▪ I. legend, n.
(ˈlɛdʒənd)
Forms: 4–5 legand(e, 4, 6 legeand, 4–7 legende, 5–6 -ent(e, 6 -eant, 5– legend.
[a. F. légende (recorded from 12th c.) = Sp. leyenda, Pg. legenda, lenda, It. leggenda, ad. med.L. legenda ‘what is read’, f. legĕre to read.
For the formation of fem. verbals from the gerundive stem, cf. med.L. præbenda ‘prebend’, It. lavanda washing, etc.]
1. The story of the life of a Saint.
| c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xiii. (Marcus) 108 To sancte march turnand myn hand, as I in his legand fand. c 1386 Chaucer Nun's Pr. T. 301 In the lyf of seint kenelm, I rede.. how..I hadde leuere than my sherte That ye hadde rad his legende, as haue I. c 1430 Life St. Kath. (1884) 65 Thys glorious virgyn seynt Kateryne had alle these ȝeftes as hir legende sheweth tofore. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxx. 21 In haly legendis haif I hard allevin, Ma sanctis of bischoppis, nor freiris, be sic sevin. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. xx. §9 Legends being growne in a manner to be nothing els but heapes of friuolous and scandalous vanities. |
2. A collection of saints' lives or of stories of a similar character.
the Legend,
spec. a mediæval collection of saints' lives written by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, in the 13th century; now usually called
the Golden Legend (
Legenda Aurea), the name popularly given to it in the Middle Ages.
| c 1340 Cursor M. 20900 (Fairf.) Qua wille haue mare of þis matere rede þe legende & ȝe mai here. c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 344 Aftir bileve of hooli writt, þat telliþ of Petre and oþir apostlis..taken we biside bileve of many oþir þat þei ben seintis, as of Clement and Laurence and oþir þat þe Legende spekiþ of. 1483 Caxton (colophon) Thus endeth the legende named in latyn legenda aurea, that is to saye in englysshe the golden legende. 1611 Cotgr., Legendier, the golden Legend; a booke of the liues of the Saints. 1612 Bacon Ess., Atheisme (Arb.) 330, I had rather beleeue all the fables in the Legend, and the Alcaron, then that this vniuersall frame is without a minde. 1649 Alcoran p. ix, They [Mohammedans] invoke their Saints, of whom they have a large Legend. 1662 Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. I. v. §5 The next Legend the world hath should be called Legenda Orientalis. 1740 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Lady Pomfret 29 June, A belief in all the miracles in the Legend. |
† 3. A story, history, account.
Obs.| c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. Prol. 473 The moste partye of thyn lyf spende In makynge of a gloryous legende Of goode wemen. c 1386 ― Shipman's T. 145 Thanne wolde I telle a legende of my lyf, What I haue suffred sith I wasa wyf. 1508 Dunbar Tua mariit wemen 504 This is the legeand of my lif. 1560 Rolland Crt. Venus iii. 653 Allegeand baith the ald and new Testamentis Historyis, Scriptouris, & vtheris lang legentis. 1601 Chester in Shaks. C. Praise 43 The true legend of famous King Arthur. 1613 Jackson Creed ii. xxxi. §11 Christ Jesus, who hath left us these his sacred laws, and legend of his most blessed life. 1616 Bullokar, Legend, a story of olde matters. c 1645 Howell Lett. (1650) 98 Those rambling letters..are nought else than a legend of the cumbersom life and various fortunes of a cadet. 1671 Milton Samson 1737 Acts enroll'd In copious Legend, or sweet Lyric Song. |
† 4. A roll, list, record.
Obs.| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. x. 376 Þat I man made was and my name yentred In þe legende of lyf longe er I were. 1536 Bellenden Cron. Scot. (1821) II. 100 Thocht he be nocht nowmerit amang the legend of papis. 1601 Marston Pasquil & Kath. i. 356 Sir, I enrowle you in the Legend of my intimates. |
5. Eccl. A book of readings or ‘lessons’ for use at divine service, containing passages from Scripture and the lives of saints.
