Chapter VI: Part 6

=JACOBIN.= The great French Revolution has stamped itself too deeply and terribly upon the mind of Europe for ‘Jacobin’ ever again to have any other meaning than that which the famous Club, assembling in the hall of the Jacobin convent, has given it; but it needs hardly to say that a ‘Jacobin’ was once a Dominican friar, though this name did not extend beyond France.

Now am I yonge, stoute and bolde,
Now am I Robert, now Robyn,
Now frere menour, now _jacobyn_.

_Romaunt of the Rose_, 6339 (Morris, vi. p. 193).

Agent for England, send thy mistress word,
What this detested _Jacobin_ hath done.

MARLOWE, _The Massacre at Paris_, act iii. sc. 4.

A certain _Jacobin_ offered himself to the fire to prove that
Savonarola had true revelations, and was no heretic.--Bishop
TAYLOR, _The Liberty of Prophesying_, The Epistle Dedicatory.

=JOLLY.= For a long time after its adoption into the English language, ‘jolly’ kept the meaning of beautiful, which it brought with it from the French, and which ‘joli’ in French still retains.

Then sete thei thre to solas hem at the windowe,
Even over the _joly_ place that to that paleis longed.

_William of Palerne_, 5478.

I know myself to be
A _jolly_ fellow: for even now I did behold and see
Mine image in the water sheer, and sure methought I took
Delight to see my goodly shape and favour in the brook.

GOLDING, _Ovid’s Metamorphosis_, b. 13.

When all the glorious realm of pure delight,
Illustrious Paradise, waited on the feet
Of _jolly_ Eve.

BEAUMONT, _Psyche_, iv. 4.

=KINDLY.= Nothing ethical was connoted in ‘kindly’ once; it was simply the adjective of ‘kind.’ But it is God’s ordinance that ‘kind’ should be ‘kindly,’ in our modern sense of the word as well; and thus the word has attained this meaning. See ‘Unkind.’

This Joon in the Gospel witnesseth that the _kyndeli_ sone of
God is maad man.--WICLIF, _Prologe of John_.

Forasmuch as his mind gave him, that, his nephews living, men
would not reckon that he could have right to the realm, he
thought therefore without delay to rid them, as though the
killing of his kinsmen could amend his cause, and make him a
_kindly_ king.--Sir T. MORE, _History of King Richard III._

The royal eagle is called in Greek Gnesios, as one would say,
true and _kindly_, as descended from the gentle and right aëry
of eagles.--HOLLAND, _Pliny_, vol. i. p. 272.

Whatsoever as the Son of God He may do, it is _kindly_ for
Him as the Son of Man to save the sons of men.--ANDREWES,
_Sermons_, vol. iv. p. 253.

Where are they? Gone to their own place, to Judas their
brother; and, as is most _kindly_, the sons, to the father, of
wickedness, there to be plagued with him for ever.--Id., _Of
the Conspiracy of the Gowries_, serm. 4.

What greater tyranny and usurpation over poor souls would he
have than is now exercised, since the perjured prelates, the
_kindly_ brood of the Man of sin, have defiled and burdened our
poor Church?--_Jus Populi Vindicatum_, 1665.

=KNAVE.= How many serving-lads must have been unfaithful and dishonest before ‘knave,’ which meant at first no more than boy, acquired the meaning which it has now! Note the same history in the German ‘Bube,’ ‘Dirne,’ ‘Schalk,’ and see ‘Varlet.’

If it is a _knave_ child, sle ye him; if it is a womman, kepe
ye.--_Exodus_ i. 16. WICLIF.

The tyme is come, a _knave_ childe sche bere.

CHAUCER, _The Man of Lawes Tale_ (Morris, ii. p. 192).

O murderous slumber,
Lay’st thou thy leaden mace upon my boy,
That plays thee music? gentle _knave_, good night.

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

=KNUCKLE.= The German ‘Knöchel’ is any joint whatsoever; nor was our ‘knuckle’ limited formerly, as now it well nigh exclusively is, at least in regard of the human body, to certain smaller joints of the hand.

Thou, Nilus, wert assigned to stay her pains and travels past,
To which as soon as Io came with much ado, at last,
With weary _knuckles_ on thy brim she kneeled sadly down.

GOLDING, _Ovid’s Metamorphosis_, b. 1.

But when

‘his scornful muse could ne’er abide
With tragic shoes her _ancles_ for to hide,’

the pace of the verse told me that her maukin _knuckles_ were
never shapen to that royal buskin.--MILTON, _Apology for
Smectymnuus_, p. 186.

=LACE.= That which now commonly bears this name has it on the score of its curiously woven threads; but ‘lace,’ Old French ‘las,’ ‘laqs,’ identical with the Latin ‘laqueus,’ is commonly used by our earlier writers in the more original sense of a noose.

And in my Mynde I measure pace by pace,
To seeke the place where I myself had lost,
That day that I was tangled in the _lace_
In seemyng slacke that knitted ever most.

EARL OF SURREY, _The Restless State of a Lover_, p. 2
(ed. 1717).

Yet if the polype can get and entangle him [the lobster] once
within his long _laces_, he dies for it.--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s
Morals_, p. 973.

=LANDSCAPE.= The second syllable in ‘land_scape_’ or ‘land_skip_’ is only a Dutch example of an earlier form of the same termination which we meet in ‘friend_ship_,’ ‘lord_ship_,’ ‘fellow_ship_,’ and the like. As these mean the manner or fashion of a friend, of a lord, and so on, so ‘landscape’ the manner or fashion of the land; and in our earlier English this rather as the pictured or otherwise counterfeited model, than in its very self. As this imitation would be necessarily in small, the word acquired the secondary meaning of a compendium or multum in parvo; cf. Skinner, _Etymologicon_, s. v. _Landskip_: Tabula chorographica, primario autem terra, provincia, seu topographica, σκιαγραφία; Phillips, _New World of Words_, s. v.; and Earle, _Philology of the English Tongue_, § 327, who suggests that the word has been borrowed by us from the Dutch painters, which would account for the termination ‘-scape,’ ‘-skip’ instead of the native suffix ‘-ship.’ See Skeat’s Dictionary.

The sins of other women show in _landskip_, far off and full of
shadow; her [a harlot’s] _in statue_, near hand and bigger in
the life.--Sir THOMAS OVERBURY, _Characters_.

London, as you know, is our Ἑλλάδος Ἑλλάς, our England of
England, and our _landskip_ and representation of the whole
island.--HACKET, _Life of Archbishop Williams_, part ii. p. 59.

