Chapter III: Part 3

=COMMON SENSE.= The manner is very curious in which the logical, metaphysical, and theological speculations, to which the busy world is indifferent, or from which it is entirely averse, do yet in their results descend to it, and are adopted by it; while it remains quite unconscious of the source from which they spring, and counts that it has created them for itself and out of its own resources. Thus, many would wonder if asked the parentage of this phrase ‘common sense,’ would count it the most natural thing in the world that such a phrase should have been formed, that it demanded no ingenuity to form it, that the uses to which it is now put are the same which it has served from the first. Indeed, neither Reid, Beattie, nor Stewart seems to have assumed anything else. But in truth this phrase, ‘common sense,’ meant once something very different from that plain wisdom, the common heritage of men, which now we call by this name; having been bequeathed to us by a very complex theory of the senses, and of a _sense_ which was the _common_ bond of them all, and which passed its verdicts on the reports which they severally made to it. This theory of κοινὸς νοῦς, familiar to the Greek metaphysicians (see Cicero, _Tusc. Quæst._ i. 20), is sufficiently explained by the interesting quotations from Henry More and Burton. In Hawes’ _Pastime of Pleasure_ (cap. 24) the relation between the ‘common wit’ and the ‘five wits’ is at large set forth. For an interesting history of the phrase, see Sir William Hamilton’s edition of Reid’s _Works_, appendix A, especially pp. 757, &c.; and for some classical uses of it Horace, _Sat._ i. 3. 65; Juvenal, 8. 73; Seneca, _Ep._ 5. 3; 105. 4; _De Benef._ i. 12. 3; Quintilian, i. 2. 20.

The senses receive indifferently, without discretion and
judgement, white and black, sweet and sour, soft and hard;
for their office is only to admit their several objects,
and to carry and refer the judgement thereof to the _common
sense_.--NORTH, _Plutarch’s Lives_, p. 732.

But for fear to exceed the commission of an historian (who
with the outward senses may only bring in the species, and
barely relate facts, not with the _common sense_ pass verdict
or censure on them), I would say they had better have built
in some other place, especially having room enough besides,
and left this floor, where the Temple stood, alone in her
desolations.--FULLER, _Holy War_, b. i. c. 4.

That there is some particular or restrained seat of the _common
sense_ is an opinion that even all philosophers and physicians
are agreed upon. And it is an ordinary comparison amongst them,
that the external senses and the _common sense_ considered
together are like a circle with five lines drawn from the
circumference to the centre. Wherefore, as it has been obvious
for them to find out particular organs for the external senses,
so they have also attempted to assign some distinct part of the
body to be an organ of the _common sense_; that is to say, as
they discovered sight to be seated in the eye, hearing in the
ear, smelling in the nose, &c., so they conceived that there is
some part of the body wherein seeing, hearing, and all other
perceptions meet together, as the lines of a circle in the
centre, and that there the soul does also judge and discern of
the difference of the objects of the outward senses.--H. MORE,
_Immortality of the Soul_, b. iii. c. 13.

Inner senses are three in number, so called because they be
within the brain-pan, as _common sense_, phantasy, memory.
Their objects are not only things present, but they perceive
the sensible species of things to come, past, absent, such as
were before in the sense. This _common sense_ is the judge
or moderator of the rest, by whom we discern all differences
of objects; for by mine eye I do not know that I see, or by
mine ear that I hear, but by my _common sense_, who judgeth
of sounds and colours; they are but the organs to bring the
species to be censured; so that all their objects are his, and
all the offices are his. The fore part of the brain is his
organ or seat.--BURTON, _Anatomy of Melancholy_, part i. sect.
2.

=COMPANION.= This had once the same contemptuous use which its synonym ‘fellow’ still retains (for a curious use of this see _2 Pet._ ii. 14, Geneva Version), and which ‘gadeling,’ a word of the same meaning, had, so long as it survived in the language. Clarendon speaks of the Privy Council as at one time composed of upstarts, factious, indigent _companions_ (b. iv.). The notion originally involved in companionship, or accompaniment, would appear to have been rather that of inferiority than of equality. A companion was an attendant.

What should the wars do with these jigging fools?
_Companion_, hence.

SHAKESPEARE, _Julius Cæsar_, act iv. sc. 3

As that empty barren _companion_ in St. James who bids the
poor be warm and fed and clothed (as if he were all made of
mercy), yet neither clothes, feeds, nor warms his back, belly,
or flesh, so fares it with these lovers.--ROGERS, _Naaman the
Syrian_, p. 391.

The young ladies, who thought themselves too much concerned
to contain themselves any longer, set up their throats all
together against my protector. ‘Scurvy _companion_! saucy
tarpaulin! rude, impertinent fellow! did he think to prescribe
to grandpapa!’--SMOLLETT, _Roderick Random_, vol. i. c. 3.

=CONCEITED=, }
CONCEITEDLY. }

‘Conceit’ is so entirely and irrecoverably lost to the language of philosophy, that it would be well if ‘concept,’ used often by our earlier philosophical writers, were revived.[13] Yet ‘conceit’ has not so totally forsaken all its former meanings (for there are still ‘_happy_ conceits’ in poetry), as have ‘conceited,’ which once meant well conceived, and ‘conceitedly.’

Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyn
Which had on it _conceited_ characters.

SHAKESPEARE, _A Lover’s Complaint_.

Triumphal arches the glad town doth raise,
And tilts and tourneys are performed at court,
_Conceited_ masques, rich banquets, witty plays.

DRAYTON, _The Miseries of Queen Margaret_.

The edge or hem of a garment is distinguished from the rest
most commonly by some _conceited_ or costly work.--COWELL, _The
Interpreter_, s. v. Broderess.

Cicero most pleasantly and _conceitedly_.--HOLLAND,
_Suetonius_, p. 21.

=CONCUBINE.= Our Dictionaries do not notice that the male paramour no less than the female was sometimes called by this name; on the contrary, their definitions exclude this.

The Lady Anne did falsely and traiterously procure divers of
the King’s daily and familiar servants to be her adulterers and
_concubines_.--_Indictment of Anne Boleyn._

=CONJURE.= The quotation from Foxe shows that this use of ‘to conjure’ as to conspire is not, as one might at first suspect, one of Milton’s Latinisms, and as such peculiar to him.

Divers, as well horsemen as footmen, had _conjured_ among
themselves and conspired against the Englishmen, selling their
horses and arms aforehand.--FOXE, _Book of Martyrs_, 1641, vol.
i. p. 441.

Art thou that traitor angel? art thou he
That first broke peace in heaven, and faith till then
Unbroken, and, in proud rebellious arms,
Drew after him the third part of Heaven’s sons,
_Conjured_ against the Highest?

MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, ii. 689.

=CONTEMPTIBLE.= ‘Adjectives in “able” and “ible,” both positive and negative ones, are frequently used by old writers in an active sense’ (S. Walker, _Criticisms on Shakespeare_, vol. i. p. 183: whom see). ‘Contemptible’ where we should now use ‘contemptuous’ is one of these; ‘intenible’ (_All’s Well that Ends Well_, act i. sc. 3) another; ‘discernible’ a third.

Darius wrote to Alexander in a proud and _contemptible_
manner.--Lord STERLING, _Darius_, 1603 (in the argument
prefixed to the Play).

If she should make tender of her love, ’tis very possible he’ll
scorn it, for the man, as you know all, hath a _contemptible_
spirit.--SHAKESPEARE, _Much Ado about Nothing_, act ii. sc. 3.

I do not mock, nor lives there such a villain,
That can do anything _contemptible_
To you; but I do kneel, because it is
An action very fit and reverent
In presence of so pure a creäture.

BEAUMONT and FLETCHER, _The Coxcomb_, act v. sc. 2.

=CONVINCE.= This and ‘convict’ have been usefully desynonymized. One is ‘convinced’ of a sin, but ‘convicted’ of a crime; the former word moving always in the sphere of moral or intellectual things, but the latter often in that of things merely external.

Your Italy contains none so accomplished a courtier to
_convince_ the honour of my mistress.--SHAKESPEARE,
_Cymbeline_, act i. sc. 4.

Keep off that great concourse, whose violent hands
Would ruin this stone-building and drag hence
This impious judge, piecemeal to tear his limbs,
Before the law _convince_ him.

WEBSTER, _Appius and Virginia_, act v. sc. 5.

There was none of you that _convinced_ Job, or that answered
his words.--_Job_ xxxii. 12. (A. V.)

=COPY.= A more Latin use of ‘copy,’ as ‘copia’ or abundance, was at one time frequent in English. It is easy to trace the steps by which the word attained its present significance. The only way to obtain ‘copy’ (in this Latin sense) or abundance of any document, would be by taking ‘copies’ (in our present sense) of it. Then, too, it often meant the exemplar, and is so used in the quotations from Shakespeare and Jeremy Taylor.

We cannot follow a better pattern for elocution than God
Himself. Therefore He using divers words in his Holy Writ, and
indifferently for one thing in nature, we may use the same
liberty in our English versions out of Hebrew or Greek, for
that _copy_ or store that He hath given us.--_The Translators
[of the Bible, 1611] to the Reader._

Be _copy_ now to men of grosser blood,
And teach them how to war.

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

Drayton’s Heroical Epistles are well worth the reading also,
for the purpose of our subject, which is to furnish an
English historian with choice and _copy_ of tongue.--BOLTON,
_Hypercritica_, p. 235.

The sun, the prince of all the bodies of light, is the
principal, the rule and the _copy_, which they in their
proportions imitate and transcribe.--Bishop TAYLOR,
_Exhortation to the Imitation of Christ_.

=COQUET.= At present all our ‘coquets’ are female. But, as in the case with so many other words instanced in this volume, what once belonged to both sexes is now restricted to one.

_Cocquet_; a beau, a gallant, a general lover; also a wanton
girl that speaks fair to several lovers at once.--PHILLIPS,
_New World of Words_.

=CORPSE.= Now only used for the body abandoned by the spirit of life, but once for the body of the living equally as of the dead; now only = ‘cadaver,’ but once ‘corpus’ as well. It will follow that ‘dead corpses’ (_2 Kings_ xix. 35 and often) is not a tautology.

A valiant _corpse_, where force and beauty met.

SURREY, _On the Death of Sir T. Wyatt_.

Night is the sabbath of mankind,
To rest the body and the mind:
Which now thou art denied to keep,
And cure thy laboured _corpse_ with sleep.

BUTLER, _Hudibras_, iii. 1. 1349.

Women and maids shall particularly examine themselves about
the variety of their apparell, their too much care of their
_corps_.--_Richeome’s Pilgrim of Loretto, by G. W._

Your conjuring, cozening, and your dozen of trades
Could not relieve your _corps_ with so much linen
Would make you tinder, but to see a fire.

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

=COUNTERFEIT.= Now, to imitate with the purpose of passing off the imitation as the original; but no such dishonest intention was formerly implied in the word.

I wol noon of thapostles _counterfete_:
I wol have money, wolle, chese and whete,
Al were it yeven of the prestes page,
Or of the porest wydow in a village.

CHAUCER, _The Pardoner’s Prologue_ (Morris, p. 90).

Christ prayseth not the unrighteous stuard, neither setteth him
forth to us to _counterfeit_, because of his unrighteousness,
but because of his wisdom only, in that he with unright so
wisely provided for himself.--TYNDALE, _The Parable of the
Wicked Mammon_.

But for the Greek tongue they do note in some of his epistles
that he [Brutus] _counterfeited_ that brief compendious manner
of speech of the Lacedæmonians.--NORTH, _Plutarch’s Lives_, p.
818.

=COURTESAN.= The Low Latin ‘cortesanus’ was once one haunting the court, a courtier, ‘aulicus,’ though already in Shakespeare we often meet the word in its present use.

By the wolf, no doubt, was meant the Pope, but the fox was
resembled to the prelates, _courtesans_, priests, and the rest
of the spirituality.--FOXE, _Book of Martyrs_, ed. 1641, vol.
i. p. 511.

=COURTSHIP.= We now assign to this and to ‘courtesy’ their own several domains of meanings; but they were once promiscuously used. See for another example of the same the quotation from Fuller, _s. v._ ‘Defalcation.’

As he [Charles I.], to acquit himself, hath not spared
his adversaries, to load them with all sorts of blame and
accusation, so to him, as in his book alive, there will be used
no more _courtship_ than he uses.--MILTON, _Iconoclastes_, The
Preface.

=CUMBER=, }
CUMBROUS. }

This word, the Old French _combrer_, has lost much of the force which it once possessed; it means now little more than passively to burden. It was once actively to annoy, disquiet, or mischief. It was as possessing this force that our Translators rendered ἵνα τί καὶ τὴν γῆν καταργεῖ; ‘why _cumbereth_ it the ground?’ (_Luke_ xiii. 7.)

The archers in the forefront so wounded the footmen, so galled
the horses, and so _combred_ the men of arms that the footmen
durst not go forward.--HALL, _Henry V._ fol. 17, 6.

We have herde that certayne of oures are departed, and have
troubled you and have _combred_ [ἀνασκευάζοντες] your myndes,
sayenge, Ye must be circumcised and must keep the law.--_Acts_
xv. 24. COVERDALE.

