"Signification" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... their respective coronations until the reign of James I. or Charles I.; that is, after the present use of the unction on the hands, breast, &c.; the chrism of the Catholic church was applied, in forma crucis, on the forehead. The distinct signification of this anointing we cannot discover, even after a late learned attempt to elucidate it[46]. The sign of the cross, a symbolical acknowledgment of the Christian faith used in the anointing, we retain: but the two vessels, the eagle and vial of the ancient ceremonies (so intelligently ...
— Coronation Anecdotes • Giles Gossip
... it is one of the best-refuted theories that have been advanced, and in Europe there is now perhaps no one in the learned world so unscholarly as to attach serious signification to it, except for convenient everyday use (as an abbreviation of the means of expression)—thanks chiefly to the Pole Boscovich: he and the Pole Copernicus have hitherto been the greatest and most successful opponents ...
— Beyond Good and Evil • Friedrich Nietzsche
... the word genius or artistic genius, as distinct from the non-genius of the ordinary man, possesses more than a quantitative signification. Great artists are said to reveal us to ourselves. But how could this be possible, unless there be identity of nature between their imagination and ours, and unless the difference be only one of quantity? It were well to change poeta nascitur into homo nascitur poeta: some men ...
— Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic • Benedetto Croce
... I found the signification of "take care of any one" very different on shore from what it was on the river, where taking care of you means getting out of your way, and giving you a wide berth; and I found the shore reading much more agreeable. Cook did take ...
— Jacob Faithful • Captain Frederick Marryat
... from Irenaeus in the expression, 'Omnes enim venit per semetipsum salvare; omnes inquam, qui per eum renascuntur in Deum, INFANTES et parvulos et pueros et juvenes.' (At the sound of so much seriousness Paula turned her eyes upon the speaker with attention.) He next adduced proof of the signification of 'renascor' in the writings of the Fathers, as reasoned by Wall; arguments from Tertullian's advice to defer the rite; citations from Cyprian, Nazianzen, Chrysostom, and Jerome; and briefly summed ...
— A Laodicean • Thomas Hardy
... house may be comfortable, even luxurious, he is in a fever to leave it. And so it comes about that what he is wont to call "transportation" seems the most important thing in his life. We give the word another signification. To New York it means the many methods of conveying passengers from one point to another. And the methods, various as they are, keep pace with the desires of the restless citizen, who may travel at what pace and altitude he desires. ...
— American Sketches - 1908 • Charles Whibley
... the little handful of natives on the Sushitna River, who never approach nearer than a hundred miles to the mountain, have another name for it. They call it Traleika, which, in their wholly different language, has the same signification. It is probably true of every great mountain that it bears diverse native names as one tribe or another, on this side or on that of its mighty bulk, speaks of it. But the area in which, and the people by whom, this mountain is known as Denali, preponderate so greatly as to leave no question ...
— The Ascent of Denali (Mount McKinley) - A Narrative of the First Complete Ascent of the Highest - Peak in North America • Hudson Stuck
... band from which this strange figure hangs is divided into sections by perpendicular incised lines, which are connected by zigzag diagonals. The signification of the figure in the upper part of the bowl is unknown. While this vessel is unique in the character of its decoration, there are others of equal fineness but less perfect in design. Competent students of ceramics have greatly admired this specimen, and so fresh are ...
— Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895 • Jesse Walter Fewkes
... Lady Meed, a lady of importance, whose friendship means perdition, yet without whom nothing can be done, and who plays an immense part in the world. The monosyllable which designates her has a vague and extended signification; it means both reward and bribery. Disinterestedness, the virtue of noble minds, being rare in this world, scarcely anything is undertaken without hope of recompense, and what man, toiling solely with ...
— A Literary History of the English People - From the Origins to the Renaissance • Jean Jules Jusserand
... GENERAL OR PARTICULAR IN THE MIND'S CONCEPTION OF THEM. A great philosopher [Dr. Berkeley.] has disputed the received opinion in this particular, and has asserted, that all general ideas are nothing but particular ones, annexed to a certain term, which gives them a more extensive signification, and makes them recall upon occasion other individuals, which are similar to them. As I look upon this to be one of the greatest and most valuable discoveries that has been made of late years in the ...
— A Treatise of Human Nature • David Hume
... disturbance, immediately preceding Dante, amid which the romance languages define themselves at last, that this temper is manifested. Here, in the literature of Provence, the very name of romanticism is stamped with its true signification: here we have indeed a romantic world, grotesque [251] even, in the strength of its passions, almost insane in its curious expression of them, drawing all things into its sphere, making the birds, nay! lifeless things, its voices ...
— Appreciations, with an Essay on Style • Walter Horatio Pater
... trusted in me, as well as a source of strength, security, and honour to the nation and its rulers, and I resolved that henceforth my name, the Bank of England, should carry with it a meaning wherever it was heard, far beyond its original signification; it should be another term for wealth, honour, and thrift—a something to be trusted, and in which nothing foul, mean, or sordid must ...
