verset
(ˈvɜːsɪt)
Also 5 werset.
[a. OF. (also mod.F.) verset (= Pr. verset, Pg. verseto, It. versetto), dim. of vers verse n.]
1. = verse n. 2, versicle 1. Now Hist.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 16 Siggeð so al ðe imne vt mid te uerset ‘Emitte Spiritum tuum’. Ibid. 42 Her siggeð fifti auez.., alast þet uerset, ‘Ecce ancilla Domini’ [etc.]. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xii. 189 Dominus pars hereditatis mee is a meri verset. c 1400 Rule St. Benet (Prose) 16 Wen þai [i.e. psalms] ere said and te verset, þabbasse saie þe benecun. Ibid., And efter [sing] oþir sexe salmis wid þe antefens,..wid þe werset. 1641 Milton Animadv. Wks. 1851 III. 209 They beare an equall part with the Priest in many places, and have their cues and versets as well as he. 1844 Lingard Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858) I. App. M. 378 The manuscript, both here and in several other places, interposes two versets with their responses. |
2. A little or short verse, esp. one of the Bible or similar book; a short piece of verse.
| 1625 Lisle Du Bartas, Noe Pref. 1 Among the sundrie versets or prosets which besides this I have or shall set out. 1861 I. Taylor Spir. Hebr. Poetry 335 The metrical Scriptures—infixed as they were in the memory by the very means of these artificial devices of versets,..became food to the mind. 1888 Doughty Arabia Deserta I. 143 A Koran verset is often written above. |