a. and sb. Also 5–6 varyant (5 -te), varyaunt (5 -te), 5 variaunt(e. [a. OF. variant (F. variant, = Sp., Pg., and It. variante), a. L. variant-, varians, pres. pple. of variāre to VARY.]
A. adj. 1. Of persons: Changeful in disposition or purpose; inconstant, fickle. Also const. of or in. Now rare.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Can. Yeom. T., 622. On his falshede fayn wold I me wreke, If I wist how, But he is heer and there, He is so variant, he byt no where.
c. 1400. Beryn, 1974. Now þow wolt, & now þow nolt;… Now sey oon, & sith anothir; so variant of mynde!
c. 1450. Mankind, 274, in Macro Plays, 11. Be stedefast in condycyon! se ȝe be not varyant!
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., XXVII. (Percy Soc.), 130. To be … In stable love fixt and not variaunt.
1550. Bale, Image Both Ch., II. G viij. They are … no wher stedfast & vniforme, but euery wher variant & foolish.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., IV. 145. He was also deceitfull, variant, and fraudulent.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 360. Calm and resolute, if occasionally variant of mood.
† b. Acting in a changeable or fickle manner.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VIII. 299. He was to large of ȝiftes,… redy to speke and variaunt of dedes.
† c. Dissentient, disagreeing. Obs.
1412–20. Lydg., Chron. Troy, III. 3657. Sethen ȝe alle assenten and accorde, Fro ȝoure sentence I wil nat discorde, In no wyse to be variaunt.
2. Of things: Exhibiting variation or change; tending to vary or alter; not remaining uniform.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., I. met. v. (1868), 22. Þi myȝt attempreþ þo variauntz sesons of þe ȝere.
1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, II. vi. (Skeat), l. 148. After the variaunt opinion in false hertes of unstable people.
c. 1400. Pety Job, 472, in 26 Pol. Poems, 136. My thoughtes wandre wyde whare, For they ben, lorde, full variaunte.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 71. God of his grace … preserve youre variaunt brutilnesse.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, IV. xv. (S.T.S.), II. 103. Þe cry of romanis was variant, slaw, & but curage.
1671. R. MacWard, True Nonconf., 136. The Ordinances … therefore were appointed … in a variant and mutable forme.
c. 1674. Acc. Scotland’s Griev. under Lauderdale’s Min., 10. It was also both inconstant in its being, and variant in its number and method.
1752. Wesley, Wks. (1872), XIV. 40. Nouns Variant in their gender are dies and finis.
† b. Of fortune, conditions, etc.: = VARIABLE a. 1 a. Obs. (In early use partly after sense 1.)
c. 1412. Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 66. So flyttyng is sche [sc. Fortune], and so wariant, Ther is no trust vpon hir fair lawhyng.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, XX. xvii. 827. But fortune is soo varyaunt, and the whole soo meuable, there nys none constaunte abydynge.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, lviii. 26. So variant is this warldis rent, That nane thairof can be content.
1513. Douglas, Æneid, XI. viii. 117. The variant chance Of our onstabill lyfe.
1561. Godly Q. Hester (1873), 58. Contente To thinke it no lyghtnes, nor wytte inconstante, But the necessytie of tymes varyant.
c. Of wind: Changing, shifting. rare–1.
1847. Longf., Ev., I. i. 82. Above in the variant breezes Numberless noisy weathercocks rattled.
3. Exhibiting difference or variety; diversified, varied; diverse, different.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 301. These freris habitis,… þat ben þus large & variaunt as weren habitis of pharisees.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 1917. The arwis were so fulle of rage, So variaunt of diversitee.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 5651. Þai ware visid all in versis in variant lettirs.
1482. Monk of Evesham, lvii. (Arb.), 110. A variant medelyng of melody sownyd wyth alle.
1526. R. Whytford, Martiloge (1893), 19. He was put to many varyaunt turmentes.
1585. Jas. I., Ess. Poesie (Arb.), 33. So Iob and Ieremie … Did right descryue their ioyes, their woes and torts, In variant verse of hundreth thousand sorts.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, II. Comm., The decorum that some poor critics have stood upon … is far from the variant order of nature.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., VI. 291. They who would trauerse earths variant face.
a. 1817. T. Dwight, Trav. New Eng., etc. (1821), II. 457. The plains are of moderate extent: the surface being almost every where variant, and undulating.
