Even adv.

Forms: 1–2 efne, emne, 3–5 evene, 4–7 evin, -yn(e, 4–5 eeven, (4 ewyn, 5 evon, -un, ewene, eyven, hevene), 4– even. Also contracted 6–7 ene, 6–9 een, e’en, ev’n. [OE. efne, by assimilation emne, efen, = OFris. efne, ivin, OS. efno (Du. even), OHG. ebano (MHG. ebene, Ger. eben):—OTeut. *eƀnô, f. *eƀno- EVEN a. (In literary use the contracted form e’en (īn) now occurs only in verse, and in colloq. use it is rare exc. north. dial.)

  The mod. Teut. langs. (exc. Scandinavian) have developed senses similar to those in branch II.]

  I.  In senses closely related to the adj. (Chiefly admitting of degrees of comparison.)

  † 1.  Evenly, in an even manner; regularly, steadily, uniformly. Obs.

a. 1000.  Ælfric, Ps. cxviii. [cxix.] 77 (Gr.). Ic æ þine efnast healde.

a. 1250.  Owl & Night., 313. Ich singe efne Mid fulle dreme and lude stefne.

1297.  R. Glouc. (1724), 43. So euene hot þat lond ys, þat men durre selde Here orf in howse awynter brynge out of the felde.

a. 1310.  in Wright, Lyric P., ix. 35. Hire teht aren white ase bon of whal, Evene set ant atled al.

c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, Prol. 47. Demaying hire in althing ewine.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 436. Mony proude rynges, Euyn set to þe sight.

1458.  MS. Christ’s Hosp. Abingdon, in Turner, Dom. Archit., III. 44. Now God geve us grace to folowe treuthe even.

1728.  T. Sheridan, Persius, I. (1739), 17. That Poet of ours makes his Verses run as even as a Carpenter can draw his Line.

  † 2.  In exact agreement. To go even (= Fr. marcher d’accord): to agree (with). Obs.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 126. Henry and he euen acorded or þei went.

a. 1569.  Kingesmyll, Comf. Afflict. (1585), A vij. Behold how good a thing it is … for brethren to dwell even together.

1601.  Shaks., Twel. N., V. i. 246. As the rest goes euen. Ibid. (1611), Cymb., I. iv. 47. I … rather shun’d to go euen with what I heard.

1645.  Fuller, Good Th. in Bad T. (1841), 39. Both are for the privileges of parliament; can they come closer? Both are for the liberty of the subject; can they meet evener?

  † 3.  Equally. a. In equal divisions or parts. b. In an equal degree. Also as quasi-prep. with dat.: Equally with. c. On equal terms. Obs.

  a.  c. 888.  K. Ælfred, Boeth., xxxix. § 13. Sio sunne and se mona habbaþ todæled butwuht him þone dæʓ and þa niht swiþe emne.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 51. Þe barons portiond þe lond euen þam bituene.

1393.  Gower, Conf., II. 46. Copes riche … Departed even of white and blewe.

c. 1420.  Sir Amadace (Camd.), lix. Take and dele hit Euun in toe.

  b.  c. 1380.  Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 310. Wheþer alle þese ordris ben euene goode.

c. 1380.  Sir Ferumb., 2946. Þat ech of ous … do al þat a may, To helpe ys felawe euene him-selue; among our fon to day.

c. 1449.  Pecock, Repr., III. vi. 313. In the same euen miche pouerte … folewe in euen likenes.

c. 1450.  Castle Hd. Life St. Cuthb. (Surtees), 4066. Edylwald was a man expert, Euen gyuen to god with cuthbert.

c. 1485.  E. Eng. Misc. (Warton Club), 85. Alle in ewene warme water.

  c.  1470–85.  Malory, Arthur, X. xlv. Neuer were there foure knyghtes euener matched.

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. (1586), 128 b. Be well assured that you bye them [draught oxen] euen matched.

  † 4.  In a just or proper degree. Obs.

c. 1430.  Two Cookery-bks., 12. Let boyle tylle the Onyonys an þe Brawn ben euyne sothyn, an nowt to moche. Ibid., 14. Take þe sylf brothe … Make it euen Salt.

