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

by Richard Chenevix Trench

So drawith folkes hertis, ywis,

Silver and gold that yeven is.

Romaunt of the Rose, 1182 (ed. Morris).

Demetrius. Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.

Helena. You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;

And yet you draw not iron, for my heart

Is true as steel.

Shakespeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream, act ii. sc. 1.

If you will have a young man to put his travel in little room, when he stayeth in one city or town, let him change his lodging from one end and part of the town to another; which is a great adamant of acquaintance.—Bacon, Essays, 18.

Admiral. This was a title often given in the seventeenth century to the principal and leading vessel in a fleet; the ‘admiral-galley’ North (Plutarch’s Lives) calls it.