Chapter VII: Part 7

=NAMELY.= Now only designates; but, like the German ‘namentlich,’ once designated as first and chief, as deserving above all others to be named.

For there are many disobedient, and talkers of vanity,
and deceivers of minds, _namely_ [μάλιστα] they of the
circumcision.--_Tit._ i. 10. TYNDALE.

For in the darkness occasioned by the opposition of the earth
just in the mids between the sun and the moon, there was
nothing for him [Nicias] to fear, and _namely_ at such a time,
when there was cause for him to have stood upon his feet, and
served valiantly in the field.--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s Morals_,
p. 265.

=NATURALIST.= At present the student of natural history; but in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the name was often given to the deist, as one who denied any but a religion _of nature_, ‘Natural religion men’ such were sometimes called. See the quotation from Rogers, _s. v._ ‘Civil.’

But that he [the atheist] might not be shy of me, I have
conformed myself as near his own garb as I might, without
partaking of his folly or wickedness; and have appeared in the
plain shape of a mere _naturalist_ myself, that I might, if it
were possible, win him off from downright atheism.--H. MORE,
_Antidote against Atheism_, Preface, p. 7.

This is the invention of Satan, that whereas all will not
be profane, nor _naturalists_, nor epicures, but will be
religious, lo, he hath a bait for every fish, and can insinuate
himself as well into religion itself as into lusts and
pleasures.--ROGERS, _Naaman the Syrian_, p. 115.

Heathen _naturalists_ hold better consort with the primitive
Church concerning the nature of sin original than the
Socinians.--JACKSON, _Of Christ’s Everlasting Priesthood_, b.
x. c. 8, § 4.

=NEEDFUL.= This was once often equivalent to ‘needy.’ The words, however, have in more recent times been discriminated in use, and ‘needy’ is active, and ‘needful’ passive.

These ferthinges shal be gaderid at everi moneth ende, and
delid forth to the _needful_ man in honor of Christ and his
moder.--_English Gilds_, p. 38.

Grieve not the heart of him that is helpless, and withdraw not
the gift from the _needful_.--_Ecclus._ iv. 2. COVERDALE.

For thou art the poor man’s help, and strength for the
_needful_ in his necessity.--_Isai._ xxv. 3. Id.

Great variety of clothes have been permitted to princes and
nobility, and they usually give those clothes as rewards to
servants and other persons _needful_ enough.--Bishop TAYLOR,
_Holy Living_, iv. 8, 13.

=NEPHEW.= Restrained at this present to the son of a brother or a sister; but formerly of much laxer use, a grandson, or even a remoter lineal descendant. In East Anglia it is still so used in the popular language (see Nall, _Dialects of the East Coast_, s. v.). ‘Nephew’ in fact has undergone exactly the same change of meaning that ‘nepos’ in Latin underwent; which in the Augustan age meaning grandson, in the post-Augustan acquired the signification of ‘nephew’ in our present acceptation of that word. See ‘Niece.’

The warts, black moles, spots and freckles of fathers, not
appearing at all upon their own children’s skin, begin
afterwards to put forth and show themselves in their _nephews_,
to wit, the children of their sons and daughters.--HOLLAND,
_Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 555.

With what intent they [the apocryphal books] were first
published, those words of the _nephew_ of Jesus do plainly
enough signify: After that my _grandfather_ Jesus had given
himself to the reading of the law and the prophets, he
purposed also to write something pertaining to learning and
wisdom.--HOOKER, _Ecclesiastical Polity_, b. v. c. 20.

If any widow have children or _nephews_ [ἔκγονα], let them
learn first to show piety at home, and to requite their
parents.--_1 Tim._ v. 4. (A.V.)

=NICE.= The use of ‘nice’ in the sense of fastidious, difficult to please, still survives, indeed this is now, as in times past, the ruling notion of the word; only this ‘niceness’ is taken now much oftener in good part than in ill; nor, even when taken in an ill sense, would the word be used exactly as in the passage which follows.

A. W. [Anthony Wood] was with him several times, ate and drank
with him, and had several discourses with him concerning arms
and armory, which he understood well; but he found him _nice_
and supercilious.--A. WOOD, _Athenæ Oxonienses_, 1848, vol. i.
p. 161.

=NIECE.= This word has undergone the same change and limitation of meaning as ‘nephew,’ with indeed the further limitation that it is now applied to the female sex alone, to the _daughter_ of a brother or a sister, being once used, as ‘neptis’ was at the first, for children’s children, male and female alike. See ‘Nephew.’

Laban answeride to hym: My dowytres and sones, and the flockis,
and alle that thou beholdist, ben myne, and what may I do to my
sones and to my _neces_?--_Gen._ xxi. 43 (cf. _Exod._ xxxiv.
7). WICLIF.

The Emperor Augustus, among other singularities that he had by
himself during his life, saw, ere he died, the nephew of his
_niece_, that is to say, his progeny to the fourth degree of
lineal descent.--HOLLAND, _Pliny_, vol. i. p. 162.

Within the compass of which very same time he [Julius Cæsar]
lost by death first his mother, then his daughter Julia,
and not long after his _niece_ by the said daughter.--Id.,
_Suetonius_, p. 11.

=NOISOME=, }
NOISOMENESS. }

At present offensive and moving disgust; but once noxious and actually hurtful; thus a skunk would be ‘noisome’ now; a tiger was ‘noisome’ then. In all passages of the Authorized Translation of the Bible where the word occurs, as at _Ezek._ xiv. 15, 21, it is used not in the present meaning, but the past. See ‘Annoy.’

They that will be rich fall into temptations and snares, and
into many foolish and _noisome_ [βλαβεράς] lusts, which drown
men in perdition and destruction.--_1 Tim._ vi. 9. Geneva.

He [the superstitious person] is persuaded that they be gods
indeed, but such as be _noisome_, hurtful, and doing mischief
unto men.--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 260.

This _noisome_ creature [the crocodile] is one of the greatest
wonders we meet with, in that from so small a beginning as an
egg, not much bigger than that of a turkey, they increase to
eight or ten yards in length.--HERBERT, _Travels_, 1636, p. 323.

They [the prelates] are so far from hindering dissension, that
they have made unprofitable, and even _noisome_, the chiefest
remedy we have to keep Christendom at one, which is, by
Councils.--MILTON, _Reason of Church Government_, b. i. c. 6.

Sad in his time was the condition of the Israelites, oppressed
by the Midianites, who swarmed like grasshoppers for number and
_noisomeness_, devouring all which the other had sown.--FULLER,
_A Pisgah Sight of Palestine_, part i. b. ii. c. 8.