The detestable traitor, that prodigy of nature, that opprobrium
of mankind, that _landscape_ of iniquity, that sink of sin,
and that compendium of baseness, who now calls himself our
Protector.--_Address sent by the Anabaptists to the King_,
1658, in CLARENDON’S _History of the Rebellion_, b. xv.

=LATCH.= Few things now are ‘latched’ or caught except a door or casement; but the word was formerly of much wider use. It is the O.E. _lœccan_.

Those that remained threw darts at our men, and _latching_ our
darts, sent them again at us.--GOLDING, _Cæsar_, p. 60.

Peahens are wont to lay by night, and that from an high place
where they perch; and then, unless there be good heed taken
that the eggs be _latched_ in some soft bed underneath, they
are soon broken.--HOLLAND, _Pliny_, vol. i. p. 301.

=LECTURE.= Where words like ‘lecture’ and ‘reading’ exist side by side, it is very usual for one after a while to be appropriated to the doing of the thing, the other to the thing which is done. So it has been here; but they were once synonymous.

After the _lecture_ of the law and of the prophets, the rulers
of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Good brethren, if ye
have any sermon to exhort the people, say on.--_Acts_ xiii. 15.
COVERDALE.

That may be gathered out of Plutarch’s writings, out of
those especially where he speaketh of the _lecture_ of the
poets.--NORTH, _Plutarch’s Lives_, p. 982.

In my _lecture_ I often perceive how my authors commend
examples for magnanimity and force, that rather proceed from
a thick skin and hardness of the bones.--FLORIO, _Montaigne’s
Essays_, p. 72.

=LEGACY.= This now owns no relation except with ‘lēgatum,’ which meant in juristic Latin a portion of the inheritance by testamentary disposition withdrawn from the heir, and bestowed upon some other. It was formerly used as a derivative of ‘legatus,’ ambassador, in the sense of embassage.

They were then preaching bishops, and more often seen in
pulpits than in princes’ palaces: more often occupied in his
_legacy_, who said, Go ye into the whole world and preach
the gospel to all men, than in embassages and affairs of
princes.--_Homilies, Against Peril of Idolatry._

Otherwise, while he is yet far off, sending a _legacy_, he
asketh those things that belong to peace.--_Luke_ xiv. 32.
Rheims.

And his citizens hated him, and they sent a _legacie_
after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over
us.--_Luke_ xix. 14. Ibid.

=LEVY.= Troops are now raised, or ‘levied,’ indifferently: but a siege is only raised, and not ‘levied,’ as it too once might have been.

Euphranor having _levied_ the siege from this one city,
forthwith led his army to Demetrias.--HOLLAND, _Livy_, p. 1178.

=LEWD=, }
LEWDLY, }
LEWDNESS. }

There are three distinct stages in the meaning of the word ‘lewd;’ of these it has entirely overlived two, and survives only in the third, namely in that of wanton or lascivious. Without discussing here its etymology or its exact relation to ‘lay,’ it is sufficient to observe, that, as ‘lay,’ it was often used in the sense of ignorant, or rather unlearned. Next, according to the proud saying of the Pharisees, ‘This people who knoweth not the law are cursed’ (_John_ vii. 49), and on the assumption, which would have its truth, that those untaught in the doctrines, would be unexercised in the practices, of Christianity, it came to signify vicious, though without designating one vice more than others. While in its present and third stage, it has, like so many other words, retired from this general designation of all vices, to express one of the more frequent, alone.

Archa-Dei in the olde law Levites it kepten;
Hadde nevere _lewed_ man leve to leggen honde on that chest.

_Piers Plowman_, B-text, Passus xii. 115 (Skeat).

For as moche as the curatis ben often so _lewed_, that thei
understonden not bookis of Latyn for to teche the peple, it is
spedful not only to the _lewed_ peple, but also to the _lewed_
curatis, to have bookis in Englisch of needful loore to the
_lewed_ people.--_Wycliffe Mss._, p. 5.

Of sondry thoughtes thus they jangle and trete
As _lewed_ peple demeth comunly
Of thinges that ben maad more subtily
Than they can in her _lewdenes_ comprehende.

CHAUCER, _The Squieres Tale_ (Morris, ii. p. 361).

Joon was a _lewde_ fischere and untaught in scolys.--PURVEY,
_Preface to Epistles of St. Jerome_, p. 65.

Neither was it Christ’s intention that there should be any
thing in it [the Lord’s Prayer] dark or far from our capacity,
specially since it belongeth equally to all, and is as
necessary for the _lewd_ as the learned.--_A Short Catechism_,
1553.

This is servitude,
To serve the unwise, or him who hath rebelled
Against his worthier, as thine now serve thee,
Thyself not free, but to thyself enthralled,
Yet _lewdly_ darest our ministering upbraid.

MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, vi. 178.

If it were a matter of wrong or wicked _lewdness_
[ῥᾳδιούργημα], O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with
you.--_Acts_ xviii. 14. (A.V.)

=LIBERAL.= Often used by Shakespeare and his contemporaries as free of tongue, licentious or wanton in speech.

There with fantastic garlands did she come,
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,
That _liberal_ shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead-men’s-fingers call them.

SHAKESPEARE, _Hamlet_, act iv. sc. 7.

_Desdemona_ [of _Iago_]: Is he not a most profane and _liberal_
counsellor?--Id., _Othello_, act ii. sc. 1.

But that we know thee, Wyatt, to be true,
Thy overboldness should be paid with death;
But cease, for fear your _liberal_ tongue offend.

WEBSTER, _The Famous History of Sir Thomas Wyatt_.

=LIBEL.= This, properly a little book, is with us any defamatory speech or writing; but was not formerly so restricted; indeed, in the legal language of Scotland, where an indictment is in technical language a ‘libel,’ it still retains a wider meaning.

Forsoothe, it is said, Who evere shal leeve his wyf, geve he to
hir a _libel_.--_Matt._ v. 31. WICLIF.

Let the Allmightie geve me answere, and let him that is my
contrary party sue me with a _lybell_.--_Job_ xxxi. 35.
COVERDALE.

Here is a _libel_ too accusing Cæsar,
From Lucius Vectius, and confirmed by Curius.

BEN JONSON, _Catiline_, act v. sc. 4.

=LIBERTINE.= A striking evidence of the extreme likelihood that he who has no restraints on his belief will ere long have none upon his life, is given by this word ‘libertine.’ Applied at first to certain heretical sects, and intended to mark the licentious _liberty_ of their creed, ‘libertine’ soon let go altogether its relation to what a man believed, and acquired the sense which it now has, a ‘libertine’ being one who has released himself from all moral restraints, and especially in his relations with the other sex.

