part i. p. 196.

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

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

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

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

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

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

GASCOIGNE, _De Profundis_.

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

TUSSER, _Points of Good Husbandry_.

=BRAVE=, } BRAVERY. }

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

=BRIBE=, } BRIBERY. }

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

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

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

=BRITAIN=, } BRITANY. }

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

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

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

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

COWLEY, _The Extasy_.

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

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

SPENSER, _Fairy Queen_, iii. 4, 44.

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

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

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

PINKERTON, _Scotch Comic Ballads_, p. 149.

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

Base _bullion_ for the stamp’s sake we allow.

MARLOWE, _Hero and Leander_. _First Sestyad._

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

WILLIAM HODGSON, _Verses on Ben Jonson_.

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

SYLVESTER, _Du Bartas’ Weeks, Babylon_.

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

MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, i. 699.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SPENSER, _Fairy Queen_, iii. 2, 23.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The riche Cresus, _caytif_ in servage.

CHAUCER, _The Knightes Tale_.

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

Alas, poore _Caitiffe_.

SHAKESPEARE, _Othello_, act iv. sc. 1.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HERBERT, _The Temple_.

=CAREFUL=, } CAREFULNESS. }

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

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

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

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

HAMILTON, _The Braes of Yarrow_.

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

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

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

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

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

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

GOWER, _Confessio Amantis_, 1.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SHAKESPEARE, _Hamlet_, act i. sc. 3.

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

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

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

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

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

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

SPENSER, _Shepherd’s Calendar_, September.

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

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

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

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

MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, vi. 51.

=CHEAT=, } CHEATER. }

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SURREY, _Ecclesiastes_, c. 3.

=CHEMIST=, } CHEMISTRY. }

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

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

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

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

COWLEY, _Use of Reason in Divine Matters_.

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

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

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

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

He is now deed and nayled in his _chest_.

CHAUCER, _The Clerkes Prologue_.

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

HAWES, _Pastime of Pleasure_, cap. 14.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

_Face._ What’s that?

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

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

=CHRISTEN=, } CHRISTENDOM. }

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GOLDING, _Ovid’s Metamorphosis_, b. xi.

These troops should soon pull down the _church_ of Jove.

MARLOWE, _First Book of Lucan_.

=CIVIL=, } CIVILITY, } CIVILIAN. }

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RICHARD ROLLE DE HAMPOLE, _Pricke of Conscience_, 4832.

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

HAWES, _Pastime of Pleasure_.

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

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

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

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

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

_The Funerals of King Edward VI._

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

=COMFORT=, } COMFORTABLE. }

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

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

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

O _comfortable_ friar! where is my lord?--SHAKESPEARE, _Romeo_,