Questions tagged [seventeenth-century-english]
For questions about English in the 17th century (1601 to 1700)
28
questions
6
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4
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Was there a word for cleavage, decolleté, or decolletage in the 17th century?
I'm particularly interested in finding a word used in the 17th century that was more specific than bosom. I could find no use of cleavage before the 20th century or decolleté before 1778.
Interested ...
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1
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625
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"Will speak more in a minute than he will stand to in a month" - what does this "stand to" mean?
In Romeo and Juliet Act 2 Scene 4, Mercutio departs with Benvolio, leaving Romeo to speak with Juliet's nurse, whom Mercutio has mocked and insulted. Nurse asks Romeo who this rude and raucous fellow ...
- 319
0
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1
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70
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Reading of Swift's On Poetry correctly
Jonathan Swift wrote once that
So, naturalists observe, a flea
Hath smaller fleas that on him prey;
And these have smaller still to bite 'em;
And so proceed ad infinitum.
You can see that to bite '...
- 133
0
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0
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586
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Meaning of "sick-fit"
I recently came across with a religious text of the english Puritan theologian Edward Polhill (1622-1694). Here is a passage from it:
"Satan may hold up his pardoned sins, as it were in their ...
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5
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1
answer
188
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Was it common in Shakespeare's time for adverbial phrases and objects to precede the verb in spoken English?
I'm trying to come up with a list of differences between Shakespeare's manner of writing and modern English, and one of the big differences I've noticed is that Shakespeare often seems to put ...
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2
votes
1
answer
195
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"An" in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew
In Act 1, Scene 1, Katherine says to Bianca,
A pretty peat! It is best / Put finger in the eye, an she knew why".
I understand "Put finger in the eye" means she is fake crying for ...
- 79
0
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1
answer
95
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Defining lapidarical
In this study of The Great Chain of Being, Diamonds among other various gems are classified as a lapidarical primate.
The Oxford Dictionary does not include lapidarical or even it's root word, lapid. ...
- 111
0
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0
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88
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Shakespeare's dubious rhymes [duplicate]
Background
I'm reading A Midsummer Night's Dream, and a lot of the dialogues and monologues are rhymes. But some times, these rhymes aren't rhymes at all.
For instance
So should the murder'd look, ...
- 159
6
votes
1
answer
444
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Meaning of "Friday face" in 1592
I was reading a pamphlet from the year 1592, published in London, and came across a rather obsolete and bewitching phrase:
"The Foxe on a time came to visit the Gray, partly for kindered cheefly ...
- 1,877
2
votes
1
answer
112
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What is the most vulgar word one could use when describing "LIFE" and a phrase for an "ALL-HATING GOD"
I am writing a play and have reached the conclusion where the main character utters a soliloquy of just how "despicably stupid" the concept of "living" and reaching the heights of &...
- 1,877
0
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0
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1k
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'MURDER" or "MURTHER" ? -- Question on when distinct (archaic) spellings for words were used and when not
Salutations, I am currently writing a play that is being regulated to the very distinct notions of authentically replicating the English language and its archaic spellings during its usage in London, ...
- 1,877
2
votes
3
answers
1k
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Why are some of the words capitalized even though they do not refer to God or something Godly?
I am fairly new to poetry and I understand from the Bible that something related to God/God is usually capitalized.
Why is it that in the Milton's poem, When I consider how my light is spent, the ...
- 33
1
vote
3
answers
2k
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Difference between 'willst' and 'wilt' in 'Shakespearean' English?
I am writing a scene from Macbeth detailing the battle before the play for my 11th-grade English class, and I decided to write it in Shakespearean for fun. I have been trying to figure out the ...
Meaghan
5
votes
3
answers
2k
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Why is ‘Earth’ often spelt with a lowercase e, even when referring to the planet?
The word earth has several meanings; the most central one is ‘soil, dirt’, that thing we walk on when we’re outside. It’s also used as a name for the planet we live on.
The Lexico definition for this ...