That the Scriptures do not contain in them all things necessary
to salvation, is the fountain of many great and capital
errors; I instance in the whole doctrine of the _libertines_,
familists, quakers, and other enthusiasts, which issue from
this corrupted fountain.--Bishop TAYLOR, _A Dissuasive from
Popery_, part ii. b. 1, § 2.

It is not to be denied that the said _libertine_ doctrines do
more contradict the doctrine of the Gospel, even Christianity
itself, than the doctrines of the Papists about the same
subjects do.--BAXTER, _Catholic Theology_, part iii. p. 289.

It is too probable that our modern _libertines_, deists, and
atheists, took occasion from the scandalous contentions of
Christians about many things, to disbelieve all.--_A Discourse
of Logomachies_, 1711.

=LITIGIOUS.= This word has changed from an objective to a subjective sense. Things were ‘litigious’ once, which offered matter for going to law; persons are ‘litigious’ now, who are prone to going to law. Both meanings are to be found in the Latin ‘litigiosus,’ though predominantly that which we have now made the sole meaning.

Dolopia he hath subdued by force of arms, and could not abide
to hear that the determination of certain provinces, which were
debatable and _litigious_, should be referred to the award of
the people of Rome.--HOLLAND, _Livy_, p. 1111.

Of the articles gainsaid by a great outcry, three and no more
did seem to be _litigious_.--HACKET, _Life of Archbishop
Williams_, part i. p. 140.

No fences parted fields, nor marks nor bounds
Distinguished acres of _litigious_ grounds.

DRYDEN, _Virgil’s Georgics_, b. i. 193, 4.

=LIVELY.= This had once nearly, if not altogether, the same meaning as ‘living.’ We have here the explanation of a circumstance which many probably have noted and regretted in the Authorized Version of the New Testament, namely that while λίθον ζῶντα at _1 Pet._ ii. 4 is ‘a _living_ stone,’ λίθοι ζῶντες, which follows immediately, ver. 5, is only ‘_lively_ stones,’ ‘living’ being thus brought down to ‘lively’ with no correspondent reduction in the original to warrant it. But when our Version was made, there was scarcely any distinction between the forces of the words. Still it would certainly have been better to adhere to one word or the other.

Mine enemies are _lively_ (Heb. living), and they are
strong.--_Ps._ xxxviii. 19. (A.V.)

Was it well done to suffer him, imprisoned in chains, lying in
a dark dungeon, to draw his _lively_ breath at the pleasure of
the hangman?--HOLLAND, _Livy_, p. 228.

Had I but seen thy picture in this plight,
It would have madded me; what shall I do
Now I behold thy _lively_ body so?

SHAKESPEARE, _Titus Andronicus_, act iii. sc. 1.

That his dear father might interment have,
See, the young man entered a _lively_ grave.

MASSINGER, _The Fatal Dowry_, act ii. sc. 1.

=LIVERY.= It need hardly be observed that the explanation of ‘livery’ which Spenser offers (see below) is perfectly correct; but we do not any longer recognize the second of those uses of the word there mentioned by him. It is no longer applied to the ration, or stated portion of food, delivered at stated periods (the σιτομέτριον of _Luke_ xii. 42), either to the members of a household, to soldiers, or to others.

To bed they busked them anon,
Their _liveryes_ were served them up soone,
With a merry cheer.

_Ballad of John de Reeve_, 155.

What _Liverye_ is, we by common use in England knowe well
enough, namelye, that it is, allowaunce of horse-meate, as
they commonly use the woord in stabling, as to keepe horses at
_liverye_, the which woord, I gess, is derived of livering or
delivering foorth theyr nightlye foode. Soe in great howses the
_liverye_ is sayd to be served up for all night. And _Liverye_
is also called the upper garment which serving-men weareth, soe
called (as I suppose) for that it is delivered and taken from
him at pleasure.--SPENSER, _View of the State of Ireland_, p.
623 (Globe edition).

The emperor’s officers every night went through the town from
house to house, whereat any English gentleman did repast or
lodge, and served their _liveries_ for all night; first the
officers brought into the house a cast of fine manchet, and of
silver two great pots, and white wine, and sugar, to the weight
of a pound, &c.--CAVENDISH, _Life of Cardinal Wolsey_.

=LOITER=, }
LOITERER. }

Whatever may be the derivation of ‘to loiter,’[17] it is certain that it formerly implied a great deal more and worse than it implies now. The ‘loiterer’ then was very much what the tramp is now.

God bad that no such strong lubbers should _loyter_ and goe
a begging, and be chargeable to the congregation.--TYNDALE,
_Works_, p. 217.

He that giveth any alms to an idle beggar robbeth the truly
poor; as S. Ambrose sometimes complaineth that the maintenance
of the poor is made the spoil of the _loiterer_.--SANDERSON,
_Sermons_, 1671. vol. i. p. 198.

Yf he be but once taken soe idlye roging, he [the Provost
Marshal] may punnish him more lightlye, as with stockes or such
like; but yf he be founde agayne soe _loytring_ he may scourge
him with whippes or roddes; after which yf he be agayne taken,
lett him have the bitterness of the marshall lawe.--SPENSER,
_View of the State of Ireland_, p. 679 (Globe Edition).

They spend their youth in _loitering_, bezzling, and
harlotting.--MILTON, _Animadversions on Remonstrants’ Defence_.

=LOVER.= This word has undergone two restrictions, of which formerly it knew nothing. A natural delicacy, and an unwillingness to confound under a common name things essentially different, has caused ‘lover’ no longer to be equivalent with friend, but always to imply a relation resting on the difference of sex; while further, and within these narrower limits, the ‘lover’ now is always the man, not as once the man or the woman indifferently. We may still indeed speak of ‘a pair of lovers,’ but then datur denominatio a potiori. ‘Leman’ had something of the same history, though that history ended in leaving this a designation of the woman alone.

If ye love them that love you, what thank have ye therefore?
for sinners also love their _lovers_.--_Luke_ vi. 32.
COVERDALE.

For Hiram was ever a _lover_ of David.--_1 Kin._ v. 1. (A.V.)

This Posthumus,
Most like a noble lord in love, and one
That had a royal _lover_, took his hint.

SHAKESPEARE, _Cymbeline_, act v. sc. 5.

If I freely may discover
What would please me in a _lover_,
I would have _her_ fair and witty,
Savouring more of court than city.

BEN JONSON, _The Poetaster_.

=LUCID INTERVAL.= We limit this at present to the brief and transient season when a mind, ordinarily clouded and obscured by insanity, recovers for a while its clearness. It had no such limitation formerly, but was of very wide use, as the four passages quoted below, in each of which its application is different, will show.[18]

East of Edom lay the land of Uz, where Job dwelt, so renowned
for his patience, when the devil heaped afflictions upon him,
allowing him no _lucid intervals_.--FULLER, _A Pisgah Sight of
Palestine_, b. iv. c. 2.

