A growing assortment of words and definitions used in the Early Modern era. See the Guide for more information.
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Word
Definition
Dewitt
To lynch. As lynch law comes from a practitioner (or place of practice) , so to dewitt comes from a victim. Two victims: the brothers John and Cornelius De Witt, Dutch opponents of William III, Stadtholder of the United Provinces, were murdered by a mob in 1672. Their name was used, in connection with mob violence, into the 19th century, as by Thomas Babington Macaulay in his HISTORY OF ENGLAND (1855) .
Husting
In Saxon times (hus-thing: house-assembly) a special council called by the king. In King Cnut's reign (1016-35) the hustings-weight set the standard for precious metals. The word husting (usually plural) was later used of the highest court of London; also, of the temporary platform from which nominations for Parliament were made; hence, the parliamentary election proceedings. Commenting on Thomas Babington Macaulay's words against the "Jewish disabilities" in Parliament, THE LONDON QUARTERLY REVIEW (September, 1847) said: The principle, then, which is to receive its final triumph and complete development in a Judaizing parliament, is that the end of government has nothing to do with religion or morality; that 'an essentially Christian government' is a phrase meaning just as much as 'essentially Protestant cookery' or 'essentially Christian horsemanship'; that government exists solely for purposes of police and that therefore ( to quote the words of Lord J. Russell himself the other day on the London hustings) --'a man's religious opinions ought not to affect his civil privileges'. But the misfortune is that the proposition involved in this great principle is both philosophically untenable and historically false.
