1684 ff. It is suggested here that Malapert gets his name from discovering things which should be concealed, saying them ‘en apert’; but the word is rather from ‘apert’ in the sense of ‘bold’ ‘impudent,’ whence the modern English ‘pert.’
1688. serroit, ‘ought to be,’ a common use of the conditional: cp. 6915, 8941, &c., and Vox Clam. iii. 1052 and elsewhere, where the Latin imp. subj. is used in the same way.
1709 f. ‘All set themselves to listen what he will say.’
1711. si nuls soit, ‘if there be any.’
1717. Prov. ix. 7, ‘Qui erudit derisorem, ipse iniuriam sibi facit.’
1740. n’en dirroit plus avant, ‘would not go further in speaking of it,’ ‘avant’ being probably an adverb: cp. 1762.
1758. Boeth. de Cons. iii. Pr. 8. ‘Igitur te pulcrum videri non tua natura sed oculorum spectantium reddit infirmitas.’
1762 f. si par tout avant, &c., ‘if he could go on further and see the rest.’
1776. volt, used apparently for pret. subj., as 327; here in conditional sense.
1784. Aug. in Joann. Ev. i. 15, ‘Quid est quod te inflas, humana superbia?... Pulicibus resiste, ut dormias: cognosce qui sis.’