— The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. VIII, No. 357, October 30, 1886 • Various
... What then is easier than to find in the name of Ghat the Gath of the Philistines? But unfortunately, Azgher is the Touarick name of themselves and their country. Still the name of Ghat must have its origin. As before noticed, the original signification of the term Ghat has been traced to mean "Sun" or "God," in the ancient Libyo-Egyptian language. I am not competent to give an opinion on the subject. One of the Latin writers makes the aboriginal people of North Africa ...
— Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846 • James Richardson
... to Smile for Smile, meaning nothing of either Side; without any kind of Effect; mere Drawing-room Compliments; the Bow alone would be better without them. He was under some Disadvantages of this kind, that grew still in proportion as it came by Time to be more known, that there was less Signification in those Things than at first ...
— Characters from 17th Century Histories and Chronicles • Various
... had passed, Christopher asked who was being buried. It was a simple burgher, it was not Gellert; and in the deep breath which Christopher drew lay a double signification: on the one hand, was joy that Gellert was not dead; on the other, a still small voice whispered to him that he had now really promised to give him the wood: ah! but whom had he promised?—himself: and it is easy to argue ...
— Stories by Foreign Authors: German (V.2) • Various
... it or no. Now, your reading play is of a different stamp, and must have wit and meaning in it. These latter I call your substantive, as being able to support themselves. The former are your adjective, as what require the buffoonery and gestures of an actor to be joined with them to shew their signification. ...
— Miscellanies, Volume 2 (from Works, Volume 12) • Henry Fielding
... letter a connected spiritual sense. That the science of correspondences was once understood by the inhabitants of our earth, is to be seen in the relics which remain in a more or less perverted form in the hieroglyphics of Egypt, the idolatry among many nations, and sun-worship, where the spiritual signification has often been lost and men have come to worship the natural objects instead of the spiritual, which they represent. The mythological writings of many nations, and even Masonry, contain remains of this once well known ...
— Personal Experience of a Physician • John Ellis
... in different ways. For love has a wider signification than the others, since every dilection or charity is love, but not vice versa. Because dilection implies, in addition to love, a choice (electionem) made beforehand, as the very word denotes: and therefore dilection is not in the concupiscible ...
— Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae) - From the Complete American Edition • Saint Thomas Aquinas
... the two of them Time, that consumes all things. And in order that his idea might be better understood, he gave to the Night, who was made in the form of a woman of a marvellous beauty, an owl and other symbols suitable to her; similarly to the Day, his signs; and for the signification of Time he intended to carve a rat, because this little animal gnaws and consumes, just as Time devours, all things. He left a piece of marble on the work for it, which he did not carve, as he was afterwards prevented. There were besides other statues, which represented ...
— Michael Angelo Buonarroti • Charles Holroyd
... virginity. The Israelites, Arabs, and others carefully preserved and triumphantly exhibited the evidence of it as an infallible sign of the virtue of the bride. They were in error. Its presence is as destitute of signification as its absence; for it is now well known that widows, and wives long separated from their husbands, often have a like experience. The temperament is not without its influence. In those of lymphatic temperament, pale blondes, who often suffer from local discharge and weakness, the parts ...
— The Physical Life of Woman: - Advice to the Maiden, Wife and Mother • Dr. George H Napheys
... us with different emotions. Pleyel did not scruple to regard the whole as a deception of the senses. Perhaps a voice had been heard; but Wieland's imagination had misled him in supposing a resemblance to that of his wife, and giving such a signification to the sounds. According to his custom he spoke what he thought. Sometimes, he made it the theme of grave discussion, but more frequently treated it with ridicule. He did not believe that sober ...
— Wieland; or The Transformation - An American Tale • Charles Brockden Brown
... another word; and then Winthrop withdrawing his arm proposed to have 'some light on the subject.' Winifred sprang to get it, but he held her back, and himself got the candle and lit it and placed it on the table. The light shewed Winnie's face flushed and unresting, and of doubtful signification about the eyes. Winthrop came and took his former place and position ...
— Hills of the Shatemuc • Susan Warner
... seriously, striving to comprehend such a singular type of man. Did he think all that he said? Had he done all that he related? Was he a madman, a comedian, or simply a gabbler, as Manilof in his quality of man of action insisted, giving to the word a most contemptuous signification. ...
— Tartarin On The Alps • Alphonse Daudet
... Chikno and Petulengro, and even in my Biblical researches I have derived no slight assistance from it. It appears to be a kind of picklock, an open sesame, Tanner—Tawno! the one is but a modification of the other; they were originally identical, and have still much the same signification. Tanner, in the language of the apple-woman, meaneth the smallest of English silver coins; and Tawno, in the language of the Petulengros, though bestowed upon the biggest of the Romans, according to strict interpretation, signifieth a ...
— Lavengro - The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest • George Borrow
... investigation both of the orthography and signification of words, their ETYMOLOGY was necessarily to be considered, and they were therefore to be divided into primitives and derivatives. A primitive word, is that which can be traced no further to any English root; thus circumspect, circumvent, ...
— Preface to a Dictionary of the English Language • Samuel Johnson
... learnt not only to say and sing her Breviary, but to know the signification in English. There were translations of the Lord's Prayer and Creed in the hands of all careful and thoughtful people, even among the poor, if they had a good parish priest, or had come under the influence of the better sort of friars. In convents ...