But Martha was _cumbered_ [περιεσπᾶτο, cf. ver. 41: μεριμνᾷs
καὶ τυρβάζῃ] about much serving.--_Luke_ x. 40. (A.V.)

A cloud of _combrous_ gnats do him molest,
All striving to infix their feeble stings.

SPENSER, _Fairy Queen_, i. 1. 23.

=CUNNING.= The fact that so many words implying knowledge, art, skill, obtain in course of time a secondary meaning of crooked knowledge, art that has degenerated into artifice, skill used only to circumvent, which meanings partially or altogether put out of use their primary, is a mournful witness to the way in which intellectual gifts are too commonly misapplied. Thus there was a time when the Latin ‘dolus’ required the epithet ‘malus,’ as often as it signified a treacherous or fraudful device; but it was soon able to drop this as superfluous, and to stand by itself. Other words which have gone the same downward course are the following: τέχνη, ‘astutia,’ ‘calliditas,’ ‘List,’ ‘Kunst,’ and our English ‘craft’ and ‘cunning,’--the last, indeed, as early as Lord Bacon, who says, ‘We take _cunning_ for a sinister or crooked wisdom,’ had acquired what is now its only acceptation; but not then, nor till long after, to the exclusion of its more honourable use. How honourable that use sometimes was, my first quotation will testify.

I believe that all these three Persons [in the Godhead] are
even in power and in _cunning_ and in might, full of grace and of
all goodness.--FOXE, _Book of Martyrs; Examination of William
Thorpe_.

So the number of them, with their brethren, that were
instructed in the songs of the Lord, even all that were
_cunning_, was two hundred fourscore and eight.--_1 Chron._
xxv. 7. (A.V.)

=CURATE.= Rector, vicar, every one having _cure_ of souls in a parish, was a ‘curate’ once. Thus ‘bishops and _curates_’ in the Liturgy.

They [the begging friars] letten _curats_ to know Gods law by
holding bookes fro them, and withdrawing of their vantages, by
which they shulden have books and lerne.--WICLIF, _Treatise
against the Friars_, p. 56.

If there be any man wicked because his _curate_ teacheth
him not, his blood shall be required at the _curate’s_
hands.--LATIMER, _Sermons_, p. 525.

Henry the Second of England commanded all prelates and
_curates_ to reside upon their dioceses and charges.--Bishop
TAYLOR, _Ductor Dubitantium_, b. iii. c. 1.

_Curate_, a parson or vicar, one that serves a cure, or has the
charge of souls in a parish.--PHILLIPS, _New World of Words_.

=CUSTOMER.= One sitting officially at the receipt of customs, that is, of dues customably paid, and receiving these, and not one repairing customably to a shop to purchase there, was a ‘customer’ two and three centuries ago.

He healeth the man of the palsye, calleth Levi the _customer_,
eateth with open synners, and excuseth his disciples.--_What S.
Marke conteyneth._ COVERDALE.

The extreme and horrible covetousness of the farmers,
_customers_, and Roman usurers devoured it [Asia].--NORTH,
_Plutarch’s Lives_, p. 432.

We hardly can abide publicans, _customers_, and toll-gatherers,
when they keep a ferreting and searching for such things as be
hidden.--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 138.

=DANGER=, }
DANGEROUS. }

A feudal term, beset with many difficulties when we seek to follow it as it passes to its present use; but very well worth some study bestowed upon it. Ducange has written on the subject, and Diez, and Littré (_Hist. de la Langue Franç._ vol. i. p. 49). [The Old French _dangier_, _dongier_, power, lordship, refusal, danger, is of Late Latin origin, representing a form _dominiarium_ (from Latin _dominium_) which signified properly the strict right of the suzerain in regard to the fief of the vassal]; thus, ‘fief de _danger_,’ a fief held under a lord on strict conditions, and therefore in peril of being forfeited (juri stricto atque adeo confiscationi obnoxium; Ducange). There is no difficulty here; but there is another early use of ‘danger’ and ‘dangerous’ which is not thus explained, nor yet the connexion between it and the modern meaning of the words. I refer to that of ‘danger’ in the sense of ‘coyness,’ ‘sparingness,’ ‘niggardliness,’ and of ‘dangerous’ in the sense of haughty, difficult to please.

And if thi voice is faire and clere,
Thou shalt maken no grete _daungere_,
Whanne to synge they goodly preye;
It is thi worship for tobeye.

_Romaunt of the Rose_, 2317.

We ourselves also were in times past unwise,
disobedient, deceived, in _danger_ to lusts [δουλεύοντες
ἐπιθυμίαις].--_Tit._ iii. TYNDALE.

Come not within his _danger_ by thy will.

SHAKESPEARE, _Venus and Adonis_.

My wages ben full streyt and eek ful smale;
My lord to me is hard and _daungerous_.

CHAUCER, _The Freres Tale_ (Morris, p. 250).

But nathelesse, for hys beauté
So fyers and _daungerous_ was he,
That he nolde graunte hir askyng,
For weepyng, ne for faire praiyng.

_Romaunt of the Rose_, 1480.

=DEADLY.= This and ‘mortal’ (which see) are sometimes synonyms now; thus, ‘a _deadly_ wound’ or ‘a _mortal_ wound;’ but they are not invariably so; ‘deadly’ being always active, while ‘mortal’ is far oftenest passive, signifying not that which inflicts death, but that which suffers death; thus, ‘a _mortal_ body,’ or body subject to death, but not now ‘a _deadly_ body.’ It was otherwise once. ‘Deadly’ is the constant word in Wiclif’s Bible, wherever in the later Versions ‘mortal’ occurs.

Elye was a _deedli_ man lijk us, and in preier he preiede that
it schulde not reyne on the erthe, and it reynede not three
yeeris and sixe monethis.--_Jam._ v. 17. WICLIF.

Many holy prophets that were _deadly_ men were martyred
violently in the Old Law.--FOXE, _Book of Martyrs; Examination
of William Thorpe_.

=DEBATE=, }
DEBATER. }

This word was only true to its etymology (débattre) so long as an element of strife, of war waged by the tongue or by the sword, was included in it. Thus, in some memorable lines attributed to Queen Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots is described as ‘_the daughter of debate_.’ It has now a far more harmless meaning, the element of strife having quite gone out of the word.

It is not the possession of a man’s own, but the usurping of
another man’s right that hath brought injustice, _debate_, and
trouble into the world.--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 680.

Prevy bacbiteris, detractouris, hateful to God, _debateris_
[contumeliosi, Vulg.], proude.--_Rom._ i. 30. WICLIF.

