E
e-, prefix, for the more usual y- (AS. ge-), prefixed to past participles. Exx. emixt, mixed, Mirror for Mag., Bladud, st. 9; etride, tried, id., Sabrine, st. 26.
eager, keen, sharp, severe. Hamlet, i. 4. 2; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xi. 231.
eagre, a ‘bore’ in a river; an incoming tidal wave of unusual height. Dryden, Threnodia Augustalis, 132; spelt agar, Lyly, Galathea, i. 1 (Tyterus). In prov. use in many forms: aiger, ager, eager, eygre, hygre, &c., in Yorks., Nottingham, Lincoln, and E. Anglia (EDD.). See [higre].
eame; see [eme].
ean. Of ewes: to lamb, bring forth young, to ‘yean’, 3 Hen. VI, ii. 5. 36. Hence, Eaning-time, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (Robin). ‘To ean’ is in prov. use in various spellings in many parts of England from the north country to Devon (EDD.). ME. enyn, ‘feto’ (Prompt. EETS. 150); OE. ēanian, to yean. See Brugmann, § 671.
ear, to plough. Bible, Deut. xxi. 4; 1 Sam. viii. 12; Is. xxx. 24. In prov. use (EDD.). ME. ere (Chaucer, C. T. A. 886), OE. erian. See Wright’s Bible Word-Book.
earn, erne, to grieve, to be afflicted with poignant sorrow and compassion. Hen. V, ii. 3. 3 (mod. edd. yearn); Julius C., ii. 2. 129; it earns me, Hen. V, iv. 3. 26; B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, iv. 6 (Overdo); earne, to yearn, Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 3; i. 6. 25; i. 9. 18; erne, ii. 3. 46. ME. ȝernen, to yearn (P. Plowman), OE. geornan; see Dict. M. and S., p. 267.
earth, a ploughing. Tusser, Husbandry, § 35. 50. In prov. use in Suffolk, Hants., Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Earth, sb.2). OE. erð for WS. ierđ, a ploughing (Sweet), deriv. of erian, to plough, ‘to ear’; not the same word as OE. eorðe, earth.
easing, the eaves of the thatch of a house; ‘Under the easing of the house’, North, tr. of Plutarch, J. Caesar, § 16 (end); ‘Severonde, the eave, eaving or easing of a house’, Cotgrave. In gen. prov. use in various spellings, in Scotland and Ireland, and in England, in the north and Midlands to Shropsh. (EDD.). ME. esynge, ‘tectum’ (Cath. Angl.). See [evesing].
eater, a servant. B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, iii. 2 (Morose).
eath, easy. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 40; Shep. Kal., Sept., 17; spelt ethe, id., July, 90. A north-country word, once much used in poetry (EDD.). ME. ethe, easy (Cursor M. 597), OE. ēaðe, easy, ēað (common in compounds).
eathly, easily. Peele, Order of the Garter, ed. Dyce, p. 587. Common in Scottish poetry (EDD.).
eaths, easily. Kyd, Cornelia, iii. 1. 130. The s has an adverbial force.
eccentric, not concentric with; hence, disagreeing with. Bacon, Essay 23; an orbit not having the earth precisely in the centre (a contrivance in the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, for explaining the phenomena), id. 17.
eche, to ‘eke’, to make up a deficiency; ‘To eche it and to draw it out in length’, Merch. Ven. iii. 2. 23 (Qq 3, 4, eech). Cp. Northampton dialect, ‘My gown’s too short, I must eche it a bit’, see EDD. (s.v. Eke, vb. 3). ME. echen, to increase (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. i. 887), OE. (Mercian) ēcan, WS. īecan, to increase.
edder, an adder. Morte Arthur, leaf 290. 11; bk. xi, c. 5; Skelton, Philip Sparowe, 78. ME. eddyr, an adder (Prompt. EETS. 142).
edder, fence-wood, osiers or rods of hazel, used for interlacing the stakes of a hedge at the top; ‘Edder and stake’, Tusser, Husbandry, § 33. 13; eddered, bound with edders, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 126. 7; edderynge, id. In gen. prov. use in Scotland and England; for various spellings see EDD.
eddish, edish, the aftermath or second crop of grass, clover, &c.; ‘Eddish, eadish, etch, ersh, the latter pasture or grass that comes after mowing or reaping’, Worlidge, Dict. Rust. (A.D. 1681); Tusser, Husbandry, § 18. 4; stubble, ‘Eddish . . . more properly the stubble or gratten in cornfields’, Bp. Kennett (NED.). In gen. prov. use in England (EDD.). OE. edisc, ‘pascua’ (Ps. xcix. 3).
edge, to urge, encourage, stimulate. Bacon, Essay 41, § 5. The pronunc. of egg (to incite) in use in various parts of England from Lancash. to Cornwall (EDD.). ME. eggen, to incite (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 182), Icel. eggja.
edify, to build; ‘There was an holy chappell edifyde’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 34; Mother Hubberd’s Tale, 660. F. edifier, to edifie, build (Cotgr.), L. aedificare.
effaut, for F fa ut, the full name of the musical note F, which was sung to fa or to ut according as it occurred in one or other of the hexachords (imperfect scales) to which it belonged (NED.). Buckingham, The Rehearsal, ii. 5 (Bayes). The first hexachord contained G (the lowest note), A, B, C, D, E (but not F); the second contained C, D, E, F, G, A, sung to ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, F being sung to fa; the third began with F, sung to ut; so that F was sung to fa or ut, and was called F fa ut.
