aunters: in phr. in aunters, in case, in case that, if. ‘In aunters the Englishmen shoulde sturre’, Robinson, tr. of More’s Utopia, p. 57. Aunters (without in) was used in the same sense, and represented an adverbial form founded on aunter, a contraction of aventure (Mod. E. adventure); see Aunters in NED. Cp. the Yorkshire word anters: ‘We must have it ready, anters they come’ (i.e. in case they come); see EDD. (s.v. Aunters, 2).
autem mort, a married woman (Cant). ‘Autem-mortes be maried wemen’, Harman, Caveat, p. 67. He adds ‘for Autem in their [slang] language is a Churche; so she is a wyfe maried at the Church’. Spelt autumn mort, Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Randal).
avails, profits, proceeds, ‘vails’. Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 94).
avale, avail, to sink, descend, droop; also, to lower, let down. To sink, Spenser. F. Q. i. 1. 21; iii. 2. 29; to descend, ii. 9. 10; iv. 3. 46; to droop, Shep. Kal., Feb., 8; to lower, let down, F. Q. iv. 10. 19; Shep. Kal., Jan., 73. Anglo-F. avaler, to lower, bring down, swallow, deriv. of aval, down, lit. to the valley (Gower), L. ad vallem.
avaunce, to advance, promote, Sir T. Wyatt, Sat. iii. 71. ME. avaunce, to promote (Chaucer, Leg. G. W. 2022). Anglo-F. avancer (Gower).
avaunt, to ‘vaunt’, boast. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 6. ME. avaunten (Chaucer). Anglo-F. s’avanter, to boast; avantance, avanterie, boasting (Gower).
Ave-Mary bell, a bell rung daily (once or twice) to direct the recital of an Ave-Maria, or prayer to the Virgin. Sir T. Browne, Rel. Medici, pt. 1. § 3.
avenant, suitable; after the avenant, in proportion, Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 149. 30; at avenant, in proportion, id. lf. 225. 4. ‘Fayre and avenant’, fair and graceful, id. lf. 256. 4. ME. avenaunt, graceful, comely (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 1263). Anglo-F. avenant, suitable, agreeable (Gower), pres. pt. of avenir, to be suitable (id.).
avente him, to refresh himself with air. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 298. 2. ME. aventen, to open the helmet to admit the cool air, to refresh with cool air (Merlin, xx. 335). Anglo-F. aventer; cp. OF. esventer (mod. éventer), Med. L. eventare (Ducange), L. ex + ventus, wind.
†aventre (?). ‘[She] aventred her spear’, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 28; ‘[He] aventred his spear’, iv. 3. 9; ‘aventring his lance’, iv. 6. 11. The phrase ‘they aventred their speres’ occurs in King Arthur (ed. Copland); see NED. Can this word be an error for aveutre? Aveutre = afeutre = OF. afeutrer, to lay a spear in rest in the feutre, the felt-lined socket for a lance or spear attached to the saddle of a knight. Spenser has the verb fewter equivalent in meaning to afeutrer in F. Q. iv. 6. 10: ‘He his threatfull speare Gan fewter’. See NED. (s.v. Fewter).