— Grisly Grisell • Charlotte M. Yonge
... humility, and we often judge of this by persons being greatly pleased and blushing at slight praise, or by being annoyed at praise which seems to them too high according to their own humble standard of themselves. Blushing here has the usual signification of regard for the opinion of others. But modesty frequently relates to acts of indelicacy; and indelicacy is an affair of etiquette, as we clearly see with the nations that go altogether or nearly naked. He who is modest, and blushes easily at acts of this nature, does so because they are ...
— The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals • Charles Darwin
... tongue. Savage they called "Bena," I don't know why. "Bena" in Zulu means to push out the breast and it may be that the name was a round-about allusion to the proud appearance of the dignified Savage, or possibly it had some other recondite signification. At any rate Lord Ragnall, Hans and myself knew the splendid Savage thenceforward by the homely appellation of Beans. His master said it suited him very well because ...
— The Ivory Child • H. Rider Haggard
... than physical respects; and that there were wild men who lived in the sea: also that there were beings half-man and half-horse; others half-man and half-bird; and others, again, half-man and half-fish. In respect to the wild man of the woods, it may be said that those words are the literal signification of the Malayan words orang outang; and that animal's appearance seems to determine that the Satyr and kindred creatures were not entirely imaginations. For the half-man and half-horse we have abundant explanation in the various wild riding tribes of men, especially ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 93, July, 1865 • Various
... of no small magnitude, and one quite beyond the scope of such a volume as this. But it is not impossible to give within small compass a brief indication, at least, of what the word once signified, to show how its signification has undergone changes, and to point out to what sort of a discipline or group of disciplines educated men are apt to apply the word, notwithstanding their differences of opinion as to the truth or ...
— An Introduction to Philosophy • George Stuart Fullerton
... scarcely implied by the usual phraseology. American literature seems to be a thing certainly—but it is not the thing exactly. To put Americanism in our letters, is to do a something much more important. The phrase has a peculiar signification which is worth our consideration. By a liberal extension of the courtesies of criticism, we are already in possession of a due amount of American authorship; but of such as is individual and properly peculiar to ourselves, we cannot be said ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, Number 385. November, 1847. • Various
... various places, outside of the Polynesian area, we find terms that bear a more or less close resemblance in signification to taboo.[1038] Melanesian tambu is that which has a sacred character.[1039] The Borneo terms (lali, pemate, mali, penti) are mentioned just above, and there is the pomali of Timor (in the Malayan Archipelago). The Malagasy fady is defined ...
— Introduction to the History of Religions - Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV • Crawford Howell Toy
... lost no time in writing a letter to the direction given him by the young officer, conveying a brief account of the latter's death and burial, and a signification that he held in readiness to give up certain articles of property, at any future time, to his representatives, mentioning also the amount of money contained in the purse, and his intention, in compliance with ...
— Septimius Felton - or, The Elixir of Life • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... territorial division of labour. They differ thus in every thing, except that they both use the word free trade—but with reference to totally distinct ideas. With the one, COMMERCE has that enlarged signification which embraces every description of intercourse resulting from the exercise of "man's natural inclination" for association, while with the other TRADE has reference to no idea, beyond that of the mere pedler who buys in the cheapest market and sells in the dearest one. The system ...
— The trade, domestic and foreign • Henry Charles Carey
... doctrine of following nature was a political dogma. It meant a rebellion against existing social institutions, customs, and ideals (See ante, p. 91). Rousseau's statement that everything is good as it comes from the hands of the Creator has its signification only in its contrast with the concluding part of the same sentence: "Everything degenerates in the hands of man." And again he says: "Natural man has an absolute value; he is a numerical unit, a complete integer and has no relation save to himself and to his fellow man. Civilized ...
— Democracy and Education • John Dewey
... therefore, in mathematical usage, as applied to process and to quantity, has a two-fold signification. An infinite process is one which we can continue as long as we please, but which exists solely in our continuance of it.[221] An infinite quantity is one which exceeds our powers of mensuration or of conception, but which, nevertheless, ...
— Christianity and Greek Philosophy • Benjamin Franklin Cocker
... did not merely prevail with the outer world, it actually penetrated within his walls. By his son, Richard Kearney, he was always called 'My lord'; while Kate as persistently addressed and spoke of him as papa. Nor was this difference without signification as to their separate natures ...
— Lord Kilgobbin • Charles Lever
... of honour amongst them was the middle. The name going before, or following after, either in writing or speaking, had no signification of grandeur, as is evident by their writings; they will as soon say Oppius and Caesar, as Caesar and Oppius; and me and thee, as thee and me. This is the reason that made me formerly take notice in the life of Flaminius, in our French Plutarch, of one passage, where it seems as if ...
— The Essays of Montaigne, Complete • Michel de Montaigne
... as being largely symbolical. So far as I could gather it had never been here before—at any rate no one could be found who had seen it here or in the neighbourhood, and it seemed obvious that its sudden emergence, as it were, out of nothing must have some high and dove-like signification. ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, April 5, 1916 • Various
... The signification of these facts is as follows: as soon as, in the course of development, the conjugated nuclei divide again into two cells, as in Figs. 7 to 10, of Plate I, each of these two cells contains almost the same ...
