‖ honi soit qui mal y pense
(ɔni swa ki mal i pɑ̃s)
[Fr.]
‘Shame on him who thinks evil of it’; a proverb, orig. used as the motto for the Order of the Garter. (See garter n. 2.)
| 13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. (ad fin.), Hony soyt qui mal pence. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. 116 King Eduuarde the thirde, her Maiesties most noble progenitour, first founder of the famous order of the Garter, gaue this posie with it. Hony soit qui mal y pense, commonly thus Englished, Ill be to him that thinketh ill. 1716 [see garter n. 8]. 1776 H. Walpole Let. 22 Aug. (1857) VI. 370, I will prevent all clamour, by adopting St. George's motto,—‘Honi soit qui mal y pense’. 1887 Athenæum 5 Nov. 600/1 The maxim ‘Honi soit qui mal y pense’ is one which needs to be frequently invoked by the friendly narrator and critic of Samoan manners. a 1930 D. H. Lawrence in Lawrence & Gelder Young Lorenzo (1931) 262 So Tolstoi says that all nude study is bad art—Honi soit qui mal y pense. 1959 Chamber's Encycl. III. 510/2 The reason for the adoption of the garter and the motto Honi soit qui mal y pense as the emblem and motto of the order is also unknown. |