Forms: 1–4 curs, 4–5 kors, 4–6 curss(e, 5 curce, 5– curse. [Late OE. curs, of unknown origin; no word of similar form and sense is known in Teutonic, Romanic or Celtic. (Of connection with cross, which has been suggested, there is no trace.)]
In its various uses the opposite of blessing.
1. An utterance consigning, or supposed or intended to consign, (a person or thing) to spiritual and temporal evil, the vengeance of the deity, the blasting of malignant fate, etc. It may be uttered by the deity, or by persons supposed to speak in his name, or to be listened to by him.
10[?]. Charter of Leofric, in Cod. Dipl., IV. 72. Hæbbe he her on ðisse life Goddes curs. [Cf. Earle, Land-Charters & Sax. Doc., 252, 253, etc.].
a. 1050. Liber Scintill., lvi. (1889), 174. Bletsung fæder fæstnað hus bearna, curs soðlice moder awyrtwalað trymmincge.
c. 1125. O. E. Chron. (Laud MS.), an. 656. Leidon þa Godes curs and ealre halʓane curs and al Cristene folces.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 287/314. He ȝaf alle godes curs and his.
a. 1300. Vox & Wolf, 201, in Hazl., E. P. P., I. 64. Ich habbe widewene kors Therefore ich fare the wors.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VI. xiv. (1495), 199. The faders curse greuyth the chyldren.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., I. iii. 240. Thus haue you breath’d your Curse against your self.
1615. J. Stephens, Satyr. Ess. (ed. 2), 376. Her prayers and Amen, be a charm and a curse.
1780. Cowper, Table Talk, 467. God’s curse can cast away ten thousand sail!
1798. Coleridge, Anc. Mar., IV. ix. An orphan’s curse would drag to Hell A spirit from on high.
1829. Hood, Eugene Aram, xii. He told how murderers walk’d the earth Beneath the curse of Cain.
b. spec. A formal ecclesiastical censure or anathema; a sentence of excommunication.
a. 1050. in Thorpe, Anc. Laws, II. 318. Bisceopum ʓebyreð þæt hi æfre on ænine man curs ne settan, butan hy nyde scylan.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 655. Have noon Awe In swich caas of the Ercedekenes curs.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., III. Curce, excommunicatio, anathema.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., III. 936/1. At the suit of the ladie Katharine Dowager, a cursse was sent from the pope, which curssed both the king and the realme.
a. 1763. Shenstone, Ess., 176. If any one’s curse can effect damnation, it is not that of the Pope, but that of the poor.
1849. Whittier, Voices of Freedom, Charter-breakers, iii. The waiting crowd … Stood to hear the priest rehearse, In God’s name, the Church’s curse.
2. Without implication of the effect: The uttering of a malediction with invocation or adjuration of the deity; a profane oath, an imprecation.
a. 1050. Liber Scintill., v. (1889), 24. Na aʓyldende yfel for yfele oþþe curs for curse [maledictum pro maledicto], ac þer toʓeanes bletsiʓende.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 163. Ðe defles sed is … hoker and scorn … curs and leasinges.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., I. i. 196. I giue him curses, yet he giues me loue.
1732. Pope, Ep. Bathurst, 273. Despairing quacks with curses fled the place.
1835. Whittier, Hunters of Men, iv. The curse of the sinner and prayer of the saint.
1870. E. Peacock, Ralf Skirl., III. 96. Some curses followed.
¶ In such phrases as not worth a curse, not to care a curse, the expression possibly comes down from the ME. not worth a kerse, kers, cres: see CRESS 2.
But historical connection between the two is not evidenced, there being an interval of more than 300 years between the examples of the ME. and the modern phrase; and damn (cf. CARE v. 4 a) occurs as early as curse, so that the coincidence may be merely accidental.
1763. T. Jefferson, Lett., Writings 1892, I. 346. I do not conceive that any thing can happen … which you would give a curse to know.