Some beams of wit on other souls may fall,
Strike through, and make a _lucid interval_:
But Shadwell’s genuine night admits no ray,
His rising fogs prevail upon the day.

DRYDEN, _Mac-Flecknoe_.

Such is the nature of man, that it requires _lucid intervals_;
and the vigour of the mind would flag and decay, should it
always jog on at the rate of a common enjoyment, without being
sometimes quickened and exalted with the vicissitude of some
more refined pleasures.--SOUTH, _Sermons_, 1744, vol. viii. p.
403.

Thus he [Lord Lyttelton] continued, giving his dying
benediction to all around him. On Monday morning a _lucid
interval_ gave some small hopes; but these vanished in the
evening.--_Narrative of the Physician, inserted in Johnson’s
Life of Lord Lyttelton._

=LUMBER.= As the Lombards were the bankers, so also they were the pawnbrokers of the Middle Ages; indeed, as they would often advance money upon pledges, the two businesses were very closely joined, would often run in, to one another. The ‘lumber’ room was originally the Lombard room, or room where the Lombard banker and broker stowed away his pledges; ‘lumber’ then, as in the passage from Butler, the pawns and pledges themselves. As these would naturally often accumulate here till they became out of date and unserviceable, the steps are easy to be traced by which the word came to possess its present meaning.

_Lumber_, potius _lumbar_, as to put one’s clothes to _lumbar_,
_i.e._ pignori dare, oppignorare.--SKINNER, _Etymologicon_.

And by an action falsely laid of trover
The _lumber_ for their proper goods recover.

BUTLER, _Upon Critics_.

They put up all the little plate they had in the _lumber_,
which is pawning it, till the ships came.--Lady MURRAY, _Lives
of George Baillie and of Lady Grisell Baillie_.

=LURCH.= ‘To lurch’ is seldom used now except of a ship, which ‘lurches’ when it makes something of a headlong dip in the sea; the fact that by so doing it, partially at least, hides itself, and so ‘lurks,’ explains this employment of the word. But ‘to lurch,’ generally as an active verb, was of much more frequent use in early English; and soon superinduced on the sense of lying concealed that of lying in wait with the view of intercepting and seizing a prey. After a while this superadded notion of intercepting and seizing some booty quite thrust out that of lying concealed; as in all three of the quotations which follow. See Skeat’s Dictionary.

It is not an auspicate beginning of a feast, nor agreeable
to amity and good fellowship, to snatch or _lurch_ one from
another, to have many hands in a dish at once, striving a
vie who should be more nimble with his fingers.--HOLLAND,
_Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 679.

I speak not of many more [discommodities of a residence]: too
far off from great cities, which may hinder business; or too
near them, which _lurcheth_ all provisions, and maketh every
thing dear.--BACON, _Essays_, 45 (ed. Abbott, ii. p. 50).

At the beginning of this war [the Crusades] the Pope’s temporal
power in Italy was very slender; but soon after he grew within
short time without all measure, and did _lurch_ a castle here,
gain a city there from the emperor, while he was employed in
Palestine.--FULLER, _Holy War_, b. i. c. 11.

=LUST.= Used at this present only in an ill sense, not as ἐπιθυμία, but as ἐπιθυμία κακή (_Col._ iii. 5), and this mainly in one particular direction. ‘Lust’ had formerly no such limitations, nor has it now in German. The same holds good of the verb.

Of prikyng and of huntyng for the hare
Was al his _lust_, for no cost wolde he spare.

CHAUCER, _Canterbury Tales_, 192.

Through faith a man is purged of his sins, and obtaineth _lust_
unto the law of God.--TYNDALE, _Prologue upon the Epistle to
the Romans_.

It was not because of the multitude of you above all nations
that the Lord had _lust_ unto you and chose you.--_Deut._ vii.
7. COVERDALE.

My _lust_ to devotion is little, my joy none at all.--Bishop
HALL, _Letters_, Dec. 2, Ep. 1.

Thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy
soul _lusteth_ after.--_Deut._ xii. 15. (A.V.)

=LUXURY=, }
LUXURIOUS. }

‘Luxuria’ in classical Latin was very much what our ‘luxury’ is now. The meaning which in our earlier English was its only one, namely indulgence in sins of the flesh, it derived from the use of ‘luxuria’ in the medieval ethics, where it never means anything else but this. The weakening of the influence of the scholastic theology, joined to a more familiar acquaintance with classical Latinity, has probably caused its return to the classical meaning. In the definition given by Phillips (see below), we note the process of transition from its old meaning to its new, the old still remaining, but the new superinduced upon it.

O foule luste, O _luxurie_, lo thin ende!
Nought oonly that thou feyntest mannes mynde,
But verrayly thou wolt his body schende.

CHAUCER, _The Man of Lawes Tale_ (Morris, ii. p. 198).

_Luxury_ and lust fasten a rust and foulness on the mind, that
it cannot see sin in its odious deformity, nor virtue in its
unattainable beauty.--BATES, _Spiritual Perfection_, c. 1.

_Luxury_, all superfluity and excess in carnal pleasures,
sumptuous fare or building; sensuality, riotousness,
profuseness.--PHILLIPS, _New World of Words_.

She knows the heat of a _luxurious_ bed.

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

Again, that many of their Popes be such as I have
said, naughty, wicked, _luxurious_ men, they openly
confess.--JACKSON, _The Eternal Truth of Scriptures_, b. ii. c.
14.

=MAGNIFICENT=, }
MAGNIFICENCE. }

Frequently used by our elder writers where we should employ munificent or generous. Yet there lay in the word something more than in these; something of the μεγαλοπρέπεια of Aristotle; a certain grandeur presiding over and ordering this large distribution of wealth. Behind both uses an earlier and a nobler than either may be traced, as is evident from my first quotation.

Then cometh _magnificence_, that is to say when a man doth and
performeth gret werkes of goodnesse.--CHAUCER, _The Persones
Tale_.

Every amorous person becometh liberal and _magnificent_,
although he had been aforetime a pinching snudge; in such
sort as men take more pleasure to give away and bestow upon
those whom they love, than they do take and receive of
others.--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 1147.

Am I close-handed,
Because I scatter not among you that
I must not call my own? know, you court-leeches,
A prince is never so _magnificent_
As when he’s sparing to enrich a few
With the injuries of many.

MASSINGER, _The Emperor of the East_, act ii. sc. 1.

Bounty and _magnificence_ are virtues very regal; but a
prodigal king is nearer a tyrant than a parsimonious.--BACON,
_Essays, Of a King_.