— The Sexual Question - A Scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study • August Forel
... truth. The Frenchmen, who call themselves the critics, are men who require that the intellect shall make itself the impartial mirror of ideas, but shall renounce the while all discrimination between truth and error. The term scepticism, in its primary signification, contains the idea of inquiring, of examining; and they give the name of sceptics to the philosophers who declare that there is nothing to discover, and consequently nothing to examine, or to search for! One is a free-thinker only on the express condition of renouncing all such free exercise ...
— The Heavenly Father - Lectures on Modern Atheism • Ernest Naville
... old word which God gave us is not more universally used among Christians! Would it not have been better that the translation Rest-day had been adopted, so that even ignorant men might have understood its true signification, than that we should have saddled it with a heathen name, to be an apple of discord in all generations? However, Sunday it is, so Sunday it will stand, we suppose, as long as the world lasts. After ...
— Deep Down, a Tale of the Cornish Mines • R.M. Ballantyne
... Bridget herself might be again embodied before her; but the beldame went straight to the carriage, addressing herself to the invalid within by pointing to her breast, and making divers motions of the like signification, which were not easy to be understood, even by the party for whom they were intended. The prophetess seemed fully to comprehend that her symbolic representations were unintelligible, and no fitting place being at hand ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 2 (of 2) • John Roby
... localized or it might not; its members might be scattered over the whole Christian world, or they might constitute an inner circle of some larger community, of which they—though a Universitas- formed but a part. A University in its original signification meant no more than our modern term an Association. When men associated together for purposes of trade, they were a trading Universitas; when they associated for religious objects, they were a religious Universitas; when ...
— The Coming of the Friars • Augustus Jessopp
... If we will speak properly, He has none; yet is it no absurdity, speaking improperly, to ascribe a body unto God, that is, as the word is taken improperly and generally (and yet not very absurdly) for a true substance, in a large signification, or, if you ...
— Books Condemned to be Burnt • James Anson Farrer
... removes the idea of accident. It has therefore been supposed, that the intention of the sculptor was to exhibit a kind of hieroglyphical representation of water. "Perhaps," as has been observed elsewhere,[72] "it is the chamber of Sagittarius; or, perhaps, it is a fess-wavy, to which the same signification has been assigned by heralds.—If this interpretation be correct, the symbol is allusive to the ancient situation of the town, built in a marsh, intersected ...
— Architectural Antiquities of Normandy • John Sell Cotman
... living members. I wish you would take it so, and flatter yourselves no more with church titles, as if these were sufficient evidences for your salvation. You would all be called Christians, but it fears me you know not many of you the true meaning and signification of that word, the most comfortable sense of it is hid from you. The meaning of it is, that a man is renewed by Christ in the spirit of his mind. As Christ and the Spirit are inseparable, so a Christian and a spiritual nature are not to be found ...
— The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning • Hugh Binning
... judged to be soldiers, moving hurriedly down the river bank toward the Castle. A band richly caparisoned, carrying two flags, one green, the other red, moved at their head. The former, you may know, has a religious signification, and is seldom seen in the field except a person of high rank be present. It is my opinion, therefore, that our arrest has some reference to the arrival of such a personage. In confirmation you may yet hear the musical flourish in ...
— The Prince of India - Or - Why Constantinople Fell - Volume 1 • Lew. Wallace
... Give myself to flight)—Ver. 121. "Dem in pedes." Literally, "give myself to my feet," meaning thereby "to run away." He puns upon this meaning of "dare," and its common signification of "to give" or "to ...
— The Captiva and The Mostellaria • Plautus
... something still more cordial than esteem." Aurelia, blushing at this remark, while her eyes lightened with unusual vivacity, replied, in a severer tone, "Sir, you best know how it lost its original signification."—"By Heaven! I do not, madam!" exclaimed our adventurer. "With me it was ever held a sacred idea throned within my heart, cherished with such fervency of regard, with such reverence of affection, as the devout anchorite more unreasonably pays to those sainted reliques that constitute ...
— The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves • Tobias Smollett
... support of his conjecture, that 'pensie' is still used in some north-country dialects. 'Primsie' is also found in Burns' poems with the signification of 'demure, ...
— Measure for Measure - The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] • William Shakespeare
... unfavourable to him. Lord Grey, when he read the case, thought his argument on the tenth clause of the Bill conclusive, but when he examined the Bill he thought differently, and that the context gives a different signification to the words on which O'Connell relies. Tierney thinks otherwise, and this they debated Bill in hand in Lady Jersey's room yesterday morning. O'Connell was in a great fright when he went up to the table. He got, through the necessary ...
— The Greville Memoirs - A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV and King William - IV, Volume 1 (of 3) • Charles C. F. Greville
... remember the phrase, "brozier my dame," signifying to "eat her out of house and home." I had forgotten that a boy at Eton was "brozier," when he had spent all his pocket-money. As a supplemental note, however, to Lord Braybrooke's remarks upon this latter signification, I would remind old Etonians of a request that would sometimes slip out from one in a "broziered" state, viz. that a schoolfellow would sock him, i.e. treat him to sock at the pastrycook's; and this favour ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 33, June 15, 1850 • Various
... clever interpreters understand spectres which appear in the shape of goats. Jeremiah calls them fauns—the dragons with the fauns, which feed upon figs. But this is not the place for us to go more fully into the signification of the terms of the original; it suffices for us to show that in the Scripture, at least in the Vulgate, are found the names of lamiae, fauns, and satyrs, which have ...