=NOVEL=, }
NOVELIST. }

‘Novels’ once were simply news, ‘nouvelles;’ and the ‘novelist’ not a writer of new tales, but an innovator, a bringer in of new fashions into the Church or State.

She brynges in her bille som _novels_ new;
Behold! it is of an olif tree
A branch, thynkes me.

_Townley Mysteries._

But, see and say what you will, _novelists_ had rather be
talked of, that they began a fashion and set a copy for
others, than to keep within the imitation of the most excellent
precedents.--HACKET, _Life of Archbishop Williams_, part ii. p.
36.

Every _novelist_ with a whirligig in his brain must broach new
opinions, and those made canons, nay sanctions, as sure as if
a General Council had confirmed them.--ADAMS, _The Devil’s
Banquet_, 1614, p. 52.

I can hardly believe my eyes while I read such a petit
_novelist_ charging the whole Church as fools and heretics for
not subscribing to a silly heretical notion, solely of his own
invention.--SOUTH, _Animadversions on Dr. Sherlock’s Book_, p.
3.

=NURSERY.= We have but one use of ‘nursery’ at this present, namely as the place of nursing; but it was once applied as well to the person nursed, or the act of nursing.

A jolly dame, no doubt; as appears by the well battling of
the plump boy, her _nursery_.--FULLER, _A Pisgah Sight of
Palestine_, part i. b. ii. c. 8.

If _nursery_ exceeds her [a mother’s] strength, and yet her
conscience will scarce permit her to lay aside and free herself
from so natural, so religious a work, yet tell her, God loves
mercy better than sacrifice.--ROGERS, _Matrimonial Honour_, p.
247.

I loved her most, and thought to set my rest
On her kind _nursery_.

SHAKESPEARE, _King Lear_, act i. sc. 1.

=OBELISK.= The ‘obelus’ is properly a sharp-pointed spear or spit. With a sign resembling this, spurious or doubtful passages were marked in the books of antiquity, which sign bore therefore this name of ‘obelus,’ or sometimes of its diminutive ‘obeliscus.’ It is in this sense that we find ‘obelisk’ employed by the writers in the seventeenth century; while for us at the present a small pillar tapering towards the summit is the only ‘obelisk’ that we know.

The Lord Keeper, the most circumspect of any man alive to
provide for uniformity, and to countenance it, was scratched
with their _obelisk_, that he favoured Puritans, and that
sundry of them had protection through his connivency or
clemency.--HACKET, _Life of Archbishop Williams_, part i. p. 95.

I have set my mark upon them [_i.e._ affected pedantic words];
and if any of them may have chanced to escape the _obelisk_,
there can arise no other inconvenience from it but an occasion
to exercise the choice and judgment of the reader.--PHILLIPS,
_New World of Words_, Preface.

=OBNOXIOUS.= This, in its present lax and slovenly use a vague unserviceable synonym for offensive, is properly applied to one who on the ground of a mischief or wrong committed by him is justly liable to punishment (_ob noxam_ pœnæ obligatus); and is used in this sense by South (see below). But there often falls out of the word the sense of a wrong committed; and that of liability to punishment, whether just or unjust, only remains; it does so very markedly in the quotation from Donne. But we punish, or wish to punish, those whom we dislike, and thus ‘obnoxious’ has obtained its present sense of offensive.

They envy Christ, but they turn upon the man, who was more
_obnoxious_ to them, and they tell him that it was not lawful
for him to carry his bed that day [_John_ v. 10].--DONNE,
_Sermon 20_.

Examine thyself in the particulars of thy relations; especially
where thou governest and takest accounts of others, and art not
so _obnoxious_ to them as they to thee.--Bishop TAYLOR, _The
Worthy Communicant_, c. vi. sect. 2.

What shall we then say of the power of God Himself to dispose
of men? little, finite, _obnoxious_ things of his own
making?--SOUTH, _Sermons_, 1744, vol. viii. p. 315.

He [Satan] is in a chain, and that chain is in God’s hand; and
consequently, notwithstanding his utmost spite, he cannot be
more malicious than he is _obnoxious_.--Id., _ib._ vol. vi. p.
287.

=OBSEQUIOUS=, }
OBSEQUIOUSNESS. }

There lies ever in ‘obsequious’ at the present the sense of an observance which is overdone, of an unmanly readiness to fall in with the will of another; there lay nothing of this in the Latin ‘obsequium,’ nor yet in our English word as employed two centuries ago. See the quotation from Feltham, _s. v._ ‘Garb.’

Besides many other fishes in divers places, which are very
obeisant and _obsequious_, when they be called by their
names.--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 970.

I ever set this down, that the only course to be held with the
Queen was by _obsequiousness_ and observance.--Lord BACON,
_Defence of Himself_.

His corrections are so far from compelling men to come to
heaven, as that they put many men farther out of their way, and
work an obduration rather than an _obsequiousness_.--DONNE,
_Sermon 45_.

In her relation to the king she was the best pattern of
conjugal love and _obsequiousness_.--BATES, _Sermon upon the
Death of the Queen_.

=OCCUPY=, }
OCCUPIER. }

He now ‘occupies’ who has in present possession; but the word involved once the further signification of using, employing, laying out that which was thus possessed; and by an ‘occupier’ was meant a trader or retail dealer.

He [Eumenes] made as though he had occasion to _occupy_ money,
and so borrowed a great sum of them.--NORTH, _Plutarch’s
Lives_, p. 505.

If they bind me fast with new ropes that never were _occupied_,
then shall I be weak, and be as another man.--_Judges_ xvi. 11.
(A.V.)

Mercury, the master of merchants and _occupiers_
[ἀγοραίων].--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 692.

=OFFAL.= This, bearing its derivation on its front, namely that it is that which, as refuse and of little or no worth, is suffered or caused to _fall off_, we restrict at the present to the refuse of the butcher’s stall; but it was once employed in a much wider acceptation, an acceptation which here and there still survives. Thus, as one who writes to me, ‘in all her Majesty’s dockyards there is a monthly sale by auction of “offal wood,” being literally that which _falls off_ from the log under the saw, axe, or adze.’

Glean not in barren soil these _offal_ ears,
Sith reap thou may’st whole harvests of delight.

SOUTHWELL, _Lewd Love is Loss_.

Of gold the very smallest filings are precious, and our
Blessed Saviour, when there was no want of provision, yet gave
it in charge to his disciples, the _off-fall_ should not be
lost.--SANDERSON, _Preface to the Clavi Trabales_.

Poor Lazarus lies howling at his gates for a few crumbs; he
only seeks chippings, _offals_; let him roar and howl, famish
and eat his own flesh; he respects him not.--BURTON, _Anatomy
of Melancholy_, part iii. sect. 1.

