▪ I. causey, n.
(ˈkɔːzeɪ, -zɪ, ˈkɔːseɪ)
Forms: 4 cauce, kauce, cause, cauci, 4–6 causei, 4–7 cawse, 5 caulce, calse, 5–7 causy, 5–8 cawsey, 6 caucey, caucie, causie, cawsey, causay, calsey, causeie, 6–7 cawsy, calcey, calceis, Sc. calsay, 7 caussey, cawsie, Sc. casey, 6– causey. Also 5 cauchie, cawchie; chaucie.
[ME. caucé, a. ONF. (Norman) caucie, earlier cauciée (Picard cauchie from cauchiée, Parisian chauciée occas. chaucie, now chaussée = Pr. caussada, Sp. calzada:—late L. calceāta, calciāta, in Du Cange (who has also via calciata, littus calciatum, cheminus calciatus; prob. f. a late L. calciāre ‘to stamp with the heels, to tread’, recorded by Du Cange. The meaning would then be a mound or dam made firm by stamping or treading down.
This is strengthened by the fact that calciāre in med.L. interchanges with calcāre to ‘tread, stamp’, and that calcāta, calcātum are actually found instead of calciāta, calciātum; also calcāgium for the droit de chaussée or road-toll. The Romanic forms are (necessarily) identical with those derived from L. calceāre to shoe (It. calzare, Sp. calzar, Cat. calsar, Pr. caussar, OF. cauchier, caucier, chaucier, F. chausser), whence some have suggested the meaning ‘shod way’, whatever this might be. Diez and others have conjectured a vb. of type *calceāre, or *calciāre, from calx, calcem ‘lime’, and taken calceāta as something built or formed with lime; but there is no trace of such a sense in any language. Other med.L. forms were calcea mound, high way, paved way, also calceia, calcetum, calceta, all app. formed on the French. The OF. forms in -ie (from end of 12th c.), represent earlier ones in -iée; the Anglo-F. would be caucée, caucé.]
† 1. A mound, embankment or dam, to retain the water of a river or pond. Obs.
| [c 1170 Charter Hen. II, in Dugdale Monast. (1683) I. 914 Terra quam vivaria sua et calciæ suæ occupabunt.] c 1330 Arth. & Merl. 7756 Opon a cauci bi a broke. 1509–10 Act 1 Hen. VIII, ix. Preamb., A Cawsey extendyng a Myle..ynclosyth the Water of themys from the Kinges hygh Waye. 1601 Holland Pliny vi. xxvii. I. 139 Spasines..opposed mightie dams and causies [oppositis molibus] against those riuers. 1611 Cotgr., Chaussée, the causey, banke, or damme of a pond or of a riuer. 1745 P. Thomas Jrnl. Anson's Voy. 187 These Causeys..are of no little Use, both to keep in the Waters of these Canals, and for those to walk on who drag the Boats along. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1862) I. vi. 480 This dike, or causey, is sometimes ten..feet thick, at the foundation. |
2. A raised way formed on a mound, across a hollow,
esp. low wet ground, a bog, marsh, lake, arm of the sea, etc.; a raised footway by the side of a carriage road liable to be submerged in wet weather. More fully called
causeyway, now
causeway;
causey being now less used.
