Forms: 3 eorðen, erthin, 4–5 erþen, 5 erþyn, (6 erdyn), 6– earthen. Also EARTHERN. [app. not recorded in OE.; the normal form would be *erþen, WS. *ierþen, yrþen = OHG. irdîn, Goth. airþeins:—OTeut. *irþîno-z, f. erþâ EARTH; see -EN.]
1. Made or composed of earth.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 388. A lefdi was þet was mid hire uoan biset al abuten … wiðinnen one eorðene castle.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 27646. Þou man þat es in erth stad þat es noght bot an erthin gadd.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 141. Erþyn [written eryyn] or of the earth, terrenus.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe (ed. 3), II. 266. The earthen Floors we have in use in several Parts of England … as hard as Stone.
1807. G. Chalmers, Caledonia, I. II. ii. 243. A high earthen rampart … running off, from a British fort.
1871. Palgrave, Lyr. Poems, 16. Pacing the earthen floor with solemn feet.
b. Made of baked clay.
1382. Wyclif, Jer. xix. 1. Go and tac the erthene litil wyne vessel of the crockere.
1481–90. Howard Househ. Bks. (1841), 150. Item, for ij. erthen panys ijd.
1527. MS. Acc. R. Gibson Master of Revels, Itm, dew for iiij dosyn erdyn dishes, ye dosyn, iiijd.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 535/87.
| In jolly Hymns they praise the God of Wine, | |
| Whose Earthen Images adorn the Pine; | |
| And there are hung on high, in honour of the Vine. |
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 102. Two hundred large earthen jars.
1800. trans. Lagrange’s Chem., I. 233. A tubulated earthen or iron retort.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 66. But does he therefore value the three measures of wine, or the earthen vessel which contains them, equally with his son?
2. Said disparagingly of the human body, or of the world. Sometimes transf. and fig. of conditions, qualities, etc.: Characteristic of the earth, merely material. Also in comb., as earthen-hearted.
16[?]. Lever, Prayer, in Farr’s S. P., 523. Let thy holy eyes reflect Their influence upon my earthen state.
1633. Earl Manch., Al Mondo (1636), 174. Nor will he care who shuts up his earthen eyes, when Death it selfe opens his soules eyes.
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, Rem. Wks. (1660), 68. The best part of this Earthen World is man.
1855. Browning, Grammarian’s Funeral. To make the heavenly period Perfect the earthen.
1870. Lowell, Among My Books, Ser. I. (1873), 211. We know who is to be the guest of this earthen hospitality,—how much beauty, love, and heartbreak, are to be covered in that pit of clay. Ibid. (1876), Ser. II. 15. Far from a man … be so rash and earthen-hearted a humility.
