OLD WORDS AND MODERN MEANINGS. A. Abate. Formerly, to beat or cast down (abattre); to subdue: now, to diminish. The kynge of Scottes planted his siege before the castell of Norham, and sore abated the walls.-HALL, Henry VIII. Till at length Your ignorance deliver you, as most That won you without blows. SHAKSPEARE, Coriolanus, iii. 3. In politics as in religion there are devotees who shew their reverence for a departed Saint by converting his tomb into a sanctuary for crime. Because he was merciful, his bones give security for assassins, vile abuses cluster round every glorious event, round every venerable name, and this evil assuredly calls for vigorous measures of literary police, but the proper course is to abate the nuisance, without defacing the shrine.-MACAULAY. Accept. To receive favourably now employed in respect of things rather than persons. His grace admitted me to audience, and accepted me lovingly.-Cardinal Wolsey to R. Pace. God is no accepter of persons; neither riches, nor poverty are a means to procure his favour.—CHILLINGWORTH, Serm. iii. B The whole nation at that time was on fire with faction. The Whigs applauded every line in which liberty was mentioned as a satire on the Tories, and the Tories echoed every clap to show that the satire was unfelt. The story of Bolingbroke is well known. He called Booth into his box and gave him fifty guineas for defending the cause of liberty so well against a perpetual dictator. The play ['Cato'] was acted night after night for a long time. When it was printed, notice was given that the Queen would be pleased if it was dedicated to her, but as Addison had designed that compliment elsewhere, he was unable to accept the favour.--Dr. JOHNSON. Acquit. Once, to requite, to return: now, to free from blame or suspicion. Now thank the worm and eke the beast, His travail hadden well acquit.-GOWER. Syr, desirous to acquit your tried friendship with some token of good will, of late I perused divers of my imperfect works, minded to bestow on you the travel of my fore-passed time.— G. WHITSTONE (1578). The vices of the Administration must be chiefly ascribed to the weakness of the King, and to the levity and violence of the favourite [Shaftesbury], but it is impossible to acquit the Lord Keeper.-MACAULAY. Actual. Used by Jeremy Taylor as ripe or fit for action. Use therefore that faculty which nature hath given thee and thy education hath made actual, and thy calling hath made a duty.-J. TAYLOR. These memoirs [M. Dumont] have not convinced us that the French Revolution was not a great blessing to mankind. But they have convinced us that very great indulgence is due to those who while this Revolution was actually taking place regarded it with unmixed aversion and horror. We can perceive that the evil was temporary and the good durable.-MAC AULAY. ADDICT-ADMIRABLE. 3 Addict. Formerly meant to devote the mind or body to good as well as evil purposes, but now used only in the unfavourable sense. Ye know the house of Stephanas, that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the Saints.-Authorised Version, 1 Cor. xvi. 15. Lycurgus was so addicted to elegant learning, as to have been the first that brought out of Ionia the scattered works of Homer.-MILTON. The Quakers always seem to succeed in every institution which they undertake. In the plan and conduct of this retreat [for the insane] they have evinced the same wisdom and perseverance. The present account is given by Mr. Tuke. The long description at the beginning is made tedious for the Quaker market, and Mr. Tuke is too much addicted to quoting; but with these trifling exceptions it is full of good sense and humanity, right feeling and rational views.-SYDNEY SMITH. Address. Once, to prepare or make ready. Our navy is addressed, our power collected, SHAKSPEARE, 2 Henry IV, iv. 4. They ended parle, and both addressed for fight. MILTON, Paradise Lost, Bk. vi. The public, no longer compelled by war and the mighty career of Napoleon to turn their attention to the action of life could give their sympathies undivided to the first who should represent their thoughts. Sir Philip Sidney represented the popular sentiment in Elizabeth's day, Byron that in our own. Each became the poetry of a particular age put into action, each incorporated with the feeling he addressed attracted towards himself an enthusiasm which his genius alone did not deserve.— LYTTON. Admirable. Admiration. Admire. Formerly expressive of wonder with or without approval. It may justly seem admirable how that senseless religion [Mahometanism] ever gained so much ground on Christianity.— FULLER. Admiration seized All Heaven, what this might mean and whither tend, Every day brought in new observers to behold this admirable pool, and who had not seen it the day before could not be content with one day's wonder.-POTTER (1645), The Pool of Blood at Garraton. I have been forced to write to him in so high a style, that were my epistle intercepted, it would raise no small admiration in an ordinary man. There is scarce an order in it of less importance than to remove such and such mountains, alter the course of such and such rivers, &c.-POPE, relating to a map of Greece. Nothing could be more deplorable than the state even of the ablest men, who depended for subsistence on their writings. Johnson, Collins, Fielding and Thomson, were certainly four of the most distinguished persons that England produced during the eighteenth century. It is well known that all four were arrested for debt. Richardson, like a man of sense, kept his shop and his shop kept him, which his novels, admirable as they are, would scarcely have done.-MACAULAY. Adventure. To venture. Desiring that he would not adventure himself into the Theatre.-Authorised Version, Acts xix. 31. Be not angry, Most mighty Princess, that I have adventured To try your taking of a false report. SHAKSPEARE, Cymbeline, i. 7. Men who delight in news are pleased with anything which is matter of fact: a victory or a defeat is equally agreeable to them. They are glad to hear that the French Court is removed to Marli, and are afterwards as much delighted to hear that it is returned to Versailles. They are as pleased to hear of a piebald horse that is strayed out of a field near Islington as of a whole troop that has been engaged in any foreign adventure. All matters of fact which a man did not know are news to him |