Obs. exc. Hist.| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 293/2 Legende (S. boke), legenda. 1459 Paston Lett. I. 489 Inprimis, ij. antyfeners. Item, j. legande of hoole servyce. 1482 Will of M. Paston ibid. III. 283 A compleet legende in oon book, and an antiphoner in an other book. 1549 Act 3 & 4 Edw. VI, c. 10 §1 All Bookes called..Processionalles, Manuelles, Legends, Pyes, Portuyses, Prymars..shalbe..abolished. 1556 in Warton Life Sir T. Pope (1772) App. xvi. 319 A fair legeant of parchmente lymned with gold. 1605–6 Act 3 Jas. I, c. 5 §15 Missals, Breviaries, Portals, Legendes, and Lives of Sainctes. a 1746 Lewis in Gutch Coll. Cur. II. 165 A Legend; in which were written the Lessons to be read at Mattins. 1849 Rock Ch. of Fathers IV. xii. 212 The Legend contained all the lessons out of Holy Writ, and the works of the fathers, read at matins. |
6. a. An unauthentic or non-historical story,
esp. one handed down by tradition from early times and popularly regarded as historical.
| 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 506 That yee may know the Indians want not their Metamorphoses and Legends, that tell that a man..had a daughter, with whom the sunne was in love. 1685 Stillingfl. Orig. Brit. i. 11 Having their minds naturally framed to believe Legends. 1687 T. Brown Saints in Uproar Wks. 1730 I. 77 The kingdom..is ten times as populous as when the legend supposes you and your sister-trollops to have lived there. 1768 H. Walpole Hist. Doubts 84 note, It would have required half the court of Edward the Fourth to frame a consistent legend. 1838 Thirlwall Greece I. 89 To æolus himself no conquests and no achievements are attributed by the legends of his race. 1860 Hook Lives Abps. I. vi. 323 The legend which would attribute to Alfred the foundation of the University of Oxford. 1900 G. C. Brodrick Mem. & Impressions 156 It was deliberately and skilfully employed to break down what has been called the Gladstonian legend. 1901 Spectator 23 Feb. 277/2 The voracity of the pike is the subject of innumerable legends. |
b. in generalized sense.
| 1847 Emerson Repr. Men, Swedenborg Wks. (Bohn) I. 334, I think of him as of some transmigrating votary of Indian legend. 1855 Milman Lat. Chr. iv. x. (1864) II. 434 Legend dwells with fond pertinacity on the holiness of the saint. |
7. a. A writing, inscription, or motto; chiefly
spec. in
Numism., the words or letters impressed upon a coin or medal.
For attempts to distinguish
legend and
inscription, not now recognized by numismatists, see
quots. 1611, 1727–41.
| 1611 Cotgr., Legende, a Legende, a Writing; also, the words that be about the edge of a peece of coyne. 1702 Addison Dial. Medals iii. 153 We are now come to the Legend or Inscription of our Medals. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v., In strictness, the legend differs from the inscription; this last properly signifying words placed on the reverse of a medal, in lieu of figures... Every medal has properly two legends; that on the front, and that on the reverse. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxi, As..their edges were inscribed with a legend, clipping was not to be apprehended. 1863 Reader 4 July 5 ‘Who is Griffiths?’ is now a legend marked in paint on many of the walls about London. 1869 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) III. xi. 38 No legend or effigy marks the graves of these royal Ladies. |
b. gen. Written character; writing.
rare.
| 1822 Shelley Fragm. Unfin. Drama 152 Like a child's legend on the tideless sand, Which the first foam erases half, and half Leaves legible. 1836 Card. Wiseman Sci. & Relig. II. viii. 67 The learned..applied themselves to the study of the enchorial, or as it has since been called, the demotic legend. |
c. The written explanatory matter accompanying an illustration, map, etc. Also
attrib., as
legend-line.
| 1903 Westm. Gaz. 8 Jan. 2/1 The sort [of satire] I should employ if—if I were writing legend-lines for a halfpenny comic paper. 1951 D. Bland Illustration of Bks. ix. 142 After the blocks have been made and the proofs approved, a paste-up should be prepared for the printer, to include legends or captions. 1963 Which? July 200/1 The symbols used on a map should be..explained clearly in the legend (or key). 1970 Watsonia VIII. 31 Figure 4. For legend see above. 1974 Times Lit. Suppl. 23 Aug. 910/5 The information provided in caption and legend is clear and exactly what is needed. |
¶ Misused for
legion.
