Infra. Latin for below, beneath. A word very generally met with in library catalogues: “See Infra.” It is the antithesis of Supra, above.
Infra Dig. Short for Infra Dignitatem, which expresses the Latin for “beneath one’s dignity.”
Infant. In law, any person under the age of twenty-one.
Infanta. The title of princesses of the royal blood in Spain and Portugal, except the heiress-apparent.
Infante. The corresponding title of the sons of the kings of Spain and Portugal.
Infant Roscius. William Henry Betty, the celebrated boy actor, named after the greatest historian of antiquity. His public career was brief--viz. five years only, 1803-1808--but during that period he became the rage; so much so, that while at Covent Garden, where he received a salary of fifty guineas a night, the military had to be called out to maintain order.
Infantry. Foot soldiers, so called, not because, like children, they have to be trained to walk, but for the reason that one of the Infantes of Spain collected a body of armed men, unmounted, to rescue his father, the King, from captivity at the hands of the Moors. Afterwards foot soldiers in Spain and Italy received the name of Enfanteria.
Infirmary. The older and more correct description of an institution for the sick and infirm. See “[Hospice].”
Inn. The Anglo-Saxon word Inne expressed a mansion. The Inns of Court were originally the town houses of noble families, whose name they still bear--e.g. Gray’s Inn. Our first inns set apart for the entertainment of travellers were in all cases the mansions of the nobility left in charge of the trusted servant, the gamekeeper, during the prolonged absence, either in the wars at home or in the Crusades abroad, of their owners. The family arms served as a sign. After the return of his master the servant, now an innkeeper, set up an inn of his own contiguous to the original, and adopted the same sign. Here we have an explanation of such grotesque inn signs--now that their names have taken the place of the painted device--as the Blue Boar, the Red Lion, etc. At times the innkeeper preferred the sign of the “Green Man.”
Innocents’ Day. December 28th, commemorating the massacre of the Holy Innocents by Herod. Anciently children were soundly whipped in their beds before rising on this day. Being undeserving of such punishment, they were taught to suffer pain for Christ’s sake.