It will be seen from the quotations which follow that ‘residence’ in the seventeenth century meant something quite different from ordinary place of habitation, which is all the meaning which now it has.
Separation in it is wrought by weight, as in the ordinary residence or settlement of liquors.—Bacon, Natural History, § 302.
Of waters of a muddy residence we may make good use and quench our thirst, if we do not trouble them; yet upon any ungentle disturbance we drink down mud, instead of a clear stream.—Bishop Taylor, Sermon on the Gunpowder Treason.
The inexperienced Christian shrieks out whenever his vessel shakes, thinking it always a danger that the watery pavement is not stable and resident like a rock.—Id., Sermon 11, part 3.
| Restive, | } |
| Restiveness. |
Any one now invited to define a ‘restive’ horse would certainly put into his definition that it was one with too much motion; but in obedience to its etymology ‘restive’ would have once meant one with too little; determined to stand still when it ought to go forward. [It is the Old French restif, stubborn, drawing backward (see Cotgrave), from rester, Latin restare, to stand still.] Immobile, lazy, stubborn, are the three stages of meaning which the word went through, before it reached the fourth and present.
Bishops or presbyters we know, and deacons we know, but what are chaplains? In state perhaps they may be listed among the upper serving-men of some great man’s household, the yeoman ushers of devotion, where the master is too resty or too rich to say his own prayers, or to bless his own table.—Milton, Iconoclastes, c. xxiv.
Restive, or Resty, drawing back instead of going forward, as some horses do.—Phillips, New World of Words.
Nothing hindereth men’s fortunes so much as this: Idem manebat, neque idem decebat; men are where they were, when occasions turn. From whatsoever root or cause this restiveness of mind proceedeth, it is a thing most prejudicial.—Bacon, Advancement of Learning, b. ii.
The snake, by restiness and lying still all winter, hath a certain membrane or film growing over the whole body.—Holland, Pliny, part i. p. 210.