BREWER'S DICTIONARY OF PHRASE & FABLE | Abraxas
Publisher : HARPER & BROTHERS pt 2
Abraxas
Abundant Number
Ward," and allowed out from time to time in
a distinctive dress. They were permitted to
supplement their scanty rations by begging.
This gave an opportunity to impostors, and
large numbers availed themselves of it Says
The Canting Academy (Richd. Head, 1674),
"used to array themselves with party-coloured
ribbons, tape in their hats, a fox-tail hanging down,
a long stick with streamers," and beg alms; out
"for all their seeming madness, they had wit enough
to steal as they went along."
There is a good picture of them in King
Lear, ii, 3; and see also Beaumont and
Fletcher's Beggars Bush, ii, i: —
Come, princes of the ragged regiment
And these, what name or title e'er they bear,
Jarkman or Patrice, Cranke or Clapper-dudgeon,
Prater or Abram-man, I speak to all
That stand in fair election for the title
Of King of Beggars.
Abraxas (a braks' as). A cabalistic word used
by the Gnostics to denote the Supreme Being,
the source of 365 emanations, the sum of the
numbers represented by the Greek letters of
the word totalling 365. It was frequently
engraved on gems (hence known as abraxas
stones}, that were used as amulets or talismans.
See BASILIDIANS. By some authorities the
name is given as that of one of the horses of
Aurora.
Absalom and Achitophel (akit'ofel). A
political satire published in 1681, the first
part by Dryden and the second by Nahum
Tate and revised by Dryden. Ofthe prin-
cipal characters, David stands for Charles II;
Absalom for his natural son James, Duke of
Monmouth (handsome and rebellious); Achi-
tophel for Lord Shaftesbury; Zimri for the
Duke of Buckingham; and Abdael for Monk.
The accommodation of the biblical narrative
to contemporary history is so skilfully made
*hat the story of David seems to repeat itself.
Absent. *'Out of mind as soon as out of
sight " This is the form in which the proverb
is given by Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke
<d. 1628) in bis 56th Sonnet \ but it appears
with its more usual wording — "Out of sight,
out of mind," as the title of one of Barnabe
Googe's Eclogs (1563).
Tbe absent are always wrong. The transla-
tion of the French proverb, Les absents out
toujours tort, which implies that it is always
easy to lay the blame on someone who is not
present to stand up for himself.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. A
tag- of doubtful truth, that comes from a
song, The Isle of Beauty by T. Haynes Bayly
(1797-1839).
Absent flag. A small blue signal flown by a
yacht to indicate that the owner is not aboard,
Absolute. A Captain Absolute, a bold,
despotic man, determined to have his own
way, so called from the character in Sheridan's
Rivals.
Absolute weight. The weight of a body in
vacuum.
Absolute zero. The temperature at which a
theoretically perfect gas, kept at constant
volume, would exert no pressure. In practice
this is— 273.1° C.
Absquatulate (&b skwot' u lat). To run away
or abscond. An artificial American word,
possibly from Lat. ab, from and squat, a
squatting being a tenement taken in some
unclaimed part, without purchase or per-
mission. It seems to have been first used m
1833, in The Kentuckian, a play by W, B.
Bernard.
Abstinence is the voluntary total forbearance
from taking alcohol, certain foods, etc.; it
differs from temperance, for this admits of
their being taken habitually in moderation.
In ecclesiastical parlance Days of Abstinence
are those when the eating of meat is not
permitted; Fasting Days are when only one
full meal is allowed in the twenty-four hours.
Abstract Numbers are numbers considered
without reference to anything else: 1, 2, 3;
if we say 1 year, 2 feet, 3 men, etc., the
numbers are no longer abstract, but concrete.
Things are said to be taken in the abstract
when they are considered absolutely, that is,
without reference to other matters or persons.
Thus, in the abstract, one man may be as
good as another, but is yet not so socially
and politically.
An abstract of title is a legal expression,
meaning an epitome of the evidences of owner-
ship.
Abstraction. Alexander Bain, in The Senses
and the Intellect (1855), defines abstraction as
"the generalizing of some property, so as to
present it to the mind, apart from the other
properties that usually go along with it in
nature"; or it is, as Locke put it: "Nothing
more than leaving out of a number of resem-
bling ideas what is peculiar to each." This
process is apt to result in what we call an
empty abstraction, a mere ideality, of no prac-
tical use, and sooner or later we turn away
from such unsatisfying ideas, as did Words-
worth : —
Give us, for our abstractions, solid facts;
For our disputes, plain pictures.
Excursion v, 636.
Gladstone furnished an excellent illustration
of the meaning of the term when he said,
"Laws are abstractions until they are put into
execution."
Absurd meant originally "quite deaf," (Lat.
ab, intensive, and surdus, deaf); but the Lat.
compound, absurdus, had the meaning, "out
of time," "discordant," hence "harsh" or
"rough," and hence the figurative (and now
common) meaning "irrational," "silly" or
"senseless."
Reductio ad absurdum. See REDUCTIO.
Abudah (a bu' da). Thackeray's allusion: —
Like Abudah, he is always looking out for the
Fury, and knows that the night will come with the
inevitable hag with it.
is to a story in Ridley's Tales of the Genii of
a merchant of Bagdad who is haunted every
night by an old hag.
Abundant Number, An. A number the sum
of whose aliquot parts is greater than itself.
Thus 12 is an abundant number, because its
divisors, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6=16, which is greater
than 12. Cp. DEFICIENT NUMBER, PERFECT
NUMBER.