=DECEIVABLE=, }
DECEIVABLENESS. }

So far as we use ‘deceivable’ at all now, we use it in the passive sense, as liable to be, or capable of being, deceived. It was active when counted exchangeable with ‘deceitful’ as at _2 Pet._ i. 16, where the ‘deceivable’ of Tyndale appears as the ‘deceitful’ of Cranmer’s Bible. It has fared in like manner with ‘discernible,’ ‘contemptible,’ which see, and with other words which, active once, are passive now.

This world is fikel and _desayvable_,
And fals and unsiker, and unstable.

RICHARD ROLLE DE HAMPOLE, _Pricke of Conscience_, 1088.

The most uncertain and _deceivable_ proof of the people’s good
will and cities’ toward kings and princes are the immeasurable
and extreme honours they do unto them.--NORTH, _Plutarch’s
Lives_, p. 743.

For we folowed not _decevable_ fables, when we openned unto you
the power and commynge of our Lorde Jesus Christ.--_2 Pet._ i.
16. Geneva Version.

Whose coming is after the working of Satan with all
_deceivableness_ of unrighteousness in them that perish.--_2
Thess._ 9, 10. (A.V.)

=DEFALCATION.= A word at present of very slovenly and inaccurate use. We read in the newspapers of a ‘defalcation’ of the revenue, not meaning thereby an active _lopping off_ (‘defalcatio’) of certain taxes with their proceeds, which would be the only correct use, but a passive falling short in its returns from what they previously were. Can it be that some confusion of ‘defalcation’ with ‘default,’ or at least a seeing of ‘fault’ and not ‘falx’ in its second syllable (there was once a verb ‘to defalk’), has led to this?

My first crude meditations, being always hastily put together,
could never please me so well at a second and more leisurable
review, as to pass without some additions, _defalcations_, and
other alterations, more or less.--SANDERSON, _Sermons_, 1671,
Preface.

As for their conjecture that Zorobabel, at the building of
this temple purposely abated of those dimensions assigned by
Cyrus, as too great for him to compass, in such _defalcation_
of measures by Cyrus allowed, he showed little courtship to
his master the emperor, and less religion to the Lord his
God.--FULLER, _A Pisgah Sight of Palestine_, b. iii. c. 2.

=DEFEND=, }
DEFENCE. }

Now, to protect, but once to protect by prohibiting or fencing round, to forbid, as ‘défendre’ is still in French.

Now wol I you _defenden_ hasardrye.--CHAUCER, _The Pardoneres
Tale_. (Clar. Press.)

Whan sawe ye in eny maner age
That highe God _defendide_ mariage
By expres word?

Id., _The Wife of Bath’s Tale_.

And oure Lord _defended_ hem that thei scholde not tell that
avisioun till that He were rysen.--Sir JOHN MANDEVILLE, _Voiage
and Travaile_, p. 114.

O sons, like one of us man is become,
To know both good and evil, since his taste
Of that _defended fruit_.

MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, xi. 84.

Adam afterward ayeines his _defence_,
Frette of that fruit.

_Piers Plowman_, B-text, Passus xviii. 193.

=DEFY=, }
DEFIANCE. }

This means now to dare to the uttermost hostility, and so, as a consequence which will often follow upon this, to challenge. But in earlier use ‘to defy’ is, according to its etymology, to pronounce all bonds of _faith_ and fellowship which existed previously between the defier and the defied to be wholly dissolved, so that nothing of treaty or even of the natural faith of man to man shall henceforth hinder extremest hostility between them. But still, when we read of one potentate sending ‘defiance’ to another, the challenge to conflict did not lie necessarily in the word, however such a message might provoke and would often be the prelude to this: it meant but the releasing of himself from all which hitherto had mutually obliged; and thus it came often to mean simply to disclaim, or renounce.

No man speaking in the Spirit of God _defieth_ Jesus [λέγει
ἀνάθεμα Ἰησοῦν].--_1 Cor._ xii. 3. TYNDALE.

Despise not an hungry soul, and _defy_ not the poor in his
necessity.--_Ecclus._ iv. 2. COVERDALE.

All studies here I solemnly _defy_,
Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke.

SHAKESPEARE, _1 Henry IV._ act i. sc. 8.

There is a double people-pleasing. One sordid and servile, made
of falsehood and flattery, which I _defy_ and detest.--FULLER,
_Appeal of Injured Innocence_, p. 38.

Now although I instanced in a question which by good fortune
never came to open _defiance_, yet there have been sects formed
upon lighter grounds.--Bishop TAYLOR, _Liberty of Prophesying_,
§ 3, 5.

=DELAY.= Like the French ‘délayer,’ used often in old time where we should now employ ‘allay.’ Out of an ignorance of this, and assuming it a misprint, some modern editors of our earlier authors have not scrupled to change ‘delay’ into ‘allay.’ This is quite a different word from _delay_, to put off.

Wine _delayed_ with water.--HOLLAND’S _Camden_, p. 20.

The watery showers _delay_ the raging wind.

EARL OF SURREY, _The Faithful Lover_, p. 34 (ed. 1717).

Even so fathers ought to _delay_ their eager reprehensions
and cutting rebukes with kindness and clemency.--HOLLAND,
_Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 16.

Cup-bearers know well enough, and in that regard can discern
and distinguish, when they are to use more or less water to the
_delaying_ of wines.--Id., _Ib._ p. 652.

=DELICACY=, }
DELICATE, }
DELICATELY, }
DELICIOUS, }
DELICIOUSLY.}

In the same way as self-indulgence creeps over us by unmarked degrees, so there creeps over the words that designate it a subtle change; they come to contain less and less of rebuke and blame; the thing itself being tolerated, nay allowed, it must needs be that the words which express it should be received into favour too. It has been thus, as I shall have occasion to note, with ‘luxury;’ it has been thus also with this whole group of words. See the quotation from Sir W. Raleigh, _s. v._ ‘Feminine.’

Thus much of _delicacy_ in general; now more particularly
of his first branch, gluttony.--NASH, _Christ’s Tear’s over
Jerusalem_, p. 140.

Cephisodorus, the disciple of Isocrates, charged him
with _delicacy_, intemperance, and gluttony.--BLOUNT,
_Philostratus_, p. 229.

The most _delicate_ and voluptuous princes have ever been
the heaviest oppressors of the people, riot being a far
more lavish spender of the common treasure than war or
magnificence.--HABINGTON, _History of King Edward IV._, p. 196.

And drynk nat ouer _delicatliche_, ne to depe neither.

_Piers Plowman_, C-text, Passus vii. 166 (Skeat).

She that liveth _delicately_ [σπαταλῶσα] is dead while she
liveth.--_1 Tim._ v. 6. A.V. (margin).

Yea, soberest men it [idleness] makes _delicious_.--SYLVESTER,
_Du Bartas, Second Week, Eden_.

