twi-, twy-, prefix
(twaɪ)
[OE. twi- = OFris. twi-, MLG. twi-, MDu. twe-, Du. twee-, OHG. zwi-, Ger. zwie-, ON. tv{iacu}-, Norw., Sw., Da. tve-; cognate with Skr. dvi-, Gr. δι-, L. bi-, Lith. dvi-, from root akin to Skr. dwau, dwē, Gr. δύο, L. duo, two. In OE. the regular comb. form expressing two, sometimes twice.]
a. In parasynthetic comb. with n. + -ed2, forming adjs. with the sense ‘having two..’, ‘two..-ed’, as twi- (or twy-)arched, twi-clustered, twi-coloured, twi-eared, twi-faced, twi-flamed, twi-gated, twi-headed, twi-linked, twi-mouthed, twi-natured, twi-necked, twi-peaked, twi-pointed, twi-shaped (see also twi-banked, etc. in e); also with n. simply, in the same sense, as twi-top adj. (see also twiform in e). b. With adj. or pple. in sense ‘in two ways or respects, doubly’, as twi- (twy-)streaming, twi-yoked. c. With n. in sense ‘twofold, double’, as twi-circle, twi-nature, twi-reason (see also twi-car, etc. in e). d. In sense ‘twice’ or ‘a second time’, as twi-(twy-)born adj. (see also twichild in e). e. Special Combs.: twi-banked a., having two banks of oars; twi-car, used by W. Morris to represent Gr. δίϕρος chariot (properly ‘the chariot-board, on which two could stand’, L. & Sc.); twichild (twy-) (obs. exc. dial.), one who is ‘twice a child’, an old man in his second childhood; also, (one's) second childhood; also as adj.; twifoil (twy-) Her. = dufoil; twi-forked (twy-) a., divided in two like a fork, bifurcate; twiform, -formed (twy-) adjs., having a double form; formed of two (esp. different or incongruous) parts (in quot. 1703, having some part double); twi-life (nonce-wd. after twilight), a life marked by indistinct perception or consciousness; twi-minded a., having two minds or thoughts (about something); considering (it) in two ways or aspects; twy-prong, a two-pronged fork; twi-thought (nonce-wd. after twilight), an indistinct or vague thought; † twi-wifing, bigamy. See also twibill, twibit, twifallow, twifold, twilight, twirede, twispeche.
| 1903 Westm. Gaz. 22 Aug. 2/1 A *twi-arched bridge of stone. |
| 1875 Morris æneid viii. 79 Two *twi-banked keels. |
| 1908 G. Murray Euripides' Hippolytus 30 That Mother fair Of *Twy-born Bacchus. |
| 1887 Morris Odyss. xv. 75 But abide till I bring to thy *twi-car the gifts. |
| c 1580 J. Jeffere Bugbears i. iii. 69 in Archiv. Stud. Neu. Spr. (1897) XCVIII. 313 O my *twichild and my babye! 1656 W. D. tr. Comenius' Gate Lat. Unl. §199 Old men are said to grow children again, and to bee twichilde. 1829 Southey Oliver Newman vi, Encumber'd with a twichild man. 1889 Gissing Both of this Parish xxiii. II. 175, I thought it was but a deception o' my twichild, for I be getting aged. |
| 1895 F. Thompson Sister Songs 13 In *twi-circle o'er the grass. |
| a 1834 Coleridge The Pang more sharp ii, Babe..From its *twy-cluster'd hiding-place of snow. |
| 1903 Academy 18 July 56/1 A *twi-coloured thread, red and white. 1904 R. J. Farrer Garden Asia 270 Little twy-coloured bubbles. |
| 1879 Butcher & Lang Odyssey 359 A..*twy-eared chalice of gold. |
| 1635 Quarles Embl. v. xiv. 40 Wry-mouth'd disdaine,..And *twy-fac'd Fraud. 1875 Morris æneid xii. 198 Twi-faced Janus. |
