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THE

BIBLE WORD-BOOK

The

BIBLE WORD-BOOK

A Glossary of Archaic Words and

Phrases in the Authorised Version of the

Bible and the Book of Common Prayer

BY WILLIAM ALDIS WRIGHT M.A. LL.D.

FELLOW AND SENIOR BURSAR OF TRINITY COLLEGE

CAMBRIDGE

SECOND EDITION

REVISED AND ENLARGED

LONDON

Macmillan and Co.

[The right of Transiation is reserved]

Cambridge:

PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. & SON,

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

15204 C BBD ・W 93

PREFACE.

IT is the object of the following Glossary to explain and illustrate all such words, phrases, and constructions, in the Authorised Version of the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha, and in the Book of Common Prayer, as are either obsolete or archaic. In books which have become so familiar, and which have so leavened our language, it is somewhat difficult to fix a standard by which to decide whether a word is partially or entirely obsolete, whether the phrase of which it is part is fallen into disuse, and whether the construction in which it is found is such as no modern writer would employ. In endeavouring to form an opinion for myself on these points, I have excluded from the comparison all such works in modern English literature as are immediately or indirectly derived from the books in question; I mean all sermons, devotional writings, and the so-called religious newspapers and periodicals. Their language is to so large an extent made up of unconscious quotation from our Authorised Version that, while they keep alive much that is valuable, they create the impression that the language has undergone far less change than has in reality befallen it. Setting aside therefore all literature of this kind, I have endeavoured, in the case of each word, or phrase, or construction, to ascertain whether it would find a place naturally in the usual prose writing of the day: I say 'naturally,' because

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