=OFFICIOUS=, }
OFFICIOUSNESS.}

Again and again we light on words used once in a good, but now in an unfavourable, sense. An ‘officious’ person is now a busy uninvited meddler in matters which do not belong to him; so late as Burke’s time he might be one prompt and forward in due _offices_ of kindness. The more honourable use of ‘officious’ now only survives in the distinction familiar to diplomacy between an ‘official’ and ‘officious’ communication.

With granted leave _officious_ I return.

MILTON, _Paradise Regained_, ii. 302.

_Officious_, ready to do good offices, serviceable, friendly,
very courteous and obliging.--PHILLIPS, _New World of Words_.

They [the nobility of France] were tolerably well bred, very
_officious_, humane, and hospitable.--BURKE, _Reflections on
the Revolution in France_, p. 251.

Well try’d through many a varying year,
See Levett to the grave descend,
_Officious_, innocent, sincere,
Of every friendless name the friend.

S. JOHNSON (A.D. 1782).

Which familiar and affectionate _officiousness_ and sumptuous
cost, together with that sinister fame that woman was noted
with [_Luke_ vii. 37], could not but give much scandal to
the Pharisees there present.--H. MORE, _Grand Mystery of
Godliness_, b. viii. c. 13.

=ORIENT.= This had once a beautiful use, as clear, bright, shining, which has now wholly departed from it. Thus, the ‘orient’ pearl of our earlier poets is not ‘oriental,’ but pellucid, white, shining. Doubtless it acquired this meaning originally from the greater clearness and lightness of the east, as the quarter whence the day breaks.

Those shells that keep in the main sea, and lie deeper than
that the sunbeams can pierce unto them, keep the finest and
most delicate pearls. And yet they as _orient_ as they be, wax
yellow with age.--HOLLAND, _Pliny_, vol. i. p. 255.

He, who out of that dark chaos made the glorious heavens,
and garnished them with so many _orient_ stars, can move
upon thy dark soul and enlighten it, though now it be as
void of knowledge as the evening of the first day was of
light.--GURNALL, _Christian in Complete Armour_, ii. 22, 1.

Her wings and train of feathers, mixed fine
Of _orient_ azure and incarnadine.

SYLVESTER, _Du Bartas, Fifth Day_.

Κόκκος βαφική, a shrub, whose red berries or grains gave
an _orient_ tincture to cloth.--FULLER, _A Pisgah Sight of
Palestine_, b. iv. c. 6.

=ORTOLAN.= This, the name now of a delicate bird haunting _gardens_, was once the name of the gardener (‘hortolanus,’ ‘ortolano’) himself.

Though to an old tree it must needs be somewhat dangerous to
be oft removed, yet for my part I yield myself entirely to
the will and pleasure of the most notable _ortolan_.--_State
Papers_, 1536, vol. vi. p. 534.

=OSTLER.= Not formerly the servant of the inn having care of the horses, but the innkeeper or host, the ‘hosteller’ himself.

And another dai he brougte forth twey pans, and gaf to the
_ostiler_ [stabulario, Vulg].--_Luke_ x. 35. WICLIF.

The _innkeeper_ was old, fourscore almost;
Indeed an emblem, rather than an host;
In whom we read how God and Time decree
To honour thrifty _ostlers_, such as he.

CORBET. _Iter. Boreale._

=OUGHT.= Of the two perfects of the verb ‘to owe’ (see Morris, _English Accidence_, p. 189; and Earle, _Philology of the English Tongue_, § 289), namely ‘ought’ and ‘owed,’ the former has come now to be used of a moral owing or obligation only, never of a material; but it was not always so. In the passage from Spenser ‘ought’ is used in the sense of ‘possessed.’ Among the many tacit alterations which our Authorized Version has at various times undergone, the substitution in many places of ‘owed’ for ‘ought’ is one.

But th’ Elfin knight which _ought_ that warlike wage,
Disdaind to loose the meed he wonne in fray.

SPENSER, _Fairy Queen_, i. 4, 39.

There was a certain creditor, who had two debtors. The one
_ought_ five hundred pence, and the other fifty.--_Luke_ vii.
41. (A. V.)

Also we forgive the oversights and faults committed against
us, and the crown-tax that ye _ought_ us.--_1 Macc._ xiii. 39.
Geneva Version.

=OVERTURE.= Not now an aperture or opening, in the literal and primary sense of the word, as formerly it was; but always in some secondary and derived.

The squirrels also foresee a tempest coming; and look in what
corner the wind is like to stand, on that side they stop up the
mouth of their holes, and make an _overture_ on the other side
against it.--HOLLAND, _Pliny_, b. viii. c. 38.

=PAINFUL=, }
PAINFULNESS, }
PAINFULLY. }

‘Painful’ is now feeling pain, or inflicting it; it was once taking pains. Many things would not be so ‘painful’ in the present sense of the word, if they had been more ‘painful’ in the earlier,--as perhaps some sermons.

Within fourteen generations, the royal blood of the kings
of Judah ran in the veins of plain Joseph, a _painful_
carpenter.--FULLER, _Holy War_, b. v. c. 29.

I think we have some as _painful_ magistrates as ever was in
England.--LATIMER, _Sermons_, p. 142.

_Painfulness_ by feeble means shall be able to gain that which
in the plenty of more forcible instruments is through sloth and
negligence lost.--HOOKER, _Ecclesiastical Polity_, b. v. § 22.

O the holiness of their living, and _painfulness_ of their
preaching!--FULLER, _Holy State_, b. ii. c. 6.

Whoever would be truly thankful, let him live in some
honest vocation, and therein bestow himself faithfully and
_painfully_.--SANDERSON, _Sermons_, vol. i. p. 251.

=PALESTINE.= This is now a name for the entire Holy Land; but in the Authorized Version ‘Palestine,’ or ‘Palestina,’ as it is written three times out of the four on which it occurs, is used in a far more restricted sense, namely, as equivalent to Philistia, that narrow strip of coast occupied by the Philistines. This a close examination of the several passages (see Wright’s _Dictionary of the Bible_) will make abundantly clear. And it is also invariably so employed by Milton; thus see, besides the passage quoted below, _Samson Agonistes_, 144, and _On the Nativity_, 199.

Rejoice not thou, whole _Palestina_, because the rod of him
that smote thee is broken.--_Isai._ xiv. 29. (A.V.)

Such their [the Philistines’] puissance, that from them the
Greeks and Latins called all this land _Palestina_, because the
Philistines lived on the sea coast, most obvious to the notice
of foreigners.--FULLER, _A Pisgah Sight of Palestine_, ii. 10,
23.

Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward man
And downward fish: yet had his temple high
Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast
Of _Palestine_, in Gath and Ascalon,
And Accaron, and Gaza’s frontier bounds.

MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, i. 462.

=PALLIATE=, }
PALLIATION. }

‘To palliate’ is at this day to extenuate a fault through the setting out of whatever will best serve to diminish the estimate of its gravity; and does not imply any endeavour wholly to deny it; nay, implies rather a certain recognition and admission of the fault itself. Truer to its etymology once, it expressed the _cloking_ of it, the attempt, successful or otherwise, entirely to conceal and cover it. Eve ‘palliates’ her fault in the modern sense of the word (_Gen._ iii. 13), Gehazi in the earlier (_2 Kin._ v. 25).

You cannot _palliate_ mischief, but it will
Through all the fairest coverings of deceit
Be always seen.

DANIEL, _The Tragedy of Philotas_, act iv. sc. 2.

You see the Devil could fetch up nothing of Samuel at
the request of Saul, but a shadow and a resemblance, his
countenance and his mantle, which yet was not enough to cover
the cheat, or to _palliate_ the illusion.--SOUTH, _Sermon on
Easter Day_.

The generality of Christians make the external frame of
religion but a _palliation_ for sin.--H. MORE, _Grand Mystery
of Godliness_, p. ix.

=PANTOMIME.=--Now the mimic show itself, but at the first introduction of the word (Bacon’s constant use of ‘pantomimus’ and ‘pantomimi,’ and Ben Jonson’s as well, testify that it was new in their time), the player who presented the show.

I would our _pantomimes_ also and stage-players would examine
themselves and their callings by this rule.--SANDERSON, _Sermon
on 1 Cor._ vii. 24.

The hypocrite cometh forth in a disguise, and acteth his part,
and because men applaud him, thinketh God is of their mind,
as the _pantomime_ in Seneca, who observing the people well
pleased with his dancing, did every day go up into the Capitol
and dance before Jupiter, and was persuaded that he was also
delighted in him.--FARINGDON, _Sermon 10_.

Not that I think those _pantomimes_,
Who vary actions with the times,
Are less ingenious in their art
Than those who dully act one part.

BUTLER, _Hudibras_, p. 3, can. 2.

=PATHETIC=, }
PATHETICAL, }
PATHETICALLY. }

The ‘pathetic’ is now only _one_ kind of the passionate, that which, feeling _pity_, is itself capable of stirring it; but ‘pathetic’ or ‘pathetical’ and ‘passionate’ were once of an equal reach. When in a language like ours two words, derived from two different languages, as in this case from the Greek and from the Latin, exist side by side, being at the same time identical in signification, the desynonymizing process which we may note here, continually comes into play.

He [Hiel, cf. _Josh._ vi. 26 and _1 Kings_ xvi. 34] mistood
Joshua’s curse rather for a _pathetical_ expression than
prophetical prediction.--FULLER, _A Pisgah Sight of Palestine_,
b. ii. c. 12.

Whatever word enhanceth Joseph’s praise,
Her echo doubles it, and doth supply
Some more _pathetic_ and transcendant phrase
To raise his merit.

BEAUMONT, _Psyche_, c. i. st. 148.

For Truth, I know not how, hath this unhappiness fatal to
her, ere she can come to the trial and inspection of the
understanding; being to pass through many little wards and
limits of the several affections and desires, she cannot
shift it, but must put on such colours and attire as those
_pathetical_ handmaids of the soul please to lead her in to
their queen.--MILTON, _Reason of Church Government_, b. ii. c.
3.

But the principal point whereon our apostle pitcheth for
evincing the priesthood of Christ to be far more excellent than
the Levitical priesthood was, was reserved to the last, and
_pathetically_ though briefly avouched, ver. 20 [_Heb._ vii.
20].--JACKSON, _Of the Divine Essence and Attributes_, b. ix. §
2.

=PATTERN.= One is at first tempted to accuse our Translators of an inaccuracy at _Heb._ ix. 23, since, whatever ὑπόδειγμα may mean elsewhere, it is impossible that it can there mean ‘pattern,’ in our sense of exemplar or original from which a copy or sketch is derived, ‘patron’ upon whom the client forms and fashions himself. This is inconsistent with, and would indeed entirely defeat, the whole argument of the Apostle. The ὑποδείγματα there can be only the earthly copies and imitations of the heavenly and archetypal originals, ἀντίτυπα τῶν ἀληθινῶν. A passage, however, in the _Homilies_ entirely relieves them from any charge of error. All that can be said is that they have employed ‘pattern’ in a somewhat unusual sense, but one which an analogous use of ‘copy’ in our own day sufficiently explains.

Which priests serve unto the _patron_ [ὑποδείγματι] and shadow
of heavenly things.--_Heb._ viii. 5. Geneva.

It was therefore necessary that the _patterns_ of things in the
heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things
themselves with better sacrifices than these.--_Heb._ ix. 23.
(A.V.)

Where most rebellions and rebels be, there is the express
similitude of hell, and the rebels themselves are the
very figures of fiends and devils; and their captain, the
ungracious _pattern_ of Lucifer and Satan, the prince of
darkness.--_Homilies, Against Wilful Rebellion._

=PEEVISH=, }
PEEVISHNESS. }

By ‘peevishness’ we now understand a small but constantly fretting ill-temper; yet no one can read our old authors, with whom ‘peevish’ and ‘peevishness’ are of constant recurrence, without feeling that their use of them is different from ours; although precisely to determine what their use was is anything but easy. Gifford (_Massinger_, vol. i. p. 71) says confidently, ‘peevish is foolish;’ but upon induction from an insufficient number of passages. ‘Peevish’ is rather self-willed, obstinate. That in a world like ours those who refuse to give up their own wills should be continually crossed, and thus should become fretful, and ‘peevish’ in our modern sense of the word, is inevitable; and here is the history of the change of meaning which it has undergone.

_Valentine._ Cannot your grace win her to fancy him?

_Duke._ No, trust me; she is _peevish_, sullen, froward,
Proud, disobedient, stubborn, lacking duty.

SHAKESPEARE, _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, act iii. sc. 1.

We provoke, rail, scoff, calumniate, challenge, hate, abuse
(hard-hearted, implacable, malicious, _peevish_, inexorable
as we are), to satisfy our lust or private spleen.--BURTON,
_Anatomy of Melancholy_, part iii. § 1.

_Pertinax_ hominum genus, a _peevish_ generation of men.--Id.,
_ib._, part iii. § 4.

That grand document of keeping to the light within us they
[the Quakers] borrow out of St. John’s Gospel; and yet they
are so frantic and _peevish_, that they would fling away the
staff without which they are not able to make one step in
religion.--H. MORE, _Grand Mystery of Godliness_, b. viii. c.
12.