| 1598 Shakes. Merry W. i. iii. 59 She has all the rule of her husbands Purse: he hath a legend of Angels. 1682 A. Behn Roundheads v. i, A Legend of his Divels take him for't. |
8. attrib. and
Comb., as
legend book,
legend-king,
legend lay,
legend-lust,
legend-maker,
legend-monger,
legend tale;
legend-circled,
legend-haunted,
legend-like,
legend-stored adjs.| 1495 Duchess of York in Wills Doctor's Comm. (Camden) 4, I geve to Sir John More, a *legend boke and a colett boke. |
| 1842 Faber Styrian Lake etc. 316 Thou *legend-circled thing, dread Euxine Sea! |
| 1905 Westm. Gaz. 25 Mar. 5/3 Its famous, *legend-haunted Jews' quarter. 1908 Daily Chron. 5 Oct. 7/1 As a poor and lonely boy he wove his day-dreams by the legend-haunted cliffs of Tintagel. |
| 1930 Blunden Poems 319 And thence, before to-morrow's dawn, it springs That they are one with elves and *legend-kings. |
| 1821 J. Baillie Metr. Leg., Wallace ii, My *legend lay receive. |
| 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1596) 80/1 They seeme more *legendlike than truthlike. 1674 Essex Papers (Camden) I. 282 Legend-like storys. |
| 1911 E. Pound Canzoni 42 Nay, on my breast thou must Forget and rest and dream there For thine old *legend-lust. |
| 1621 Fletcher Wildgoose Chase ii. i, A glorious talker, and a *Legend maker Of idle tales. 1820 W. Tooke tr. Lucian I. 519 note, The Christian legend-makers. 1871 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) IV. xvii. 61 Norman panegyrists and legend-makers. |
| 1680 H. More Apocal. Apoc. 233 No *Legend-mongers, nor intruders of absurd and impossible doctrines. 1893 W. C. Borlase Age Saints 13 Gilbert de Stone, a legend-monger of the fourteenth century. |
| 1840 T. A. Trollope Summer Brittany I. 2 The traditions of its gloomy and *legend-stored history. |
| 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. i. vii. §5. 34 That *legend tale of Gregorius Magnus. |
b. Applied to the estimated or planned displacement, speed, etc., of a ship before construction or testing. Also
absol.| 1908 Westm. Gaz. 31 July 1/3 A ship..in the Bay would exceed her legend speed by a knot or two. 1921 Glasgow Herald 17 Dec. 12 The British Government may construct two new ships, not to exceed 35,000 legend tons each. 1936 W. S. Churchill in Second World War (1949) I. i. ix. 144 If you ask your people [the Admiralty] to give you a legend for a 16-inch-gun ship, I am persuaded they would show you decidedly better proportions than could be achieved at 14-inch. |
Sense 8 in
Dict. becomes 9. Add:
8. A person of such fame or distinction as to become the subject of popularly repeated (true or fictitious) stories;
esp. in
phr. a legend in one's (own) lifetime.
| 1918 L. Strachey Eminent Victorians 168 She was a legend in her lifetime, and she knew it. 1940 W. Faulkner Hamlet i. ii. 28 They all knew Stamper. He was a legend, even though still alive. 1948 Time 19 July 34/3 Klondike Mike, the greatest of the mushers, the sourdough who struck it rich and kept his poke, is a living legend. 1978 Lancashire Life Sept. 51/1 During the last war he became something of a legend. 1987 Hairdo Ideas July 20 Reminiscent of the styles worn by the glamour girls of the 40's, this long, thick mass of loose waves will make you a legend in your own time! |
▸
colloq. (
usu. humorous or
depreciative).
a legend in one's (own) lunchtime (also lunch hour)punningly after
a legend in one's own lifetime at Additions: famous or notorious only for a short period of time, within a limited social circle, or in one's own estimation.
| 1976C. Wordsworth in Observer 20 June 27/1 Now along comes Testkill [sc. a novel by Ted Dexter and Clifford Makins].., the exotic fruit of collaboration between a batsman..and a former sports editor of The Observer who was a legend in his own lunchtime. 1981 Washington Post (Nexis) 16 Nov. b5 Bernikow, 40, has so thoroughly studied American noon-hour habits that she just might become a legend in her own lunchtime. 1989 Boston Globe (Nexis) 10 Oct. 61 ‘We turn from tramps into icons. We're legends in our own lunch hour,’ laughs guitarist Dave Stewart, who with singer Annie Lennox will act out roles much as they do in their award-winning videos. 1995 P. Redmond Hollyoaks (Mersey TV transmission script) Episode 4. 61 Tony. Oh... I don't know..it's just... Being around God's gift to women all the time... Natasha. In his opinion I presume. Tony. (grins) Legend in his own lunchtime. |
▪ II. † ˈlegend, v. Obs. [f. legend n.] trans. a. with
out: to tell stories of; to tell of in legend.
b. To tell as a legend.
| 1597–8 Bp. Hall Sat. i. i. 2 Nor ladies wanton love, nor wandring knight Legend I out in rimes all richly dight. 1647 Trapp Comm. Rom. xi. 2 Some have legended of him [sc. Elias], that when he drew his mothers brests, he was seen to suck in fire. 1670 Milton Hist. Eng. iii. Wks. 1851 V. 131 Some of these perhaps by others are legended for great Saints. |