[ad. L. ædificātiōn-em, f. ædificāre to build, EDIFY.]
1. Building. rare in mod. use.
1549. W. Thomas, Hist. Ital., 10 b. About 700 yeres after the edificacion of Rome.
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. 111. The castle … is not onely of situation the strongest I have seene, but also of edification.
1669. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, I. III. ii. 305. He [this Milesian Cadmus] is said to have written 4 Books, touching the Edification of his own Citie.
1705. Stanhope, Paraphr., I. 80. The Edification whereof would be best promoted by attributing to those Workmen neither more nor less than their Due.
1721–33. Strype, Eccl. Mem., II. I. II. ii. 261. Officers to make all manner of provision for the edification of the said fortresses.
1805. Ann. Rev., III. 236. The exhibition of games, the edification of palaces.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, xviii. 293. Church-edification is everywhere the order of the day.
† b. concr. A building. Obs.
1432–50. trans. Higden (1865), I. 405. To make edificacions in cites.
1584. R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., XV. ii. 385. He throweth downe also the enimies edifications.
1656. in Blount, Glossogr., and in mod. Dicts; not in Bailey, Johnson, or Ash.
c. fig. Building up of character, etc.
1856. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., IV. V. App. iii. The whole period of youth is one essentially of formation, edification, instruction.
1870. Swinburne, Ess. & Stud. (1875), 165. The religious idea, as opposed to Philistine demolition or to Philistine edification.
2. fig. In religious use, after Gr. οἱκοδομή in 1 Cor. xiv: The building up the church, of the soul, in faith and holiness; the imparting of moral and spiritual stability and strength by suitable instruction and exhortation.
1382. Wyclif, Rom. xiv. 19. And kepe we tho thingis to gidere that ben of edificacioun, that is, to bylde soulis to heuene.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., lxiv. 276 (Harl. MS.). Noble and profitable wordis, to edificacion of þe peple.
1548. Latimer, Serm. Ploughers, i. 67. Devilish ploughing, the which worketh to have things in Latin, and letteth the fruitful edification.
1611. Bible, 2 Cor. x. 8. The Lord hath giuen vs for edification.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., III. xxxvii. 236. To the edification of Gods people.
1710. Norris, Chr. Prud., v. 202. To build up men in Faith and Holiness of Life, that which we properly mean by Edification.
a. 1876. J. H. Newman, Hist. Sk., II. IV. xi. 417. In providing for the religious necessities of posterity, they were directly serving their own edification.
b. Mental or moral improvement, intellectual profit; instruction. (Now often ironical.)
1660. W. Secker, Nonsuch Prof., Pref. 16. The design of this Peece is not the ostentation of the Author, but the edification of the Reader.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., p. lxxvii. For the Edification of the Citizens of our Metropolis in Loyalty.
1772. Priestley, Inst. Relig. (1782), II. 199. Promote … mutual edification by every proper means.
1777. Sheridan, Sch. Scand., V. ii. It certainly is edification to hear him talk.
1826. Scott, Woodst., iii. Where was the edification of all this?
1857. De Quincey, Whiggism, Wks. VI. 39. That he might distribute his edification in equal proportions.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 206. Kindly answer, for the edification of the company and myself.