efficace, effectiveness, efficacy. Butler, Hud. iii. 2. 602. F. efficace, efficacy (Cotgr.), L. efficacia (Pliny).
efficient, creative or productive cause. Sir T. Browne, Rel. Medici, pt. 1, § 14; id., Vulgar Errors, bk. vii, c. 4, § 2.
egal, equal. Merch. Ven. iii. 4. 13 (F.); egally, equally, Richard III, iii. 7. 213; egalness, equality, Ferrex and Porrex, i. 2 (Philander). F. égal.
eggs: phr. to have eggs on the spit, to be busy; with reference to the old mode of roasting eggs; ‘I have eggs on the spit’, B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum. iii. 6. 47; see Wheatley’s note.
eggs: phr. to take eggs for money, to accept an offer which one would rather refuse. Winter’s Tale, i. 2. 161. (Fully explained by me in Phil. Soc. Trans., 1903, p. 146). Farmers’ daughters would go to market, taking with them a basket of eggs. If one bought something worth (suppose) 3s. 4d., she would pay the 3s. and say—‘will you take eggs for money?’ If the shopman weakly consented, he received the value of the 4d. in eggs; usually (16th cent.) at the rate of 4 or 5 a penny. But the strong-minded shopman would refuse. Eggs were even used to pay interest for money. Thus Rowley has: ‘By Easter next you should have the principal, and eggs for the use [interest], indeed, sir. Bloodhound. Oh rogue, rogue, I shall have eggs for my money! I must hang myself’, A Match at Midnight, v. 1. See Nares (s.v. Eggs for Money).
eisel, vinegar; ‘I will drink potions of eisel’, Sh. Sonnets, cxi; spelt eysel. Skelton, Now Synge We, 40. ME. esyle, ‘acetum’ (Prompt. EETS. 147, see note no. 661); aysel (Hampole, Ps. lxviii. 26). OF. aisil, vinegar (Oxford Ps. lxviii. 26).
ejaculation, a darting forth. Bacon, Essay 9, § 1.
E-la, the highest note in the old musical scale, sung to the syllable la in the old gamut; which began with G (ut) on the lowest line of the base clef, and ended with E in the highest space of the treble clef. Whoever sang a higher note than this was said to sing ‘above E-la’. Hence anything extreme was said ‘to be above E-la’. ‘Why, this is above E-la!’ Beaumont and Fl., Humorous Lieutenant, iv. 4 (Leontius; near the end). N.B. The old gamut was really founded on hexachords or major sixths; each hexachord contained six notes and comprised four full tones and a semitone, the semitone being in the middle, between the third and fourth note. The hexachords began (in ascending succession) upon the lower G, C, F, G (above F), C (still higher), F (above the last C), and G (above the last F). There were twenty notes in all; viz. G A B C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D E; and each of the hexachords was sung to the same syllables, ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la. The highest hexachord contained the G A B C D E at the top of the scale; and as E was thus sung to la, it was called E-la. It had no other name, because it only occurred in the highest hexachord. In hexachords beginning with F the B was flat.
eld, to ail; ‘What thing eldeth thee?’ Thersites, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 414. Cp. aild, prov. pronunc. of ail (vb.): ‘He’s allus aildin’ (Worcestersh.); aildy, ailing, poorly, ‘I be very aildy to-day’ (Northampton); so in Beds., teste J. W. Burgon, see EDD. (s.v. Ail and Aildy). In Shropsh. they say elded for ailed.
elder, an elder-tree. It was an old belief that Judas Iscariot hung himself upon an elder. See L. L. L. v. 2. 610; B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iv. 4 (Carlo). See P. Plowman, C. ii. 64 (Notes, p. 31).
elegant, for [alicant], q.v. A Cure for a Cuckold, iv. 1. 18.
element, the sky. Julius Caes. i. 3. 128; Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 116; Milton, Comus, 299. In common prov. use in the west country. A Somerset man describing a thunderstorm would say, ‘Th’ element was all to a flicker’ (EDD.).
elenche, elench, a logical refutation, a syllogism in refutation of an argument. Massinger, Emperor of the East, ii. 1 (Theodosius). Also, a sophistical argument, a fallacy; Bacon, Adv. of Learning, bk. ii, § xiv. 5. L. elenchus, Gk. ἔλεγχος, cross-examination.
elk, the wild swan, or hooper. ‘The Elk’, in the margin of Golding’s tr. of Ovid, Metam. xiv. 509; ‘In hard winters elks, a kind of wild swan, are seen’, Sir T. Browne (Wks. ed. 1893, iii. 313); ‘Swanne, some take thys to be the elke or wild swanne’, Huloet. See [ilke].
ellops, a kind of serpent. Milton, P. L. x. 525. Gk. ἔλλοψ, ἔλοψ, lit. ‘mute’, an epithet of fish (so Prellwitz); name for a certain sea-fish, probably the sword-fish or sturgeon, later, a serpent.
embase, to debase, lower. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 6. 20; Sonnet 82.
embassade, a mission as ambassador. 3 Hen. VI, iv. 3. 32; also, quasi-adv., on an embassy, Spenser, Hymn in Honour of Beauty, 251. F. embassade, an embassage; also an embassador accompanied with his ordinary train (Cotgr.).