=MAID.= A word which, in its highest sense as = virgin, might once be applied to either sex, to Sir Galahad as freely as to the _Pucelle_, but which is now restricted to one. Compare παρθένος in Greek.

To him [John the Apostle] God hangyng in the cross bitook his
modir, that a _mayde_ schulde kepe a mayde.--WICLIF, _Prolog of
John_.

I wot wel that thapostil was a _mayde_;
But natheles, though that he wrot or sayde
He wold that every wight were such as he,
All nys but counseil to virginité.

CHAUCER, _Prologe of the Wyf of Bathe_, 79.

Sir Galahad is a _maid_ and sinner never; and that is the cause
he shall achieve where he goeth that ye nor none such shall not
attain.--Sir T. MALORY, _Morte D’Arthur_, b. xiii. c. 16.

=MAKE=, }
MAKER. }

The very early use of ‘maker,’ as equivalent to poet, and ‘to make’ as applied to the exercise of the poet’s art, is evidence that the words are of genuine home-growth, and not mere imitations of the Greek ποιητής and ποιεῖν, which Sir Philip Sidney, as will be seen below, suggests as possible. The words, like the French ‘trouvère’ and ‘troubadour,’ the O.H.G. ‘scof,’ and the O.E. ‘sceop,’ mark men’s sense that invention, and in a certain sense, creation, is the essential character of the poet. The quotation from Chaucer will sufficiently prove how entirely mistaken Sir John Harington was, when he affirmed (_Apology for Poetry_, p. 2) that Puttenham in his _Art of English Poesy_, 1589, was the first who gave ‘make’ and ‘maker’ this meaning. Sir Walter Scott somewhere claims them as Scotticisms; but exclusively such they certainly are not.

And eke to me hit is a greet penaunce,
Sith rym in English hath swich scarsitee,
To folowe word by word the curiositee
Of Graunson, flour of hem that _make_ in Fraunce.

CHAUCER, _Compleynt of Venus_, 79 (Skeat).

The God of shepherds, Tityrus, is dead,
Who taught me homely, as I can, to _make_.

SPENSER, _The Shepherd’s Calendar, June_.

The old famous poete Chaucer, for his excellencie and wonderful
skil in _making_, his scholler Lidgate (a worthy scholler
of so excellent a maister) calleth the Loadestarre of our
language.--E. K., _Epistle Dedicatory to Spenser’s Shepherd’s
Calendar_.

There cannot be in a _maker_ a fouler fault than to falsify
his accent to serve his cadence, or by untrue orthography to
wrench his words to help his rhyme.--PUTTENHAM, _Art of English
Poesy_, b. ii. c. 8.

The Greeks named the poet ποιητής, which name, as the most
excellent, hath gone through other languages. It cometh of this
word ποιεῖν, to make; wherein I know not whether by luck or
wisdom we Englishmen have met well with the Greeks in calling
him a _maker_.--Sir P. SIDNEY, _Defence of Poesy_.

=MANSION.= This is a finely selected word, suggested no doubt by the ‘mansiones’ of the Vulgate, whereby our Translators, and Tyndale before them, rendered the μοναί of John xiv. 2. Knowing, however, as we do that μοναί never meant ‘mansions’ in our modern, or auctioneers’ sense of the word, we cannot doubt that by this word they intended places of tarrying, which might be for a longer or a shorter time; resting places which remained for the Christian traveller who should have reached at length his heavenly home. This use of ‘mansion’ as a place of tarrying is frequent enough in our early literature, although our modern use is by no means unknown.

They [the Angels] be pure minds and were never neither blinded
through sin, ne hindered through any earthly _mansion_ and
corruptible body.--HUTCHINSON, _Works_, p. 160 (ed. 1842).

Before the starry threshold of Jove’s court
My _mansion_ is, where those immortal shapes
Of bright aerial spirits live unsphered,
In regions mild of calm and serene air.

MILTON, _Comus_, i. 4.

=MANURE.= The same word as ‘manœuvre,’ to work with the hand; and thus, to till or cultivate the earth, this tillage being in earlier periods of society the great and predominant labour of the hands. We restrain the word now to one particular branch of this cultivation, but our ancestors made it to embrace the whole.

The _manuring_ hand of the tiller shall root up all that
burdens the soil.--MILTON, _Reason of Church Government_.

It [Japan] is mountainous and craggy, full of rocks and stony
places, so that the third part of this empire is not inhabited
or _manured_.--_Memorials of Japan_ (Hakluyt Society), p. 3.

A rare and excellent wit untaught doth bring forth many
good and evil things together; as a fat soil, that lieth
_unmanured_, bringeth forth both herbs and weeds.--NORTH,
_Plutarch’s Lives_, p. 185.

Every man’s hand itching to throw a cudgel at him, who, like
a nut-tree, must be _manured_ by beating, or else would never
bear fruit.--FULLER, _Holy War_, ii. 11.

=MEAN=, }
MEANNESS. }

O.E. ‘gemǽne,’ Goth. ‘gamains’ (compare Germ. ‘gemein’), cognate with Latin ‘communis’ (our ‘common’)--all with a history very closely corresponding to that of the Greek κοινός (see _Acts_ x. 14). The connotation of moral baseness only accrued to the word by degrees.

And the _mean_ man boweth down, and the great man humbleth
himself.--_Isai._ ii. 9. (A.V.)

But, for his _meannesse_ and disparagement,
My Sire, who me too dearely well did love,
Unto my choice by no meanes would assent.

SPENSER, _Fairy Queen_, iv. 7, 16.

=MECHANIC=, }
MECHANICAL. }

A word which now simply expresses a fact, and is altogether untinged with passion or sentiment; but in its early history it ran exactly parallel to the Greek βάναυσος, which, expressing first one who plied a handicraft, came afterwards, in obedience to certain constant tendencies of language, to imply the man ethically illiberal. See the quotation from Holland, _s. v._ ‘Fairy.’

Base and _mechanical_ niggardise they [flatterers] account
temperate frugality.--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 93.

Base dunghill villain and _mechanical_.

SHAKESPEARE, _2 Henry VI._, act i. sc. 3.

It was never a good world, since employment was counted
_mechanic_, and idleness gentility.--WHITLOCK, _Zootomia_, p.
30.

=MEDDLE.= This had once no such offensive meaning of mixing oneself up in other people’s business as now it has. On the contrary, Barrow in one of his sermons draws expressly the distinction between ‘meddling’ and being meddlesome, and only condemns the latter.

In the drynke that she _meddlid_ to you, mynge ye double to
hir.--_Apoc._ xviii. 6. WICLIF.

