Fw: "mailed" - Word of the Day from the OED

[K3 V iN Cummiskey]

Isnt this like the past tense of, to mail, i guess it's a matter of anything to give these people busy.

--- On Wed, 9/10/08, oedwotd at oup.com <oedwotd at oup.com> wrote:
From: oedwotd at oup.com <oedwotd at oup.com>
Subject: "mailed" - Word of the Day from the OED
To: OEDWOTD-AMER-L at WEBBER.UK.OUP.COM
Date: Wednesday, September 10, 2008, 8:30 PM






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mailed, adj.


DRAFT REVISION Sept. 2008  





Brit. / meld /, U.S. 
/ meld / 
Forms: ME mailid, ME mailled, ME-16 mayled, ME- mailed, 15-16 maylde; also 
Sc. pre-17 malyt. [< MAIL n.3 + -ED 
suffix2. Compare Old French, Middle French, French maillé (1160 in sense  1, 1376 in 
sense  3a, 1576 in sense  2).

  The semantic overlap of sense  3a with MAIL 
v.4 is coincidental.] 
    I. Covered or armed with 
mail.
    1. Of a garment or piece of armour: covered with or composed of mail.

a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1963) 1 Kings xvii. 5 He was 
clothed wi a 
mailed [a1425 L.V. hokid ether mailid; L. squamata] haberiown.  c1384 
Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) 1 Macc. vi. 35 A thousand men stoden ni in mailid to gidre 
hauberiownes [a1425 L.V. v.rr. cheyned, cheyned ether nailed, chained or mailid; L. in loricis 
concatenatis].  1450 W. LOMNER in Paston Lett. (1976) II. 36 Oon..toke awey 
his gown of russette and his dobelette of veluet mayled.  a1522 G. 
DOUGLAS tr. Virgil Æneid (1959) IX. xi. 92 The dowbyll malyt traste hawbryk.  
1582 R. STANYHURST tr. Virgil First Foure Bookes Æneis III. 58 A shirt 
mayled with gould.  1598 A. M. tr. J. Guillemeau Frenche Chirurg. 7/2 We muste consider, if it be a mayled 
doublete, how manye mayles are wantinge.  1856 R. A. VAUGHAN Hours with Mystics I. 
VI. iii. 221 The mailed glove [is] manfully hurled in his teeth.  1922 J. 
JOYCE Ulysses II. 297 With his mailed gauntlet he brushed away a furtive tear.  
1953 S. J. PERELMAN in New Yorker 21 Nov. 41/3 Wherever a visitor might want to drop his casque 
or mailed gloves there was a quartered-oak table.
    2. Armed with mail; mail-clad; (of a vessel) 
ironclad. Also fig. (see also mailed fist n. at Special uses).

a1425 Medulla 
Gram. (Stonyhurst) f. 38, Litoratus [perh. read loricatus], y-mayled.  1598 SHAKESPEARE Henry IV, Pt. 1 IV. i. 117 The mailed Mars shal on his altars 
sit Vp to the eares in bloud.  a1616 SHAKESPEARE Coriolanus (1623) I. iii. 
37 His bloody brow With his mail'd hand, then wiping, forth he goes.  1773-83 J. 
HOOLE tr. Ariosto Orlando Furioso XLVI. 1001 He..stands with point addrest To pierce the 
mailed side or plated brest.  1799 T. CAMPBELL Pleasures of Hope II. 10 In self-adoring 
pride securely mail'd.  1827 J. KEBLE Christian Year I. iii. 12 A crown'd monarch's mailed breast. 
 1850 J. S. BLACKIE tr. Æschylus Lyrical Dramas II. 230 With constancy mailed for the fight. 
 1860 J. E. TENNENT Story of Guns (1864) III. i. 229 None of the mailed 
gun-boats..were ready in time.  1863 T. WOOLNER My Beautiful Lady 137 When Norman William..with charge of 
mailèd horse and showers Of steel won England.  1870 W. C. 
BRYANT tr. Homer Iliad I. I. 9 Thou mailed in impudence [I. 149 
 ] .  
1884 TENNYSON Becket V. ii, Mail'd in the perfect panoply of faith.  
1915 W. CATHER Song of Lark VI. iv. 413 The knight raised the kneeling girl and 
put his mailed hand on her hair.  1963 J. HITREC tr. I. Andríc Bosnian Chron. viii. 148 The 
big mailed door had been bolted.
    II. Extended uses.
    3 . a. Of a bird or 
mammal: having speckled plumage or fur; speckled, spotted. Obs.