embay, to bathe, drench, wet, steep. Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 27; ii. 12. 60. Metaph., to bathe (oneself in sunshine); Muiopotmos, 200; to pervade, suffuse, F. Q. i. 9. 13.
embayed, imbayed, enclosed as in a bay; enveloped, engirt. Spelt imbayed, enclosed; Capt. Smith, Works, ed. Arber, p. 333, l. 3; embayed, engirt, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 230.
embayle, to enclose, encompass. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 27.
embezzle, to waste, squander; ‘His bills embezzled’, Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, i. 1 (Lincoln); Sir T. Browne, Hydriotaphia, c. iii, § 7. See NED.
emboss, to ornament with bosses or studs, to decorate. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 4. 15; Shep. Kal., Feb., 67.
embost (of a hunted animal). A stag was said to be embossed (embost) when blown and fatigued with being chased—foaming, panting, unable to hold out any longer; ‘The boar of Thessaly Was never so emboss’d’, Ant. and Cl. iv. 11. 3; ‘The salvage beast embost in wearie chace’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 22. Metaph., ‘Our feeble harts Embost with bale’, i. 9. 29; Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, ii. 4. 7. ME. embose, to plunge deeply into a wood or thicket (Chaucer, Dethe Blaunche, 353). OF. bos (bois), a wood. See [imbost].
embost, encased, enclosed (as in armour); ‘A knight . . . in mighty armes embost’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 3. 24.
embowd, arched over. Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 19.
embraid, to upbraid, taunt, mock. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 7, § 2; Tusser, Husbandry, § 112, st. 7. Cp. ME. breydyn or upbraydyn, ‘Impropereo’ (Prompt. EETS. 64). OE. bregdan, to bring a charge (B. T. Suppl.), Icel. bregða, to upbraid, blame.
embrave, to embellish, decorate. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 60.
embrew, to ‘imbrue’, cover with blood; ‘With wyde wounds embrewed’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 6. 17; Hymn of Love, 13.
embrocata, a thrust in fencing. Marston, Scourge of Villany, Sat. xi. 57. See [imbroccato].
eme, uncle. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 47; spelt eame, Drayton, Pol. xxii. 427. 848. A north-country word (EDD.). ME. eme, fadiris brodyr, ‘patruus’ (Prompt.), OE. ēam.
emeril, emery. Drayton, Pol. i. 53. F. emeril, emery (Cotgr.); OF. esmeril; Ital. smeriglio, deriv. of Gk. σμύρις, emery-powder.
emmarble, to convert into marble. Spenser, Hymn to Love, 139.
emmew, or enmew; errors for [enew], q.v.
empair, to harm, injure. Spenser, F. Q. v. 11. 48; to become less, to be diminished, id., v. 4. 8. See Dict. (s.v. Impair).
empale, to surround, enclose. Sackville. Induction, st. 67.
emparlance, parley, talk. Spenser, F. Q. v. 4. 50. Cp. Norm. F. emparler, ‘parler, entretenir’, also ‘entretien’ (Moisy), O. Prov. emparlat, ‘éloquent’ (Levy).
empeach, to hinder. Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 34; ii. 7. 15; ‘I empesshe, or let one of his purpose’, Palsgrave. F. empescher, ‘to hinder’ (Cotgr.); O. Prov. empedegar, ‘empêcher’ (Levy), Med. L. impedicare, ‘implicare’ (Ducange). See [impeach].
empery, dominion, rank of an emperor. Titus And. i. 1. 201; Hen. V, i. 2. 226. Norm. F. emperie (Moisy), L. imperium, empire.
empesshement, hindrance. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 131. 29. See [impechement].
emprese, ‘emprise’, enterprise, undertaking. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xi. 257. See NED. (s.v. Emprise).
emprise, an undertaking, an enterprise. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 83; chivalric enterprise, martial prowess, Milton, P. L. xi. 642; ‘In brave poursuit of chevalrous emprize’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 1. Norm. F. emprise, ‘entreprise’ (Moisy).
enaunter, lest by chance. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 200; May, 78; Sept., 161. ‘Anaunters’ is a north-country word, in the sense of ‘lest, in case that’ (EDD.). ME. enantyr; an aunter, in case that (P. Plowman, C. iv. 437); also, an aventure (id., B. iii. 279), see Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Aventure); Anglo-F. en + aventure, chance (Gower).
enbassement, dread, terror, ‘abashment’. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 159. 25; enbaysshement, lf. 91. 31. Cp. ME. enbasshinge, bewilderment (Chaucer, Boethius 4, p. 1. 43).
enbolned, swollen, puffed up. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 207, l. 7 from bottom. Cp. ME. bolnyd, swollen (Wyclif, 1 Cor. v. 2).
enchase, to set (a jewel) in gold or other setting; used fig. Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 23; to engrave figures on a surface, Shep. Kal., August, 27; to shut in, enclose, M. Hubberd’s Tale, 626; Chapman, tr. Iliad, xii. 56; xix. 346.
encheason, occasion, reason. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 147. ME. encheson, ‘occasio’ (Prompt. EETS. 312), Anglo-F. enchesoun, occasion (Gower), Norm. F. acheisun, ‘raison, cause, motif’ (Moisy); L. occasio.
