Also 5–6 Caym, Kaym.
1. The proper name of the first fratricide and murderer (Gen. iv.), used descriptively.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Tract, xxiii. Sel. Wks. III. 348. Þei bilden Caymes Castelis to harme of cuntreis.
c. 1400. Ywaine & Gaw., 559. The karl of Kaymes kyn.
c. 1505. Dunbar, Flyting, 513. Cankrit Caym, tryit trowane, Tutiuillus.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VIII. Prol. 77. This cuntre is full of Caynis kyne.
† 2. Comb., as Cain-like; Cain-colo(u)red, of the reputed color of the hair of Cain, to whom, as to Judas Iscariot, a ‘red’ or reddish-yellow beard was attributed.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., I. iv. 23. He hath but a little wee-face; with a little yellow Beard: a Caine colourd Beard.
1656. Eirenicon, 21. Lay by this Cain-like disposition.
Hence also Cainian = Cainite. Cainish a., of the temper of Cain. Cainism, the heresy of the Cainites. Cainite, (a.) one of a sect of heretics in the second century who professed reverence for Cain and other wicked Scriptural characters; (b.) a descendant of Cain; also fig. Cainitic a., pertaining to Cain or the Cainites.
1540. Coverdale, Confut. Standish, Pref., Wks. 1844, II. 328. Some spice of Cainish stomach.
1620. Bp. Hall, Hon. Mar. Clergie, I. § 18. 101–2. Censuring the opinion of Ambrose, as sauouring too strongly of Cainisme, and superstition.
1647. Pagitt, Heresiogr. (ed. 4), 59. Possessed with a spirit of scoffing, terming … us … Cainites.
1659. Gell, Ess. Amendm. Last Transl. Bible, 105. The Lord hath given superiority … unto the true Shem and all the Shemites … yea, unto Cain himself and the Cainites if they do well.
1653. A. Ross, Πανσεβεια (1655), 193. Caini … worshipped Cain as the author of much goodnesse to mankind.
1657. Colvil, Whig’s Supplic. (1695). But straight turned Anabaptists, Quakers … And Mr. Gilbert Burnetans … Helvidians, Cainians.
1685. H. More, Illustr., 377. Kainish persecutours.
1764. Maclaine, trans. Mosheim’s Eccl. Hist. (1844), I. 64/2. The more obscure and less considerable of the Gnostic sects … [as] the Cainites, who treated as saints … Cain, Cora, Dathan, the inhabitants of Sodom, and even the traitor Judas.
1877. Dawson, Orig. World, xii. 255. Intermixture of Sethite and Cainite races.
1882–3. Schaff, in Relig. Encycl., I. 358. Different turns in the Cainitic history.