  † 5.  Directly, straight; also of descent: In a direct line. Obs. See also EVEN-DOWN.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 3105 (Cott.). It brend, þe reke raght vp euen. Ibid. (c. 1340), 3106 (Fairf.). Þe smelle was squete and stode ful eyuen.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, I. 61. Ony male, [That were in lyne] ewyn descendand.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 334. He lediþ his soule eeuen to heuen by goddis lawe.

c. 1435.  Torr. Portugal, 2281. Into a lond bothe riche and good, ffulle evyn he toke the way.

1486.  Bk. St. Albans, E vij b. Ayen the Water his Way eeuen iff he hent.

  † b.  ‘Due’ (east, etc.); directly (contrary, etc.).

c. 1300.  St. Brandan, 515. Hi wende evene south.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), xxxiii. 149. Beȝond þir ilez … to ga euen est, es na land inhabited.

1480.  Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccxxxv. 257. The wind was euen contrary vnto him.

1483.  Cath. Angl., 118. Evyn agayn.

a. 1550[?].  Freiris of Berwik, 344. In the west he turnit him ewin about.

  II.  In weakened senses as an intensive or emphatic particle. (With 6–8 cf. similar uses of just.)

  6.  Exactly, precisely, ‘just.’ Now chiefly arch. after Bible use, and suggesting some notion of 9.

  a.  of manner; often followed by as, thus, so.

Beowulf, 1571. Lixte se leoma efne swa of heofene hadre scineð rodores candel.

a. 1000.  Crist, 330 (Gr.). And efne swa ðec ʓemette meahtum ʓehrodene clæne and ʓecorene Crist almihtiʓ.

a. 1340.  Hampole, Pr. Consc., 4767. Þe thred day, þe se sal … And stand even in … Als it stode first.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XI. xiii. (1495), 398. Thonder smythth the ayre … euyn soo that it … sownyth … in the manere of rollyng and hurlynge of whelys.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 1633. Priam by purpos a pales gert make … And euyn at his etlyng Ylion was cald.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 2 b. Euen so man in the cage of this worlde.

1578.  Timme, Calvin on Gen., 97. Even as if a Man should give a sword and buckler into the hands of another.

1599.  Shaks., etc. Pass. Pilgr., xi. B 3. Euen thus (quoth she) the warlike god vnlac’t me.

1611.  Bible, John xvii. 18. Euen so haue I also sent them into the world.

1808.  R. K. Porter, Trav. Sk. Russia & Sweden (1813), I. i. 6. It was even as Saxo Grammaticus relates.

1816.  Scott, Old Mort., Introd. ‘Even sae—even sae.’

  b.  of time: occas. quasi-prep. = at the same moment with. Often with now (see further under NOW, and cf. ENOW). † Formerly also absol. = ‘just now,’ ‘just then’ (cf. just and Ger. eben).

c. 1205.  Lay., 25939. Efne [c. 1275 eafne] þissen worden þa þat wir seide, Beduer heo gon hirten.

1297.  R. Glouc. (1724), 535. Euene as the ssire sat, [Sir Maci] to the toune’s ende him drou.

c. 1325.  Poem temp. Edw. II. (Percy), lxxv. Euen upon the Monday.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 1980. He … Shoke euyn into ship, & the shalke leuyt.

1413.  Lydg., Pilgr. Sowle, V. xiv. (1859), 81. And euen with this word this Angel flewe his weye vp in to heuene.

15[?].  Merch. & Son, 230, in Hazl., E. P. P., I. 148. Ryght evyn abowte mydnyght.

c. 1600.  Shaks., Sonn., lxxi. Let your loue euen with my life decay. Ibid. (1611), Cymb., III. vi. 16. Euen before, I was At point to sinke, for Food.

1607.  Hieron, Wks., I. 399. The high priest will holde a councell, euen the dawning.

1612.  R. Sheldon, Serm. St. Martin’s, 48. Our most gratious Soueraigne being almost euen with the breaking vp of her [Q. Elizabeth’s] ghost most ioyfully in this city proclaimed.

1703.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 30. These Shanks are to be rivetted (as you were taught even now).

1820.  Keats, St. Agnes, xxxv. But even now Thy voice was at sweet tremble in mine ear.

  † c.  of place. Also absol. = close at hand (cf. Ger. n-eben). Obs.

c. 1340.  Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 5179. Even aboven þat vale namly, Whare al men sal se his body.