How much she hath glorified herself and lived _deliciously_
[ἐστρηνίασε], so much torment and sorrow give her.--_Rev._
xviii. 7. (A.V.)

=DEMERIT.= It was plainly a squandering of the wealth of the language, that ‘merit’ and ‘demerit’ should mean one and the same thing; however this might be justified by the fact that ‘mereor’ and ‘demereor,’ from which they were severally derived, were scarcely discriminated in meaning. It has thus come to pass, according to the desynonymizing processes ever at work in a language, that ‘demerit’ has ended in being employed only of _ill_ desert, while ‘merit’ is left free to good or ill, having predominantly the sense of the former.

I fetch my life and being
From men of royal siege; and my _demerits_
May speak, unbonneted, to as proud a fortune
As this that I have reached.

SHAKESPEARE, _Othello_, act i. sc. 2.

By our profane and unkind civil wars the world is grown to this
pass, that it is reputed a singular _demerit_ and gracious act,
not to kill a citizen of Rome, but to let him live.--HOLLAND,
_Pliny_, vol. i. p. 456.

But the Rhodians, contrariwise, in a proud humour of theirs,
reckoned up a beadroll of their _demerits_ toward the people of
Rome.--Id., _Livy_, p. 1179.

=DEMURE=, }
DEMURENESS. }

Used by our earlier writers without the insinuation, which is now always latent in it, that the external shows of modesty and sobriety rest upon no corresponding realities. On the contrary the ‘demure’ was the truly modest and virtuous and good. It is one of the many words to which the suspicious nature of man, with the warrants to a certain extent which these suspicions find, has given a turn for the worse.

These and other suchlike irreligious pranks did this Dionysius
play, who notwithstanding fared no worse than the most _demure_
and innocent, dying no other death than what usually other
mortals do.--H. MORE, _Antidote against Atheism_, b. iii. c. 1.

Which advantages God propounds to all the hearers of the
Gospel, without any respect of works or former _demureness_ of
life, if so be they will but now come in and close with this
high and rich dispensation.--Id., _Grand Mystery of Godliness_,
b. viii. c. 5.

She is so nice and so _demure_,
So sober, courteous, modest, and precise.

_True History of King Leir_, 1605.

In like manner women also in comely attire; with _demureness_
[cum verecundiâ, Vulg.] and sobriety adorning themselves.--_1
Tim._ ii. 9. Rheims.

His carriage was full comely and upright,
His countenance _demure_ and temperate.

SPENSER, _Fairy Queen_, ii. 1, 6.

=DEPART.= Once used as equivalent with ‘to separate’ (divido, partior, _Promptorium Parvulorum_)--a fact already forgotten, when, at the last revision of the Prayer-Book in 1662, the Puritan divines objected to the form as it then stood in the Marriage Service, ‘till death us _depart_;’ in condescension to whose objection the words, as we now have them, ‘till death us _do part_,’ were introduced.

And he schal _departe_ hem atwynne, as a scheepherde
_departith_ scheep fro kidis.--_Matt._ xxv. 32. WICLIF.

And whanne he hadde seid this thing, dissencioun was maad
bitwixe the Fariseis and the Saduceis, and the multitude was
_departid_.--_Acts_ xxiii. 7. Id.

If my neighbour neede and I geve him not, neyther _depart_
liberally with him of that which I have, than withholde I from
him unrighteously that which is hys owne.--TYNDALE, _Parable of
the Wicked Mammon_.

Neither did the apostles put away their wives, after they were
called unto the ministry; but they continued with their wives
lovingly and faithfully, till death _departed_ them.--BECON,
_An Humble Supplication unto God_ (1554).

=DEPLORED.= It is well known that ‘deploratus’ obtained in later Latin, through a putting of effect for cause, the sense of desperate or past all hope, and was technically applied to the sick man given over by his physicians, ‘deploratus a medicis.’

The physicians do make a kind of scruple and religion to stay
with the patient after the disease is _deplored_; whereas, in
my judgement, they ought both to inquire the skill, and to give
the attendances, for the facilitating and assuaging of the
pains and agonies of death.--BACON, _Advancement of Learning_,
ii. 10. 5.

If a man hath the mind to get the start of other sinners, and
desires to be in hell before them, he need do no more but open
his sails to the wind of heretical doctrine, and he is like
to make a short voyage to hell; for these bring upon their
maintainers a swift destruction. Nay, the Spirit of God the
more to aggravate their _deplored_ state, brings on three most
dreadful instances of divine justice that ever were executed
upon any sinners.--GURNALL, _The Christian in Complete Armour_,
pt. ii. p. 317.

=DEPRAVE.= As ‘pravus’ is literally crooked, we may say that ‘to deprave’ was formerly ‘untruly _to present_ as crooked,’ to defame; while it is now ‘wickedly _to make_ crooked.’ See the quotation from Bacon, _s. v._ ‘Disable.’

Their intent was none other than to get him [Cardinal Wolsey]
from the king out of the realm; then might they sufficiently
adventure, by the help of their chief mistress, to _deprave_
him with the king’s highness, and so in his absence to bring
him in displeasure with the king.--CAVENDISH, _Life of Cardinal
Wolsey_.

That lie, and cog, and flout, _deprave_, and slander.

SHAKESPEARE, _Much Ado about Nothing_, act v. sc. 1.

I am _depraved_ unjustly; who never deprived the Church of her
authority.--FULLER, _Appeal of Injured Innocence_, pt. i. p. 45.

Unjustly thou _depravest_ it with the name
Of servitude, to serve whom God ordains,
Or nature.

MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, vi. 174.

=DERIVE.= Tropical uses of the verb ‘to derive’ have quite superseded the literal, so that we now ‘derive’ anything rather than waters from a river.

An infinite deal of labour there is to lade out the water
that riseth upon the workmen, for fear it choke up the pits;
for to prevent which inconvenience they _derive_ it by other
drains.--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s Morals_.

Nor may the industry of the citizens of Salisbury be forgotten,
who have _derived_ the river into every street therein, so
that Salisbury is a heap of islets thrown together.--FULLER,
_Worthies of England: Wiltshire_.

=DESCRY.= This verb had a technical meaning in the seventeenth century, which it afterwards lost; its loss leading to the introduction of the French verb ‘to reconnoitre,’ ridiculed as an outlandish term by Addison (1711), and more than half a century later not admitted by Johnson into his _Dictionary_. It was exactly this which ‘to descry,’ as used by Shakespeare and by Milton, meant. [The verb is the equivalent of the Old French _descrire_, _descrivre_, Latin _describere_, to describe.]

Who hath _descried_ the number of the foe?

SHAKESPEARE, _Richard III._ act v. sc. 3.

