† ˈAlmain, a. and n. Obs.
Forms: 4 almaun, 5 -ayn, 6–7 -an(e, 4–8 -ain, (7–8 almond).
[a. OFr. aleman (mod. allemand), a. Ger. alaman.]
A. adj. German.
| 1549 Compl. Scotl. 66 Thai dancit al cristyn mennis dance,..the alman haye. 1586 T. B. La Primaudaye's Fr. Acad. i. 84 The emperor Frederike the II spake the Morisco, Almaigne, Italian, and French toong. 1587 Holinshed Scot. Chron. I. 3 Towards the Almaine Sea..Scotland hath the Mers. c 1590 Marlowe Faustus i. 123 Almain rutters with their horsemen's staves. 1665 Manley tr. Grotius's L. Country Wars 907 The Netherlanders belonged no more to the Almain Empire than the French did. |
B. n.
1. A German.
| c 1314 Guy Warw. 70 The Almains ben ouer come. c 1350 Will. Palerne 1165 Þe almauns seweden sadly. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xix. ix. (1495) 869 Whitysshe colour in Almayns, Duchemen. 1594 Blundevil Exerc. iii. ii. vi. (ed. 7) 382 The Spanish and the high Almaines. 1635 E. Pagitt Christianogr. i. iii. (1636) 141 The Armenians did gladly receive the Almans. 1698 Life Bl. Prince in Harl. Misc. (1793) 51 Not only French, but Almains, Dutch. |
2. A kind of dance. Hence Almain-leap.
| 1549 [See Alman haye under A]. 1584 Peele Arraignm. Paris ii. ii. 28 Knights in armour, treading a warlike almain. 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Saut, Trois pas, & vn saut, The Almond leape. 1616 B. Jonson Devil is an Ass i. i. (N.) And take his almain-leap into a custard. a 1634 Chapman Alphonsus Plays (1873) III. 238 An Almain and an upspring, that is all. a 1701 Sedley Bellamira v. i. Wks. 1766, 179, I will leap the half almond with you. |
3. A species of dance-music in slow time, afterwards included as one of the movements of the Suite.
| 1597 T. Morley Introd. Mus. 181 The Alman is a more heauie [measure] then this. 1651 Playford (title) A Musicall Banquet. The second [Part] a Collection of New and Choyce Allmans, Corants, and Sarabands, for one Treble and Basse Viol. 1676 Shadwell Virtuoso iii. (1720) I. 362 To play, first a grave pavin or almain. 1882 Shorthouse J. Inglesant II. liii. 14 Sweet dance music, such as Pavins, Almains. |
¶ In senses 2 and 3 now written allemande.