— The Phantom World - or, The philosophy of spirits, apparitions, &c, &c. • Augustin Calmet
... tendency. The late Blanco White avowed it as his mature conviction, that "to declare any one unworthy of the name of Christian because he does not agree with your belief, is to fall into the intolerance of the articled Churches; that the moment the name Christian is made necessarily to contain in its signification belief in certain historical or metaphysical propositions, that moment the name itself becomes a creed,—the length of that creed is of little consequence."[229] This is the extreme on one side, and it plainly implies that no one ...
— Modern Atheism under its forms of Pantheism, Materialism, Secularism, Development, and Natural Laws • James Buchanan
... done into Italian by a translator "who was unable to find in the dictionaries ... any other signification of the 'wisp' of this line than 'a bundle of straw.'" Byron offered him two hundred francs if he would destroy the MS., and engage to withhold his hand from all past or future poems. He at first refused; ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4 • Lord Byron
... have generally preferred the former acceptation of the term: the latter, and more extensive signification is that in which I mean to use it. I do this by virtue of the right I claim for every author, to give whatever provisional definition he pleases of his own subject. But sufficient reasons will, I believe, unfold themselves as we advance, why this should be not only the provisional but the ...
— A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive • John Stuart Mill
... above verse, which children presented to their parents on these occasions, were called Simnells. In some parts of England—in Lancashire, Shropshire, and Herefordshire—these cakes are still eaten on Mid-Lent Sunday. Possibly they had some religious signification, for the Saxons were in habit of eating consecrated cakes at their festivals. The name Simnell is derived from a Latin word signifying fine flour, and not from the mythical persons, Simon and Nell, who are popularly ...
— Old English Sports • Peter Hampson Ditchfield
... has given an interesting paper entitled On the Signification of Couvade, in the Journ. Anthropological Institute, XXII. 1893, pp. 204-243. He writes (pp. 221-222):—"From this survey it would seem in the first place that we want a great deal more information about the custom in the widely isolated cases where it has been ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 2 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa
... etymological signification of "demonstration," "extraordinary," "accumulated," "Nova Scotia," "annually," "geological," "Arizona," ...
— Practical English Composition: Book II. - For the Second Year of the High School • Edwin L. Miller
... the Grand Seignior has titles of honour; for setting aside the vulgar and familiar ones of Rogue, Rascal, Dog, and Thief (which may be taken by way of endearment as well as out of prejudice and offence), as also those of more certain signification, as Malicious Rogue, Ill-Natured Rascal, Lay Dog, and Spiteful Thief.' He had also, he said, been called Rebel, Traitor, Scot, Sadducee, and Socinian. Among the most elaborate replies to his work were: An Answer ...
— An English Garner - Critical Essays & Literary Fragments • Edited by Professor Arber and Thomas Seccombe
... shall be doubt with regard to the signification of anything in the contents of an ecclesiastical appointment, or as to the requisite collation at the hands of the bishops of benefices for the clergy whom we present, let the president of the Audiencia ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803, Volume V., 1582-1583 • Various
... but its intention. You all know that those who kill others are homicides, and those who are homicides kill others. For it would be a great task for a lawgiver to write all the words having the same signification, but in mentioning one term, his meaning covers all. 8. This is the case then, is it not, Theomnestus,—if any one called you a beater of father or mother, you would think he should be punished, but if any one said you beat your father ...
— The Orations of Lysias • Lysias
... book, Doctor Hutchinson proceeds: "The judgment I made of it was, that the poor old woman, being an Irish Papist, and not ready in the signification of English words, had entangled herself by a superstitious belief, and doubtful answers about Saints and Charms; and seeing what advantages Mr. Mather made of it, I was afraid I saw part of the reasons that carried the cause against her. And first it is manifest ...
— Salem Witchcraft and Cotton Mather - A Reply • Charles W. Upham
... drifting dead leaves, and a steel-grey sky; and the Dolphin Hotel at Southampton was glorified by the presence of Lady Maulevrier and suite. Her ladyship's suite was on this occasion limited to three servants—her French maid, a footman, and a kind of factotum, a man of no distinct and arbitrary signification in her ladyship's household, neither butler nor steward, but that privileged being, an old and trusted servant, and a person who was supposed to enjoy more of Lady Maulevrier's confidence than any ...
— Phantom Fortune, A Novel • M. E. Braddon
... also that mass of matter which exhibits the characteristics of the species, and as that mass of matter constitutes the body and therefore is a mode of a soul, and as that soul again, so embodied, is a mode of the highest Self; it follows that all these words extend in their signification up to the highest Self. The meaning of all words then is the highest Self, and hence their co- ordination with words directly denoting that highest Self is a primary (not merely ...
