MDMD(6): 'Phizzes' - 'Gothic'

[Michel Ryckx]

"[. . .] Battles, religious Events, Personages with rapt Phizzes
standing about in Rays from above [. . .]"

>From OED again:

phiz (___). humorous colloq. Also 7 phis, 7_8 phyz, phys, 8 phizz,
(fiz).
[Colloq. abbreviation of phiznomy, physiognomy.]
Face, countenance; expression or aspect of face.
1688 Shadwell Sqr. Alsatia v. i, In deed your magnanimous Phyz is
somewhat disfigur'd by it, captain.
1691 New Discov. Old Intreague xxvii, Next Cousin Will,_With Aukward
Phys.
1693 Congreve Old Bach. iv. viii, What a furious phiz I have!
1762 Churchill Ghost iv, Savour'd in talk, in dress, and phyz, More of
another World than this.
1774 Gouv. Morris in Sparks Life & Writ. (1832) I. 21 Grave phizes are
grinned out of countenance.
1868 W. S. Gilbert Bab Ballads, Only Dancing Girl, And her painted,
tainted Phiz.
b. Comb., as phiz-maker, one who makes _faces' or grimaces.
1742 J. Yarrow Love at first Sight Prol., Mass John the Phiz-Maker with
zealous Cant

And then there is
"[. . .] Gothickal Gates " (78.15-16)

Gothic , a. and n. Forms: 7 Gotic, Gotiq(ue, Gothicke, Gottic, Gothiq,
7_8 Gothique, 7_ Gothic.
[ad. L. gothic-us, f. Goth_ (see Goth). Cf. F. gothique.]

A. adj.
1.
a. Of, pertaining to, or concerned with the Goths or their language.
1611 Bible Transl. Pref. 5 Vlpilas is reported_to haue translated the
Scriptures into the Gothicke tongue.
1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. x. I. 244 Cassiodorus gratified the inclination
of the conquerors in a Gothic history.

b. = mozarabic.
1874 Month Feb. 223 The old Gothic or Mozarabic rite.

2. Formerly used in extended sense, now expressed by Teutonic or
Germanic.
1647 N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. i. xl. 96 Nor can any Nation upon earth
shew so much of the ancient Gothique Law as this Island hath.

3.
a. Belonging to, or characteristic of, the Middle Ages; medieval,
_romantic', as opposed to classical. In early use chiefly with
reprobation: Belonging to the _dark ages' (cf. sense 4). Obs.
[Cf. F. les siècles gothiques.]
1762 Hurd Lett. Chiv. & Rom. 56 He [Spenser] could have planned, no
doubt, an heroic design on the exact classic model: Or, he might have
trimmed between the Gothic and Classic, as his contemporary Tasso
did_Under this idea then of a Gothic, not classical poem, the Faery
Queen is to be read and criticized.
1765 H. Walpole (title) The Castle of Otranto, a Gothic Story.
---- Let. to Cole 9 Mar., A very natural dream for a head filled like
mine with gothic story.

b. A term for the style of architecture prevalent in Western Europe from
the twelfth to the sixteenth century, of which the chief characteristic
is the pointed arch. Applied also to buildings, architectural details,
and ornamentation. (Also transf. of the wing of an aeroplane).
The most usual names for the successive periods of this style in England
are Early English (or First Pointed), Decorated, and Perpendicular, q.v.
Our quotations seem to show that the term was taken in the first
instance from the French, and employed to denote any style of building
that was not classical (Greek or Roman), but used by many writers as if
derived immediately from sense 2.
1641 Evelyn Diary Aug., This_towne_hath one of the fairest Churches, of
the Gotiq design, I had seene.

c. nonce-use. Concerned with Gothic buildings.

d. Gothic Revival = revival 1 d. Also attrib. So Gothic Revivalist.

4. Barbarous, rude, uncouth, unpolished, in bad taste. Of temper:
Savage.
1695 Dryden Du Fresnoy's Art Paint. 93 All that has nothing of the
Ancient gust is call'd a barbarous or Gothique manner.
1710 Shaftesbury Charac. (1733) I. iii. 274 We are not so Barbarous or
Gothick as they pretend.

5. Writing and Printing.
a. Used for some kind of written character (? resembling black letter).
1644 Evelyn Diary 18_21 Mar., Some English words graven in Gotic
characters.
b. In England, the name of the type commonly used for printing German,
as distinguished from roman and italic characters. (Formerly, and still
in non-technical use, equivalent to black letter.)
1781 Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry Diss. iii. III. p. iv, This edition is in
the Gothic letter.

B. quasi- n. or n.
That which is Gothic.
a. The Gothic language.
b. A Gothic building.
c. Gothic architecture or ornamentation.

Hence
Go_thicity, the quality of being Gothic;
Gothicky a. colloq., Gothic-like;
Gothicly adv., in a Gothic manner, barbarously.
1777 W. Dalrymple Trav. Sp. & Port. xl, The apartments are low_and
Gothicly furnished.