In case the Romans, upon an inbred _peevishness_ and engraffed
pertinacity of theirs, should not hear reason, but refuse an
indifferent end, then both God and man shall be witness as well
of the moderation of Perseus, as of their pride and insolent
frowardness.--HOLLAND, _Livy_, p. 1152.

We must carefully distinguish continuance in opinion from
obstinacy, confidence of understanding from _peevishness_ of
affection, a not being convinced from a resolution never to be
convinced.--Bishop TAYLOR, _Liberty of Prophesying_, § ii. 10.

=PENCIL.= The distinction between ‘pencil’ and paint-brush is quite modern. The older use of ‘pencil’ (‘penecillus,’ or little tail) was etymologically more correct than the modern; the brush being so called because it hung and drooped as does that.

Heaven knows, they were besmeared and overstained
With slaughter’s _pencil_, where revenge did paint
The fearful difference of incensed kings.

SHAKESPEARE, _King John_, act iii. sc. 1.

Learning is necessary to him [the heretic], if he trades in
a critical error; but if he only broaches dregs, and deals
in some dull sottish opinion, a trowel will serve as well as
a _pencil_ to daub on such thick coarse colours.--FULLER,
_Profane State_, b. v. c. 10.

The first thing she did after rising was to have recourse to
the _red-pot_, out of which she laid it on very thick with a
_pencil_, not only on her cheeks, chin, under the nose, above
the eyebrows and edges of the ears, but also on the inside of
her hands, her fingers, and shoulders.--_The Lady’s Travels
into Spain_, Letter 8.

=PENITENTIARY.= It is curious that this word has possessed three entirely independent meanings, namely penitent, ordainer of penances in the Church, and place for penitents; only the last is current now.

So Manasseh in the beginning and middle of his reign filled the
city with innocent blood, and died a _penitentiary_.--JACKSON,
_Christ’s Session at God’s Right Hand_, b. ii. c. 42.

’Twas a French friar’s conceit that courtiers were of
all men the likeliest to forsake the world and turn
_penitentiaries_.--HAMMOND, _The Seventh Sermon_, _Works_, vol.
iv. p. 517.

_Penitentiary_, a priest that imposes upon an offender what
penance he thinks fit.--PHILLIPS, _New World of Words_.

=PENSIVE=, }
PENSIVENESS. }

He is ‘pensive,’ according to our present estimate of the word, in whom a certain mild and meditative sadness finds place; and in thus attaching to the word this meaning of a thoughtful sadness we are truer to its etymology than were our ancestors, when they used it, as they often did, to express the sharpest anguish of grief. Thus, in my first quotation, by ‘the pensive court’ is meant the Court of David, which has just received tidings of the slaughter by Absalom of all the king’s sons.

The _pensive_ court in doleful dumps did rue
This dismal case.

FULLER, _Poem on David’s hainous Sin._

Great is the wit of _pensiveness_, and when the head is racked
With hard misfortune sharp forecast of practice entereth in.

GOLDING, _Ovid’s Metamorphosis_, b. vi.

What is care and thought? a plain token of diffidence and
distrust of God. It is an unfaithful care and _pensiveness_ of
the mind for meat, drink, clothing.--BECON, _Works_, vol. iii.
p. 611.

=PENURY.= This expresses now no more than the _objective_ fact of extreme poverty; an ethical _subjective_ meaning not lying in it, as would sometimes of old. This is now retained only in ‘penurious,’ ‘penuriousness.’

God sometimes punishes one sin with another; pride
with adultery, drunkenness with murder, carelessness
with irreligion, idleness with vanity, _penury_ with
oppression.--Bishop TAYLOR, _The Faith and Patience of the
Saints_.

[=PERSEVERANCE.= This word frequently occurs in literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth century in the sense of perception, discernment. ‘Perseverance’ = discernment should be carefully distinguished from ‘perseverance’ (French _perseverance_, Latin _perseverantia_) = persistency, constancy. The former in many texts is spelt with a _c_ instead of an _s_, as ‘perceverance,’ ‘perceyverance,’ ‘perceiverance.’ This spelling gives the key to the etymology; the word is a derivative from Old French _percevoir_, _percever_ = Latin _percipere_, to perceive. For a good collection of illustrative passages see _Notes and Queries_ (1st S. vii. 400.)]

If the dead have anie _perceverance_.

GOLDING (see _N. and Q._)

She had more _perceverance_ of the Hebrues law.--LANGLEY’S
_Polidore Vergile_ (see _N. and Q._)

For his dyet he [Ariosto] was verie temperate, and a great
enemie of excesse and surfetting, and so carelesse of delicates
as though he had no _perseverance_ in the tast of meates.--Sir
J. HARINGTON, _Life of Ariosto_, p. 418.

He [Æmilius Paulus] suddenly fell into a raving (without
any _perseverance_ of sickness spied in him before, or any
change or alteration in him [πρὶν αἰσθέσθαι καὶ νοῆσαι τὴν
μεταβολήν]), and his wits went from him in such sort that he
died three days after.--NORTH, _Plutarch’s Lives_, p. 221.

=PERSON.= We have forfeited the full force of the statement, ‘God is no respecter of _persons_;’ from the fact that ‘person’ does not mean for us now all that it once meant. ‘Person,’ from ‘persona,’ the mask constantly worn by the actor of antiquity, is by natural transfer the part or _rôle_ in the play which each sustains, as πρόσωπον is in Greek. In the great tragi-comedy of life each sustains a ‘person;’ one that of a king, another that of a peasant; one must play Dives, another Lazarus. This ‘person’ God, for whom the question is not _what_ ‘person’ each sustains, but _how_ he sustains it, does not respect.

_King._ What, rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison
The immediate heir of England! was this easy?
May this be washed in Lethe, and forgotten?

_Chief Justice._ I then did use the _person_ of your father;
The image of his power lay then in me.

SHAKESPEARE, _2 Henry IV._, act v. sc. 2.

Cæsar also is brought in by Julian attributing to himself the
honour (if it were at all an honour to that _person_ which he
sustained), of being the first that left his ship and took
land.--MILTON, _History of England_, b. ii.

Her gifts
Were such as under government well seemed;
Unseemly to bear rule, which was thy part
And _person_, hadst thou known thyself aright.

Id., _Paradise Lost_, x. 153.

Certain it is, that no man can long put on a _person_ and act a
part but his evil manners will peep through the corners of his
white robe, and God will bring a hypocrite to shame even in the
eyes of men.--Bishop TAYLOR, _Apples of Sodom_.