How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am
a Samaritan? For the Jews _meddle_ not [oὐ συγχρῶνται] with the
Samaritans.--_John_ iv. 9. CRANMER.

We beseech you, brethren, that ye study to be quiet, and to
_meddle_ with your own business.--_1 Thess._ iv. 10, 11.
TYNDALE.

Tho he, that had well y-cond his lere,
Thus _medled_ his talke with many a teare.

SPENSER, _The Shepherd’s Calendar, May_.

=MEDITERRANEAN.= Only seas are ‘mediterranean’ now, and for us only one Sea; but there is no reason why cities and countries should not be characterized as ‘mediterranean’ as well; and they were so once. We have preferred, however, to employ ‘inland.’

Their buildings are for the most part of tymber, for the
_mediterranean_ countreys have almost no stone.--_The Kyngdome
of Japonia_, p. 6.

An old man, full of days, and living still in your
_mediterranean_ city, Coventry.--HENRY HOLLAND, _Preface to
Holland’s Cyropædia_.

It [Arabia] hath store of cities, as well _mediterranean_ as
maritime.--HOLLAND, _Ammianus_.

=MEDLEY.= The same word as the French ‘mêlée.’ It is plain from the frequent use of the French ‘mêlée’ in the description of battles that we feel now the want of a corresponding English word. There have been attempts, though hardly successful ones, to naturalize ‘mêlée,’ and as ‘volée’ has become in English ‘volley,’ that so ‘mêlée’ should become ‘melley.’ Perhaps, as Tennyson has sanctioned these, employing ‘mellay’ in his _Princess_, they may now succeed. But there would have been no need of this, nor yet of borrowing the modern French form, if ‘medley’ had been allowed to keep this more passionate use, which once it possessed.

The consul for his part forslowed not to come to handfight. The
_medley_ continued above three hours, and the hope of victory
hung in equal balance.--HOLLAND, _Livy_, p. 1119.

Now began the conflict for the winning and defending of
that old castle, which proved a _medley_ of twelve hours
long.--_Swedish Intelligencer_, vol. ii. p. 41.

=MELANCHOLY.= This has now ceased, nearly or altogether, to designate a particular form of moody madness, the German ‘Tiefsinn,’ which was ascribed by the old physicians to a predominance of _black bile_ mingling with the blood. It was not, it is true, always restrained to this particular form of mental unsoundness; thus Burton’s ‘Anatomy of _Melancholy_’ has not to do with this one form of madness, but with all. This, however, was its prevailing use, and here is to be found the link of connexion between its present use, as a deep pensiveness or sadness, and its past.

That property of _melancholy_, whereby men become to be
delirious in some one point, their judgment standing untouched
in others.--H. MORE, _A Brief Discourse of Enthusiasm_, sect.
xiv.

Luther’s conference with the devil might be, for ought I know,
nothing but a _melancholy_ dream.--CHILLINGWORTH, _The Religion
of Protestants_, Preface.

Though I am persuaded that none but the devil and this
_melancholy_ miscreant were in the plot [the Duke of
Buckingham’s murder], yet in foro Dei many were guilty of this
blood, that rejoiced it was spilt.--HACKET, _Life of Archbishop
Williams_, part ii. p. 80.

Some _melancholy_ men have believed that elephants and birds
and other creatures, have a language whereby they discourse
with one another.--Bishop REYNOLDS, _Passions and Faculties of
the Soul_, c. 39.

=MERE=, }
MERELY. }

There is a good note on these words, and on the changes of meaning which they have undergone, in Craik’s _English of Shakespeare_, p. 80. He there says: ‘Merely (from the Latin merus and mere) means purely, only. It separates that which it designates and qualifies from everything else. But in so doing the chief or most emphatic reference may be made either to that which is included, or to that which is excluded. In modern English it is always to the latter. In Shakespeare’s day the other reference was more common, that namely to what was included.’

With them all the people of Mounster went out, and many
other of them which were _mere_ English, thenceforth joined
themselves with the Irish against the king, and termed
themselves very Irish.--SPENSER, _View of the State of Ireland_.

Our wine is here mingled with water and with myrrh; there [in
heaven] it is _mere_ and unmixed.--Bishop TAYLOR, _The Worthy
Communicant_.

The great winding-sheets, that bury all things in oblivion, are
two, deluges and earthquakes. As for conflagrations and great
droughts, they do not _merely_ dispeople and destroy. Phaeton’s
car went but a day; and the three years’ drought, in the time
of Elias, was but particular, and left people alive.--BACON,
_Essays_, 58.

Fye on’t; O fye! ’tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it _merely_.

SHAKESPEARE, _Hamlet_, act i. sc. 2.

=MESS.= This used continually to be applied to a quarternion, or group of _four_ persons or things. Probably in the distribution of food to large numbers, it was found most convenient to arrange them in _fours_, and hence this application of the word. A ‘mess’ at the Inns of Court still consists of four. A phrase-book published in London in 1617 bears this title, ‘Janua Linguarum _Quadrilinguis_, or A Messe of Tongues, Latine, English, French, and Spanish.’

There lacks a fourth thing to make up the _mess_.--LATIMER,
_Sermon_ 5.

Where are your _mess_[19] of sons to back you now?

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

Amongst whom [converted Jews] we meet with a _mess_ of most
eminent men; Nicolaus Lyra, that grand commentator on the
Bible; Hieronymus de Sanctâ Fide, turned Christian about anno
1412; Ludovicus Carettus, living in Paris anno 1553; and the
never sufficiently to be praised Emmanuel Tremellius.--FULLER,
_A Pisgah Sight of Palestine_, part ii. b. 5.

=METAL.= The Latin ‘metallum’ signified a mine before it signified the metal which was found in the mine; and Jeremy Taylor uses ‘metal’ in this sense of mine. This may be a latinism peculiar to him, as he has of such not a few; in which case it would scarcely have a right to a place in this little volume, which does not propose to note the peculiarities of single writers, but the general course of the language. I, however, insert it, counting it more probable that my limited reading hinders me from furnishing an example of this use from some other author, than that such does not somewhere exist.

It was impossible to live without our king, but as slaves live,
that is, such who are civilly dead, and persons condemned
to _metals_.--Bishop TAYLOR, _Ductor Dubitantium, Epistle
Dedicatory_.

=METHODIST.= This term is restricted at present to the followers of John Wesley; but it was once applied to those who followed a certain ‘method’ in philosophical speculation, or in the ethical treatment of themselves or others.

The finest _methodists_, according to Aristotle’s golden
rule of artificial bounds, condemn geometrical precepts in
arithmetic, or arithmetical precepts in geometry, as irregular
and abusive.--G. HARVEY, _Pierce’s Supererogation_, p. 117.

