▪ I. edition, n.
(ɪˈdɪʃən)
[a. F. ēdition, ad. L. ēditiōn-em, f. ēdĕre to put forth, publish; see edit.]
† 1. The action of putting forth, or making public; publication. Obs.
| 1551 Recorde Pathw. Knowl. Ep. to King, Desiring your grace not so muche to beholde the simplenes of the woorke..as to fauour the edition thereof. 1577 tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 111 Touching y⊇ proclamation or first edition of the ten Commaundements. 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. xix. (1632) 929 The said pretensed marriage was made..without edition of banes. 1659 A. Loveday in R. Loveday's Lett. To Rdr., So tender was I of his honour in edition of his labours. 1663 J. Spencer Prodigies (1665) Pref., God never saw it necessary..to correct and amend any thing in this great Volume of the Creation, since the first edition thereof. |
† 2. a. The action of producing, or bringing into existence; hence, birth, creation (of orders of knighthood, etc.), extraction, origin. Obs.
| 1599 Sandys Europæ Spec. (1632) 147 The great States of Italy..are loth to have their Pope of a Spanish edition. 1607 Chapman Bussy D'Amb. Plays 1873 II. 17 The Duke mistakes him (on my life) for some knight of the new edition. 1615 Crooke Body of Man 332 The Birth..we define to be an Edition or bringing into the world of an infant. 1656 Earl of Monmouth Advt. fr. Parnass. 211 Barons of late edition. 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man ii. iv. 151 Consequently the World..is of a far later Edition than Eternity. |
† b. Kind, species; fashion, ‘stamp’. Obs.
| a 1625 Fletcher Nice Val. i. i, It kisses the forefinger still: which is the last edition. 1632 Brome North Lasse ii. iv. Wks. 1873 III. 33 A large window, one of the last Edition. 1640 J. Ley Patterne of Pietie 155 The Saints of the old edition. 1646 H. Lawrence Communion with Angels 93 His condition, his spirit and his worke were all of a lowe and humble edition. |
3. concr. a. One of the differing forms in which a literary work (or a collection of works) is published, either by the author himself, or by subsequent editors. b. An impression, or issue in print, of a book, pamphlet, etc.; the whole number of copies printed from the same set of types and issued at the same time.
In the case of printed works the meanings a and b are often coincident; but an ‘edition’ (sense a) of a classic or the like, with a corrected text and critical or illustrative matter, being in a sense an independent work, may go through several ‘editions’ (sense b). It is awkward to speak of, e.g. ‘the second edition of Campbell's edition of Plato's Theætetus’; but existing usage affords no satisfactory substitute for this inconvenient mode of expression. To say ‘the second impression’ would now imply an unaltered reprint. The word is sometimes used in a narrower sense than that of the definition of b: thus a ‘large paper edition’ may be printed from the same type as, and issued simultaneously with, an ‘edition’ on small paper; but it is also usual to say ‘100 copies of this edition are on large paper’.
| [1555 Robinson tr. More's Utop. (ed. 2) A iij b, I haue now in this seconde edition taken about it such paines.] 1570 Foxe A. & M. (ed. 2) 1885 Although sufficient relation be made before in our former edition to be seene, pag. 1277. 1607 Sir W. Vaughan Directions for Health (title page), The third Edition. 1624 Gataker Transubst. 104 Their severall Editions..so chopped and changed. 1662 Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. i. vi. §1 He might make use of the Edition of Causinus. 1703 De Foe True-born Eng. Expl. Pref., I have mended some faults in this Edition. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 470 ¶1 Upon examining the new Edition of a Classick Author. 1782 Priestley Corrupt Chr. I. Pref. 21 There are different editions of many of the authors..I have quoted. 1807 M. Baillie Morb. Anat. Pref. 22 In preparing this Third Edition for the press. 1838–9 Hallam Hist. Lit. I. i. iv. §63 Above 60 editions of the Orlando Furioso were published in the 16th century. 1845 Stephen Laws Eng. I. 185 [King John's] charter was finally altered, in its last edition, by Henry the third. Mod. The latest edition of this evening's paper. |
c. fig.
| 1612 Donne Sec. Anniv. 309 All the vertuous Actions they expresse, Are but a new, and worse edition Of her some one thought. 1802 C. Wilmot Let. 30 Aug. in Irish Peer (1920) 83 Mr. Richard Trench..is..so beautiful that if I was to describe him, you'd fancy it was the Apollo Belvedere in a Second Edition. 1823 Carlyle Let. 22 Oct. in Early Lett. (1886) II. 232 A kind of theological braggadocio, an enlarged edition of the Rev. Rowland Hill. 1828 H. Steuart Planter's G. 51 Boutcher had another plan..for removing Trees..it is a better edition of Lord Fitzharding's system. 1856 in Century Mag. (1887) May 95/2 We cannot hazard a second edition of imbecility. 1892 Daily News 18 Oct., The exhilarating ballet of ‘Don Juan’..seems likely to run into many ‘editions’, as the phrase goes, before it exhausts its popularity. 1920 H. Crane Let. 24 Sept. (1965) 43 About every other person..are [sic] enlarged editions of Lord Douglas. 1943 J. S. Huxley TVA x. 74 The slightly younger edition of the architect. |
▪ II. † eˈdition, v. Obs. rare—1.
[f. the n.]
trans. To make an edition of; to issue, publish.
| 1716 M. Davies Athen. Brit. iii. 4 The Jesuit Petavius's Chronological Tables were edition'd. |
Hence † eˈditioner. Obs. rare. = editor n.
| a 1646 J. G[regory] Maps & Charts, Posth. (1650) 321 That necessarie Guide, added to a little, but not much augmented, by the late Editioner. 1658 W. Burton Itin. Anton. 18 You have there βουβονίαν, which the dexterity of the Editioner, or Interpreter hath turned into βορβονίαν. |