▪ I. de
obs. Sc. form of die v.
▪ II. de
a dialectal (Kentish), foreign, or infantile representation of the.
Sometimes in early MSS. a scribal error for ðe = the.
▪ III. ‖ de
(diː)
I. A Latin preposition, meaning ‘down from, from, off, concerning’, occurring in some Latin phrases more or less used in English. The chief of these are the following:
1. de bene esse (Law), as of ‘well-being’, as being good, of conditional allowance for the present.
‘To take or do any thing De bene esse, is to accept or allow it, as well done for present,..but [on fuller examination] to be allowed or disallowed, according to the Merit or Well-being of the thing in its own nature’ (Blount, Law Dict. 1670).
| 1603 Egerton Papers (Camden) 372 (Stanf.) Wherefore, de bene esse, I have provisionally made a warrant redy for his Matyes signature. 1656 Blount Glossogr. s.v., The Court..often orders that Defendant to be examined De bene esse, i. that his depositions are to be allowed or suppressed at the hearing, as the Judge shall see cause. 1885 Law Rep. 29 Ch. Div. 290 (Stanf.) The Court ultimately determined that it should be read de bene esse. |
2. de congruo, of congruity.
| a 1623 W. Pemble Justif. (1629) 33 When they tell vs, that faith merits justification de Congruo they intrap themselues in grosse contradiction; seeing to deserve de Congruo is not to deserve at all. 1841, 1856 [see congruity 5 a]. |
3. de facto, in fact, in reality, in actual existence, force, or possession, as a matter of fact. Very frequently opposed to de jure. Used also as an adj. = ‘actual, actually existing’, and then sometimes so far anglicized as to be prefixed to its n.
| 1602 W. Watson Quodlibets 73 (Stanf.) That the Pope erred de facto in the reconciliation of the French King. 1638 Chillingw. Relig. Prot. i. iii. §30 He may doe it de facto, but de iure he cannot. 1691 Norris Pract. Disc. 29 It will appear, that de facto it is so. 1696 Growth Deism 12 The Shiboleth of the Church now is King William's de facto Title. 1765 Blackstone Comm. i. 371 That temporary allegiance, which was due to him as king de facto. 1870 [see de jure, below]. 1891 Law Rep. Weekly Notes 70/1 The acts of the de facto directors might..bind the company. |
Hence † deˈfacto-man (also defacto n.), one who recognised William III as king de facto. † deˈfactoship, a de facto standing, position, or title.
| 1696 Growth Deism 15 For these de facto-men, and the Jacobites, were but lately the same sort of People. Ibid. 13 And when the King had better Titles..yet he must be made to pay..Dr. S ― Sixteen Hundred Pounds a Year, for a Defactoship only. 1710 Managers' Pro & Con 39 The one allows the Defactoship of the Queen. |
4. de fide, of faith, to be held as an article of faith.
| 1638 Chillingw. Relig. Prot. i. iii. §5 Some [hold] that the Popes indirect Power over Princes in Temporalities is de Fide; Others the contrary. 1865 Pusey Eirenicon 115 The poorer classes are not, for the most part, even acquainted with the distinction between what is to be believed to be de fide and what is popularly taught them as truth. 1951 Essays in Criticism I. 4 Modern critics..treat this as self-evident or de fide. |
5. de jure, of right, by right, according to law. Nearly always opposed to de facto; like that also (though less usually), treated as an adj. = ‘legal’, and placed before the n.
| 1611 Court & Times Jas. I (1848) I. 136 (Stanf.) Done de facto, and not de jure. 1638 [see de facto above]. 1694 Poet Buffoon'd, etc. 7 (Stanf.) Husband or Gallant, either way, De facto or De jure sway. 1837 H. Martineau Soc. Amer. II. 81 States that are de facto independent, without having anything to do with the question de jure. 1870 Lowell Study Wind. (1886) 74 It is a de jure, and not a de facto property that we have in it. |
6. de novo, anew, afresh, over again from the beginning. Rarely as adj. = ‘new, fresh’, and prefixed to n.
| 1627 Court & Times Chas. I (1848) I. 304 (Stanf.) It is said they have opened de novo Calais to our English trade. 1817 Peel in Edin. Rev. XXIX. 121 We cannot make a constitution de novo. 1847–9 Todd Cycl. Anat. IV. 143/2 A de novo development of such texture. 1881 Med. Temp. Jrnl. XLIX. 18 In which it is developed by circumstances de novo. |
7. de profundis, the first words of the Latin version of Psalm cxxx (cxxix) = ‘Out of the depths (have I cried)’; hence subst. a. the name of this psalm; b. a psalm of penitence; c. a cry from the depths of sorrow, misery, or degradation.
| 1463 Bury Wills (Camden) 18 Saying De profundis for me, for my fader and my moder. 1500–20 Kennedie Flyting w. Dunbar 447 With De profundis fend the, and that failye. 1589 Nashe Pref. Greene's Menaphon (Arb.) 17 Let subiects for all their insolence, dedicate a De profundis euerie morning to the preseruation of their Cæsar. 1890 Open Court 10 Apr. 2204/2 (Stanf.) The Labor cry, the new De Profundis, the passionate psalm of the workers appealing out of the depths of misery and degradation for more wages and less hours of daily toil. |
II. The French preposition de, d' (də, anglicized diː, dɪ, də), meaning ‘of, from’, occurring in names of places, as Ashby de la Zouch, in territorial titles, as Earl Grey de Wilton, Lord Talbot de Malahide, and in personal surnames, as De Lisle, D'Israeli, De Quincey; also, in French phrases more or less in English use, as coup d'état, coup de main, etc. (see coup); de haut en bas, from height to lowness, condescendingly as from a lofty position, with an air of affected superiority; de nouveau, anew, afresh; de rigueur, of strictness, (a matter) strictly or rigorously obligatory, according to strict etiquette; de trop, too much, (one) too many, in the way.
| 1697 Vanbrugh Relapse i. ii, Not if you treat him de haut en bas, as you use to do. 1752 Chesterfield Lett. (1792) III. 274, I know no company in which you are likely to be de trop. 1775 Gibbon in Life & Lett. (1869) 237 (Stanf.) The first chapter has been composed de nouveau three times. 1778 H. Walpole Let. 4 July (1904) X. 271 The Congress has ratified the treaty with France, and intend to treat the Commissioners de haut en bas. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair vi, ‘I should only be de trop’, said the Captain. 1849 ― Pendennis xxix, All the young men go to Spratt's after their balls. It is de rigueur, my dear. 1868 Good Words 1 Aug. 516/1 A de-haut-en-bas-like drawling gait. 1882 W. R. Greg Misc. Essays ix. 181 But her de-haut-en-bas judgment of Macaulay is perhaps widest of the mark. 1885 A. Edwardes Girton Girl I. ii. 39 Noble French family who..dropped the ‘de’ from before their name, and settled here [sc. in Guernsey]. 1887 Illust. Lond. News 5 Mar. 269/3, I am decidedly de trop this morning. 1888 C. M. Yonge Our New Mistress v. 43 The names with a De before them are always the grandest. 1915 Mrs. H. Ward Eltham House vii. 119 Ask an officer to do without his uniforms. My frocks are just as much de rigueur. 1944 A. L. Rowse English Spirit 134 It seems to have been de rigueur to say that the Queen looked twenty. 1965 R. Ferguson Woman with Secret vi. 42 Her father thought he wasn't good enough for somebody with the ‘de’ in her name. 1966 Listener 17 Nov. 747/2 Hopkins has a distinct tendency to talk de haut en bas to his captive audience. |