=PERSPECTIVE.= ‘Telescope’ and ‘microscope’ are both as old as Milton; but for a long while ‘perspective’ (glass being sometimes understood, and sometimes expressed) did the work of these. It is sometimes written ‘prospective.’ Our present use of ‘perspective’ hardly dates farther back than Dryden.

A guilty conscience
Is a black register, wherein is writ
All our good deeds and bad, a _perspective_
That shows us hell.

WEBSTER, _Duchess of Malfi_, act iv. sc. 2.

While we look for incorruption in the heavens, we find
they are but like the earth, durable in their main bodies,
alterable in their parts; whereof, beside comets and new
stars, _perspectives_ begin to tell tales; and the spots that
wander about the sun, with Phaeton’s favour, would make clear
conviction.--Sir T. BROWNE, _Hydriotaphia_.

Look through faith’s _perspective_ with the magnifying
end on invisibles (for such is its frame, it lesseneth
visibles), and thou wilt see sights not more strange than
satisfying.--WHITLOCK, _Zootomia_, p. 535.

A tiny mite, which we can scarcely see
Without a _perspective_.

OLDHAM, _Eighth Satire of M. Boileau_.

=PERT.= This word had once the meaning of brisk, lively, nimble; now it is this with a very distinct subaudition of sauciness and impertinence as well.

Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;
Awake the _pert_ and nimble spirit of youth.

SHAKESPEARE, _Midsummer Night’s Dream_, act i. sc. 1.

And on the tawny sands and shelves
Trip the _pert_ faeries and the dapper elves.

MILTON, _Comus_, 117.

=PESTER.= There is no greater discomfort or annoyance than extreme straitness or narrowness of room; out of which in Greek the word στενοχωρία, signifying this, has come to have a secondary signification of trouble or anguish. [In English, ‘to pester’ bears witness to the same fact, having first the meaning of to encumber or clog, then the second meaning of painfully cooping-up in a narrow and confined space, and lastly the meaning of to vex or annoy, which sense it still retains.]

Now because the most part of the people might not possibly have
a sight of him, they gat up all at once into the theatre, and
_pestered_ it quite full.--HOLLAND, _Livy_, p. 1055.

They within, though _pestered_ with their own numbers, stood to
it like men resolved, and in a narrow compass did remarkable
deeds.--MILTON, _History of England_, b. ii.

The calendar is filled, not to say _pestered_ with them [that
is, with Saints’ Days], jostling one another for room, many
holding the same day in copartnership of festivity.--FULLER,
_Worthies of England_, c. 3.

=PHYSICAL=, }
PHYSICALLY. }

Though ‘physical’ has not dissociated itself from ‘physics,’ it has from ‘physic’ and ‘physician,’ being used now as simply the equivalent for ‘natural’ which the Greek language has supplied us; but it was not always so.

Is Brutus sick? and is it _physical_
To walk unbracéd and suck up the humours
Of the dank morning?

SHAKESPEARE, _Julius Cæsar_, act ii. sc. 1.

Attalus, surnamed Philometer (to say, lover of his mother),
would plant and set _physical_ herbs, as helleborum.--NORTH,
_Plutarch’s Lives_, p. 739.

And for physic, he [Lord Bacon] did indeed live
_physically_,[21] but not miserably.--RAWLEY, _Life of Lord
Bacon_.

=PLACARD.= Formerly used often in the sense of a license or permission, the ‘placard’ being properly the broad tablet or board on which this, as well as other edicts and ordinances, was exposed.

Then for my voice I must (no choice)
Away of force, like posting horse,
For sundry men had _placards_ then
Such child to take.

TUSSER, _Author’s Life_.

Others are of the contrary opinion, and that Christianity gives
us a _placard_ to use these sports; and that man’s charter of
dominion over the creatures enables him to employ them as well
for pleasure as necessity.--FULLER, _Holy State_, b. iii. c. 13.

=PLANTATION.= We still ‘plant’ a colony, but a ‘plantation’ is now of trees only; and not of men. There was a time when ‘The Plantations’ was the standing name by which our transatlantic colonies were known. One of Bacon’s state-papers has this title, ‘Certain Considerations touching the _Plantation_ in Ireland.’

It is a shameful and unblessed thing to take the scum of people
and wicked condemned men to be the people with whom you plant:
and not only so, but it spoileth the _plantation_.--Lord BACON,
_Essays_, 33.

_Plantations_ make mankind broader, as generation makes it
thicker.--FULLER, _Holy State_, b. iii. c. 16.

=PLATFORM.= This word has lost much of its meaning, that is in England; for it is very far from having so done in America. The only ‘platforms’ which we know of here are structures of boards erected to serve a temporary need. But a ‘platform’ was once a scheme or pattern on which, as on a ground-plan, other things, moral or material, might be disposed. Statesmen had their ‘platform’ of policy; Churches their ‘platform’ of doctrine and discipline; and so is it still in America, where the word is in constant use.

They, [the courtiers of Dionysius] were every one occupied
about drawing the _platform_ of Sicilia, telling the nature
of the Sicilian Sea, and reckoning up the havens and places
looking towards Africk.--NORTH, _Plutarch’s Lives_, p. 456.

The _platform_ of this Tabernacle was by God delivered to
Moses on the Mount, with a strict charge to make all things
conformable thereunto.--FULLER, _A Pisgah Sight of Palestine_,
b. iv. c. 4.

=PLAUSIBLE=, }
PLAUSIBLY, }
PLAUSIBILITY. }

That is ‘plausible’ now which presents itself as worthy of applause; yet always with a subaudition, or at least a suggestion, that it is not so really; it was once that which obtained applause, with at least the _primâ facie_ likelihood that the applause which it obtained was deserved.

This John Bishop of Constantinople, that assumed to himself
the title of Universal Bishop or Patriarch, was a good man,
given greatly to alms and fasting, but too much addicted to
advance the title of his see; which made a _plausible_ bishop
seem to be Antichrist to Gregory the Great.--HACKET, _Life of
Archbishop Williams_, part ii. p. 66.

The Romans _plausibly_ did give consent
For Tarquin’s everlasting banishment.

SHAKESPEARE, _Lucrece_, 1854.

He was no sooner in sight than every one received him
_plausibly_, and with great submission and reverence.--STUBBES,
_Anatomy of Abuses_, p. 17.

Being placed in the upper part of the world, [he] carried on
his dignity with that justice, modesty, integrity, fidelity,
and other gracious _plausibilities_, that in a place of
trust he contented those whom he could not satisfy, and in
a place of envy procured the love of those who emulated his
greatness.--VAUGHAN, _Life and Death of Dr. Jackson_.

