burny; betray and betrash; chastie and chastise; obey and obeisse or obeyshe, are all found in contemporaneous writers, and often in the same page. Custom appears to have followed no law of selection in determining which form should remain. Many instances might be given.

The auncient fighting menn astonied at the first commotion of the Britains, &c. Pol. Verg. p. 71.

The word appears in various shapes ;-astoned (Chaucer), astoined (Spenser and Sackville), stoynde (Sackville), from which the transition is easy to the form stunned, which is etymologically the same. For instance, Alexander, fighting against the Mallians,

Had a blowe with a dart on his necke that so astonied him, that he leaned against the wall looking vpon his enemies. North's Plutarch, Alex. p. 751.

At which ceason were left at Vannes aboute the nombre of III. Englishmen, whych not beyng called to councell and vnware of this enterpryse, but knowyng of the erles sodeyne departure wer so incontinently astonned, yt in maner they were all dispayre. Hall, Rich. III. fol. 22 b.

Wiclif uses

stoneyng' for 'astonishment.' weren abayschid with a great stoneyng.” (Mk. v. 42.)

Thei

At, prep. In the phrases 'to hold one's peace at' (Num. xxx. 4), 'to come at' (Ex. xix. 15).

Madam, he hath not slept to night; commanded
None should come at him.

Shakespeare, Winter's Tale, II. 3.

At one (Acts vii. 26). "To be at one' is to be united, reconciled; 'to set at one' is to reconcile.

So beene they both at one.

If gentilmen, or other of

Spenser, F. Q. II. I, § 29.

hir contre,

Were wroth, sche wolde brynge hem at oon.

Chaucer, Clerk's Tale, 8313.

The verb atone means to reconcile, make one. Shakespeare uses atone intransitively, as well as transitively;

Since we cannot atone you, we shall see

Justice design the victor's chivalry.

Rich. II. I. I.

As You Like It, v. 4.

Cymb. 1. 5.

I am glad I did atone my countryman and you.

The process by which we arrive at the form atonement is illustrated by the following passage from Bishop Hall (Sat. III. 7);

Ye witlesse gallants, I beshrewe your hearts,
That set such discord 'twixt agreeing parts,
Which never can be set at onement more.

In the sense of 'reconciliation' it occurs in Sir T. More; Hauyng more regarde to their olde variaunce then their newe attonement. Rich. III. p. 41 C.

And in Shakespeare (2 Hen. IV. IV. 1);

If we do now make our atonement well
Our peace will, like a broken limb united,
Be stronger for the breaking.

Attonement, a louing againe after a breache or falling out. Baret, Alvearie, s. v.

For hereof is it [Sunday] called in the commune tongue of the Germanes Soendach, not of the sonne as certayne men done interprete but of reconcilynge, that if in the other weke dayes any spotte or fylthe of synne be gathered by the reason of worldly busynesse and occupations, he shold eyther on the Saterdaye in the euentide or els on Sundaye in the mornynge reconcile hymselfe, and make an onement with God. Erasm. on the Commandments, 1533, fol. 162.

a-two is very common in old writers, compare also 'atwixt,' 'atwain,' &c.

At the last (Prov. v. 11, &c.). At last; an antiquated usage. The article was frequently inserted in phrases in which it is now omitted, e.g. 'the which,' for 'which,' &c. (Gen. i. 29). So Piers Ploughman (Vis. 9614):

I conjured hym at the laste.

and Sackville (Induction):

Till at the laste

Well eased they the dolour of her minde,

As rage of rayne doth swage the stormy winde.

It frequently occurs in the form ate laste; so Gower:

But ate laste

His slombrend eyen he upcaste.

Conf. Am. II. p. 103.

At the length (Prov. xxix. 21). At length; like 'at the last,' an antiquated usage.

So that at the lengthe eiuill driftes dryue to naught, and good plain waies prospere and florishe. Hall, Ed. V. f. 26.