endlong, from end to end of, through the length of; ‘Endlong many yeeres and ages’, Holland, Livy, 921; right along, straight on, Dryden, Palamon, iii. 691. In prov. use in the north country (EDD.). ME. endelong, through the length of (Chaucer, C. T. F. 992).
endosse, to inscribe. Spenser, F. Q. v. 11. 53; Colin Clout, 634; Palsgrave. Anglo-F. endosser, to endorse (Rough List); to write on the back of a document, deriv. of F. dos, L. dorsum, back.
endue, to endow; ‘God hath endued me with a good dowry’ (Vulg. Dotavit me Deus dote bona), Bible, Gen. xxx. 20; spelt endew, Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 51; ‘The King hath . . . endewed (the house) with parkes orchardes’, Act 31 Hen. VIII, c. 5. See [indue].
endurance, also written indurance, patience; ‘Past the endurance of a block’, Much Ado, ii. 1. 248; imprisonment, durance, ‘I should have tane some paines to have heard you Without endurance further’, Hen. VIII, v. 1. 122 (the phrase is taken from Foxe’s account of Cranmer’s trial); ‘The indurance of their Generall’, Knolles, Hist. Turks, 1256 (NED.).
endure, to indurate, harden. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 27. Norm. F. s’endurer, to harden oneself (Moisy).
eneled, anointed, as one who has received extreme unction. Morte Arthur, leaf 429*, back, 25; bk. xxi, c. 12; Caxton, Golden Legend, 337, see NED. (s.v. Anele).
enew (t. t. in hawking), to drive a fowl into the water; ‘Let her enew the fowl so long till she bring it to the plunge’, Markham, Countr. Content. (ed. 1668, i. 5. 32); ‘Follies doth enew (misprinted emmew, Ff.) As Falcon doth the Fowle’, Meas. for M. iii. 1. 91. Spelt ineawe, to plunge into the water, Drayton, Pol. xx. 284. Anglo-F. eneauer, to wet (Gower), Norm. F. ewe (F. eau), water. See [inmew].
enewed; see [ennewe].
enfeloned, made fell or fierce. Spenser, F. Q. v. 8. 48.
enfired, kindled, set on fire. Spenser, Hymn to Love, 169.
enform, to mould, fashion. Spenser, F. Q. v. 6. 3.
enfouldred, hurled out like thunder and lightning. Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 40. OF. fouldre (F. foudre), Romanic type folgere, L. fulgur, a thunderbolt.
enfounder, to drive in, to batter in. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 216, back, 30; lf. 295, back, 25; to stumble, as a horse, to ‘founder’; ‘His horse enfoundred under hym’, Berners, Arth., 87 (NED.). F. enfondrer (un harnois), to make a great dint in an armour; also, to plunge into the bottom of a puddle or mire (Cotgr.).
enginous, ingenious. Hero and Leander, iii. 312; Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, i. 452. Cp. Scot, engine (ingine), intellect, mental capacity (EDD.). F. engin, understanding reach of wit (Cotgr.). L. ingenium, natural capacity. See [ingine].
engle; see [ingle].
englin, the name of a Welsh metre. Drayton, Pol. iv. 181. W. englyn. The Note has: Englyns are couplets interchanged of sixteen and fourteen feet.
engore, to ‘gore’, wound deeply. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 42.
engraile, to give a serrated appearance to; ‘I (the river Wear) indent the earth, and then I it engraile With many a turn’, Drayton, Pol. xxix. 380; engrail’d, variegated, ‘A caldron new engrail’d with twenty hues’, Chapman, tr. Iliad, xxiii. 761.
engrain, to dye ‘in grain’, or of a fast colour. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Feb., 131. See Dict. (s.v. Grain).
engrave, to bury. Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 42; ii. 1. 60.
enhalse, to greet, salute. Mirror for Mag., Rivers, st. 58. See [halse].
ennewe, to tint, shade; ‘With rose-colour ennewed’, Calisto and Meliba, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 62; ‘The one shylde was enewed with whyte’, Morte Arthur, leaf 55. back, 24; bk. iii, ch. 9 (end). Perhaps fr. F. nuer, to shade, tint (Godefroy), see NED.
enow, pl. form of ‘enough’; ‘Foes enow’, Milton, P. L. ii. 504; ‘Christians enow’, Merch. Ven. iii. 5. 24; ‘French quarrels enow’, Hen. V, iv. 1. 222. ME. ynowe: ‘Wommen y-nowe’ (Chaucer, Parl. Foules, 233), OE. genōge, pl. of genōg, enough.
enpesshe, to hinder. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 238. 6; 329. 19. See [empeach].
enrace, to introduce into a race of living beings. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 52; vi. 10. 25; Hymn of Beauty, 114.
ens, being, entity. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, Induct. (Asper). Med. L. (in philosophy) ens, entity, a neuter pres. pt. formed fr. L. esse, to be.
enseam, to cleanse (a hawk) of superfluous fat; ‘Ensemer, to inseam, unfatten’, Cotgrave; ‘Clene ensaymed’, Skelton, Ware the Hauke, 79. OF. esseimer, ‘retirer le saim (la graisse)’, see Moisy (s.v. Ensaimer), deriv. of saim fat, Med. L. sagīmen, ‘adeps’ (Ducange).