1855. Bailey, Mystic, 105. The angels … ’stablishing In variant countries various roots of men.
1858. H. Bushnell, Nat. & Supernat., ix. (1864), 260. He can produce variant results through invariable causes.
† b. Of colors: Varied, variegated. Also of cloth or an animal in respect of color. Obs.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 4336. Nouthire … transmitte we na vebbis To vermylion ne violett ne variant littis.
1471. Ripley, Comp. Alch., VI. viii., in Ashm. (1652), 163. By colors varyante aye new and new.
1473–4. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 20. vij elne of tartar of variant hewis to lyne a gowne of blac. Ibid. (1502), II. 346. Ane variant hors giffin to the King. Ibid. (1507), III. 260. Taffeti, grene, rede, blew, and variant.
1575. Bk. Univ. Kirk Scotl., 6 Aug. We think … unseemly … all kinde of … licht and variant hewis in cloathing, as red, blew, ȝellow, and sicklyke.
1600. Dr. Dodypoll, I. i. Welcome, bright Morne, that with thy golden rayes Reveal’st the variant colours of the world.
4. Differing or discrepant from something; † also const. to (= from).
c. 1400. Maundev. (1839), x. 122. And alle theise han manye Articles of oure Feythe, and to othere thei ben varyaunt.
1473–5. in Cal. Proc. Chanc. Q. Eliz. (1830), II. Pref. 60. The matter comprised in the side replicacion is new mater variaunt from her bill.
1534. Whitinton, Tullyes Offices, I. (1540), 31. It is no thynge varyaunt fro the dignyte of a wyse man.
1548. Geste, Pr. Masse, 134. Thee prieste pryvee Masse … is not quadrant but variant to the sayd word [of God].
1741. T. Robinson, Gavelkind, ii. 9. Most of the Customs of this Kingdom variant from the Common Law.
1770. Ann. Reg., Chron., 143/2. The publication in the papers was variant from that which he sent home.
1860. J. P. Kennedy, Life W. Wirt, I. xxii. 355. His first impressions of him … are singularly variant from those which [etc.].
1880. Mrs. Whitney, Odd or Even? xli. Words that were absurdly variant from all her present mood.
b. Without const. (Cf. VARIOUS a. 8 d.)
1586. Ferne, Blaz. Gentrie, To Gentl. Inner T. They shall find the interpretation thereof many wayes variant and diuers.
1865. Visct. Strangford, Selection (1869), II. 187. With a variant spelling of the body of the word.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul, I. 373, note. One of the numberless instances of variant readings in the Hebrew.
1897. J. M. Whiton, Reconsid. & Reinforcem., 22–3. These terms … are definitions not too variant to stand indifferently for synonyms of spirit.
c. Biol. Varying or diverging from type.
1881. Athenæum, No. 2818. 569. ‘Angela’ is Spielhagen’s variant child.
1896. Advance (Chicago), 23 April, 592/1. In nature a variant minority is liable to be diluted and to disappear by intermixture.
B. sb. 1. A form or modification differing in some respect from other forms of the same thing.
1848. Layard, Nineveh, II. i. (1849), II. 171, note. Many of these [cuneiform] characters are undoubtedly what are termed ‘variants’; that is, merely a different way of forming the same letter.
1862. Rawlinson, Anc. Mon., Chaldæa, I. 143. Il, of course, is but a variant of El.
1869. Ellis, E. E. Pronunc., I. iv. 248. Other variants of course occur from carelessness.
1869. Rawlinson, Anc. Hist., 336. The names seem, however, to be chiefly variants of the general ethnic title.
b. A various reading.
1861. Paley, Aeschylus (ed. 2), Agam., 1116, note. The variants -οντο and -όντες only show that a termination was added to the original -ον.
1881. Westcott & Hort, Grk. N. T., Introd. § 3. The primary work of textual criticism is merely to discriminate the erroneous variants from the true.
2. A variation of the original work, story, song, etc.
1872. W. R. S. Ralston, Songs Russian People, 200, note. There are many variants of the same song, but they do not differ materially.
1877. Miss A. B. Edwards, Up Nile, Pref. p. xiii. Religious books, variants of the Ritual, moral essays, maxims.
1885. Clodd, Myths & Dr., I. iv. 70. They are the variants of stories presumably related in the Aryan fatherland.
3. Nat. Hist. A variant form or type.
1895. in Funk’s Stand. Dict.