The house of Israel sent to _descry_ (to spy out, R.V.)
Bethel.--_Judg._ i. 23. (A.V.)

Scouts each coast light-armed scour,
Each quarter to _descry_ the distant foe,
Where lodged or whither fled; or, if for fight,
In motion or in halt.

MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, vi. 530.

=DESIRE.= ‘To desire’ is only to look _forward_ with longing now; the word has lost the sense of regret or looking _back_ upon the lost but still loved. This it once possessed in common with ‘desiderium’ and ‘desiderare,’ from which more remotely, and ‘désirer,’ from which more immediately, we derive it.

He [Jehoram] reigned in Jerusalem eight years, and departed
without being desired.--_2 Chron._ xxi. 20. (A.V.)

She that hath a wise husband must entice him to an eternal
dearness by the veil of modesty and the grave robes of
chastity, and she shall be pleasant while she lives, and
_desired_ when she dies.--Bishop TAYLOR, _The Marriage Ring_,
Sermon 18.

So unremovéd stood these steeds, their heads to earth let fall,
And warm tears gushing from their eyes, with passionate _desire_
Of their kind manager.

CHAPMAN, _Homer’s Iliad_, xvii. 379.

=DETEST.= For the writers of the seventeenth century ‘to detest’ still retained often the sense of its original ‘detestari,’ openly to witness against, and not merely to entertain an inward abhorrence of, a thing; as in ‘attest’ and ‘protest’ the etymological meaning still survives. It is not easy to adduce passages which absolutely prove this against one who should be disposed to deny it. There can, however, be no doubt whatever of the fact. In Du Bartas’ _Weeks_, 1621, p. 106, an invective against avarice is called in the margin ‘_Detestation_ of Avarice, for her execrable and cruel effects.’

Wherefore God hath _detested_ them with his own mouth, and
clean given them over unto their own filthy lusts.--BALE, _The
Image of both Churches_, c. 11.

She cast herself upon him [her dead husband], and with
fearful cries _detested_ the governor’s inhuman and cruel
deceit.--GRIMESTON, _History of Lewis XI._, 1614, p. 228.

Satyrs were certain poems, _detesting_ and reproving the
misdemeanours of people and their vices.--HOLLAND, _Explanation
of certain obscure words_.

E’en to vice
They [women] are not constant, but are changing still
One vice but of a minute old, for one
Not half so old as that. I’ll write against them,
_Detest_ them, curse them.

SHAKESPEARE, _Cymbeline_, act ii. sc. 5.

=DIAMOND.= This, or ‘diamant’ as it used to be spelt, is a popular form of ‘adamant.’ The Greek ἀδάμας, originally used of the hardest steel, was, about the time of Theophrastus, and, so far as we know, first in his writings, transferred to the diamond, as itself also of a hardness not to be subdued; the cutting or polishing of this stone being quite a modern invention; and the Latin ‘adamas’ continued through the Middle Ages to bear this double meaning. But if ‘adamant’ meant diamond, then ‘diamond,’ by a reactive process frequent in language, would be employed for adamant as well. So far as I know, Milton is the last writer who so uses it.

Have harte as hard as _diamaunt_,
Stedfast, and nauht pliaunt.

_Romaunt of the Rose._

This little care and regard did at length melt and break
asunder those strong _diamond_ chains with which Dionysius the
elder made his boast that he left his tyranny chained to his
son.--NORTH, _Plutarch’s Lives_, 1656, p. 800.

But wordes and lookes and sighes she did abhore,
As rock of _diamond_ stedfast evermore.

SPENSER, _Fairy Queen_, i. 6. 4.

Prince Arthur gave a boxe of _diamond_ sure.

SPENSER, ib. i. 9. 19.

Zeal, whose substance is ethereal, arming in complete
_diamond_, ascends his fiery chariot drawn with two blazing
meteors, figured like beasts, but of a higher breed than any
the zodiack yields, resembling two of those four, which Ezekiel
and St. John saw, the one visaged like a lion to express power,
high authority, and indignation; the other of countenance like
a man to cast derision and scorn upon perverse and fraudulent
seducers; with these the invincible warrior Zeal shaking
loosely the slack reins drives over the heads of scarlet
prelates, and such as are insolent to maintain traditions,
bruising their stiff necks under his flaming wheels.--MILTON,
_Defence of Smectymnuus_.

On each wing
Uriel and Raphaël his vaunting foe,
Though huge and in a rock of _diamond_ armed,
Vanquished, Adramelech and Asmodai.

Id., _Paradise Lost_, vi. 363.

=DIFFIDENCE=, }
DIFFIDENTLY. }

‘Diffidence’ expresses now a not unbecoming distrust of one’s own self, with only a slight intimation, such as ‘verecundia’ obtained in the silver age of Latin literature, that perhaps this distrust is carried too far; but it was once used for distrust of others, and sometimes for distrust pushed so far as to amount to an entire withholding of all faith from them, being nearly allied to despair; as indeed in _The Pilgrim’s Progress_ Mistress Diffidence is Giant Despair’s wife.

Of the impediments which have been in the affections, the
principal whereof hath been despair or _diffidence_, and
the strong apprehension of the difficulty, obscurity,
and infiniteness, which belongeth to the invention of
knowledge.--BACON, _Of the Interpretation of Nature_, c. 19.

Every sin smiles in the first address, and carries light in the
face, and honey in the lip; but when we have well drunk, then
comes that which is worse, a whip with ten strings, fears and
terrors of conscience, and shame and displeasure, and a caitiff
disposition, and _diffidence_ in the day of death.--Bishop
TAYLOR, _Life of Christ_.

That affliction grew heavy upon me, and weighed me down even to
a _diffidence_ of God’s mercy.--DONNE, _Sermons_, 1640, vol. i.
p. 311.

Mediators were not wanting that endeavoured a renewing of
friendship between these two prelates, which the haughtiness,
or perhaps the _diffidence_ of Bishop Laud would not accept; a
symptom of policy more than of grace, not to trust a reconciled
enemy.--HACKET, _Life of Archbishop Williams_, pt. ii. p. 86.

It was far the best course to stand _diffidently_ against
each other, with their thoughts in battle array.--HOBBES,
_Thucydides_, b. iii. c. 83.

=DIGEST.= Scholars of the seventeenth century often employ a word of their own language in the same latitude which its equivalent possessed in the Greek or the Latin; as though it entered into all the rights of its equivalent, and corresponded with it on all points, because it corresponded in one. Thus ‘coctus’ meaning ‘digested,’ why should not ‘digested’ mean all which ‘coctus’ meant? but one of the meanings of ‘coctus’ is ‘ripened;’ ‘digested’ therefore might be employed in the same sense.