Abus
Accius Naevius
Abus (ab'us). An old name of the river
H umber. See Spenser's Faerie Queene, II,
x, 16:—
He [Locrine] then encountred, a confused rout,
Forbye the River that whylome was hight
The ancient Abus . . .
See Geoffrey of Monmouth's Chronicles,
Bk. ii, 2.
Abyla. See CALPE.
Abyssinian Christians. A branch of the
Coptic Church. See COPTS.
Academy. Originally the proper name of a
garden near Athens (from Academes, the
reputed founder) where Plato taught; hence,
the philosophical school or system of Plato,
and, later, a place where the arts and sciences,
etc., are taught, and a society or institution
for their cultivation.
Plato's Academy was divided into the Old,
his own philosophic teaching, and that of his
immediate followers Xenocrates, Crates, and
others; the Middle, a modified Platonic
system, founded by Arcesilaus about 244 B.C.;
and the New, the half-sceptical school of
Carneades, founded about 160 B.C. Plato's
followers were known as Academics. In
addition to its usage in reference to an
academy or university, the adjective academic
has since been employed to signify "theoreti-
cal, scholarly, abstract, unpractical, merely
logical." See PLATONISM.
The principal modern Academies are: —
In. Italy, the Academia de Lincei founded in
1603, with Galileo among its earliest members;
it became the National Academy in 1 870.
The French Academy (Acad^mie franfaise),
formally established in 1635 by Cardinal
Richelieu, with 40 members, its principal
function being: —
To labour with all the caie and diligence possible,
to give exact rules to our language, to render it
capable of treating the arts and sciences.
The Royal Academy of Arts, founded in
1768 by George III for the establishment of
an art school and the holding of annual
exhibitions of works by living artists. The
following is a list of the Presidents of the
Royal Academy : —
1768 Sir Joshua Reynolds 1878 Lord Leighton
1792 Benjamin West 1896 Sir John Millais
1805 James Wyatt (temp.) 1896 Sir Edward Poynter
1 806 Benjamin West 1919 Sir Aston Webb
1820 Sir Thos. Lawrence 1924 Sir F. Dicksee
1830 Sir Martin Archer 1928 Sir W. Llewellyn
Shee 1938 Sir E. Lutyens
1850 Sir Charles Eastlake 1944 Sir A. L. Munnings
1866 Sir Francis Grant 1950 Sir G. F. Kelly
The Royal Military Academy, Woolwich,
was founded in 1741 for the training of
artillery and engineer officers; the Royal
Military Academy, Sandhurst* was founded
in 1799 for the training of candidates for
commissions in the infantry, cavalry, and other
arms. These two were amalgamated in 1946
as the Royal Military Academy, at Sandhurst.
The Royal Spanish Academy was founded
at Madrid in 1713 for purposes similar to
those of the French Academy. There is also
a Royal Academy of Science at Berlin (founded
1700), at Stockholm (the Royal Swedish
Academy, founded 1739), and at Copenhagen
(founded 1742). The Imperial Academy of
Sciences at St. Petersburg (Leningrad) was
established by Catherine I in 1725.
Academy figures. Drawings in black and
white chalk, on tinted paper, usually about
half life-size and from the nude.
Acadia (a ka' dia). The early name of Nova
Scotia, introduced to Europe by the Floren-
tine explorer, Verazzani, who reported in 1524
that it was known by that name to the inhabi-
tants. In 1621 Sir Wm. Alexander obtained
a grant of the land, and its name was changed
to Nova Scotia. The old French inhabitants
refused to take the oath of allegiance to the
British crown and were in a state of constant
rebellion, so in 1755 they were forcibly
evacuated; Longfellow's Evangeline tells of the
resulting sufferings.
Acadine (ak' a din). A Sicilian fountain men-
tioned by Diodorus Siculus as having magic
properties. Writings were thrown into it for
the purpose of being tested; if genuine they
floated, if spurious they sank to the bottom.
Acanthus (a kan' thus). The conventionalized
representation of the leaf of Acanthus mottis
used as a decoration in the capitals of Corin-
thian and composite columns. The story is
that an acanthus sprang up around a basket of
flowers that Calhmachus had placed on his
daughter's grave, and that this so struck the
fancy of the architect that he introduced the
design into his buildings.
Accents. See TYPOGRAPHICAL SIGNS.
Accessory. Accessory before the fact is one
who is aware that another intends to commit
an offence, but is himself absent when the
offence is perpetrated.
Accessory after the fact is one who screens
a felon, aids him in eluding justice, or helps
him in any way to profit by his crime. Thus,
the receiver of stolen goods, knowing or even
suspecting them to be stolen, is an accessory
ex post facto.
Accident. A logical accident is some property
of quality which a substance possesses, the
removal or change of which would not
necessarily affect the substance itself, as the
height of our bodies, the redness of a brick,
the whiteness of paper, etc. Theologians
explain the doctrine of transubstantiation by
maintaining that the substance of the bread
and wine is changed into that of the body and
blood of Christ, but their accidents (flavour,
appearance, and so on) remain the same as
before.
Accidental colours. See COLOURS.
Accidentals in music are signs indicating
sharps, flats, naturals, and double sharps and
flats, other than those sharps and flats pre-
scribed by the key-signature.
Accius Naevius (ak' si us ne' vi (is). A legend-
ary Roman augur in the reign of Tarquin
the Elder. When he forbade the king to
increase the number of centuries (i.e. divisions
of the army) instituted by R9mulus, without
consulting the augurs, Tarquin asked him if,
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