A select glossary of English words used formerly in senses different from their present

by Richard Chenevix Trench

This bodiless creation ecstasy

Is very cunning in.

Shakespeare, Hamlet, act iii. sc. 4.

Edify. ‘From the Christian Church being called the temple or house of God, this word acquired a metaphorical and spiritual meaning, and is applied in the N. T. and in modern language to mental or spiritual advancement. Old English writers used it in its original sense of build’ (Bible Word Book). For some quotations which mark the coming up of the secondary or metaphorical meaning see my English Past and Present, 14th edit. p. 186.

I shall overtourne this temple, and adown throwe,

And in thre dayes after edifie it newe.

Piers Plowman, B-text, Passus xvi. 131 (Skeat).

And the Lord God edifiede the rib, the which he toke of Adam, into a woman.—Gen. ii. 22. Wiclif.

What pleasure and also utility is to a man which intendeth to edify, himself to express the figure of the work that he purposeth, according as he hath conceived it in his own fantasy.—Sir T. Elyot, The Governor, b. i. c. 8.

A little wyde