mixen Now dial. or arch.
(ˈmɪksən)
Also 1 micxsen, meoxin, -en, 1, 4–5 myxen, 3–5 mixne, 4 myxne, 5 myxon, 6 myxson, mickeson, mickson, 4–5, 7, 9 mexen, 7–9 dial. mixon, 9 dial. maxon, -en.
[OE. mixen str. fem.:—prehistoric *mihsinnja, f. *mihso-: see mix n.1 and -en3. A similar formation on the parallel stem *mihstu- (Goth. maihstus, OHG. mist dung) is OHG. mistunnea dunghill.]
1. A place where dung and refuse is laid; a dung-hill or laystall; also, a heap of dung, earth, compost, etc. used for manure; † dung and refuse from sheds and cow-stalls, etc. (obs.).
| c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. Luke xiii. 8 Ic delfo ymb hia & ic sendo micxseno. a 1000 ælfric Sigewulfi Interrog. xlix. (1888) 16 On þære nyðemestan fleringe wæs heora gangpyt & heora myxen. c 1386 Chaucer Pars. T. ¶837 Though that hooly writ speke of horrible synne, certes hooly writ may nat been defouled, namoore than the sonne that shyneth on the Mixne [v.rr. myxen, myxene, mexen]. 1480 Robt. Devyll 38 Into a foule donge myxen he her caryed. 1581 in 5th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. i. App. 579/2 Let all the myxsons and annoyances be caryed away byffore the spryng do cum. 1596 Harington Metam. Ajax 42 By turning a streame of water on the mickesons, he [Hercules] scowred away that in a weeke, that an hundred could scant haue done in a yeare. 1611 Cotgr., Fumier, a mexen, dung-hill, heape of dung. 1622 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. ii. 53 The..rottennest mixen that was in all the street. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 173/1 A muck-hill is the place where the Dung is laid till it be carried into the field to manure the ground: some call it a Mixon. 1794 J. Clark Agric. Heref. 23 The makings of mixens, however, is not properly attended to in general. 1865 Gosse Land & Sea 12 Great mixens outside the doors, strewn with the shells of enormous limpets. 1881 Blackmore Christowell xvi, He was turning up a mixen in a meadow near the lane. a 1887 Jefferies Field & Hedgerow (1889) 169 He had dug up a gallon of snakes' eggs in the ‘maxen’. |
b. transf. and fig.
| 1609 Bp. W. Barlow Answ. Nameless Cath. 337 The Epistler would needes..haue this mixen stirred. 1684 Bp. W. Lloyd Hist. Acc. Ch. Govt. Pref. (b), The Gesta Pontificum, that Mixen of ill-contrived Forgeries, which perhaps was made before Bede's time. 1880 T. Hardy Trumpet-Major xxxvi. III. 151 We will let it be buried in eternal mixens of forgetfulness. |
c. Proverbs. † a cock on his own mixen: cf. dunghill n. 1 b. better wed over the mixen than over the moor: ‘better marry a neighbour than a stranger from distant parts’ (E.D.D.).
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 140 Ase me seið, ‘Þet coc is kene on his owune mixenne’. a 1661 Fuller Worthies, Cheshire (1662) i. 174 Better wed over the Mixon then over the Moor. 1710 Brit. Apollo No. 12. 3/2. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xxxi, ‘Better wed over the mixen as over the moor’, as they say in Yorkshire. 1874 T. Hardy Madding Crowd xxii. I. 250. |
2. A term of abuse or reproach to a woman or child: see quot. 1887. dial.
| 1764 Foote Mayor of G. i. Wks. 1799 I. 173 Who told you as much, Mrs. Mixen? 1887 T. Darlington Folk-Sp. S. Cheshire, Mexen, Mixen,..a term of reproach to a female. ‘Yo little mixen’. It seems to have originated as a comic substitute for vixen. |
3. attrib., as mixen-cart, mixen-heap, mixen-hole; mixen-varlet (quasi-arch.), a term of abuse for a man.
| 1610 Mirr. Mag., King Madan xi, I thinke the clowne that driues the mixen-cart Hath better hap than Princes such as I. 1886 Cheshire Gloss., Mixen-hole, a midden hole. 1895 Crockett Men of Moss-Hags i. 13 Faugh, keep wide from me, mixen-varlet! 1903 F. Hall in Eng. Dial. Dict., Mixen-heap, a dunghill. |