Translators are often taxed with an oversight in that they have allowed ‘robbers of _churches_’ to remain at _Acts_ xix. 37, as the rendering of ἱεροσύλους, sounding, as this does, like an anachronism on the lips of the town-clerk of Ephesus. Doubtless ‘spoilers of _temples_,’ or some such phrase, would have been preferable; yet was there not any oversight here. The title of ‘church,’ which we with a fit reverence restrain to a Christian place of worship, was in earlier English not refused to the Jewish, or, as in that place, even to a heathen, temple as well.

And, lo, the veil of the _church_ was torn in two parts from
the top downwards.--_Matt._ xxvii. 51. Sir JOHN CHEKE.

To all the gods devoutly she did offer frankincense,
But most above them all the _church_ of Juno she did cense.

GOLDING, _Ovid’s Metamorphosis_, b. xi.

These troops should soon pull down the _church_ of Jove.

MARLOWE, _First Book of Lucan_.

=CIVIL=, }
CIVILITY, }
CIVILIAN. }

The tendency which there is in the meaning of words to run to the surface, till they lose and leave behind all their deeper significance, is well exemplified in ‘civil’ and ‘civility’--words of how deep an import once, how slight and shallow now. A _civil_ man now is one observant of slight external courtesies in the intercourse of society; a _civil_ man once was one who fulfilled all the duties and obligations flowing from his position as a ‘civis,’ and his relations to the other members of that ‘civitas’ to which he belonged, and ‘civility’ the condition in which those were recognized and observed. The gradual departure of all deeper significance from ‘civility’ has obliged the creation of another word, ‘civilization,’ which only came up toward the conclusion of the last century. Johnson does not know it in his Dictionary, except as a technical legal term to express the turning of a criminal process into a civil one; and, according to Boswell, altogether disallowed it in the sense which it has now acquired. A ‘civilian’ in the language of the Puritan divines was one who, despising the righteousness of Christ, did yet follow after a certain civil righteousness, a ‘justitia civilis’ of his own.

That wise and _civil_ Roman, Julius Agricola, preferred the
natural wits of Britain before the laboured studies of the
French.--MILTON, _Areopagitica_.

As for the Scythian wandering Nomades, temples sorted
not with their condition, as wanting both _civility_ and
settledness.--FULLER, _The Holy State_, b. iii. c. 24.

Then were the Roman fashions imitated and the gown; after a
while the incitements also and materials of vice and voluptuous
life, proud buildings, baths, and the elegance of banquetings;
which the foolisher sort called _civility_, but was indeed a
secret art to prepare them for bondage.--MILTON, _History of
England_, b. ii.

Let us remember also that _civility_ and fair customs were but
in a narrow circle till the Greeks and Romans beat the world
into better manners.--Bishop TAYLOR, _Ductor Dubitantium_, b.
ii. c. 1, § 19.

The last step in this [spiritual] death is the death of
_civility_. _Civil_ men come nearer the saints of God than
others, they come within a step or two of heaven, and yet are
shut out.--PRESTON, _Of Spiritual Death and Life_, 1636, p. 59.

I proceed to the second, that is to the mere naturalist or
_civilian_; by whom I mean such an one as lives upon dregs, the
very reliques and ruins of the image of God decayed.--ROGERS,
_Naaman the Syrian_, p. 104.

=CLERGY.= [The use of _clergy_ in the abstract for learning is quite obsolete. Strictly speaking, it is not the same word as _clergy_, the collective name for the ministers of God. _Clergy_ (learning) represents Old French _clergie_, whereas _clergy_ (ministers) is due to Old French _clergié_ (now _clergé_) = Late Latin _clericatum_.]

Ne alle the clerkes that ever had witte
Sen the world bigan, ne that lyfes yit,
Couth never telle bi _clergy_ ne arte
Of these payns of helle the thousand parte.

RICHARD ROLLE DE HAMPOLE, _Pricke of Conscience_, 4832.

Was not Aristotle, for all his _clergy_,
For a woman wrapt in love so marvellously
That all his cunning he had soon forgotten?

HAWES, _Pastime of Pleasure_.

Also that every of the said landlords put their second sons
to learn some _clergy_, or some craft, whereby they may live
honestly.--_State Papers, State of Ireland_, 1515, vol. ii. p.
30.