enseam, to contain together, include. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 11. 35; to introduce to company, Chapman, Bussy D’Ambois, i. 1 (Monsieur). See NED. (s.v. Enseam, vb.4).
enseamed, marked with grease; ‘In the ranke sweat of an enseamed bed’, Hamlet, iii. 4. 92. F. enseimer (now ensimer), to grease (Hatzfeld). [Schmidt connects this word with ‘enseam’, to cleanse a hawk; see above.]
enseignement, teaching, showing. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 2, § last. F. enseignement (Cotgr.).
ensigns, insignia, marks of honour. Bacon, Essay 29, § 12.
ensnarl, to entangle. Spenser, F. Q. v. 9. 9. A north Yorks. word (EDD.). ME. snarlyn, ‘illaqueo’ (Prompt. EETS. 460).
entail, entayl, to carve, cut into. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 27; ii. 6. 29; entayle, ornamental work cut on gold, id., ii. 7. 4.
enterdeal, negotiation. Spenser, F. Q. v. 8. 21; Mother Hubberd’s Tale, 785.
entermete, to concern oneself, occupy oneself, meddle with. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 154, back, 13. ME. entremeten, refl. to meddle with (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. i. 1026). Anglo-F. s’entremettre, to occupy oneself (Gower).
enterprize, to receive, entertain as a host. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 14; In this sense peculiar to Spenser.
entertain, to take into one’s service; Gent. Ver. ii. 4. 105; Richard III, i. 2. 258; to keep in one’s service, Fuller, Pisgah, iii. 2; to give reception to, Com. Errors, iii. 1. 120; the reception of a guest, Spenser, Mother Hubberd’s Tale, 1085; F. Q. v. 9. 37; Pericles, i. 1. 119.
entertake, to receive, entertain. Only in Spenser, F. Q. v. 9. 35.
entire. Used of friends wholly devoted to one another; ‘My most sincere and entire friend’, Coryat, Crudities, Ep. Ded.; ‘Your entire loving brother’, Bacon, Essays, Ep. Ded. [cp. F. ami entier]. From the notion of intimacy was developed the sense: inward, internal, ‘Their hearts and parts entire’, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 8. 23 and 48; iii. 1. 47; iii. 7. 16.
entradas, receipts, revenues. Massinger, Guardian, v. 4 (Severino). Span. entrada, revenue.
entraile, to twist, entwine, interlace. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 27; iii. 6. 44; Shep. Kal., Aug. 30; Prothalamion, 25; a coil, F. Q. i. 1. 16. Cp. F. traille (treille), lattice-work (Cotgr.).
entreat, to treat, use. Richard II, iii. 1. 37; Fletcher, Rule a Wife, iii. 4 (Perez); Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 7; ‘He entreated Abram well’, Bible, Gen. xii. 16; ‘Despytfully entreated’, Tyndale, Luke xviii. 32. OF. entraiter, to treat, use (Godefroy).
entreglancing, interchange of glances. Gascoigne, Flowers, ed. Hazlitt, i. 46.
entries, places through which deer have recently passed. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2 (John).
entwite, to rebuke, reproach, reprove, to ‘twit’. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Augustus, § 1; Roister Doister, ii. 3 (song); p. 36. Altered form of ME. atwiten, to reproach, twit, OE. æt-witan.
enure, to put into operation, to ‘inure’, carry out, practise. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2. 29; v. 9. 39.
envy, to feel a grudge against; to begrudge; to treat grudgingly; to have grudging feelings. Milton, P. L. iv. 317; King John, iii. 4. 73; Peele, Tale of Troy, ed. Dyce, p. 551. The stress is often on the latter syllable.
envy, to injure, disgrace, calumniate. Fletcher, Pilgrim, ii. 1 (Juletta); Shirley, Traitor, iii. 3 (Duke).
envỳ, to emulate, ‘vie’ with. Spenser, F. Q. i. 2. 17; iii. 1. 13. F. envier (au jeu), to vie (Cotgr.), L. invitare, to invite, challenge.
ephemerides, properly, tables showing the positions of the heavenly bodies (or some of them) for every day of a period, esp. at noon. But used vaguely for an almanac or calendar that noted some of these things. B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 4 (Surly); Bp. Hall, Sat. ii. 7. 6; Bacon, Adv. of Learning, i. 1, § 3. Gk. ἐφημερίς, a diary.
Ephesian, a boon companion. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 164. A cant term; used like ‘Corinthian’ in 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 13.
epiky, reasonableness, equity; ‘Such an epiky and moderacion’, Latimer, 5 Sermon bef. King (ed. Arber, p. 143). Gk. ἐπιείκεια, reasonableness; from ἐπιείκής, fitting, equitable.
epiphoneme, an exclamatory sentence, used to sum up a discourse. Puttenham, Art of Eng. Poesie, bk. ii, c. 12 (ed. Arber, p. 125); Heywood, Dialogue 2 (Mary), vol. vi, p. 123. Gk. ἐπιφώνημα.
epitasis, the part of a play wherein the plot thickens. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iii. 2 (end). Gk. ἐπίτασις.
epitrite, in prosody, a foot consisting of three long syllables and a short one. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (P. Can.). Gk. ἐπίτριτος.
equal(l, fair, equitable, just, impartial. Bible, 1539, Psalm xvii. 2; Fletcher, Span. Curate, iii. 3 (Bartolus); iv. 4. 15; equally, justly, id., iv. 5 (Diego).
