Chapter Allodials to Aloe of A by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Almanac is the Arabic al manac (the diary). Verstegen says it is the Saxon al-mon-aght (all moon heed), and that it refers to the tallies of the full and new moons kept by our Saxon ancestors. One of these tallies may still be seen at St. John's College, Cambridge.

Before printing, or before it was common:

By	Date
Solomon Jarchi	in and after 1150
Peter de Dacia	about 1300
Walter de Elvendene	1327
John Somers, Oxford	1380!!
Nicholas de Lynna	1386
Purbach	1150--1461
First printed by Gutenberg, at Mentz	1457
By Regiomontanus, at Nuremberg	1472--3
Zainer, at Ulm	1478
Richard Pynson (Sheapeheard's Kalendar)	1497!!
Stöffer, in Venice	1499
Poor Robin's Almanack	1652
Francis Moore's Almanack	between 1698 and 1713
Stamp duty imposed 1710, repealed 1834.

The Man i' the Almanac stuck with pins (Nat. Lee), is a man marked with points referring to signs of the zodiac, and intended to indicate the favourable and unfavourable times of letting blood.

I shan't consult your almanac (French), I shall not come to you to know what weather to expect. The reference is to the prognostications of weather in almanacs.

Almesbury It was in a sanctuary at Almesbury that Queen Guenever took refuge, after her adulterous passion for Lancelot was revealed to the king (Arthur). Here she died; but her body was buried at Glastonbury.

Almighty Dollar Washington Irving first made use of this expression, in his sketch of a "Creole Village" (1837).

"The almighty dollar, that great object of universal devotion throughout our land. ..." - W. Irving: Wolfert's Roost, Creole Village, p. 40.

Ben Jonson speaks of "almighty gold."

Almond Tree Grey hairs. The Preacher thus describes old age: -

"In the day when the keepers of the house (the hands) shall tremble, and the strong men (the legs) bow themselves, and the grinders (the teeth) cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows (the eyes) be darkened ... and the almond-tree shall flourish (grey hairs on a bald pate), and the grasshopper be a burden, and desire shall fail ... when the silver cord (the spinal marrow) shall be loosed, the golden bowl (intellect) broken, and the pitcher broken at the cistern (the pulse of the heart stopped)." - Eccles. xii: 3--6.

Almonry The place where the almoner resides, or where alms are distributed. An almoner is a person whose duty it is to distribute alms, which, in ancient times, consisted of one-tenth of the entire income of monastery. (See Ambry.)

Alms Gifts to the poor.

Dr. Johnson says the word has no singular; whereas Todd says it has no plural. Like riches, it is wholly singular in construction, but is used both as a noun singular and noun plural. Of course, it is Almos-ine, almos-ie, Almose, almesse, almes, alms, the s is not the plural suffix. Riches is the French richesse. Both words are singular, but, as nouns of multitude, prefer the plural construction. (Latin alimosina, Greek eleemosyne, from the verb eleeo, I pity.)

Alms Basket To live on the alms basket. To live on charity.

Alms-drink Another's leavings; for alms consists of broken bread and the residue of drink. It is also applied to the liquor which a drinker finds too much, and therefore hands to another.

Alms-fee Peter's pence, or Rome scot. Abolished in England by Henry VIII.