enmilden
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ĕnmīlʹdə̆n, IPA(key): /ɛnˈmaɪldə̆n/
Verb[edit]
enmilden (third-person singular simple present enmildens)
- (transitive, obsolete, rare) Render lenient or less severe.
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne [aut.] and John Florio [tr.], The Essayes; or, Morall, Politike, and Millitarie Discourses of Lord Michaell de Montaigne (1st ed.), book III, chapter xii: “Of Phisiognomy”
- Ut magis peccari nolim, quam satis animi ad vindicanda peccata habeam: ‘So as I had rather men should not offend, then that I should have courage enough to punish their offences.’ Some report that Aristotle, being up-braided by some of his friends that he had beene over mercifull toward a wicked man, ‘I have indeede (quoth he) beene mercifull toward the man, but not toward his wickednesse.’ Ordinary judgements are exasperated unto punishment by the horror of the crime; And that enmildens mee. The horror of the first murther makes me feare a second; And the uglinesse of one cruelty induceth me to detest all maner of imitation of it.
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne [aut.] and John Florio [tr.], The Essayes; or, Morall, Politike, and Millitarie Discourses of Lord Michaell de Montaigne (1st ed.), book III, chapter xii: “Of Phisiognomy”
References[edit]
- “† enmilden” listed as a derived term of “En-, prefix¹”, itself treated on pages 136–138 of volume III (D–E), § ii (E) of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles [1st ed., 1897]
En-, prefix¹, the forms assumed in Fr. (as also in Pr., Sp., Pg.) by the L. prepositional prefix in- (see In-). The Eng. words in which it appears are partly adaptations of Fr. (occasionally Sp.) words, either of L. descent or formed in Romanic, and partly original formations upon Eng. words. […] 3. Verbs, mostly transitive, formed by prefixing en- to a verb, with additional sense of in, or simply intensive (in poetry often merely to give an additional syllable); also vbs. f. en- + adj. or sb. + en- (see 2 b). […] † enmilden […] 1603 Florio Montaigne iii. xii. (1632) 599 That *enmildens mee. - “†enmilden” listed as a derived term of “en-, prefix¹”, itself treated in the Oxford English Dictionary [2nd ed., 1989]