Repentance is like the sun; it produces rich spices in Arabia,
it _digests_ the American gold, and melts the snows from the
Riphæan mountains.--Bishop TAYLOR, _Doctrine and Practice of
Repentance_, ch. 10, § 8.

Splendid fires, aromatic spices, rich wines, and
well-_digested_ fruits.--Id., _Discourse of Friendship_.

=DISABLE.= Our ancestors felt that to injure the character of another was the most effectual way of disabling him; and out of a sense of this they often used ‘to disable’ in the sense of to disparage, to speak slightingly of.

Farewell, mounsieur traveller. Look, you lisp, and wear
strange suits: _disable_ all the benefits of your own
country.--SHAKESPEARE, _As You Like It_, act. iv. sc. 1.

If affection lead a man to favour the less worthy in desert,
let him do it without depraving or _disabling_ the better
deserver.--BACON, _Essays_, 49.

=DISCOURSE.= It is very characteristic of the slight acquaintance with our elder literature--the most obvious source for elucidating Shakespeare’s text--which was possessed by many of his commentators down to a late day, that the phrase ‘discourse of reason,’ which he puts into Hamlet’s mouth, should have perplexed them so greatly. Gifford, a pitiless animadverter on the real or imaginary mistakes of others, and who tramples upon Warburton for attempting to explain this phrase as though Shakespeare could have ever written it, declares ‘“discourse _of_ reason” is so poor and perplexed a phrase that I should dismiss it at once for what I believe to be his genuine language;’ and then proceeds to suggest the obvious but erroneous correction ‘discourse _and_ reason’ (see his _Massinger_, vol. i. p. 148); while yet, if there be a phrase of continual recurrence among the writers of our Elizabethan age and down to Milton, it is this. I have little doubt that it occurs fifty times in Holland’s translation of Plutarch’s _Moralia_. What our fathers intended by ‘discourse’ and ‘discourse of reason,’ the following passages will abundantly declare.

There is not so great difference and distance between beast and
beast, as there is odds in the matter of wisdom, _discourse_
of reason, and use of memory between man and man.--HOLLAND,
_Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 570; cf. pp. 313, 566, 570, 752, 955,
966, 977, 980.

If you mean, by _discourse_, right reason, grounded on Divine
Revelation and common notions, written by God in the hearts of
all men, and deducing, according to the never-failing rules of
logic, consequent deductions from them; if this be it which
you mean by _discourse_, it is very meet and reasonable and
necessary that men, as in all their actions, so especially
in that of greatest importance, the choice of their way to
happiness, should be left unto it.--CHILLINGWORTH, _The
Religion of Protestants_, Preface.

As the intuitive knowledge is more perfect than that which
insinuates itself into the soul gradually by _discourse_, so
more beautiful the prospect of that building which is all
visible at one view than what discovers itself to the sight by
parcels and degrees.--FULLER, _Worthies of England: Canterbury_.

Whence the soul
Reason receives, and reason is her being,
Discursive or intuitive; _discourse_
Is oftest yours, the latter most is ours.

MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, v. 486.

You, being by nature given to melancholic _discoursing_, do
easilier yield to such imaginations.--NORTH, _Plutarch’s
Lives_, p. 830.

The other gods, and knights-at-arms, all slept, but only Jove
Sweet slumber seized not; he _discoursed_ how best he might approve
His vow made for Achilles’ grace.

CHAPMAN, _Homer’s Iliad_, b. ii.

=DISCOVER.= This word has lost the sense of uncover, which once it had, and in which it occurs several times in our Bible.

Whether any man hath pulled down or _discovered_ any church,
chancel or chapel, or any part of them.--Archbishop GRINDAL,
_Articles of Enquiry_, 1576.

The voice of the Lord _discovereth_ the forests.--_Ps._ xxix.
9. A.V. and P.B.V.

=DISEASE.= Our present limitation of ‘disease’ is a very natural one, seeing that nothing so effectually wars against ease as a sick and suffering condition of body. Still the limitation is modern, and by ‘disease’ was once meant any distress or discomfort whatever, and the verb had a corresponding meaning.

Wo to hem that ben with child, and norishen in tho daies, for a
greet _diseese_ [pressura magna, Vulg.] schal be on the erthe
and wraththe to this puple.--_Luke_ xxi. 23. WICLIF.

Thy doughter is deed; why _diseasest_ thou the master eny
further?--_Mark_ v. 35. TYNDALE.

This is now the fourteenth day they [the Cardinals] have been
in the Conclave, with such pain and _disease_ that your grace
would marvel that such men as they would suffer it.--_State
Papers_ (_Letter to Wolsey from his Agent at Rome_), vol. vi.
p. 182.

His double burden did him sore _disease_.

SPENSER, _Fairy Queen_, ii. 2, 12.

=DISMAL.= Minsheu’s derivation of ‘dismal,’ that it is ‘dies malus,’ the unlucky, ill-omened day, is exactly one of those plausible etymologies which one learns after a while to reject with contempt. Yet there can be no doubt that our fathers so understood the word, and that this assumed etymology often overrules their usage of it.

Why should we then be bold to call them evil, infortunate,
and _dismal_ days? If God rule our doings continually,
why shall they not prosper on those days as well as on
other?--PILKINGTON, _Exposition on Aggeus_, c. 1.

Then began they to reason and debate about the _dismal_ days
[tum de diebus _religiosis_ agitari cœptum]. And the fifteenth
day before the Kalends of August, so notorious for a twofold
loss and overthrow, they set this unlucky mark upon it, that it
should be reputed unmeet and unconvenient for any business, as
well public as private.--HOLLAND, _Livy_, p. 217.

The particular calendars, wherein their [the Jews’] good or
_dismal_ days are distinguished, according to the diversity of
their ways, we find, Leviticus 26.--JACKSON, _The Eternal Truth
of Scriptures_, b. i. c. 22.

=DISOBLIGE.= Release from obligation lies at the root of all uses, present and past, of this word; but it was formerly more the release from an oath or a duty, and now rather from the slighter debts of social life, to which kindness and courtesy on the part of another would have held us bound or ‘obliged;’ while the contraries to these are ‘disobliging.’

He did not think that Act of Uniformity could _disoblige_
them [the Non-Conformists] from the exercise of their
office.--BATES, _Mr. Richard Baxter’s Funeral Sermon_.

Many that are imprisoned for debt, think themselves
_disobliged_ from payment.--Bishop TAYLOR, _Holy Dying_, c. 5,
§ 3.

He hath a very great obligation to do that and more; and he
can noways be _disobliged_, but by the care of his natural
relations.--Id., _Measures and Offices of Friendship_.

=DITTY.= By the ‘ditty’ were once understood the words of a song as distinguished from the musical accompaniment.