| c 1300 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 3088 Þorow myres, hylles & vales He made brugges and causes. ― Chron. Langt. (1810) 183 Was þer non entre..Bot a streite kauce, at þe end a drauht brigge. c 1450 Merlin 380 At the foote of the castell was a maras..and thereto was noon entre saf a litill cawchie that was narrowe and straite. Ibid. 604 Aboue this marasse was a chaucie..of the brede of a spere lengthe made of chalke and sand. 1577 Holinshed Chron. III. 830 He..made a continuall causie of timber ouer the marshes from Walthamstow to Locke bridge. 1598 R. Grenewey Tacitus' Ann. i. xiii. (1622) 25 Hauing..cast bridges and causeyes [pontesque et aggeres] ouer the moist and deceitfull passages of the bogs. 1604 E. G[rimston] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies v. xiii. 362 There was in the midst of the Lake where the Cittie of Mexico is built, foure large cawseies in crosse. 1611 Bible Prov. xv. 19 The way of the righteous is made plaine. Marg. Hebr. is raised vp as a causey. 1622 Callis Stat. Sewers (1647) 66 A Calcey or Calsway is a passage made by art of Earth, Gravel, Stones and such like..through surrounded grounds. 1643 in Rushw. Hist. Coll. iii. II. 509 A Stone-Causey thorow a Bogg. 1673 Ray Journ. Low C. Pisa 268 Castel d'Ovo, built on a rock in the Sea, having an artificial Caussey or Mole leading to it from the shore. c 1710 Hearne Gloss. Langtoft's Chron., Kauce, causey..commonly taken with us for a High way, or Bank, raised in Marshy Ground for Foot passage, tho' even sometimes the Ways for Horse Passage are also known by this name, such as that beyond Friar Bacon's Study in Oxford [Abingdon Road]. 1853 Bryant Let. 16 June, A noble causey, with parapets and a pavement of hewn stone, has been lately made over the low grounds..as the new Appian way. 1860 J. P. Kennedy Horse Shoe R. xii. 139 A swamp..rendered passable by a causey of timber. 1877 E. Peacock N.-W. Linc. Gloss. |
† b. The solid mounding at the ends of a bridge.
| 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. ccccxiii. 721 He and his men were by the bridge on the causey, raynging on bothe sydes. |
† c. Sometimes applied to an arched viaduct.
| 1615 G. Sandys Trav. ii. 127 Athwart the plaine there extendeth a caussey supported with arches. |
† d. Sometimes
app. a row of stepping stones.
| 1598 Yong Diana iii. 71 Vpon a fine causey of stones most artificiallie laide in order, they passed all ouer into the iland [vnas piedras..puestas in orden]. |
† e. the Giant's Causey: see
causeway.
Obs.| 1811 Pinkerton Petral. II. 301 That kind of earthy limestone, which appears under the Giant's causey in Ireland. |
† 3. Hence, A highway (as originally raised and paved). Applied
esp. to the Roman roads, and still given as a proper name to some considered Roman, as the
Devil's Causey (or
Causeway) in Northumberland. Otherwise
Obs.| 1495 Will of Bp. of Llandaff (Somerset Ho.), Vie Regvulgariter Cawsey. 1540 Act 32 Hen. VIII, xvii, The causey or hygh way leading from Algate to White chapel church. 1577 Eden & Willes Hist. Trav. 254 They determined also to make three causeys or hygh wayes by land. 1606 Holland Sueton. 19 To make a cawsie or high-way, form the Adriatick Sea, by the ridge or side of the Apennine hill. 1670 Milton P.L. x. 416 Satan went down The causey to Hell-gate. 1704 Hearne Duct. Hist. (1714) I. 372 The Cawsey, called Via Appia. 1708 J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. ii. i. ii. (1743) 305 Evident footsteps of a Roman Causey, or Military Way. 1713 Steele Englishman No. 31. 202 A new Causey from Lisle to Dunkirk. |
b. fig.| 1574 Whitgift Def. Aunsw. iii. Wks. 1851 I. 322 To walk in the broad and beaten way, as it were the common causey of the commandment, rather than an outpath of the example. |
4. esp. A paved way; the paved part of a way. Still
dial.| 1430 E.E. Wills (1882) 85 To the causy atte Wyke, iiijd. 1527 Test. Ebor (Surtees) V. 228 To the amendyng of Friston hie waye and caucey. 1530 Palsgr. 203/2 Causey in a hye way, chavsee. 1572 Huloet, A caucie or a waye paued, agger solidus, chemin paue de pieres, chaucee. 1577 Hellowes Gueuara's Chron. 29 He made a paued Calsey, being a broad high waye that lasted two leagues and halfe. 1581 Savile Tacitus' Hist. iii. xxi. (1591) 12 b, He commanded the third Legion to make stand vpon the cawsey of the Posthumian way [in ipso aggere viæ Postumianæ]. 1659 Louth Ch. Acc. iv. 286 (Peacock N.-W. Linc. Gloss.) For paving the causey in the church-yard. 1768 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) I. 634 To turn her upon the flowery turf of reward, rather than the rocky-pointed causey of punishment. 1877 Holderness Gloss. (E.D.S.), Cawsey..a raised and paved side-walk, or one across a fold-yard, but often any foot path. 1877 E. Peacock N.-W. Linc. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Causey, a footpath, especially when made of flagstones or paved with cobbles. |
5. esp. A street, or part of a street, paved with cobbles or small boulders (or blocks of trap or granite), as distinguished from flag-stones; a street pavement. Chiefly
Sc. The whole street may be a causey; or the road-way may be causey, while the side walks are flagged, or the side walks causey and the centre macadamized.