— The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Ramanuja - Sacred Books of the East, Volume 48 • Trans. George Thibaut
... Riphaean mountains, among the Hyperboreans, and next to the south of Cyrenaica, was supposed to be situated in regions that were considered to be westward, being the direction in which the world known to the ancients terminated. The name of Fortunate Islands was long in as vague signification, as that of El Dorado among the conquerors of America. Happiness was thought to reside at the end of the earth, as we seek for the most exquisite enjoyments of the mind in an ideal world beyond the limits of reality.* (* ...
— Equinoctial Regions of America • Alexander von Humboldt
... however, is drawn, not from the inherent, essential properties of the soil, but from the accidental obstructions to the growth of grain which it may in certain circumstances contain: some notice, therefore, of the seed and the sower in their spiritual signification is not only profitable at this stage, but peremptorily necessary to the full apprehension of the instruction which the ...
— The Parables of Our Lord • William Arnot
... GENTLEMEN. How the signification of words alter in the course of a century. There was a time when all persons in England, below the rank of an Esquire, were divided into Gentlemen, Yeomen and Rascals. The former word is now used to signify the individuals of the first order—those ...
— The Olden Time Series, Vol. 6: Literary Curiosities - Gleanings Chiefly from Old Newspapers of Boston and Salem, Massachusetts • Henry M. Brooks
... parents, they may not inherit land, garden, or house.(463) He then had no share in his father's house; he was not one of the family. The distinction is important, for, as we shall see later, the word "house" had a wider signification than mere bricks and mortar.(464) It was the ancestral estate. Over it the family had rights. It went back in default of heirs to the family of the last owner. We are therefore confronted with private ownership of land, but also with ...
— Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters • C. H. W. Johns
... As the full signification of this lost opportunity overwhelmed me, I could not in my mortification meet Caterina's reproachful eyes. Her last gallant stroke for liberty had failed through my lack of co-operation. Cesare's pikemen enclosed her with a wall of bristling spears; the populace slunk into side alleys, the gates ...
— Romance of Roman Villas - (The Renaissance) • Elizabeth W. (Elizbeth Williams) Champney
... clearly in self defence, that the rector and his faithful servants did molliter manus imponere on the Squire and his crew?—The molliter it is true appeared rather doubtful: but then it was a term of law, and would bear that exact signification which the circumstances of the case required, and lawyers so well ...
— The Adventures of Hugh Trevor • Thomas Holcroft
... as head-dresses of the various gods in the codices. Here, as elsewhere, from all that can be made out, the religious character is uppermost as in addition to being a decoration, they undoubtedly have some religious signification. Birds occur by far most commonly in this connection. Both male and female figures seems to have these head-dresses. The same bird is often found as the head-dress of several different gods as, for example, the turkey which appears with gods A, B, C, E, and ...
— Animal Figures in the Maya Codices • Alfred M. Tozzer and Glover M. Allen
... there, and have push'd his Interest as far as he could, only that he had not the Success he expected; for I don't pretend to say that he has never been disappointed; but those Examples are so rare, and of so small Signification, that when I come to the Particulars, as I shall do in the Sequel of this History, you will find them hardly worth naming; and that, take it one Time with another, the Devil has met with such a Series of Success in all his Affairs, and has so seldom ...
— The History of the Devil - As Well Ancient as Modern: In Two Parts • Daniel Defoe
... erection of "parsonages and rectories according to the establishment of the Church of England," to be endowed out of the lands so allotted. (Sec. 38). But, in Lord Glenelg's opinion, the subject was never submitted for the signification of the King's pleasure thereon. Certain ambiguous words, in Lord Ripon's reply to a private communication from Sir John Colborne, was the authority relied upon for the hasty and unpopular act of the retiring Governor. The legality of the act was frequently ...
— The Story of My Life - Being Reminiscences of Sixty Years' Public Service in Canada • Egerton Ryerson
... globe, they look like roasted college beadles. One of the emperors holds a sword instead of a sceptre. I cannot imagine the reason of this variation from the established order, though it has doubtless some occult signification, as Germans have the remarkable peculiarity of meaning something ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VI. • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke
... morning early this Anselm remembered his vision, and wondered much what it might signify; wherefore he called to him his philosophers, and all the states of the empire, and told them his dream, charging them to tell him the signification thereof on pain of death, and if they told him the true interpretation thereof, he promised them good reward. Then said they, "Dear lord, tell us your dream, and we shall declare to you what it betokens." Then the emperor told them from the ...
— Mediaeval Tales • Various
... The true signification of education, according to one derivation of the word, is the bringing or leading out of the faculties. The best educated person is not he who has stored up in his memory the greatest number of facts, but he whose faculties have become most strengthened ...
— The Elements of Character • Mary G. Chandler
... services which were celebrated in as fitting a manner as possible. On the morning of Holy Thursday a sermon was preached to them concerning the holy sacrament; and in the afternoon the superior of that house washed the feet of a dozen poor persons (explaining in a brief sermon the signification of that holy ceremony), by which they were all greatly edified. Toward evening a well-ordered procession was formed containing a large number of flagellants, with other persons who carried some large crosses. This procession was ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, - Volume XIII., 1604-1605 • Ed. by Blair and Robertson
... who appears an enthusiast for the Basque language, produces several words to show the sublimity contained in their signification: for instance, he says, "the radical name of the Moon, combined with other terms, gives occasion for superb expressions, full of thought, and of a character which no modern language could furnish: thus—ilarquia, the moon, signifies its light, or its funereal light; and illarguia, ilkulcha, ...
