artillery, missile weapons. ‘Artillarie now a dayes is taken for ii. thinges, Gunnes and Bowes’, Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 65; Bacon, Essay 29, § 3; Fairfax, Tasso xvii. 49; Bible, 1 Sam. xx. 40 (AV.). Norm. F. artillerie, ‘armes de jet et de trait, non à feu; comme arbalètes, flèches, lances, etc.’ (Moisy).
askaunces, as if, as much as to say. Gascoigne, Dan Bartholomew; ed. Hazlitt, i. 113, l. 4; i. 136, l. 16. So in Chaucer, C. T. G. 838. Cp. OF. quanses, as if (Godefroy). See Romania, xviii. 152; Cliges (ed. Förster, l. 4553, note). The M. Dutch quansijs (as if saying, as much as to say) in Reinaert, 2569 (ed. Martin, p. 78) is probably the same word as the OF. quanses. The Chaucerian use of ascaunces in Tr. and Cr. i. 205, 292 is precisely the same as that of als quansijs in Reinaert.
aspect, (aspéct), the peculiar position and influence of a planet. King Lear, ii. 2. 112. Common. ME. aspect, the angular distance between two planets (Chaucer).
asper, a Turkish coin worth about two farthings or less. Fletcher, Span. Curate, iii. 3 (Jamie). F. aspre. Byzantine Gk. ἄσπρον, white money, from ἄσπρος, white.
asprely, fiercely. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i. c. 17. § 8. OF. aspre; L. asper, fierce.
assalto, assault. B. Jonson, Every Man, iv. 7 (Bobadil). Ital. assalto.
assassinate, an assassin, murderer. Dryden, Span. Friar, iv. 1 (Dominic); Don Sebastian, v. 1 (Almeyda).
assay, proof, trial; attempt; attack. Hamlet, ii. 1. 65; ii. 2. 71; iii. 3. 69. At all assays, in every trial or juncture, in any case, on every occasion, always, Drayton, Harmony of the Church, Ecclus. xxxvi. st. 6; ‘At all assayes, en tous poynts’, Palsgrave. ME. assay, trial (Chaucer, C. T. D. 290). Anglo-F. assai (Gower).
assinego, a donkey, a dolt. Also asinego, Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 4 (Welford); asinigo, Marmion, Antiquary, v. 1 (Ant.). Spelt asinico in ed. 1606; Tr. and Cr. ii. 1. 49; Span. asnico, ‘a little asse’ (Minsheu), deriv. of asno, an ass, L. asinus, ass.
assistant, used by Fletcher for Span. asistente, the chief officer of justice at Seville. Span. Curate, iii. 1. 15.