equipage, equipment; retinue. Sh., Sonnet 32; Spenser, Shep. Kal., Oct., 114. F. equipage, ‘equipage, good armour; store of necessaries; Equipage d’un navire, her Marriners and Souldiers’ (Cotgr.). See NED. (s.v. Equip). See [esquip].
erased, in heraldry; said of an animal’s head, with a jagged edge below, as if torn violently from the body. Also used humorously of an ear, Butler, Hud. iii. 3. 214.
eremite, one dwelling in the desert; ‘This glorious eremite’, Milton, P. R. i. 8 (used with allusion to the original meaning of the Greek word). Eccles. Gk. ἐρημίτης, one who has retired into the desert from religious motives, a hermit, deriv. of ἔρημος, wilderness (Matt. iii. 1).
erie, ery, every. Tusser, Husbandry, § 18. 17; § 57. 11. Also several times in Turbervile’s Poems. A contracted form, like e’er for ever.
eringo, eryngo, the candied root of the sea-holly, used as a sweetmeat, and regarded as an aphrodisiac. Merry Wives, v. 5. 23. Ital. eringio, sea-holly (Florio), L. eryngion, Gk. ἠρύγγιον, dimin. of ἤρυγγος, sea-holly.
erne, an eagle. Golding, Metam. vi. 517; fol. 74 (1603). A Scottish literary word (EDD.). OE. earn (Matt. xxiv. 28).
errant: phr. an errant knight, a knight-errant. Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 38; i. 10. 10. Anglo-F. errer, to travel, to march (Ch. Rol. 3340), O. Prov. edrar (errar), Med. L. iterare, ‘iter facere’ (Ducange).
errant, ‘arrant’. Chapman, Byron’s Tragedy, v. 1 (Byron); ‘Sir Kenelm Digby was an errant mountebank’, Evelyn, Diary (Nov. 7, 1651). See NED. (s.v. Errant, 7).
errour, wandering, roving. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 7.
erst, once upon a time, formerly. Hen. V, v. ii. 48; Ferrex and Porrex, i. 2. 5; previously, Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 18. ME. erst (Chaucer, C. T. A. 776), OE. ǣrest, superl. of ǣr, soon.
esbatement, amusement. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 160. 15; Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 3, § 10. Anglo-F. esbatement, diversion (Gower). F. esbatement, ‘divertissement’ (Rabelais), OF. esbatre, ‘se divertir’ (Bartsch).
escape, a wilful error; a great fault. Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, p. 150); Othello, i. 3. 197.
escot, to pay a reckoning for, to maintain; ‘How are they escoted’, Hamlet, ii. 2. 362. OF. escoter, ‘payer l’écot’ (Didot), Anglo-F. escot, payment, reckoning at a tavern (Gower); escot (payment) occurs in the Statutes of the Realm, i. 221 (13th cent.), see Rough List. See Ducange (s.v. Scot, Scottum). Escot (payment) is the same word as ‘scot’ or ‘shot’, in prov. use for payment of a tavern reckoning (EDD.).
escuage, lit. shield-service; personal service in the field for 40 days in the year; later, a money payment in lieu of it, also called ‘scutage’. Bacon, Hen. VII, ed. Lumby, p. 148. Anglo-F. escuage, Med. L. scutagium, deriv. of L. scutum, a shield (Ducange).
escudero, a squire. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, iv. 1 (Wit.). Span. escudéro, an esquire, a servant that waits on a lady (Stevens), deriv. of escúdo, a shield, L. scutum.
esguard, a tribunal existing among the Knights of St. John, to settle differences between members of the order. Beaumont and Fl., Knight of Malta, v. 2 (Valetta). OF. esgard, ‘tribunal des chevaliers de Malte’. Med. L. esgardium: ‘De vassallo delinquente in Dominum, Dominus potest de ce quod tenet ab ipso, ipsum per Exguardium dissaisire (Id est, judicio parium suerum interveniente)’, quotation from Statutes (Ducange). O. Prov. esgart, ‘regard, décision, jugement; condamnation pécuniaire; égard, considération’; esgardar, ‘regarder, considérer; décider, juger’ (Levy).
esloin, esloyne, to remove to a distance. Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 20. F. esloigner (Cotgr.).
esmayed, dismayed. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 308. 6; 329, back, 9. Anglo-F. s’esmaier, to be dismayed (Gower).
esmayle, enamel. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. iii, c. 19; p. 242. F. esmail ‘enammel’ (Cotgr.).
espial, the action of espying or spying. Bp. Hall, Contempl. O. T. xix. 9 (NED.); a company of spies, Elyot, Governour, iii. 6. 236; espials, spies, Bacon, Essay, 48; 1 Hen. VI, iv. 3. 6; Hamlet, iii. 1. 32. See NED.
esquip, to equip. Esquippe, Baret, Alvearie; esquipping, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 577. F. esquiper (equiper), to equip, arm, store with necessary furniture (Cotgr.). See [equipage].
essoyne, excuse, Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 20. ME. essoyne, excuse for non-appearance in a law-court (Chaucer, C. T. I. 164). Anglo-F. essoigne (essoyne), excuse, a legal term (Rough List), see Ducange (s.v. Sunnis). Med. L. essoniare, ‘excusationem proponere’ (Ducange), of Teutonic origin, cp. Goth. sunjôn, ‘excusare’ (2 Cor. xii. 19).
