dickens, the, (in exclamations) the deuce! the devil! Merry Wives, iii. 2. 20; Heywood, 1 Edw. IV (Hobs); vol. 1, p. 40.
dicker, half a score; esp. of hides or skins; ‘A dicker of cow-hides’, Heywood; First Part of King Edw. IV (Hobs), vol. i, p. 39; The Marriage Night, ii. 1 (Latchet); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xv. 131. ME. diker (NED.), L. decuria, a set of ten; from decem, ten. This Latin word was adopted by the German tribes from ancient times. They had to pay tribute to the Romans partly in skins, reckoned in decuriae (NED.). See Schade (s.v. Decher).
didapper, a diving bird; humorously, a mistress. Shirley, Gent. of Venice, iii 4. 8. See [divedopper].
Diego, a common name for a Spaniard. B. Jonson, Alchemist, iv. 3 (Face); iv. 4 (Subtle). Allusions are often made to a Spaniard so named who committed an indecency in St. Paul’s Cathedral, as in Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, iv. 3 (Blurt). Span. Diégo, the proper name James, gradually corrupted from Jacobus, whence Yágo, then Diágo, and at last Diégo (Stevens). James was the patron saint of Spain. See [Dondego].
diery, harmful; ‘With dreadful diery dent Of wrathful warre’, Mirror for Mag., Guidericus, st. 12; Carassus, st. 26. See [dere].
difficile, difficult. Butler, Hudibras, i. 1. 53; spelt dyfficyle, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 311, back, 14. F. difficile.
diffide in, distrust. Dryden, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid, xi. 636; Congreve, Old Bachelor, v. 1 (Bellmour). L. diffidere.
diffused, dispersed, scattered. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 4; v. 11. 47; confused, disordered, distracted, Merry Wives, iv. 4. 54; Hen. V, v. 2. 61.
diggon, enough. Shirley, Love Tricks, ii. 2 (Jenkin); iii. 5 (Jenkin). In both places the word is used by a Welshman; and in Shirley’s Wedding, iii. 2, Lodam gives, as a specimen of Welsh—diggon a camrag (for digon o Cymraig), i.e. ‘enough of Welsh.’ Welsh digon, enough.
dight, to prepare. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 24; as pp., arrayed, decked, Shep. Kal., April, 29; prepared, Peele, Sir Clyomon (ed. Dyce, p. 522); framed, Sackville, Induction, st. 55. ‘To dight’ is in prov. use in Scotland and the north of England in the sense of ‘to prepare’, also, ‘to adorn, deck oneself’ (EDD.). ME. dihten, to prepare, array, equip (Chaucer), OE. dihtan, to appoint, order.