— Barn and the Pyrenees - A Legendary Tour to the Country of Henri Quatre • Louisa Stuart Costello
... incomparable style, forcing, straining the language to make it render his idea, darting at one bound to the sublimest height by use of the simplest terms, which he, so to speak, bore away with him, wresting them from their natural and proper signification. "There, in spite of that great heart of hers, is that princess so admired and so beloved; there, such as Death has made her for us!" Bossuet alone ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume V. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot
... some falling house or palace, stone detaching itself from stone, till all had gradually sunk into desolation and ruin. Or he who to that Greek word which signifies 'that which will endure to be held up to and judged by the sunlight,' gave first its ethical signification of 'sincere,' 'truthful,' or as we sometimes say, 'transparent,' can we deny to him the poet's feeling and eye? Many a man had gazed, we are sure, at the jagged and indented mountain ridges of Spain, before one called them 'sierras' or 'saws,' the name by which now they are known, as ...
— On the Study of Words • Richard C Trench
... of her years, as she shall be in a miraculous manner born of one that was barren, so she shall, while yet a virgin, in a way unparalleled, bring forth the Son of the most High God, who shall, be called Jesus, and, according to the signification of his name, be the Saviour of ...
— The Forbidden Gospels and Epistles, Complete • Archbishop Wake
... indeed, that the word scold might be changed for some more gentle term, of equal signification; because I am convinced, that the very name is as offensive to female ears, as the effects of that incurable distemper are to the ears of the men; which, to be ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Vol. VII - Historical and Political Tracts—Irish • Jonathan Swift
... physical impossibility the existence of the Being described by the orthodox as a God possessing the attributes of personality. The Deity becomes identified with nature, co-extensive with the universe, but the God of the orthodox no longer exists; we may change the signification of God, and use the word to express a different idea, but we can no longer mean by it a Personal Being in the orthodox sense, possessing an individuality which divides Him from the rest of ...
— Annie Besant - An Autobiography • Annie Besant
... abundance of sacred and profane learning is displayed in them; and that Grotius, by his references to the writings of the Rabbis, and his remarks upon the idiom of the sacred writings, has happily elucidated a multitude of passages in the text. He uniformly adopts the literal and obvious signification of the language used by the holy penmen. In explaining the predictions of the prophets, he maintains that they referred to events anterior to the coming of Christ, and were accomplished in these; so that the natural and obvious sense of the words and phrases, in which ...
— The Life of Hugo Grotius • Charles Butler
... English, may signifie either black, or bleak. Chatterton, in both these passages, renders it naked; and, in the latter, some such signification seems absolutely necessary to make ...
— The Rowley Poems • Thomas Chatterton
... Turk, the name of Nelson is familiar in their mouths; and in this country I am everything which a grateful monarch and people can call me." Nelson, however, had a pardonable pride in the outward and visible signs of honour which he had so fairly won. He was fond of his Sicilian title; the signification, perhaps, pleased him; Duke of Thunder was what in Dahomy would be called a STRONG NAME; it was to a sailor's taste; and certainly, to no man could it ever be more applicable. But a simple offering, which he received not long afterwards, from the island of Zante, affected him with ...
— The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson • Robert Southey
... we pass through the world, we may find in almost every natural object that exists something that will turn our minds to higher and better thoughts. Every tree and flower, every green thing that grows, and every beast of the field and bird of the air, have in them a signification, if we could but learn it. They speak to us in a spiritual language, and figure forth to our natural senses the higher, more beautiful, and more enduring things ...
— Words of Cheer for the Tempted, the Toiling, and the Sorrowing • T. S. Arthur
... beholding this his true and massive effigy in —— Jail we are reminded. When he stands muscular, majestic, sonorous, gold, in his meadow pied with daisies, it shall not be "sweet" and "love" and "duck"—words of beauty but no earthly signification; it shall be, "There, ...
— It Is Never Too Late to Mend • Charles Reade
... sense the word "crowd" means a gathering of individuals of whatever nationality, profession, or sex, and whatever be the chances that have brought them together. From the psychological point of view the expression "crowd" assumes quite a different signification. Under certain given circumstances, and only under those circumstances, an agglomeration of men presents new characteristics very different from those of the individuals composing it. The sentiments and ideas of all the persons in the gathering take one and the same direction, and their conscious ...
— The Crowd • Gustave le Bon
... a person who is telling a story. It may be either meant kindly or as a signification that the ...