For physick, search into the writings of Hippocrates, Galen and
the _methodists_.--SANDERSON, _Sermons_, vol. ii. p. 135.

All of us have some or other tender parts of our souls, which
we cannot endure should be ungently touched; every man must be
his own _methodist_ to find them out.--JACKSON, _Justifying
Faith_, b. iv. c. 5.

=MILITIA.= By this name, as the contests between Charles I. and his Parliament have made us all to know, the entire military force of the nation, and not a part of it only, was designated in the seventeenth century. It is true indeed that this force did much more nearly resemble our militia than our standing army, but it was never used for that to the exclusion of this.

It was a small thing to contend with the Parliament about the
sole power of the _militia_, which we see him doing little less
than laying hands on the weapons of God Himself, which are his
judgements, to wield and manage them by the sway and bent of his
own frail cogitations.--MILTON, _Iconoclastes_, c. 26.

The king’s captains and soldiers fight his battles, and yet
he is _summus imperator_, and the power of the _militia_ is
his.--Bishop TAYLOR, _Ductor Dubitantium_, iii. 3, 7.

Ye are of his flock and his _militia_; ye are now to fight
his battles, and therefore to put on his armour.--Id., _On
Preparation for Confirmation_, § 7.

=MINION.= Once no more than darling or dearling (mignon). It is quite a superaddition of later times that the ‘minion’ is an unworthy object, on whom an excessive fondness is bestowed.

Map now an Adam in thy memory,
By God’s own hand made with great majesty;
No idiot fool, nor drunk with vain opinion,
But God’s disciple, and his dearest _minion_.

SYLVESTER, _Du Bartas’ Weeks, The Imposture_.

Whoso to marry a _minion_ wife
Hath had good chance and hap,
Must love her and cherish her all his life,
And dandle her in his lap.

_Old Song._

=MINUTE.= ‘Minutes’ are now ‘minúte’ portions of _time_; they might once be ‘minúte’ portions of anything.

But whanne a pore widewe was comun, sche keste two _mynutis_,
that is a ferthing.--_Mark_ xii. 42. WICLIF.

Let us, with the poor widow of the Gospel, at least give two
_minutes_.--BECON, _The Nosegay_, Preface.

An enquiry into the _minutes_ of conscience is commonly the
work of persons that live holily.--Bishop TAYLOR, _Doctrine and
Practice of Repentance_, Preface.

And now, after such a sublimity of malice, I will not instance
in the sacrilegious ruin of the neighbouring temples, which
needs must have perished in the flame. These are but _minutes_,
in respect of the ruin prepared for the living temples.--Id.,
_Sermon on the Gunpowder Treason_.

=MISCREANT.= A settled conviction that to believe wrongly is the way to live wrongly has caused that in all languages words, which originally did but indicate the first, have gradually acquired a meaning of the second. There is no more illustrious example of this than ‘miscreant,’ which now charges him to whom it is applied not with religious error, but with extreme moral depravity; while yet, according to its etymology, it did but mean at the first misbeliever, and as such would have been as freely applied to the morally most blameless of these as to the vilest and the worst. In the quotation from Shakespeare York means to charge the Maid of Orleans, as a dealer in unlawful charms, with apostasy from the Christian faith, according to the low and unworthy estimate of her character, above which even Shakespeare himself has not risen.

We are not therefore ashamed of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ, because _miscreants_ in scorn have upbraided us that
the highest of our wisdom is, Believe.--HOOKER, _Ecclesiastical
Polity_, b. v.

One sort you say be those that believe not in Christ, but deny
Christ and his Scripture; as be the Turks, paynims, and such
other _miscreants_.--FRITH, _Works_, 1572, p. 62.

Curse, _miscreant_, when thou comest to the stake.

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

The consort and the principal servants of Soliman had been
honourably restored without ransom; and the emperor’s
generosity to the _miscreant_ was interpreted as treason to
the Christian cause.--GIBBON, _Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire_, c. 58.

=MISER=, }
MISERY, }
MISERABLE. }

We may notice a curious shifting of parts in ‘miser,’ ‘misery,’ ‘miserable.’ There was a time when the ‘miser’ was the wretched man, he is now the covetous; at the same time ‘misery,’ which is now wretchedness, and ‘miserable,’ which is now wretched, were severally covetousness and covetous. They have in fact exactly reversed their uses. Men still express by some words of this group, although not by the same, by ‘miser’ (and ‘miserly’), not as once by ‘misery’ and ‘miserable,’ their deep moral conviction that the avaricious man is his own tormentor, and bears his punishment involved in his sin. A passage, too long to quote, in Gascoigne’s _Fruits of War_, st. 72-74, is very instructive on the different uses of the word ‘miser’ even in his time, and on the manner in which it was even then hovering between the two meanings.

Because thou sayest, ‘That I am rich and enriched and lack
nothing;’ and knowest not that thou art a _miser_ [et nescis
quia tu es _miser_, Vulg.] and miserable and poor and blind and
naked.--_Rev._ iii. 17. Rhemish Version.

Vouchsafe to stay your steed for humble _miser’s_ sake.

SPENSER, _Fairy Queen_, ii. 1, 8.

He [Perseus] returned again to his old humour which was born
and bred with him, and that was avarice and _misery_.--NORTH,
_Plutarch’s Lives_, p. 215.

But Brutus, scorning his [Octavius Cæsar’s] _misery_ and
niggardliness, gave unto every band a number of wethers to
sacrifice, and fifty silver drachmas to every soldier.--Id.,
_ib._, p. 830.

If _avarice_ be thy vice, yet make it not thy punishment;
_miserable_ men commiserate not themselves; bowelless unto
themselves, and merciless unto their own bowels.--Sir T.
BROWNE, _Letter to a Friend_.

The liberal-hearted man is by the opinion of the prodigal,
_miserable_; and by the judgment of the _miserable_,
lavish.--HOOKER, _Ecclesiastical Polity_, b. v. c. 65.

=MISS.= Now to be conscious of the loss of, and nearly answering to the Latin ‘desiderare,’ but once to do without, to dispense with.

But as ’tis,
We cannot _miss_ him; he does make our fire,
Fetch in our wood, and serves in offices
That profit us.

SHAKESPEARE, _Tempest_, act i. sc. 2.

I will have honest valiant souls about me,
I cannot _miss_ thee.

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER, _The Mad Lover_, act. ii.

=MODEL.= This is due to a French form from a late Latin diminutive of ‘modulus,’ a diminutive of ‘modus;’ but this diminutive sense which once went constantly with the word, and which will alone explain the quotations which follow, when it lies in the word now, exists only by accident of context.