estate, rank, dignity; ‘He poisons him in the garden for his estate’, Hamlet, iii. 2. 273; Macbeth, i. 4. 37; estates, men of rank, nobles, Heywood, Rape of Lucrece, i. 1 (Tarquin). F. estat, office, dignity, rank, degree which a man hath (Cotgr.). See Bible Word-Book.
estivation: phr. place of estivation, a summer-house. Bacon, Essay 45, § 5. Deriv. of L. aestivus, pertaining to summer.
estres, apartments, dwellings, quarters; the inner rooms in a house, divisions in a garden, &c.; spelt estures [printed by Caxton eftures]. Morte Arthur, leaf 392, back, 3; bk. xix, ch. 8. ME. estres (Chaucer), Anglo-F. estre, habitation, dwelling (Gower); estres, inward parts of a house (Rough List); OF. estre, ‘domuncula, aedificium’, see Ducange (s.v. Estra).
estridge, an ostrich, 1 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 98; Ant. and Cl. iii. 13. 197; spelt estrich, Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, ii. 2 (Incubo); Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 124). ME. estrich (Voc. 585, 22). O. Prov. estrutz, ‘autruche’ (Levy).
eten, ettin, a giant; ‘Giants and ettins’, Beaumont and Fl., Knight of the B. Pestle, i. 2 (or 3) (Wife). ME. ȝeten (Gen. and Ex. 545), OE. eoten, a giant, cp. Icel. jötunn.
Etesian, (properly) the epithet of certain winds, blowing from the NE. for about forty days annually in summer; ‘Etesian winds’, Holland, tr. of Pliny, bk. xvi, c. 25 (end); ‘Etesian gales’, Dryden, Albion, Act i (Iris). L. etesius; Gk. ἐτήσιος, annual, from ἔτος, year.
ethe; see [eath].
eugh, yew; ‘The Eugh, obedient to the bender’s will’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 9; Bacon, Essay 46. ME. ew (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2923), OE. īw.
eure, destiny, fate, luck. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 235, back, 8; spelt ure, Skelton, Colin Clout, 1003; to be ured, to be invested with, as by the decree of fate, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 6; ewre, to render happy, Palsgrave. Hence eurous, ewrous, lucky, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 227. 30; lf. 228. 19. ME. ure, fate, good luck (Barbour’s Bruce). OF. eür, ‘sort, bonheur’ (Bartsch), O. Prov. aür, agur, destiny, Romanic type agurium, L. augurium, augury, omen. See [ure], [male-uryd], [misured].
evelong, oblong. Golding, Metam. viii. 551, fol. 101 (1603). ME. evelong, ‘oblongus’ (Trevisa, tr. Higden, i. 405). Cp. Icel. aflangr, oblong, Dan. aflang; L. oblongus.
event, to cool, by exposing to the air; ‘To event the heat’, Mirror for Mag., Clyfford, st. 8; to find vent, ‘Whence that scalding sigh evented’, B. Jonson, Case is Altered, v. 3 (Angelo). F. esventer, to fan or winnow; s’esventer, to take vent or wind (Cotgr.).
ever among, continually, Spenser, Shep. Kal., Dec, 12.
evertuate, reflex., to endeavour. Howell, Foreign Travell, sect. xvi, p. 72; ‘I have evirtuated myself’, Howell, Famil. Letters, vol. ii, let. 61 (end). Anglo-F. s’esvertuer, to exert oneself, endeavour (Gower).
evesing, the eaves of the thatch of a house; ‘A dropping evesing’, Schole-house of Women, 912; in Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poetry, iv. 140. ME. evesynge (P. Plowman, C. xx. 193), deriv. of evese, the edge of the roof of a building, the ‘eaves’, OE. efes (Ps. ci. 8). See [easing].
evet, an eft, a newt. Lyly, Euphues, p. 315. See EDD. for prov. forms. OE. efeta. See [ewftes].
evicke, a wild goat. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, iv. 122 (rendering of αἲξ ἄγριος). See NED. (s.v. Eveck).
ewftes, efts. Spenser, F. Q. v. 10. 23. See [evet].
exacuate, to sharpen, whet, provoke. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, iii. 3 (Compass).
Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Feast observed on Sept. 14. Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 37. 16.
exampless, for example-less, without an example, unparalleled. B. Jonson, Sejanus, ii. 4 (Silius).
Excalibur, the name of King Arthur’s sword. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum. iii. 1 (Bobadil); ‘The try’d Excalibour’, Drayton, Pol. iv (Nares).
excheat, ‘escheat’, profit, lit. that which is fallen to one. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 25; iii. 8. 16. Anglo-F. eschete, eschaëte (Rough List), Med. L. escaeta, deriv. from Romanic type escadére (F. echoir), Med. L. excadere, ‘jure haereditario obvenire; in aliquem cadere, ei obvenire’ (Ducange).
exercise, an act of preaching, discourse; a discussion of a passage of Scripture. Richard III, iii. 2. 112; iii. 7. 64; Middleton, Mayor of Queenborough, v. 1 (Oliver).
exhale, to hale forth, drag out. B. Jonson, Poetaster, iii. 1 (Crispinus); cp. Hen. V, ii. 1. 66.