=CLIMATE.= At present the temperature of a region, but once the region itself, the region, however, contemplated in its _slope_ or _inclination_ from the equator toward the pole, and therefore, by involved consequence, in respect of its temperature; which circumstance is the point of contact between the present meaning of ‘climate’ and the past. We have derived the word from the mathematical geographers of antiquity. They were wont to run imaginary parallel lines, or such at least as they intended should be parallel, to the equator; and the successive ‘climates’ (κλίματα) of the earth were the spaces and regions between these lines. See Holland’s _Pliny_, vol. i. p. 150.

The superficialtee of the erthe is departed in 7
parties for the 7 planetes, and tho parties ben clept
_clymates_.--MANDEVILLE, p. 186.

The longitude of a _clymat_ ys a lyne ymagined fro est to west,
illike distant by-twene them alle.--CHAUCER, _Treatise on the
Astrolabe_, 2, 39, 17 (Skeat, _E.E.T.S._ xvi).

Almost five _climates_ henceward to the south,
Between the mainland and the ocean’s mouth
Two islands lie.

_The Funerals of King Edward VI._

When these prodigies
Do so conjointly meet, let not men say,
‘These are their causes--they are natural;’
For, I believe, they are portentous things
Unto the _climate_ that they point upon.

SHAKESPEARE, _Julius Cæsar_, act i. sc. 3.

This _climate_ of Gaul [hanc Galliarum _plagam_] is enclosed
on every side with fences that environ it naturally.--HOLLAND,
_Ammianus_, p. 47.

_Climate_, a portion of the earth contained between two circles
parallel to the equator.--PHILLIPS, _New World of Words_.

=CLUMSY.= Although of no very frequent use in our early literature (it does not once occur in Shakespeare), this word cannot be said to be very rare; and where it occurs, it is in a sense going before its present, namely, in that of stiff, rigid, contracted with cold. It is familiar to all how ‘clumsy,’ in our modern use of the word, the fingers are when in this condition, and thus it is easy to trace the growing of the modern meaning out of the old. On its probable etymology see Mätzner’s Dictionary (s. v. _clumsen_).

Rigido: Starke, stiffe, or num through cold,
_clumzie_.--FLORIO, _New World of Words_ (A.D. 1611).

Havi de froid: Stiffe, _clumpse_, benummed.--COTGRAVE, _A
French and English Dictionary_.

The Carthaginians followed the enemies in chase as far as
Trebia, and there gave over; and returned into the camp so
_clumsy_ and frozen [ita _torpentes gelu_] as scarcely they
felt the joy of their victory.--HOLLAND, _Livy_, p. 425.

This bloome of budding beauty loves not to be handled by such
nummed and so _clomsie_ hands.--FLORIO, _Montaigne’s Essays_,
b. iii. c. 5, p. 536 (ed. 1603).

=COFFIN.= The Greek κόφινος, the Latin ‘cophinus,’ is not in our early English, exclusively a funeral chest for the dead, but as often used of any basket or maund.

And that that lefte to hem of brokun metis was takun up, twelve
_cofyns_.--_Luke_ ix. 17. WICLIF.

Tibin, a baskette or _coffyn_ made of wyckers or bull-rushes,
or barke of a tree; such oone was Moyses put in to by
the daughter of Pharao.--Sir T. ELYOT, quoted in Way’s
_Promptorium_, p. 85.

=COMFORT=, }
COMFORTABLE. }

The verb ‘comfortare,’ not found in classical Latin, but so frequent in the Vulgate, is first, as is plain from the ‘fortis’ which it embodies, to make strong, to corroborate, and only in a secondary sense, to console. We often find it in our early literature employed in that its proper sense. In the truce between England and Scotland, in the reign of Richard III., it is provided that neither of the kings shall maintain, favour, aid, or _comfort_ any rebel or traitor (Hall, _Richard III._).

And the child wexide, and was _coumfortid_ [confortabatur
Vulg.] in spirit.--_Luke_ i. 80. WICLIF.

And there appered an angell unto Hym from heven, _confortynge_
Hym [ἐνισχύων αὐτόν].--_Luke_ xxii. 43. TYNDALE.

O _comfortable_ friar! where is my lord?--SHAKESPEARE, _Romeo_,
act v. sc. 3.