chevisance

chevisance

English

Alternative forms

• chevisaunce (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old French chevisance, from chevir. The 'chivalrous adventure' sense is thought to be first used by Edmund Spenser, who incorrectly linked chevisance to Old French chevalerie (“chivalry”).

Noun

chevisance (countable and uncountable, plural chevisances)

1. (obsolete) Help, remedy; a resource or solution.
2. (obsolete) The raising of money; money raised or lent for some purpose.
3. (obsolete) Chivalrous adventure.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:

     Fortune, the foe of famous cheuisaunce / Seldome (said Guyon) yields to vertue aide, / But in her way throwes mischiefe and mischaunce, / Whereby her course is stopt, and passage staid.

   • 1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, Book IV, lxxxi:

     Ah! be it not pardie declared in France, / Or elsewhere told where court'sy is in prize, // That we forsook so fair a chevisance, / For doubt or fear that might from fight arise.

4. (obsolete) A bargain or contract; an agreement about a matter in dispute, such as a debt; a business compact.
5. (obsolete) An unlawful agreement or contract.

Anagrams

• chievances

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Old French

Noun

chevisance f (oblique plural chevisances, nominative singular chevisance, nominative plural chevisances)

1. sustenance

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (chevisance)