They fell to challenge and defy one another, whereupon he
commanded the musician Eraton to sing unto the harp, who began
his song on this wise out of the works of Hesiodus:--

Of quarrel and contention
There were as then more sorts than one;

for which I commended him in that he knew how to apply the
_ditty_ of his song so well unto the present time.--HOLLAND,
_Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 786.

So that, although we lay altogether aside the consideration of
_ditty_ or matter, the very harmony of sounds being framed in
due sort, and carried by the ear to the spiritual faculties
of the soul, is by a native puissance and efficacy greatly
available to bring to a perfect temper whatsoever is there
troubled.--HOOKER, _Ecclesiastical Polity_, b. v. c. 38.

=DOCUMENT.= Now used only of the _material_, and not, as once, of the _moral_ proof, evidence, or means of instruction.

They were forthwith stoned to death, as a _document_ unto
others.--Sir W. RALEIGH, _History of the World_, b. v. c. 2, §
3.

This strange dejection of these three great apostles at so
mild and gentle a voice [Matt. xvii. 6], gives us a remarkable
_document_ or grounded observation of the truth of that saying
of St. Paul, Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of
God.--JACKSON, _Of the Primeval State of Man_, b. ii. c. 12.

It was a rare _document_ of divine justice to ordain, and of
divine wisdom so to contrive, that the dogs should lap King
Ahab’s blood in the same place where they had lapped the blood
of Naboth.--Id., _Of the Divine Essence and Attributes_, b. vi.
ch. iii. 3.

=DOLE.= This and ‘deal’ are one and the same word, and answer to the German ‘Theil,’ a part or portion.[14] It has now always the subaudition of a _scanty_ portion, as ‘to dole’ is to deal scantily and reluctantly forth (‘pittance’ has acquired the same); but Sanderson’s use of ‘dole’ is instructive, as showing that ‘distribution or division’ is all which once lay in the word.

There are certain common graces of illumination, and those
indeed are given by _dole_, knowledge to one, to another
tongues, to another healings; but it is nothing so with the
special graces of sanctification. There is no distribution or
division here; either all or none.--SANDERSON, _Sermons_, 1671,
vol. ii. p. 247.

=DRAUGHT.= Many ‘draughts’ we still acknowledge, but not the ‘draught’ or drawing of a bow.

A large _draught_ up to his eare
He drew, and with an arrow ground
Sharpe and new, the queene a wound
He gave.

CHAUCER, _Dreame_, 788.

Then spake another proud one, Would to heaven
I might at will get gold till he hath given
That bow his _draught_.

CHAPMAN, _The Odysseis of Homer_, xxi. 533.

=DREADFUL.= Now that which _causes_ dread, but once that which
_felt_ it. See ‘Frightful,’ ‘Hateful.’

Forsothe the Lord shall gyve to thee there a _dreedful_ herte
and faylinge eyen.--_Deut._ xxviii. 65. WICLIF.

And to a grove faste ther beside
With _dredful_ foot than stalketh Palamon.

CHAUCER, _The Knightes Tale_.

All mankind lo! that _dreadful_ is to die,
Thou dost constrain long death to learn by thee.

HEYWOOD, _Translation of Seneca’s Hercules Furens_.

Thou art so set, as thou hast no cause to be
Jealous, or _dreadful_ of disloyalty.

DANIEL, _Panegyric to the King_.

=DREARY=, }
DREARINESS. }

This word has slightly shifted its meaning. In our earlier English it was used exactly as its German cognate ‘traurig’ is now, to designate the heaviness at once of countenance and of heart; very much the σκυθρωπός of the Greeks, though not admitting the subaudition of anger, which in that word is often contained. [Its Old English form was _dréorig_.]

And the king seide to me, Whi is thi chere _dreri_, sithen I
see thee not sick?--_2 Esdras_ ii. 2. WICLIF.

All _drery_ was his chere and his loking.

CHAUCER, _The Clerkes Tale_, pt. 3.

Bowe down to the pore thin ere withoute _dreryness_ [sine
tristitiâ, Vulg.]--_Ecclus._ iv. 8. WICLIF.

Now es a man light, now es he hevy,
Now es he blithe, now es he _drery_.

RICHARD ROLLE DE HAMPOLE, _Pricke of Conscience_, 1454.

=DRENCH.= As ‘to _fell_’ is to make to _fall_, and ‘to _lay_’ to make to _lie_, so ‘to _drench_’ is to make to _drink_, though with a sense now very short of ‘to drown;’ but ‘drench’ and ‘drown,’ though desynonymized in our later English, were once perfectly adequate to one another.

He is _drenched_ in the flod,
Abouten his hals an anker god.

_Havelok the Dane_, 669.

Thei that wolen be maad riche, fallen in to temptacioun, and in
to snare of the devil, and in to many unprofitable desiris and
noyous, whiche _drenchen_ men in to deth and perdicioun.--_1
Tim._ vi. 9. WICLIF.

Well may men knowe it was no wyght but he
That kepte peple Ebrayk fro hir _drenching_,
With drye feet thurgh-out the see passing.

CHAUCER, _The Man of Lawes Tale_, 488 (Skeat).

=DRIFT.= A drove of sheep or cattle was once a ‘drift;’ so too the act of driving.

Hoc armentum, Anglice, a _dryfte_.--_Wright-Wülcker, Vocab._
814. 11.

By reason of the foulness and deepness of the way divers of
the said sheep died in driving; partly for lack of meat and
feeding, but especially by mean of the said unreasonable
_drift_ the said sheep are utterly perished.--_Trevelyan
Papers_, p. 130.

And Anton Shiel he loves me not,
For I gat twa _drifts_ of his sheep;
The great Earl of Whitfield he loves me not,
For nae gear fra me he could keep.

_Scotch Ballad._

=DUKE.= One of Shakespeare’s commentators charges him with an anachronism, the incongruous transfer of a modern title to an ancient condition of society, when he styles Theseus ‘_Duke_ of Athens.’ It would be of very little consequence if the charge was a true one; but it is not, as his English Bible might have sufficiently taught him; _Gen._ xxxvi. 15-19. ‘Duke’ has indeed since Shakespeare’s time become that which this objector supposed it to have been always; but all were ‘dukes’ once who were ‘duces,’ captains and leaders of their people.

He [St. Peter] techith christen men to be suget to kyngis and
_dukis_, and to ech man for God.--WICLIF, _Prologe on the first
Pistel of Peter_.

Hannibal, _duke_ of Carthage.--Sir T. ELYOT, _The Governor_, b.
i. c. 10.

These were the _dukes_ and princes of avail
That came from Greece.

CHAPMAN, _Homer’s Iliad_, b. ii.