=POACH=, }
POACHER. }

A ‘poacher’ is strictly speaking an intruder; one who intrudes or ‘poaches’ into land where he has no business; the fact that he does so with intention of spoiling the game is superadded, not lying in the word.

Pocher le labeur d’autruy. To _poch_ into, or incroach upon
another man’s imployment, practise or trade.--COTGRAVE.

So that, to speak truly, they [the Spaniards] have rather
_poached_ and offered at a number of enterprises, than
maintained any constantly.--Lord BACON, _Notes of a Speech
concerning a War with Spain_.

It is ill conversing with an ensnarer, delving into the
bottom of your mind, to know what is hid in it. I would ask
a casuist if it were not lawful for me not only to hide my
mind, but to cast something that is not true before such a
_poacher_.--HACKET, _Life of Archbishop Williams_, part ii. p.
113.

=POLITE=, }
POLITELY. }

Between ‘polite’ and ‘polished’ this much of difference has now grown up and established itself, that ‘polite’ is always employed in a secondary and tropical sense, having reference to the polish of the mind, while it is free to use ‘polished’ in the literal and figurative sense alike.

_Polite_ bodies, as looking-glasses.--CUDWORTH, _Intellectual
System_, p. 731.

_Polite_; well-polished, neat.--PHILLIPS, _New World of Words_.

In things artificial seldom any elegance is wrought without a
superfluous waste and refuse in the transaction. No marble
statue can be _politely_ carved, no fair edifice built, without
almost as much rubbish and sweeping.--MILTON, _Reason of Church
Government_, b. i. c. 7.

=POLITICS=, }
POLITICIAN. }

At the present ‘politics’ are always _things_, but were sometimes _persons_ as well in times past. ‘Politician’ too had an evil subaudition. One so named was a trickster or underhand self-seeker and schemer in politics, or it might be, as it is throughout in the sermon of South, quoted below, in the ordinary affairs of life. Fuller calls his Life of the wicked usurper Andronicus, ‘The Unfortunate Politician.’

It did in particular exasperate Tacitus, and other _politicks_
of his temper, to see so many natural Romans renounce their
name and country for maintenance of Jewish religion.--JACKSON,
_The Eternal Truth of Scriptures_, b. i. c. 20.

Let them [spiritual persons] have the diligence and craft
of fishers, the watchfulness and the care of shepherds, the
prudence of _politics_, the tenderness of parents.--Bishop
TAYLOR, _Life of Christ_, part ii. § 12.

If this arch-_politician_ [the Devil] find in his pupils any
remorse, any feeling or fear of God’s future judgment, he
persuades them that God hath so great need of men’s souls that
He will accept them at any time and upon any conditions.--Sir
W. RALEIGH, _History of the World_, b. i. c. 7, § 9.

Why, look you, I am whipped and scourged with rods,
Nettled and stung with pismires, when I hear
Of this vile _politician_ Bolingbroke.

SHAKESPEARE, _1 Henry IV._, act i. sc. 3.

A _politician_ is the devil’s quilted anvil;
He fashions all sins on him and the blows
Are never heard.

WEBSTER, _Duchess of Malfi_, act iii. sc. 2.

The _politician_, whose very essence lies in this, that he
is a person ready to do anything that he apprehends for his
advantage, must first of all be sure to put himself in a state
of liberty, as free and large as his principles, and so to
provide elbow-room enough for his conscience to lay about it,
and have its full play in.--SOUTH, _Sermons_, 1744, vol. i. p.
324.

=POMP=, }
POMPOUS, }
POMPOUSLY. }

‘Pomp’ is one of the many words which Milton employs with a strict classical accuracy, so that he is only to be perfectly understood when we keep in mind that a ‘pomp’ with him is always πομπή, a procession. He is not, however, singular here, as he often is, in the stricter use of a word. It is easy to perceive how ‘pomp’ obtained its wider application. There is no such favourable opportunity for the display of state and magnificence as a procession; this is almost the inevitable form which they take; and thus the word first applied to the most frequent display of these, came afterwards to be transferred to every display. In respect to ‘pompous’ and ‘pompously’ there is something else to note. There is in them always now the suggestion of that which is more in show than in substance, or, at any rate, of a magnificence which, if real, is yet vaingloriously and ostentatiously displayed. But they did not convey, and were not intended to convey, any such impression once.

[Antiochus] also provided a great number of bulls with gilt
horns, the which he conducted himself with a goodly _pomp_
and procession to the very gate of the city [ἄχρι τῶν πυλῶν
ἐπόμπευσε].--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s Morals_, p. 417.

With goddess-like demeanour forth she went,
Not unattended; for on her, as queen,
A _pomp_ of winning Graces waited still.

MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, viii. 59.

The planets in their stations listening stood,
While the bright _pomp_ ascended jubilant.

Id., _ib._ vii. 563.

What _pompous_ powers of ravishment were here,[22]
What delicate extremities of pleasure.

BEAUMONT, _Psyche_, can. xv. st. 299.

All expresses related that the entertainment [of Prince Charles
at Madrid] was very _pompous_ and kingly.--HACKET, _Life of
Archbishop Williams_, part i. p. 119.

He [Hardecnute] gave his sister Gunildis, a virgin of rare
beauty, in marriage to Henry the Alman Emperor; and to send her
forth _pompously_, all the nobility contributed their jewels
and richest ornaments.--MILTON, _History of England_, b. vi.

=POPULAR=, }
POPULARITY. }

He was ‘popular’ once, not who had acquired, but who was laying himself out to acquire, the favour of the people. ‘Popularity’ was the wooing, not, as now, the having won, that favour; exactly the Latin ‘ambitio.’ The word, which is passive now, was active then.

Of a senator he [Manlius] became _popular_, and began to break
his mind and impart his designs unto the magistrates of the
commons, finding fault with the nobility.--HOLLAND, _Livy_, 224.

And oft in vain his name they closely bite,
As _popular_ and flatterer accusing.

P. FLETCHER, _Purple Island_, c. 10.

Divers were of opinion that he [Caius Gracchus] was more
_popular_ and desirous of the common people’s good will and
favour than his brother had been before him. But indeed he was
clean contrary.--NORTH, _Plutarch’s Lives_, p 690.

Cato the Younger charged Muræna, and indited him in open court
for _popularity_ and ambition.--HOLLAND, _Plutarch’s Morals_,
p. 243.

Harold, lifted up in mind, and forgetting now his former
shows of _popularity_, defrauded his soldiers their due and
well-deserved share of the spoils.--MILTON, _History of
England_, b. vi.

=PORTLY=, }
PORTLINESS. }

There lies in ‘portly’ a certain sense of dignity of demeanour still, but always connoted with this a cumbrousness and weight, such as Spenser in his noble _Epithalamion_ (see below) would never have ascribed to his bride, nor Shakespeare to the swift-footed Achilles (_Troilus and Cressida_, act iv. sc. 5), or to the youthful Romeo.