- 71
4
votes
1
answer
676
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Why do some early modern English writers use an apostrophe in art (ar't)?
For example, in Verses upon the duke of Buckinghams returne from the Ile of Rees (https://www.english.cam.ac.uk/ceres/ehoc/lessons/lesson1/index.html) the poet spells "art" as "ar't" in the phrase "...
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2
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2k
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What is an "asse" in Elizabethan English?
In the "New Yer's Guiftes giuen to The Quene's Maiestie" we find
two handkerchives of Hollande, wroughte with blacke worke, and edged with a smale bone lace of golde and siluer; and an asse of ...
1
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1
answer
808
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Meaning of "In an ill hour"
To all these words which Don Quixote said, a certain Biscaine squire, that accompanied the coach, gave ear; who, seeing that Don Quixote suffered not the coach to pass onward, but said that it must ...
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3
answers
222
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The meaning of the dance title "All In a Garden Green"
There is a 17th century English dance/tune named "All in a Garden Green" (first published in John Playford's The English Dancing Master in 1651).
What is the most probable exact meaning of the title? ...
0
votes
1
answer
93
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How do you parse 'by this which is said'? (1654 UK)
Preface: I first encountered the following on p 83, Philosophy: A Complete Introduction (2012) by Prof Sharon Kaye (MA PhD in Philosophy, U. Toronto). I already tried, but do not see a modern ...
user50720
4
votes
3
answers
527
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What does 'measuring cast' mean? (1660, UK)
Source: 'Things Necessary to be Continually had in Remembrance', by Sir Matthew Hale (1609-1676)
If in criminals it be a measuring cast, to incline to mercy and acquittal.
How do you decide ...
user50720
3
votes
1
answer
3k
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"For who so firm that cannot be seduced?" Where is the verb in this Shakespeare quotation?
He says:
... Therefore it is meet
That noble minds keep ever with their likes,
For who so firm that cannot be seduced?
(Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene 2)
Roughly means that you shouldn't pal ...
- 4,153
1
vote
1
answer
80
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'agree a number ... to one mischief' (1655 UK) [closed]
Source: Paragraph 2, Chapter XX, De Corpore Politico, 1655, by Thomas Hobbes
For multitude, though in their persons they run together, yet they concur not always in their designs. For even at that ...
user50720
0
votes
1
answer
86
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Does 'whose workmanship they are' violate parallelism? (1690 UK)
Source: Sec 6, The Second Treatise of Civil Government, 1690, by John Locke
...for men being all the workmanship of one omnipotent, and infinitely wise maker; all the servants of one sovereign master, ...
user50720
3
votes
5
answers
193
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No direct object in 'give thee faithfully to follow' ? (1670 UK, Isaac Penington)
Source: Para 5, Isaac Penington to Widow Hemmings (1670), by Isaac Penington
If the Lord would show thee but this one
thing, -- that to use "thee" and "thou" to a particular person is
proper ...
user50720
2
votes
2
answers
72
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What's the subject of 'mind not so much to know' ? (1670 UK, Isaac Penington) [duplicate]
Source: Para 5, Isaac Penington to Widow Hemmings (1670), by Isaac Penington
The Lord so guide thee, manifest himself to thee, help thee, and lead
thee by his Holy Spirit and power, as that thou ...
user50720
9
votes
1
answer
9k
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What is a 17th-century affectionate term for "Mother"?
I'm writing a ghost story, and (in an admittedly well-worn trope) a child ghost is looking for its mother; however, how would a 17th-century child affectionately refer to its mother? In short, what ...
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4
answers
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Are English language books translated to contemporary English? [closed]
Were Shakespeare books translated to contemporary English? Which version is more common? Is there a rule to choose which books will have its language updated? Are poems updated too?
From which year I ...
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6
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What were the rules for capitalising nouns in the 17th and 18th centuries?
It seems to have been common practice in the 17th and 18th centuries in English-language sources to capitalise the first letters of nouns, as in
At which Time he prov'd himself the Noah's Dove, that ...
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