crown of the causey: the centre or highest part of the pavement, as most public, conspicuous, or honourable.
| 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. III. 561 Throw all the toun, Quhair on the stairis and all the calsay wnder, Rycht mony stude that tyme on him to wunder. c 1538 Lyndesay Agst. Syde Tailis 30 Quhare euer thay go it may be sene How kirk and calsay thay soup clene. 1577 Hanmer Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1619) 423 The streete commonly called the great Cawsy. 1584 J. Carmichael Lett. in Misc. Wodr. Soc. (1844) 435 A great bragging between them in the calsay of Edinburgh. 1587 in Northern N. & Q. I. 83 Fraynch Calsay Makers to repair Calsayes in the Kowgaitt. 1611 Bible 1 Chron. xxvi. 16 By the causey of the going vp [1568 The paved streate that goeth vpwarde]. 1635 Rutherford Lett. (1862) I. 149 Truth will yet keep the crown of the causey in Scotland. 1650 Row Hist. Kirk 511 The croun, scepter, and sword of honour..which..the Noblemen themselves carried up the casey of Edinburgh. a 1774 Fergusson Election Poems (1845) 42 Glower round the cawsey, up and down. 1820 Scott Abbot xvii. 1823 Galt Entail III. x. 95 It could ne'er be expected that I would let them be married on the crown-o'-the-causey. 1840 Browning Sordello v. Wks. II. 398 This companion slips On the smooth causey. 1848 S. Bamford Early Days ix. (1859) 98 A neatly paved footpath and a causey for carts. |
6. A piece of pavement (of cobbles, as distinguished from flags), a paved area. Chiefly
Sc.| 1481–90 Howard Househ. Bks. (1841) 505 To Robt. Bukton for the makyng of the causey at the stabill dore. 1633 T. James Voy. 60 We made a Hearth or Causie in the middle of the house. 1663 Gerbier Counsel 98 Rogues have taken up the causey or pavement before a doore. 1880 Antrim & Down Gloss. (E.D.S.), Cawsey, cassy, the paved or hard-beaten place in front of or round about a farmhouse. |
7. attrib. and
Comb., as
causey-cleaner,
causey-crown (see 5),
causey-lamp,
causey-maker,
causey-making,
causey-saint,
causey-side;
† calsay-paiker (
Sc.), a street-walker.
| 1786 Burns Brigs of Ayr 157 To whom our moderns are but *causey-cleaners. |
| 1837 R. Nicoll Poems (1843) 105 He keeps the *causey-crown. |
| 1578 Glasgow Town Council Proc. in Hist. Glasgow (1881) 133 The expense of the *calsay-making. |
| a 1555 Lyndesay Trag. 378 Off *calsay-paikaris, nor of publycanis. |
| 1862 in Hislop Prov. Scot. 83 He's a *causey saint and a house deil. |
| 1652 Culpepper Eng. Physic. 41 By a *Causey side in the middle of a field by Paddington. |
▪ II. ˈcausey, v. Chiefly
Sc. and
dial. [f. the n.] To pave with small stones. Hence
ˈcauseying vbl. n.| 1538 Leland Itin. IV. 126 Martin Bridge..well causied with Stone at both Endes. 1596 Wills & Inv. N.C. (1860) II. 341 To the mendinge and cawsiinge with stonnes, of heighe-wayes. 1658 Sir T. Browne Wks. (1852) III. 496 By clearing the fennes..and soe comprehending cawsing, paving, drayning, etc. 1758 Monthly Rev. 631 Where the bottom is clay, or where it is causeyed. 1822 Scott Nigel iii, These London kirkyards are causeyed with through stanes. 1877 Peacock N.-W. Linc. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Causey, to pave. ‘We mun hev our court-yard causied’. |