[Gr. εὐφυὴς well-endowed by nature, f. εὐ- (see EU-) + φυή growth, f. φύειν to produce, in pass. to grow.
The adoption of this word by Lyly as the name of a personage of fiction was suggested by the passage of Ascham quoted below.]
The name of the chief character in John Lyly’s two works, Euphues, The Anatomy of Wit (1578), and Euphues and his England (1580). Hence a. The book bearing that name. † b. To speak Euphues: to talk the dialect of ‘Euphues,’ to ‘parley Euphuism’ (see EUPHUISM).
[1570. Ascham, Scholem. (Arb.), 38. Εὐφυὴς is he that is apte by goodnes of witte, and appliable by readines of will, to learning, hauing all other qualities of the minde and partes of the bodie that must another day serue learning, not troubled, mangled, and halfed, but [etc.].]
a. 1613. Overbury, A Wife (1638), 88. And speaks Euphues, not so gracefully as heartily.
1613. Beaum. & Fl., Honest Man’s Fort., V. iii. The courtier … has nothing in him but a piece of Euphues, And twenty dozen of twelvepenny ribband.