O England, _model_ to thy inward greatness,
Like little body with a mighty heart.

SHAKESPEARE, _Henry V._, act ii. Chorus.

And nothing can we call our own but death,
And that small _model_ of the barren earth
Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.

Id., _Richard II._, act iii. sc. 2.

If Solomon’s Temple were compared to some structures and fanes
of heathen gods, it would appear as St. Gregory’s to St. Paul’s
(the babe by the mother’s side), or rather this David’s _model_
would be like David himself standing by Goliath, so gigantic
were some pagan fabrics in comparison thereof.--FULLER, _A
Pisgah Sight of Palestine_, b. iii. c. 3.

=MOOD.= It is hardly necessary to observe that there are two ‘moods’ in the English language, the one the Latin ‘modus,’ and existing in the two forms of ‘mood’ (grammatical) and ‘mode;’ the other the Anglo-Saxon ‘mód,’ the German ‘muth.’ It is this last with which we are dealing here. It would seem as if its homonym had influenced it so far as to take out in great part the force from it, though not from ‘moody;’ but it had not always so done.

And on here bare knees adoun they falle,
And wolde han kist his feet ther as he stood,
Till atte laste aslaked was his _mood_.

CHAUCER, _The Knightes Tale_, 900.

And as a lion skulking all in night
Far off in pastures, and, come home, all dight
In jaws and breastlocks with an oxe’s blood
New feasted on him, his looks full of _mood_,
So looked Ulysses.

CHAPMAN, _Homer’s Odysseis_, xxii. 518.

Then Phœbus gathered up his steeds that yet for fear had run
Like flaighted fiends, and in his _mood_ without respect begun
To beat his whipstock on their pates, and lash them on their sides.

GOLDING, _Ovid’s Metamorphosis_, b. ii.

=MOROSE.= It is very curious that while the classical ‘mōrosus’ expressed one given overmuch to his own manners, habits, ways (mores), very nearly the Greek αὐθέκαστος, the medieval ‘mŏrosus’ was commonly connected with ‘mora,’ a delay;[20] and in treatises of Christian ethics was the technical word to express the sin of _delaying_ upon impure, wanton, or, as in the quotation from South, malignant thoughts, instead of rejecting them on the instant. See, for instance, Gerson, _Opp._, vol. i. p. 377, for evidence constantly recurring of its connexion for him with ‘mora.’ So long as the scholastic theology exerted more or less influence on our own, ‘morose’ was often employed in this sense; which, however, it has since entirely foregone. I owe the third quotation given below to Todd, who is so entirely unaware of this history of ‘morose,’ that he explains it there as ungovernable!

Here are forbidden all wanton words, and all _morose_
delighting in venereous thoughts, all rolling and tossing such
things in our minds.--Bishop TAYLOR, _Doctrine and Practice of
Repentance_, c. 4, § 1.

All _morose_ thoughts, that is, _delaying_, dwelling, or
insisting on such thoughts, fancying of such unclean matters
with delectation.--HAMMOND, _Practical Catechism_, b. ii. § 6.

In this [the seventh] commandment are forbidden all that feed
this sin [adultery], or are incentives to it, as luxurious
diet, inflaming wines, an idle life, _morose_ thoughts, that
dwell in the fancy with delight.--NICHOLSON, _Exposition of the
Catechism_, 1662, p. 123.

For we must know that it is the _morose_ dwelling of the
thoughts upon an injury, a long and sullen meditation upon a
wrong, that incorporates and rivets it into the mind.--SOUTH,
_Sermons_, vol. x. p. 278.

=MORTAL.= We speak still of a ‘mortal’ sin or a ‘mortal’ wound, but the active sense has nearly departed from the word, as the passive has altogether departed from ‘deadly,’ which see.

Were there a serpent seen with forkéd tongue
That slily glided towards your majesty,
It were but necessary you were waked,
Lest, being suffered in that harmful slumber,
The _mortal_ worm might make the sleep eternal.

SHAKESPEARE, _2 Henry VI._, act iii. sc. 2.

Come, thou _mortal_ wretch,
With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate
Of life at once untie.

Id., _Antony and Cleopatra_, act v. sc. 2.

=MOUNTEBANK.= Now _any_ antic fool; but once restrained to the quack-doctor who at fairs and such places of resort, having _mounted_ on a _bank_ or _bench_, from thence proclaimed the virtue of his drugs; being described by Whitlock (_Zootomia_, p. 436) as ‘a fellow above the vulgar more by three planks and two empty hogsheads than by any true skill.’ See the quotation from Jackson, _s. v._ ‘Authentic.’

Such is the weakness and easy credulity of men, that a
_mountebank_ or cunning woman is preferred before an able
physician.--WHITLOCK, _Zootomia_, p. 437.

Giving no cause of complaint to any but such as are unwilling
to be healed of their shameful and dangerous diseases, who
love ignorant and flattering _mountebanks_ more than the
most learned and faithful physicians of souls.--GAUDEN,
_Hieraspistes_, p. 427.

Above the reach of antidotes, the power
Of the famed Pontic _mountebank_ to cure.

OLDHAM, _Third Satire upon the Jesuits_.

=MUSE.= There is a very curious use of ‘Muse’ in our earlier literature, according to which the female sex of this inspirer of song falls quite out of sight. This recurs too often and too deliberately to be explained away as the accidental inaccuracy of some single writer.

Nor in the pomp of proud audacious deeds
Intends our _Muse_ to vaunt _his_ heavenly verse.

MARLOWE, _Dr. Faustus_, 5, 6.

So is it not with me as with that _Muse_,
Stirred by a painted beauty to _his_ verse.

SHAKESPEARE, _Sonnet 21_.

So may some gentle _Muse_,
With lucky words favour my destined urn,
And, as _he_ passes, turn.

MILTON, _Lycidas_, 19.

Sharp-judging Adriel, the Muses’ friend,
Himself a _Muse_.

DRYDEN, _Absalom and Achitophel_, pt. 1.

=MUTTON.= It is a refinement in the English language, one wanting in some other languages which count themselves as refined or more, that it has in so many cases one word to express the living animal, and another its flesh prepared for food; ox and beef, calf and veal, deer and venison, sheep and mutton. In this last instance the refinement is of somewhat late introduction. At one time they were synonyms.

Peucestas, having feasted them in the kingdom of Persia, and
given every soldier a _mutton_ to sacrifice, thought he had won
great favour and credit among them.--NORTH, _Plutarch’s Lives_,
p. 505.

A starved _mutton’s_ carcass would better fit their
palates.--BEN JONSON, _The Sad Shepherd_, act i. sc. 2.