amite, aunt. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 88, back, 13. L. amita, father’s sister.
ammiral, admiral. Milton, P. L. i. 294. OF. amiral; Port. amiralh.
amomus, amomum, an odoriferous plant. Nabbes, Microcosmus, iii. 13 (from end). L. amomum; Gk. ἄμωμον. See NED.
amoneste, to admonish. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 216. 1; lf. 327. 17. Anglo-F. amonester (Rough List).
amoret, a love-glance, a loving look. Greene, Friar Bacon, iii. 2 (1264); scene 9. 177 (W.); p. 168, col. 2; also iv. 2 (1668); scene 12. 8 (W.); p. 173, col. 2. F. amourette, a love-trick (Cotgr.).
amort, in phr. all amort, spiritless, dejected. Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 1; Taming Shrew, iv. 3. 36; 1 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 124. The phr. is due to F. à la mort, to the death. See NED.
amortise, to alienate in mortmain, to convey (property) to a corporation. Bacon, Henry VII, ed. Lumby, p. 71. Anglo-F. amortir (see Rough List). Med. L. admortire, ‘concedere in manum mortuam’ (Ducange).
a-mothering; see [mothering].
amphiboly, an ambiguity, a sentence that can be construed in two different senses. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, ii. 1 (Compass). L. amphibolia; Gk. ἀμφιβολία, ambiguity.
amphisbæna, a serpent fabled to have a head at each end, and hence capable of advancing in either direction. Milton, P. L. x. 524. Gk. ἀμφίσβαινα, a kind of serpent that can go either forwards or backwards (Aeschylus).