1393.  Langl., P. Pl., C. XX. 152. Ho so is hurt in þe hand, euene in þe myddes, He [etc.].

c. 1489.  Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, iii. 73. Of the other side it [the castell] had evyn at hande a grete wood.

1578.  Whetstone, Promos & Cass., II. ii. 2 Ap. Where dwels Lady Lamia? Ros. Even by, Syr.

  † d.  of shape. Obs.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), xi. 43. Þare was a table of gold, euen sqware.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 1635. A clene wall clustrit with towres, Euyn round as a ryng richely wroght.

  7.  Quite, fully. Formerly often before numerals; now only arch. in Even to (= L. usque ad), in which use it suggests some notion of sense 9.

c. 897.  K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past., xli. 300. Crist … hiene selfne ʓeeaðmedde emne oð ðone deað.

a. 1000.  Cædmon’s Gen., 1158 (Gr.). Cainan wintra hæfde efne hund-seofontiʓ ær him sunu woce.

c. 1205.  Lay., 13924. He heom wes leof æfne al swa heore lif.

c. 1325.  Chron. Eng., 937, in Ritson, Metr. Rom., II. 309. He reignede her Evene five ant thritti yer.

1546.  Wyclif’s Wycket, 1. In greate sufferance of persecution euen to the death.

1611.  Bible, Ex. xxvii. 5. That the net may bee euen to the midst of the Altar.

1646.  F. Hawkins, Youths Behav. (1663), 4. Nor is it beseeming to stoop so low as even to crowching.

1653.  H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., xlvi. 180. Carried at the mercy of the Sea even until Sun-set.

1667.  Milton, P. L., III. 586. His magnetic beam … Shoots invisible vertue even to the deep.

  8.  Prefixed to a subject, object, or predicate, or to the expression of a qualifying circumstance, to emphasize its identity. Obs. exc. arch. Also in 16–17th c. (hence still arch. after Bible use) serving to introduce an epexegesis; = ‘namely,’ ‘that is to say.’

a. 1000.  Guthlac, 946. Domes hleotan, Efne þæs ilcan, þe ussa yldran fyrn Frecne onfengon.

a. 1000.  Metr. Boeth., viii. 46. Efne sio ʓitsung.

c. 1489.  Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, xii. 306. I shall smyte of your hede, evyn anone.

1535.  Coverdale, 2 Chron. vii. 22. Euen because they haue forsaken the Lorde God of their fathers.

1591.  Shaks., Two Gent., II. i. 49. Speed. She that you gaze on so…. Val. Even she I meane. Ibid. (1596), Merch. V., V. i. 242. I sweare to thee, euen by thine owne faire eyes. Ibid. (1610), Temp., III. i. 14. These sweet thoughts, doe euen refresh my labours.

1594.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., Pref. iii. § 9. They imagined they even beheld as it were with their eyes.

1611.  Bible, Zech. xi. 10. I tooke my staffe, euen Beautie, and cut it asunder. Ibid., John viii. 25. Euen the same that I saide vnto you from the beginning.

1820.  Keats, St. Agnes, xvii. I will, even in a moment’s space, Awake … my foemen’s ears.

  b.  (Chiefly in colloq. form e’en.) Prefixed to verbs, with vague force expressible by ‘just,’ ‘nothing else but’; in early use sometimes with notion of ‘to be sure,’ ‘forsooth’ (L. scilicet). Now arch. and dial.

a. 1553.  Udall, Royster D., III. iv. (Arb.), 52. If she despise you een despise ye hir againe.

1653.  Walton, Angler, 125. Come, now bait your hook again,… and we wil ev’n retire to the Sycamore tree.

1655.  Fuller, Ch. Hist., II. iii. § 8. The beastly Monk … had e’ne learned as far as Virgil’s Æneids, whence he fetched the Platform of this pretty Conceit.

1686.  P. Henry, Diaries & Lett. (1882), 353. I can buy them here for 2s. 10d., which is e’en cheap enough.

1719.  De Foe, Crusoe (ed. 3), I. 172. I e’en let him out.

1741.  Richardson, Pamela, I. 178. E’en send to him to come down.

1790.  Mrs. Wheeler, Westmld. Dial., 28. Ise ean gang wie yee.

1802.  Bentham, Lett., Wks. 1843, X. 384. As to the intrigue about the Institute, since it is begun, e’en let it take its course.