The chief and most _portly_ person of them all was one
Hasdrubal [_Insignis_ tamen inter ceteros Hasdrubal
erat].--HOLLAND, _Livy_, p. 7.

He [Romeo] bears him like a _portly_ gentleman.

SHAKESPEARE, _Romeo and Juliet_, act i. sc. 5.

Rudely thou wrongest my deare hart’s desire,
In finding fault with her too _portly_ pride;
For in those lofty lookes is close implide
Scorn of base things and ’sdeigne of foule dishonor,
Such pride is praise; such _portlinesse_ is honor.

SPENSER, _Sonnet 5_.

=PRAGMATICAL.= This is always employed at the present in an ill sense; the ‘pragmatical’ man is not merely busy, but over-busy, officious, meddling; nay, more than this, with an assumption of bustling self-importance. The word’s etymology does not require this ill sense, which is merely superinduced upon it, and from which it was not indeed always, but often free in its earlier use.

It may appear at the first a new and unwonted argument, to
teach men how to raise and make their fortune; but the handling
thereof concerneth learning greatly both in honour and in
substance. In honour, because _pragmatical_ men may not go
away with an opinion that learning is like a lark, that can
mount and sing and please herself, and nothing else; but may
know that she holdeth as well of the hawk, that can soar
aloft, and also descend and strike upon the prey.--Lord BACON,
_Advancement of Learning_, b. ii.

We cannot always be contemplative or _pragmatical_ abroad;
but have need of some delightful intermissions wherein the
enlarged soul may leave off her severe schooling.--MILTON,
_Tetrachordon_.

=PREPOSTEROUS=, }
PREPOSTEROUSLY. }

A word nearly or quite unserviceable now, being merely an ungraceful and slipshod synonym for absurd. But restore and confine it to its old use and to one peculiar branch of absurdity, the reversing of the true order and method of things, the putting of the last first, and the first last, and of what excellent service it would be capable!

It is a _preposterous_ order to teach first, and to learn
after.--_The Translators_ [_of the Bible_, 1611] _to the Reader._

King Asa justly received little benefit by them [physicians],
because of his preposterous addressing himself to them before
he went to God (_2 Chron._ xvi. 12).--FULLER, _Worthies of
England_, c. ix.

To reason thus, I am of the elect, I therefore have saving
faith, and the rest of the sanctifying qualities, therefore
that which I do is good: thus I say to reason is very
_preposterous_. We must go a quite contrary course, and thus
reason: my life is good ... I therefore have the gifts of
sanctification, and therefore am of God’s elect.--HALES,
_Sermon on St. Peter’s Fall_.

Some indeed _preposterously_ misplace these, and make us
partake of the benefit of Christ’s priestly office in the
forgiveness of our sins and our reconcilement to God, before
we are brought under the sceptre of his kingly office by our
obedience.--SOUTH, _Sermons_, 1744, vol. xi. p. 3.

=PRETEND=, }
PRETENCE, }
PRETENSION. }

To charge one with ‘pretending’ anything is now a much more serious charge than it was once. Indeed it was not necessarily, and only by accident, a charge at all. That was ‘pretended’ which one stretched out before himself and in face of others: but whether it was the thing it affirmed itself to be, or, as at present, only a deceitful resemblance of this, the word did not decide. While it was thus with ‘to pretend,’ there was as yet no distinction recognized between ‘pretence’ and ‘pretension;’ they both signified the act of ‘pretending,’ or the thing ‘pretended;’ but whether truly or falsely it was left to the context, or to the judgment of the reader, to decide. ‘Pretence’ has since followed the fortunes of ‘pretend,’ and has fallen with it; while ‘pretension’ has disengaged itself from being a merely useless synonym of ‘pretence,’ and, retaining its relation to the earlier uses of the verb, now signifies a claim put forward which may or may not be valid, the word leaving this for other considerations to determine. Louis Napoleon assumed the dictatorship under the ‘pretence’ of resisting anarchy; the House of Orleans had ‘pretensions’ to the throne of France. But these distinctions are quite modern.

Being preferred by King James to the bishopric of Chichester,
and _pretending_ his own imperfectness and insufficiency to
undergo such a charge, he caused to be engraven about the seal
of his bishopric, those words of St. Paul, Et ad hæc quis
idoneus?--ISAACSON, _Life and Death of Lancelot Andrewes_.

[The Sabbath] is rather hominis gratiâ quam Dei; and
though God’s honour is mainly _pretended_ in it, yet it is
man’s happiness that is really intended by it, even of God
Himself.--H. MORE, _Grand Mystery of Godliness_, b. viii. c. 13.

I come no enemy, but to set free
From out this dark and dismal house of pain
Both him and thee, and all the heavenly host
Of Spirits, that, in our just _pretences_ armed,
Fell with us from on high.

MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, ii. 822; cf. vi. 421.

This is the tree whose leaves were intended for the healing of
the nations, not for a _pretence_ and palliation for sin.--H.
MORE, _Grand Mystery of Godliness_, b. viii. c. 1.

He [the Earl of Pembroke] was exceedingly beloved in the Court,
because he never desired to get that for himself which others
laboured for; but was still ready to promote the _pretences_ of
worthy men.--CLARENDON, _History of the Rebellion_, b. i. c.
121.

It is either secret pride, or base faintness of heart, or dull
sloth, or some other thing, and not true modesty in us if
being excellently gifted for some weighty employment in every
other man’s judgment, we yet withdraw ourselves from it with
_pretensions_ of unsufficiency.--SANDERSON, _Sermons_, 1671, p.
208.

=PREVARICATE=, }
PREVARICATION. }

This verb, often now very loosely used, had once a very definite meaning of its own. ‘To prevaricate’ is to betray the cause which one affects to sustain, the prevaricator is the feint pleader, as he used to be called, and, so far as I know, the words are always so used by our early writers. We have inherited the word from the Latin law-courts, which borrowed it from the life. The ‘prævaricator’ being one who halted on two unequal legs, the name was transferred to him who, affecting to prosecute a charge, was in secret collusion with the opposite party, and so managed the cause as to ensure his escape. Observe in the two following passages the accuracy of use which so habitually distinguishes our writers of the seventeenth century as compared with too many of the nineteenth.

I proceed now to do the same service for the divines of
England; whom you question first in point of learning and
sufficiency, and then in point of conscience and honesty,
as _prevaricating_ in the religion which they profess, and
inclining to Popery.--CHILLINGWORTH, _Religion of Protestants_,
Preface, p. 11.