Forms: 4 Englysch, 4–6 -isshe, -ys(s)he, 4– English. [f. prec. adj.]
1. trans. To translate into English (a book, passage, etc.); to give the English equivalent for (a word or phrase).
1388. Wyclif, Bible, Prol. xv. To Englisshe it aftir the word wolde be derk and douteful. Ibid. I Englishe it thus.
c. 1430. Lydg., Chorle & Byrde (1818), 18. Out of frenssh how that hit englisshid be.
1490. Caxton, Eneydos (1889), 4. For hym, I knowe for suffycyent to expowne and englysshe euery dyffyculte that is therin.
1533. More, Apol., v. Wks. 854/2. Howe be it the preacher englisheth it thus.
1660. Boyle, Seraph. Love, xvii. (1700), 106. Purchas’d for a Ransom; the Original Word English’d Redemption.
1728. Morgan, Algiers, I. Pref. p. xix. It fully excuses my not Englishing them from the Greek my own Self.
1807. Ann. Rev., V. 510. All German verses can be Englished in fewer syllables.
1872. Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. lxii. 1. If we Englished the word, by our word ‘verily.’
b. To render in English orthography. rare.
1807. G. Chalmers, Caledonia, I. II. vi. 284. The common word … is ruadh, or as it is englished roy.
† 2. To render into plain English; to describe in plain terms. Obs.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., I. iii. 51. The hardest voice of her behauiour (to be english’d rightly) is, I am Sir Iohn Falstafs.
1649. Milton, Eikon., v. 44. Those gracious Acts … may be english’d more properly Acts of feare.
1671. Flavel, Fount. Life, viii. 22. I am ashamed that my pen should English what mine eyes have seen.
3. To make English, to anglicize. a. To adopt (a word) into the English language; to give it an English character or form. b. nonce-use. To subject to English influence.
1824–9. Landor, Imag. Conv. (1846), I. 157. Liqueur is not yet Englished.
1879. E. Walford, Londoniana, II. 99. The word ‘comfort,’ originally Norman, and afterwards englished.
1880. Grant White, Every-Day Eng., 21. When a foreign word has been transplanted into our speech and has taken firm root there, it should be thoroughly Englished.
1880. Browning, Dram. Idylls, II. Clive, 9. The man Clive—he fought Plassy … Conquered and annexed and Englished!
