antient

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English

Noun

antient (plural antients)

  1. Obsolete spelling of ancient.
    • 1761, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind, page 230:
      Our voyagers make beasts under the name of Pongos, Mandrills, and Orang-Outang, of the very beings, which the antients exalted into divinities under the name of Satyrs, Fauns, and Sylvans.
    • 1802, Maria Guthrie, Matthew Guthrie, A tour performed in the years 1795-6 through the Taurida, or Crimea, the ancient kingdom of Bosphorus, the once-powerful republic of Tauric Cherson, and all the other countries on the north shore of the Euxine, ceded to Russia by the peace of Kainardgi and Jassy, page 439:
      We likewise see by the valuable Work of Andrew Burdon, professor of the Royal French Academy of Painting, that the Antients occasionally used the Amphora form in other parts of the world as both cinereous and lachrymal urns; […]

Adjective

antient (comparative antienter or more antient, superlative antientest or most antient)

  1. Obsolete spelling of ancient.
    • 1673, John Milton, I did but prompt the age to quit their cloggs:
      I did but prompt the age to quit their cloggs
      By the known rules of antient libertie,
      When strait a barbarous noise environs me
      Of Owles and Cuckoes, Asses, Apes and Doggs
    • 1785, Dawes, Manasseh & Jones, Sir William, England's Alarm!, page 10:
      The trial by jury, your Lordship knows, is so antient a privilege belonging to mankind, that its origin cannot properly be traced.
    • 1906, The Athenaeum‎, page 745:
      The choral and orchestral concerts at the Antient Concert Rooms were of more than usual interest.
    • 1908, Wellcome, Henry S., From Ergot to ‘Ernutin’‎, page 9:
      I should greatly value any information sent me in regard to medical traditions or references to antient treatment in manuscripts, printed works, etc. [...] I should be glad to receive any information respecting the early history of ergot and ergotism, also references to the use of ergot as a medicinal agent in antient times.

Usage notes

This spelling is still current within freemasonry.

Derived terms

Anagrams

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