  9.  Intimating that the sentence expresses an extreme case of a more general proposition implied (= Fr. même). Prefixed (in later use often parenthetically postfixed) to the particular word, phrase, or clause, on which the extreme character of the statement or supposition depends.

  This use, now the prevailing one in Eng., is foreign to the other Teut. langs. It is rare in purely dialectal speech, and (though a natural development of 8) seems not to have arisen before the 16th c. Cotgrave 1611 does not give even among the equivalents of Fr. mesme. The phrase not even (= L. ne … quidem) is rare in early use; Cooper Lat. Dict. 1572 renders ne in publicis quidem by ‘no, not in common affaires’ (though for ne nunc quidem he has ‘no, not euen now’: see 6 b); Walker Dict. Particles 1673 renders ne … quidem only by ‘no, not so much as’; the earliest Lat. Dict. that gives ‘no, not even’ is app. Ainsworth 1736.

  a.  Attached to the subj., agent or object.

1607.  Shaks., Timon, I. i. 82. Make sacred euen his styrrop.

1641.  J. Jackson, True Evang. T., III. 209. In Warre, even the Conqueror is commonly a loser.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 418/108. When ev’n the fearful Stag dares for his Hind engage.

1747.  Wesley, Prim. Physick (1762), 117. This quickly heals even cut veins and Sinews.

1802.  Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T. (1816), I. x. 82. Even this stupid gardener … is as useful to society as I am.

1821.  Keats, Lamia, 34. Jealousies Of the Wood-gods, and even the very trees.

1854.  Doran, Habits & Men, 176. He was in debt to no man, not even to his tailor.

1863.  Fr. A. Kemble, Resid. in Georgia, 11. The tone of insolent superiority assumed by even the gutter-urchins over their dusky contemporaries.

1884.  W. C. Smith, Kildrostan, 88. A harp, even, blunts the finger-tips.

  b.  Attached to a word or clause expressing time, manner, place, or any attendant circumstance.

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., I. (1586), 36. The leafe keepeth course and turneth with the Sunne, whereby it sheweth to the husbande, euen in cloudie weather, what time of the day it is.

1611.  E. Grimstone, trans. De Serres’ Hist. France, 257. Fortune … is a secret operation of the wisdome of God, alwaies iust, euen when it is most vnknown vnto vs.

1736.  Butler, Anal., I. i. 15. A Method of providential Conduct, the like to which, has been exercised even with regard to Ourselves.

1782.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., I. xiii. (1828), 491. Even on that memorable occasion his stay did not exceed two months.

1818.  Hallam, Middle Ages, ix. (1869), 636. Even in Italy … the domestic architecture of the middle ages did not attain any great perfection.

1881.  Bible (Revised), Mark xiv. 59. And not even so [1611 But neither so] did their witness agree together.

  c.  Attached to a hypothetical clause.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 594/114.

1799.  Sheridan, Pizarro, III. iii. 46. Even though that moment lost your Elvira for ever?

1824.  Scott, St. Ronan’s, xxviii. For such evil bruits Mr. Touchwood cared not, even if he happened to hear of them.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 175. Even if the king had been desirous to fulfil the promises which he had made to the Presbyterians.

1865.  Lubbock, Preh. Times, 323. Even if the embankment had remained intact to this day.

1873.  F. Hall, Mod. English, 36. Even suppose that these solecisms were collected.

Mod.  Even were there no other evidence, we should still be justified in assuming, etc.

  d.  Attached to the predicate (or any of its adjuncts), to emphasize the full extent of the statement (whether affirmative or negative).

1728.  R. Morris, Ess. Anc. Archit., 17. Such as these never arise even to the universal Knowledge of Order.

1779.  F. Hervey, Nav. Hist., II. 335. These [conditions] the parliament disliked and even signified a disinclination to ratify.

1841.  Dickens, Old C. Shop, xlii. He maintained a strict reserve, and even shunned her presence.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 111. Nor had they [Roman Catholics] ever, till the accession of James, found England an agreeable, or even a safe, residence.

  e.  Emphasizing a comparative; ‘still,’ ‘yet.’

173[?].  Butler, Serm., xi. It will even more strongly be taken for granted that [etc.].

1766.  Goldsm., Vic. W., i. The vanity and the satisfaction of my wife were even greater than mine.

1854.  Mrs. Jameson, Bk. of Th. (1877), 29. This advice is even more applicable to the painter.