asinary

English

Etymology

Form as if from a Latin word asinarius (asinus + -ary).

Adjective

asinary (not comparable)

1. (obsolete, rare) Synonym of asinine (“ass-like, donkey-like, in sutbbornness, foolishness, or other ways”).
   • 1804, David Phineas Adams, Samuel Cooper Thacher, The Monthly Anthology, and Boston Review, page 195:

     Even in societies, where reason in lovely fimplicity beckons for address, and learning offers her brightest treasures for the easy return of acceptance, this prejudice will be frequently found to derive its origin and power from presumptuous ignorance. In spite of the ridicule, or severe reproof, which it always incurs, in spite of its own asinary vanity, or fiend-like deformity, which are ever open to the eye of reflection, it still triumphantly prevails.

   • 1822, The New Monthly Magazine, page 159:

     Although my subject, that I might be strictly asinary, has led me to a grave and serious treatment, it is not unfertile in more trivial suggestions. In England, where cruelty to animals of all kinds has attained its maximum, this Paria of the quadrupeds endures so large a share of outrage that I have sometimes imagined there must be a special Tophet reserved for its drivers; and as I once fell into conversation with an individual of that class, I endeavoured to explain to him the doctrine ...

   • 1844, Antigua and the Antiguans: a Full Account of the Colony and Its Inhabitants from the Time of the Caribs to the Present Day, Interspersed with Anecdotes and Legends: Also, an Impartial View of Slavery and the Free Labour Systems; the Statistics of the Island, and Biographical Notices of the Principal Families ..., page 225:

     The donkeys and mules are of diminutive sizes, but retain their asinary qualities in as great a degree as their patient brethren in the other parts of the world.

Anagrams

• Sirayan