1813. Moore, Post-bag, ii. 93. For, as to wives, a Grand Signor Need never care one curse about them!
1826. Blackw. Mag., XIX. 357/1. The Chapter on Naval Inventions is not worth a curse.
1827. Scott, Jrnl. (1890), II. 43. He will not care a curse for what outward show he has lost.
3. An object of cursing or execration; an accursed thing or person.
1382. Wyclif, Gal. iii. 13. Crist … maad for vs curs, that is, sacrifice for curs.
1582. N. T. (Rhem.), Gal. iii. 13. Christ … being made a curse for vs.
1611. Bible, Jer. xxvi. 6. I … wil make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.
1654. trans. Scudery’s Curia Pol., 168. Bajazet … who is the curse and execration of all the world.
1838. Lytton, Leila, I. vi. Thy name is a curse in Israel.
4. The evil inflicted by divine (or supernatural) power in response to an imprecation, or in the way of retributive punishment.
1382. Wyclif, Dan. ix. 11. And al Yrael braken the lawe … and cursse droppide on vs.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, Ep. Ded. 3. He turned the reproch of his crosse into glorie, and the cursse therof into a blessing.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. ii. 18. ‘Curse on that Cross,’ (quoth then the Sarazin).
1713. Addison, Cato, I. ii. Curse on the stripling! how he apes his sire.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., I. v. 58. This is God’s curse on slavery!—a bitter, a bitter, most accursed thing!
b. A great evil (regarded more or less vaguely as inflicted or resting upon a person, community, etc.); a thing that blights or blasts; a blasting affliction, a bane.
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., V. iv. 43. Oh ’tis the curse in Loue … When women cannot loue, where they’re belou’d. Ibid. (1595), John, IV. ii. 208. It is the curse of Kings, to be attended By slaues, that take their humors for a warrant.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric., x. § 1 (1681), 210. The only natural Remedies against this sometimes heavy Curse [mildew].
1789. W. Buchan, Dom. Med. (ed. 11), 81. Many people look upon the necessity man is under of earning his bread by labour, as a curse.
1846. Kingsley, Lett. (1878), I. 141. The curse of our generation is that so few of us deeply believe anything.
1870. Pall Mall Gaz., 27 Oct., 4/1. Very ill with that curse of his trade the painter’s colic.
c. Curse of Scotland: a name given to the nine of diamonds in a pack of cards.
Origin of the name doubtful. A not unlikely suggestion is that the card was so called from resembling the armorial bearings of Dalrymple, Lord Stair, nine lozenges on a saltire, the number and shape of the spots being identical, and their arrangement sufficiently similar. The first Earl of Stair was the object of much execration, especially from the adherents of the Stuarts, for his share in sanctioning the Massacre of Glencoe in 1692, and subsequently for the influential part played by him in bringing about the Union with England in 1707. An opponent says he was ‘at the bottom of the Union,’ and ‘so he may be styled the Judas of the Country.’
1715–47. J. Houston, Mem., 92. [Lord Justice-Clerk Ormistone] became universally hated in Scotland, where they called him the Curse of Scotland; and when the ladies were at cards playing the Nine of Diamonds (commonly called the Curse of Scotland), they called it the Justice Clerk.
1791. Gentl. Mag., 141. The nine of diamonds [is called] the Curse of Scotland, because every ninth monarch of that nation was a bad King to his subjects.
1810. Sporting Mag., XXXVI. 75. There is the curse of Scotland, plague take that nine of diamonds.
1893. Daily News, 21 Feb., 4/8. A problem which has long puzzled antiquaries. Why is the Nine of Diamonds called the Curse of Scotland?
5. attrib. and Comb., as curse-blasted, -loving, -scarred, -worthy adjs.; curse-roll, a list of anathemas; curse-mete, app. formed after the erroneous help-meet for help meet or the modern help-mate.
1836. G. S. Faber, Answ. Husenbeth, 34, note. After the manner of his curse-loving Church.
1844. Mrs. Browning, Drama of Exile. I … Who yesterday was helpmate and delight Unto mine Adam, am to-day the grief And curse-mete for him.
1855. Bailey, Mystic, 127. With ominous and curseworthy glory.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), I. 180. I shall have a list longer than the curse-roll of the Pope.
