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. 2b.

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.

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. I. 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.

and in The Tale of Melibeus :

Clerk's Tale, 7980.

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. æl, 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.

Such as Socrates was, who being greatly abused by an insolent, audacious and gracelesse youth, that spared him not, but had spurned and kicked him with his heeles, seeing those about him to be very angrie and out of patience, stamping and faring as though they would run after the partie, to be avenged of such indignitie. How now, my masters, (quoth he,) what if an asse had flung out, and given me a rap with his heeles, would you have had me to have yerked out and kicked him againe? Holland's Plutarch, p. 12, l. 33.

Avengement, sb. (2 Sam. xxii. 48, m.; Ps. xviii. 47, m.). Vengeance.

Vindice: f. Reuenge, auengement, vengeance, punishment.
Cotgrave, Fr. Dict.

Avoid, v.i. (1 Sam. xviii. II; Wisd. xvii. 17). Fr. vuider, vider, to make empty, clear out. Intransitively to depart, escape. Webster marks as improper the usage of the word in I Sam.: 'David avoided out of his presence twice,' but it is supported by many examples in old English. He woulde neuer haue suffered him to auoyd his handes or escape his power. Hall, Rich. III. f. 6b.

Well done, avoid, no more.

Shakespeare, Temp. IV. 1.

Void is used in the same sense in Chaucer:

Alle the rokkes blake

Of Breteigne were y-voided everichon.

Chaucer, Franklin's Tale, 11471.

The following example illustrates the usage of the word as it passed from its original to its present meaning :

One time it happened that he met him so in a narrow street that he could not avoid but come near him. Latimer, Serm. P. 441.

Avouch, v.t. (Deut. xxvi. 17, 18; Luke xx. c.; Acts iv. c.). Lat. advocare, through Fr. voucher. To acknowledge, The original is simply 'caused to say.' 'Thou hast

avow.

this day made Jehovah to say or promise, and Jehovah hath made thee promise;' i. e. 'ye have mutually promised, accepted and ratified the conditions, one of the other.' Such is the explanation which Gesenius gives of this disputed passage. The process by which avouch arrived at the sense in which it is there employed is explained by Mr Wedgwood (Dict. of Eng. Etym. s.v.). Under the feudal system, when the right of a tenant was impugned he had to call upon his lord to come forwards and defend his right. This in the Latin of the time was called advocare, Fr. voucher a garantie, to vouch or call to warrant. Then as the calling on an individual as lord of the fee to defend the right of the tenant involved him in the admission of all the duties implied in feudal tenancy, it was an act jealously looked after by the lords, and advocare, or the equivalent Fr. avouer, to avow, came to signify the admission by a tenant of a certain person as feudal superior. Finally with some grammatical confusion, Lat. advocare, and E. avow or avouch, came to be used in the sense of performing the part of the vouchee or person called upon to defend the right impugned.' Hence to assert, maintain :

And though I could

With barefaced power sweep him from my sight,
And bid my will avouch it.

Shakespeare, Macb. III. 1.

The secte of Saduceis who denied the resurrection of bodyes, auouchyng manne wholy to peryshe after deathe. Mk. xii. 18.

Udal's Erasm.

This thynge do I auouch vnto you. Ibid. xiii. 28.

The full force of the word will be seen in the following examples from Cotgrave's Fr. Dict.

Advouäteur: m.

An aduower, auoucher; answerer, vndertaker for; also, one that acknowledges, and challenges his beast, taken dammage-fesant.

Advouër. To aduow, auouch;...acknowledge, confesse to be, take as, or for, his owne.