paynim
English
Alternative forms
- painim, painym
- paynym (13th-18th centuries)
Etymology
From Middle English paynym, paynyme, from Anglo-Norman paienime, peinime et al., from Late Latin paganismus (“paganism”), from Latin paganus (“pagan”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈpeɪnɪm/
Noun
paynim (plural paynims)
- (archaic) A pagan or heathen, especially a Muslim, or a Jew.
- 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xxxviij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book IX:
- But there was one knyght that dyd merueyllously thre dayes / and he bare a black shelde / and of alle knyghtes that euer I sawe he preued the best knyȝt / thenne said Kyng mark that was syre launcelot or syre palomydes the paynym
- (please add an English translation of this quote)
- 1530, Thomas More, The Confutation of Tyndale's Answer, Preface to the Christian reader :
- And if it be idolatry to do as the paynims did—make an idol “God”—it must needs be much worse idolatry to do as these heretics do,
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:
- To this his native soyle thou backe shalt bring, / Strongly to ayde his countrey to withstand / The powre of forreine Paynims which invade thy land.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554, lines 763-6:
- (Though like a covered field, where champions bold / Wont ride in armed, and at the soldan's chair / Defied the best of paynim chivalry / To mortal combat, or career with lance).
- 1964, Anthony Burgess, Nothing Like The Sun:
- St Helen’s bell rang reminders that she lived, a paynim or Mahometan, in the church’s shadow.
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Middle English
Noun
paynim
- Alternative form of paynym