exhibition, allowance, fixed payment. King Lear, i. 2. 25; Othello, i. 3. 238; London Prodigal, i. 1. 10. Med. L. exhibitio, ‘praebitio’; exhibere, ‘praebere alimenta et ad vitam necessaria’ (Ducange). See Prompt. EETS. 161, and Rönsch, Vulgata, 312. Hence the term ‘exhibition’ in the University of Oxford for annual payments made by a College to deserving students.
exigent, state of pressing need, emergency, decisive moment. Julius Caesar, v. 1. 19; Ant. and Cl. iv. 12. 63; extremity, end, 1 Hen. VI, ii. 5. 9; phr. to take an exigent, to come to an end, A Merry Knack to know a Knave, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 546; exigents, straits, Marlowe, Edw. II, ii. 5 (Warwick).
exigent, an urgent command; a writ of exigent was one commanding the sheriff to summon the defendant to appear, and to deliver himself up on pain of outlawry. Butler, Hud. i. 1. 370; iii. 1. 1036. Anglo-F. exigende, L. exigenda, from exigere, to exact. See Cowell, Interpreter (s.v.).
exoster, a hanging-bridge, used by men besieging a city; ‘Exosters, Sambukes, Catapults’, Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, c. 9. L. exostra, Gk. ἐξώστρα, a bridge thrust out from the besiegers’ tower against the walls of the besieged place; deriv. of ὠθέειν, to thrust.
expend, to weigh, examine, consider. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 9, § 1; c. 29, § 3. L. expendere, to weigh out.
expert, to experience. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Nov., 186.
expire, to breathe out. Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 45; iv. 1. 54; to fulfil a term, i. 7. 9; to fly forth from a cannon, Dryden, Annus Mirabilis, st. 188.
expiscate, to ‘fish out’, i.e. to find out by inquiry. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, x. 181. L. expiscari, to fish out; deriv. of piscis, a fish.
explete, to complete, to satisfy; ‘To explete the act’, Speed, Hist. ix. 21, § 71; ‘Nothing under an Infinite can expleat the immortall minde of man’, Fuller, Pisgah, iv. 7. 123. L. explere, to fill out.
exploit, success; ‘His ambassadours hadde made no better exployte’, Berners, tr. Froissart, ii. 91. 272. ME. espleit, success (Gower, C. A. V. 3924), Anglo-F. exploit, espleit, esplait, speed, success (Rough List).
exploit, to accomplish, achieve; ‘I exployt, I applye or avaunce myself to forther a busynesse’, Palsgrave; ‘They departed without exploytinge their message’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, ch. 26, § 8; ‘To exploit some warlike service’, Holland, tr. Ammianus (Nares).
express, to press out, squeeze out. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 11. 42.
expulse, to expel. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 5, § 5; Bacon, Adv. of Learning, bk. ii, c. 17, § 9. L. expulsare, freq. of expellere, to expel.
extend (a legal t. t.), to seize upon lands, in execution of a writ. Massinger, New Way to Pay, v. 1 (Overreach); to seize upon land, Ant. and Cl. i. 2. 105. See Cowell, Interpreter (s.v.).
extent (a legal t. t.); ‘A writ or commission to the Sheriff for the valuing of lands or tenements; also, the Act of the Sheriff or other Commissioner upon this writ’, Cowell, Interpreter; Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 1035; Massinger, City Madam, v. 2 (Luke); As You Like It, iii. 1. 17.
extinct, to extinguish. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 2 (end); hence extincted, pp., Othello, ii. 1. 81.
extirp, to extirpate. Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 25. L. extirpare, exstirpare, deriv. of stirps, the stem of a tree.
extort, extorted. Spenser, F. Q. v. 2. 5; v. 10. 25.
extraught, extracted. 3 Hen. VI, ii. 2. 142. Cp. distraught for distract, distracted.
extreate, extraction, origin. Spenser, F. Q. v. 10. 1. ME. estrete, extraction, origin (Gower, C. A. i. 1344), OF. estraite, birth, origin (Assizes de Jer., ch. 134); see Bartsch (Glossary).
extree, axle-tree. Golding, Metam. ii. 297; fol. 19, back (1603). In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Ax, sb.1), ME. ex-tre (Prompt. EETS. 145).
eyas, a young hawk taken from the nest for the purpose of training; eyas hauke, a young untrained hawk, Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 34; eyas-musket (used jocularly of a sprightly child), Merry Wives, iii. 3. 22; ‘An aerie of children little eyases’, Hamlet, ii. 2. 355. F. niais (Fauconnerie), ‘qui n’a pas encore quitté le nid’ (Hatzfeld), L. nidacem, deriv. of nidus, a nest, cp. Ital. nidiace, ‘taken out of the nest, a simpleton’ (Florio). See [niaise].
eye, a brood; esp. of pheasants; ‘An Eye of Pheasaunts’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 118 (E. K. Gloss.); ‘An Eye of tame pheasants Or partridges’, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1 (Prigg); Worlidge, Dict. Rust. 252; Coles, Lat. Dict. (1677). In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Eye, sb.2); also in the form nye (nie, ni), see EDD. OF. ni, ‘nid’ (La Curne).
eyre, to ‘ear’, to plough. Drayton, Robert Duke of Normandy, st. 5. See [earth].
eysel; see [eisel].