Chapter Ensilage to Episemon of E by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Ensilage to Episemon

Ensilage A method of preserving green fodder by storing it in mass under pressure in deep trenches cut in a dry soil.

Entail' An entail is an estate cut from the power of a testator. The testator cannot bequeath it; it must go to the legal heirs. (French, en-tailler.)

Entangle The Anglo-Saxon tan means a twig, and twigs smeared with birdlime were used for catching small birds, who were "en-tangled" or twigged.

Entelechy The kingdom of Queen Quintessence in the famous satirical romance of Rabelais called the History of Gargantua and Pantagruel'. Pantagruel and his companions went thither in search of the Holy Bottle. It may be called the city of speculative science.
    The word is used to express the realisation of a beau ideal. Lovers have preconceived notions of human perfections, and imagine that they see the realities in the person beloved, who is the entelechy of their beau ideal.

"O lumiere! enrichie
D'un feu divin, qui m'ard si vivement,
Pour me donner l'etre et le movement,
Etes- vous pas ma seul entelechie."
Ronsard: sonnet 68 (1524-35).

Enter a House right Foot foremost (Petronius). It was thought unlucky to enter a house or to leave one's chamber left foot foremost. Augustus was very superstitious on this point. Pythagoras taught that it is necessary to put the shoe on the right foot first. "When stretching forth your feet to have your sandals put on, first extend your right foot" (Protreptics of Iamblichus, symbol xii.). Iamblichus tells us this symbolised that man's first duty is reverence to the gods.

Entering Short When bills are paid into a banker's hands to receive the amount when due, it is called "entering them short." In this case, if the banker fails, the assignees must give them up. Bills in the hands of factors may be so entered.

Enthusiast is one who believes that he himself is in God, or that God is in him (Greek, en theos). Our word inspired is very similar, being the Latin in spiritu (in the spirit).

Entire Ale, in contradistinction to "cooper," which is half ale and half porter. As Calvert's entire, etc.

Entre Nous (French). Between you and me; in confidence.
   N.B. - One of the most common vulgarisms of the better class is "Between you and I."

Entrée (To have the). To be eligible for invitations to State balls and concerts.

Entremets [arn-tre-may ]. Sweet foods or kickshaws served at table between the main dishes, courses, or removes; literally, entre-mets (French), things put between. We now use two words, entrées and entremets, the former being subordinate animal foods handed round between the main dishes, and the latter being sweet made dishes.

Eolian An Eolian harp. A box fitted with strings, like a fiddle. The strings, however, are not sounded by a bow, but by a current of air or wind passing over them.

"Awake, Eolian harp, awake,
And give to rapture all thy trembling strings."
Gray: Progress of Poetry, lines 1, 2.

Eolus God of the winds. (Roman mythology.)

Epact The excess of the solar over the lunar year, the former consisting of 365 days, and the latter of 354, or eleven days fewer. The epact of any year is the number of days from the last new moon of the old year to the 1st of the following January. (Greek, epactos, feminine epacte, adscititious.)

Epergne (2 syl.). A large ornamental stand placed in the middle of a dining-table. It is generally said to be a French word, but the French call such an ornamental stand a surtout, strangely adopted by us to signify a frock-coat, which the French call a pardessus. The nearest French word is épargne, saving, as caisse d'épargne, a savings bank; verb épargner, to spare or save. (See English French.)