byword
(ˈbaɪwɜːd)
Forms: 1–2 biwyrde, -word, 4–6 by-worde, 6 by-woorde, bie-word, 6–9 bye-word(e, 6– by-word.
[f. by a. 2 + word.]
1. A proverb, proverbial saying.
| c 1050 Gloss. in Wr-Wülcker 470 Prouerbium, biwyrde. a 1131 O.E. Chron. an. 1130 Oc man seið to biworde, hæᵹe sitteð þa aceres dæleth. c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iv. 769 For which ful oft a by worde here I seye, That rooteles mot grene soone deye. c 1400 Beryn 2243 There is a comyn by word..Wele sellith he his peny that the pound therby savith. 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 48 Is it not a by word, like will to like. 1741 Richardson Pamela (1824) I. 99 As honest as goodman Andrews, was a bye-word. 1849 Blackw. Mag. 686 An old byword, which says more people know Tom Fool than Tom Fool knows. |
† b. A parable. Obs.
| c 1550 Cheke Matt. xiii. 3 He spaak vnto yem much in biwordes and said. |
2. A person or thing who becomes proverbial, as a type of specified characteristics; an object of scorn or contempt.
| 1535 Coverdale Deut. xxviii. 37 Thou shalt go to waist, and become a byworde, and a laughinge stocke amonge all nacions. 1575–85 Abp. Sandys Serm. (1841) 349 Marked like Cain..to be a bye-word, and an example of Gods justice to all the world. 1611 Bible 1 Kings ix. 7 Israel shall bee a prouerbe, and a by-word among all people. 1748 Richardson Clarissa II. 277, I am the talk and the bye⁓word of half the county. 1776 Adam Smith W. Nat. I. i. x. 116 Apothecaries' profit is become a bye-word. 1867 Froude Short Stud. (1883) IV. ii. vi. 252 The Church courts were a byword for iniquity in every country in Europe. |
b. A nickname, byname, epithet of scorn.
| 1598 Drayton Heroic. Epist. xiii. 104 Give a thousand by-words to my Name, And call me Beldam, Gib, Witch, Nightmare, Trot. 1672 Marvell Reh. Transp. i. 70 These Doctrines which he traduces under that by-word [i.e. Calvinism]. 1818 Byron Ch. Har. iv. xiv, Her [Venice's] very byword sprung from victory, The ‘Planter of the Lion’. |
† 3. A word or phrase of frequent occurrence in speech, esp. in the mouth of a particular individual; a trick of speech, pet phrase. Obs.
| 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1631) III. x. 106/1 [Bonner] saying, as his by word was, Before God thou art a knaue. 1575 Gascoigne Philomene (Arb.) 111 This byword phy betokneth bad, And things to cast away. 1651 Proc. Parliament No. 104. 1612 Broke his brain with thinking there was some⁓thing in it, some ‘whatchecal e’, which is his by-word. 1710 Steele Tatler No. 241 ¶8 His By-Words (as they call a Sentence a Man particularly affects). |
† b. A watchword, signal. Obs.
| 1494 Fabyan v. lxxxix. 66 He gaue to theym this watche or by worde, ‘Nempnyth your Sexis’. |
† 4. (cf. by-talk and by- III): A casual word, a hint; a word beside the matter in hand. Obs.
| 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 18 b, He saied emong his frendes; I would haue bought a robe, if I had had money. He craued nothyng, but did onely after a maidenly sorte geue a bywoorde of his greate penurie. 1572 Forrest Theophil. 540 What though a bye worde, unwares, doe owte starte. a 1652 Brome City Wit iii. ii. 322 There is no woman, though she use never so many bywords, but yet in the end she will come to the point. 1658 Whole Duty Man iv. §13. 41 In idle by-words. |