Chapter Ancient of Days to Angelica of A by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Ancient of Days to Angelica

Ancient of Days (Daniel iii. 9). Jehovah.

Ancile (3 syl.) The Palladium of Rome. It was the sacred buckler which Numa said fell from heaven. To prevent its being stolen, he caused eleven others to be made precisely like it, and confided them to twelve priests called Salii, who bore them in procession through the city every year at the beginning of March.

"Idque ancile vocat, quod ab omni parte recisum est,
Quemque notes oculis, angulus omnis abest." Ovid: Fasti, iii. 377.

And The character "&" is a monogram of et (and), made in Italian type, &

Andirons or Hand-irons a corruption of anderia, andera, andela, or andena. Ducange says, "Andena est ferrum, quo appodiantur ligna in foco, ut melius luceant, et melius comburantur." Farther on he gives anderia, anderius, andellus, etc., as variants. Called "dogs" because they were often made in the resemblance of dogs. The derivation of anderons is not clear; Ducange says, "dicitur andena, quasi ante vaporem, i.e. calorem," but this probably will satisfy no one. The modern French word is landier, old French andier, Low Latin andæus.

Andrea Ferrara A sword. So called from a famous sword-maker of the name. (Sixteenth century.)

"We'll put in bail, my boy; old Andrea Ferrara shall lodge his security." - Scott: Waverley, ch. 50.

Andrew a name commonly used in old plays for a valet or man-servant. Probably a Merry Andrew is simply the mirth-making Andrew or domestic jester. (See Merry Andrew.)

Similarly, Abigail is used in old plays for a waiting gentlewoman. (See Abigail.).

Andrew (An) A merchant vessel, probably so called from Andrew Doria, the famous Genoese admiral.

"I should think of shallows and of flats,
And see my wealthy Andrew docked in sand." Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, i. 1.

Andrew (St) depicted in Christian art as an old man with long white hair and beard, holding the Gospel in his right hand, and leaning on a cross like the letter X, termed St. Andrew's cross. The great pictures of St. Andrew are his Flagellation by Domenichino, and the Adoration of the Cross by Guido, which has also been depicted by Andrea Sacchi, in the Vatican at Rome. Both the Flagellation and the Adoration form the subjects of frescoes in the chapel of St. Andrea, in the church of San Gregorio, at Rome. His day is November 30th. It is said that he suffered martyrdom in Patræ (A.D. 70). (See St. Rule.)

The "adoration of the cross" means his fervent address to the cross on which he was about to suffer. "Hail, precious cross, consecrated by the body of Christ! I come to thee exulting and full of joy. Receive me into thy dear arms." The "flagellation" means the scourging which always preceded capital punishments, according to Roman custom.

St. Andrew's Cross is represented in the form of an X (white on a blue field). The cross, however, on which the apostle suffered was of the ordinary shape, if we may believe the relic in the convent of St. Victor, near Marseilles. The error rose from the way in which that cross is exhibited, resting on the end of the cross-beam and point of the foot.

According to J. Leslie (History of Scotland), this sort of cross appeared in the heavens to Achaius, King of the Scots, and Hungus, King of the Picts, the night before their engagement with Athelstane. As they were the victors, they went barefoot to the kirk of St. Andrew, and vowed to adopt his cross as their national emblem. (See Constatine's Cross.)