| 1822 T. G. Wainewright Ess. & Crit. (1880) 298 The *twi-flamed torch. 1688 *Twyfoile [see dufoil]. c 1828 Berry Encycl. Her. I. Gloss., Twyfoil or Dufoil. 1891 Cent. Dict., Twifoil. |
| 1635 Quarles Embl. ii. xiii. 10 Her flaming head, *Twy-forked with death. 1639 G. Daniel Ecclus. xxvii. 60 A Twi-forkt Iavelin doth divide his heart. 1658 Bromhall Treat. Specters iv. 258 Ioves twy-forked lightning. 1738 Gentl. Mag. VIII. 375/1 Twi-fork'd Malvern with his tow'ring height. |
| 1812 Cary Dante, Purg. xxxii. 95 The wain..Bound to the *twyform beast. 1907 F. Thompson Ode Setting Sun, Thou twi-form deity. |
| 1607 J. Davies Summa Totalis H iij, This huge *twy-form'd Fabrick. 1703 T. N. City & C. Purchaser 7 Twiform'd Creatures, as..a Serpent with a Head at each end; the Spread Eagle with 2 Heads. 1852 Kingsley Andromeda 58 Twyformed, many-handed, terrible, shapeless. 1887 Bowen æneid vi. 25 Twiformed Minotaur, two bodies combined. |
| 1573 Twyne æneid x. D d j, In parliment house they sat *twigated wyde. |
| 1895 Month June 237 Illustrations of the eagle both single and *twi-headed. |
| 1889 Lowell in Atlantic Monthly LXIV. 146 This illusion..That witches us to hear and see As in a *twi-life what it will. |
| 1875 Morris æneid xii. 375 His *twilinked coat of mail. |
| 1883 G. Meredith Earth & Man xliv, *Twi-minded of him, as the waxing tree, Or dated leaf. 1886 E. Dowden Let. Jan. in Fragments from Old Lett. (1914) I. 176 You raise..a difficult general question concerning the destruction of old letters. As usual, I am twi-minded. 1932 V. Woolf Common Reader 2nd Ser. 174 From the first he [sc. Hazlitt] was a twy-minded man. |
| 1875 Morris æneid ix. 617 To hear the flute's *twi-mouthed song. |
| 1897 W. B. Yeats Secret Rose 178 Then the *twy-nature faded. |
| 1868 Tennyson Lucretius 194 A satyr,..but him I proved impossible; *Twy-natured is no nature. 1879 F. W. H. Myers in 19th Cent. June 959 That strange antithesis in the ‘twy-natured’ French. 1916 G. Saintsbury Peace of Augustans viii. 287 The cat was a nymph and the nymph was a cat; the two lines fit the twynatured creature in both its natures. |
| 1840 Browning Sordello iv. 388 The Kaiser's ominous sign⁓mark..The crowned, grim, *twy-necked eagle. |
| 1906 Edin. Rev. Apr. 319 A *twy-peaked monticule. |
| 1623 Lisle ælfric on O. & N. Test. Ded. 1 *Twi-pointed Pernas hill. |
| 1840 Browning Sordello iii. 1019 That's no *twy-prong, but a pastoral cross. 1884 ― Ferishtah, Camel-Driver 51 This red-hot twy-prong. |
| 1632 B. Jonson Magn. Lady iii. v, You shall pardon me For a *twi-reason of State. |
| 1907 F. Thompson New Poems, Hermes 188 Behold, with rod *twy-serpented Hermes, the prophet. |
| 1875 Morris æneid vi. 286 *Twi-shaped Scyllas. |
| 1794 Coleridge Relig. Musings 204 Property..*twy-streaming fount, Whence Vice and Virtue flow, honey and gall. |
| 1885 G. Meredith Diana xxiv, Diana saw herself through the haze she conjured up. ‘Am I worse than other women?’ was a piercing *twi-thought. |
| 1622 Wither Fair Virtue E ij, The *twy-top Hill, Where the Poets learne their skill. |
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 450 Bigamie..On engleis tale, *twie-wifing. |
| 1875 Morris æneid xii. 164 With *twiyoked horses white. |