Chapter Automaton to Axinomancy of A by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Avenel (2 syl.) White Lady of Avenel. A tutelary spirit in Scott's Monastery.

Avenger of Blood (The) The man who, in the Jewish polity, had the right of taking vengeance on him who had slain one of his kinsmen. The Avenger in Hebrew is called goël.

Cities of refuge were appointed for the protection of homicides, and of those who had caused another's death by accident. The Koran sanctions the Jewish custom. Family feuds have been a common hunting ground of poets and novelists.

Avernus (Greek, a-ornis, "without a bird"). A lake in Campania, so called from the belief that its sulphurous and mephitic vapours killed any bird that happened to inhale them. Poets call it the entrance to the infernal regions; hence the proverb, The descent to Avernus is easy, but coming back again is quite another matter, meaning that all bad habits are easily acquired, but very hard to be abandoned.

Avertin (St.) The patron saint of lunatics; so called from the French avertineux (lunatics).

Avesta The sacred Scriptures of the Magians, composed by Zoroaster. Better known as the Zend-Avesta or "living word in the Zend language."

Aveugle Son of Erebus and Nox. (Spenser: Faërie Queene.)

Avienus A writer of fables in the decline of the Roman empire. In the Middle Ages, a collection of fables used to be called Avynet, or Esopet.

A. vinculo matrimonii (Latin) Divorced from marriage ties. A total divorce. A divorce a mensa et thoro is a partial divorce. The divorce a vinculo matrimonii is because the marriage was never legal, as in the case of bigamy, or marriage within the prohibited degrees; but a divorce a mensa et thoro is because the parties cannot live together from incompatibility of temper, in which case they may, if they choose, come together again.

Aviz An order of knighthood in Portugal, founded by Sancho I, and having for its object the subjugation of the Moors.

Avoid Extremes The wise saw of Pittacos of Mitylene. (B.C. 652--569.)

Avoir Avoir Martel en tête (French). To be distracted. Martel is a hammer, hence distraction, torment, torture.

Avoirdupois French, avoir, aver or avier, goods in general, and poise = poids (weight). Not the verb, but the noun avoir. Properly avoir de poids (goods having weight), goods sold by weight. We have the word aver, meaning goods in general, hence also cattle; whence such compounds as aver-corn, aver- penny, aver-silver, aver-land, and so on. We have also the noun "having, havings" = possessions.

There is a common French phrase avoir du poids (to be weight), with which our word avoir dupois has been muddled up.
"Pared my present havings [property] to bestow
My bounties upon you."

Shakespeare: Henry VIII, iii. 2.

"One of your having, and yet cark and care."

Muses' Looking Glass.

Even medicines, as wholesale goods, are bought and sold by avoirdupois weight.

A-weather The reverse of a-lee. "A-weather" is towards the weather, or the side on which the wind strikes. "A-lee" is in the lee or shelter, and therefore opposite to the wind side; as helm a-weather.

Awkward French, gauche, not dexterous. Awk means the left hand. Hence in Holland's Plutarch we have "The awke or left hand"; and again, "They receive her awkly when she presenteth ... the right hand." (See Sinister.)