a1420 LYDGATE Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.4) IV. 5995 For e fleynge of is foule royal 
[sc. an eagle] Ouer e toun..With his fethres mailed, brit , & shene..To Troye was a final demonstraunce.  
1607 J. COWELL Interpreter sig. Ii1v, Lucerns, which is the skinne of 
a beast so called, being..of colour betweene red and browne, something mayled like a cat.   [1706 Phillips's New 
World of Words (ed. 6),  Mailed, full of Specks, or speckled, as the Feathers of Hawks, Partridges, &c. or as the Furrs of 
some wild Beasts are.]
    b. spec. Of a hawk: having mail or breast feathers of a specified 
colour. Obs.

1575 G. TURBERVILLE Bk. Faulconrie 34 They are ordinarily 
of foure mayles, eyther blancke, russet, browne, or turtle maylde, and some pure white maylde.  1672 J. 
JOSSELYN New-Englands Rarities 11 The Osprey, which in this Country is white mail'd.  
1683 London Gaz. No. 1799/4,  A large black Mayled, whole Feathered, and thorough mewed Falcon.

    4. Of animals: having a skin or outer covering resembling mail-armour. Cf. MAIL 
n.3  2d.

a1450 (c1410) H. 
LOVELICH Merlin (1913) II. l. 13900 His Baner hit was on dragown..the tayl a kebyt and an half was long, al 
j-mailled as a serpent ful strong.  1681 N. GREW Mvsævm Regalis Societatis 117 The 
Mailed-fish, Cataphractus Schonveldi.  a1820 J. R. 
DRAKE Culprit Fay (1836) 19 Some are happily borne along On the mailed shrimp or the prickly prong.   
1838 W. SWAINSON Nat. Hist. Fishes I. 330 The Loricarinæ or mailed cat-fish.   
1854 R. OWEN Skel. & Teeth in Orr's Circle Sci.: Org. Nature 3 The ball-proof 
character of the skin of the largest of these mailed examples.   1892 E. R. 
LANKESTER tr. Haeckel Hist. Creation (new ed.) II. xxv. 308 The remarkable mailed Bird-lizard.  
1990 ‘L. DE BERNIÈRES’ War of Don 
Emmanuel's Nether Parts xi. 84 The mailed catfish was delicious when grilled on palm leaves, but the electric eel was to be studiously 
avoided.
    SPECIAL USES
    mailed cheek 
n. Obs.  a mail-cheeked fish (order Scorpaeniformes).

1834 H. 
MCMURTRIE tr. G. de Cuvier Animal Kingdom
195 Buccæ Loricatæ. The family of the *Mailed-Cheeks contains a
numerous suite of fishes, to which the singular appearance of the head,
variously mailed and protected, gives a peculiar aspect. 1890 Cent. Dict.,  Mailed-cheeks, the gurnards or cottoids.

    mailed fist n. [after German mit gepanzerter Faust (see quot. 1897)] (the threat or 
show of) armed force; (subsequently) the display of political ruthlessness.

1897 tr. Emp. Will. II of 
Germany in Times 17 Dec. 7/1 But should any one essay to detract from our just rights or to injure us, then up and at him with your 
*mailed fist [Ger. fahre darein mit gepanzerter Faust].  1898 19th Cent. Jan. 164 Japan is a foe 
who will not be terrified by the mailed fist of Germany.    1920 M. 
BEER Hist. Brit. Socialism II. III. i. 16 The first rude contact with the mailed fist 
brought him back to the sober realities of life.  1946 W. S. 
MAUGHAM Then & Now xxii. 125 The velvet glove was off and the mailed fist was bared.  
1990 Guardian 28 May 17/8 ‘I will not act differently,’ he says stubbornly, when accused of serving as 
a fig leaf for a government which cares less for Jerusalem than he, of being the silk glove that masks the mailed fist.


 
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