[43] The transition of meaning is beautifully visible in the following passage from The Merry Wives of Windsor:
Mistress Quickly: “I never knew a woman so dote upon a man: surely, I think you have charms, la; yes, in truth.”
Falstaff: “Not I, I assure thee: setting the attraction of my good parts aside, I have no other charms.”
[45] A meaning which it still retains in stage directions—e.g. “The curtain rises, discovering N—— seated in an arm-chair”.
[47] Even gas, though it is an arbitrary creation, was intended by van Helmont to resemble chaos, a Greek word which is derived from a verb ‘chaskein’, meaning to ‘yawn’ or ‘gape’.
[48] Except in old, particular senses, which they have now lost.
[49] The adjective self-conscious was first used by Coleridge.
[50] First used by Hobbes in 1656.