Yet at the length he had compassion on them, and raised up Gideon to deliver them. Latimer, Serm. p. 31.

So Bacon uses 'at the first' (Ess. XLV. p. 182), 'at the least' (Ess. XXIX. p. 126), ‘at the second hand' (Ess. LIV. p. 217).

Attendance, sb. (1 Tim. iv. 13). Attention; from Lat. attendo, 'to bend towards,' first applied to a bow, and then generally 'to direct, aim at.'

Attendaunce doth attayne good favour.

Hawes, Pastime of Pleasure, Cap. 21.

So in Latimer (Rem. p. 326);

But rather he will blame the people for that they took no better heed and attendance to Paul's speaking.

6

In 1 Kings x. 5; 2 Chr. ix. 4; 1 Macc. xv. 32, 'attendance of servants,' i. e. retinue, establishment, staff, is used in a sense not altogether obsolete. In Heb. vii. 13, attendance at the altar,' i. e ‘act of attending,' is the most usual meaning. The phrase 'to give attendance' occurs in Hall (Hen. VIII. fol. 75 b);

The Dukes, Marques and Earles, gaue attendance nexte the kynge.

Attent, adj. (2 Chr. vi. 40; vii. 15). Lat. attentus. Attentive, as the Heb. is elsewhere rendered.

Season your admiration for a while
With an attent ear.

Shakespeare, Ham. 1. 2.

Attire, sb. (Jer. ii. 32; Prov. vii. 10; Ezek. xxiii. 15). O. Fr. atour, attour, a hood, or woman's headdress (see Tire). The word afterwards acquired the more extended meaning of 'dress' generally; but that it was used in the above passage in its original sense is evident from the fact that the same Hebrew word is in Is. iii. 20, translated 'headbands.' The forms attour and attire both occur in a passage of Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rose, 3713—18:

By her attire so bright and shene,
Men might perceve well and sene
She was not of religioun,

Nor I nill make mentioun

Nor of robe, nor of treasour

Of broche, neither of her rich attour.

To tel you the apparel of the ladies, their rych attyres, their sumptuous juelles, their diuersities of beauties, and the goodly behauyor from day to day syth the first meeting, I assure you ten mennes wyttes can scace declare it. Hall, Hen. VIII. fol. 82 b.

Attire, v.t. (Lev. xvi. 4). To put on a head-dress.

Audience, sb. (Gen. xxiii. 13; 1 Sam. xxv. 2, 4, &c.). Lat. audientia. Hearing. The Hebrew is literally ́ears.'

In Acts xiii. 16, 'give audience' is the rendering of what in the Greek is simply 'hearken.' The word is found in Chaucer, in the same sense:

I dar the better ask of yow a space

Of audience.

Clerk's Tale, 7980.

and in The Tale of Melibeus :

Uproos tho oon of these olde wise, and with his hond made countenaunce that men schulde holde hem still and given him audience.

To every wight comaundid was silence

And that the knight schuld telle in audience
What thing that worldly wommen loven best.

Chaucer, The Wife of Bath's Tale, 6614.

Aul, sb. (Ex. xxi. 6; Deut. xv. 17). The old spelling of 'awl: A. S. cl, al, awel, or awul, G. ahle. But in Cotgrave's French Dictionary, printed in the same year as the Authorized Version we find:

Alesne f. An Awle; or (Shoomakers) bodkin.

On the other hand, in Withal's Dictionary, p. 180 (ed. 1634) we find:

An Aule, Subula, æ.

The last is the spelling in the A.V. of 1611.

Autentike, adj. Authentic.

And all is sound in substance, in one or other of our editions, and the worst of ours farre better than their autentike vulgar. The Translators to the Reader.

Avenge, v.t. (1 Sam. xxiv. 12; Is. i. 24; Luke xviii. 3). The construction 'to avenge of' occurs in the preface of the Translators to the Reader:

That pietie towards God was the weapon, and the onely weapon that both preserued Constantines person, and auenged him of his enemies.