— The Proverbs of Scotland • Alexander Hislop
... short notices of the earliest American Discoveries by the Portuguese, English, and French nations. We now return to a continuation of the early Discoveries and Conquests in India, taking that word in its most extensive signification as comprehending the whole of southern Asia, from the Persian Gulf to Japan and Eastern China. In the present portion of our Collection, we propose chiefly to direct our attention to the transactions of the Portuguese; adding however ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume VI - Early English Voyages Of Discovery To America • Robert Kerr
... paper, which is a brief abstract of a work to be published later, an attempt is made to outline the history of the development of the internal commerce of the United States after the formation of the Union in 1789. The term "internal commerce," though in its fullest signification embracing every purchase, sale, and exchange of commodities between the individuals of a country together with the business of transmitting intelligence and of transporting persons and things from place to place, is here used primarily as applying to the interchanges of commodities ...
— Outline of the development of the internal commerce of the United States - 1789-1900 • T.W. van Mettre
... all parts of Europe, were originally one of the Castes of India, driven out of their territory, and distinguished among Indian tribes, by a name which signifies thieves. They have a similar appellation among the Fins, and with the same signification. ...
— A Historical Survey of the Customs, Habits, & Present State of the Gypsies • John Hoyland
... speaks of the envelope of a set of elementary waves, formed by coalescence of those elementary wave-fronts, as "the termination" of the wave; and the elementary wave-fronts he terms "particular" waves. Owing to the circumstance that the French word rayon possesses the double signification of ray of light and radius of a circle, he avoids its use in the latter sense and speaks always of the semi-diameter, not of the radius. His speculations as to the ether, his suggestive views of the structure of crystalline bodies, and his explanation of opacity, slight as they are, ...
— Treatise on Light • Christiaan Huygens
... Andes is often derived from anta, an old Peruvian word signifying metal. But Humboldt says: "There are no means of interpreting it by connecting it with any signification or idea; if such connection exist, it is buried in the obscurity of the past." According to Col. Tod, the northern Hindoos apply the name Andes to ...
— The Andes and the Amazon - Across the Continent of South America • James Orton
... the other languages of mankind. Its words are built on what is termed the principle of triliteralism; the skeleton, as it were, of each of them consisting of three consonants, while the vowels, which give flesh and life to the skeleton, vary according to the grammatical signification of the word. The relations of grammar are thus expressed for the most part by changes of vocalic sound, just as in English the plural of "man" is denoted by a change in the vowel. The verb is but imperfectly developed; it is, in fact, rather ...
— Early Israel and the Surrounding Nations • Archibald Sayce
... give to all those who are infidels suitable instruction in Christian doctrine—not merely so that they know it by rote, but also so that they may understand (so far as they are capable of this) the signification of the words, and the mysteries contained therein. Thus, too, he will be able to make each and every one of them understand all that is necessary for them to believe, and know, and do, in order to be good Christians. All this ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, V7, 1588-1591 • Emma Helen Blair
... philosophical language; being in this the reverse of Socrates, who, it was said, reduced philosophy to the simplicity of common life. But let us attend to what he himself says in his concluding paper: 'When common words were less pleasing to the ear, or less distinct in their signification, I have familiarised the terms of philosophy, by applying them to popular ideas[647].' And, as to the second part of this objection, upon a late careful revision of the work, I can with confidence say, that it is amazing how few of those words, for which it has been unjustly characterised, ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 1 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill
... down a precipice, was he raving mad? Or will you absolve the man from the imputation of a disturbed mind, and condemn him for the crime, according to your custom, imposing, on things named that have an affinity in signification? ...
— The Works of Horace • Horace
... ever think of calling him a good young man. Your good young man is commonly a sneak, and is very nearly allied to that other social pest, the "nice young lady." As applied to the immature male of our kind, the adjective "good" seems to have been perverted from its original and ordinary signification, and to have acquired a dyslogistic one. It is a term of reproach, and means, as nearly as may be, "characterless." That any one should submit to have it applied to him is proof of the essential cowardice ...
— The Fiend's Delight • Dod Grile
... with are spoken of as "Natural History," and they called themselves and were called "Naturalists." But you will observe that this was not the original meaning of these terms; but that they had, by this time, acquired a signification widely different from that which ...
— American Addresses, with a Lecture on the Study of Biology • Tomas Henry Huxley
... that the words rendered everlasting, eternal, and forever, which are, in a few instances, applied to the misery of the wicked, do not prove that misery to be endless, because these terms are loose in their signification, and are frequently used in a limited sense; that the original terms, being often used in the plural number, clearly demonstrate that the period, though indefinite, is limited in its very nature. They maintain that the meaning of the term must always be sought ...
— The Book of Religions • John Hayward
... As to the signification of this fabulous divinity, all are agreed that, by Apollo, the sun is understood in general, though several poetical fictions have relation only to the sun, and not to Apollo. The great attributes of this deity were divination, healing, music, and archery, all which manifestly refer to the sun. ...
— Roman Antiquities, and Ancient Mythology - For Classical Schools (2nd ed) • Charles K. Dillaway
... this was the form taken by Harold's latest craze; and in justice this much had to be said for him, that in the christening of his amusement he had gone right to the heart of the matter. The words "will" and "testament" have various meanings and uses; but about the signification of "death-letter" there can be no manner of doubt. I smoothed out the crumpled paper and read. In actual form it deviated considerably from that usually adopted by family solicitors of standing, the only resemblance, indeed, lying in the ...
— Dream Days • Kenneth Grahame |
