Forms: α. 6 antyk(e, auntyke, 6–7 antik(e, -ick(e, 6–8 antick. β. 6– antique. [ad. L. antīqu-us, antīc-us, former, earlier, ancient, f. ante before (like postīcus, f. post after); or perh. immed. f. Fr. antique (16th c. ad. L., replacing OFr. antif). The modern ANTIC is a parallel form, which has always been distinct in sense in Eng., though both were spelt antik(e, antick(e in 16th c. For the present word the Fr. spelling antique has been concurrent from the first, and the only one since 1700. But the identity of pronunciation remained longer; Dr. Johnson says antique ‘was formerly pronounced according to English analogy, with the accent on the first syllable; but now after the French, with the accent on the last, at least in prose; the poets use it variously.’ See also ANTIC.]
A. adj.
1. Belonging to former times, ancient, olden. (Now generally rhetorical = of the ‘good old times.’)
α. 1541. R. Copland, Galyen’s Terap., 2 C iij b. And that this reason and maner were antyke.
1595. Spenser, Sonn., lxxix. The famous warriors of the anticke world.
1621. Quarles, Esther (1717), 141. Me list not ramble into antick days.
1678. Butler, Hud., III. I. 43. And us’d the only Antick Philters Deriv’d from old Heroick Tilters.
β. 1538. Starkey, England, 4. The old and antique phylosopharys.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., V. Prol. 26. The Senatours of th’ antique Rome.
1664. Butler, Hud., II. III. 902. Some say the Zodiack Constellations Haue long since changed their antique Stations.
1742. W. Collins, Ode, viii. 66. It is held of antique story.
1863. Clough, Relig. Poems, ii. 31. The antique pure simplicity with which God and good angels communed undispleased.
2. Having existed since olden times; of a good old age, aged, venerable. arch.
α. 1536. Pilgr. T., 65, in Thynne’s Animadv., App. 79. The old and antyk bulding.
1547. Boorde, Introd. Knowl., i. (1870), 120. The thyrd auntyke vniuersite of the worlde, named Oxford.
1664. Butler, Hud., II. I. 792. Or Innovation introduce In place of things of antick use.
β. 1596. Spenser, State Irel., 28. A nation so antique, as that no monument remaines of her beginning.
1610. G. Fletcher, Christ’s Vict., I. iv. Ye sacred writings in whose antique leaves.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., III. 138. Tempted them to neglect the care of their antique walls.
3. Old-fashioned, antiquated, such as is no longer extant.
α. 1647. N. Bacon, Hist. Disc., xxxii. 79. The Laws, though by their antick language darkned, yet plainly speak.
1680. Burnet, Rochester (1692), 170. Vertue is thought an Antick piece of Formality.
β. 1734. trans. Rollin’s Rom. Hist., III. VII. 364. Your integrity is of too antique a cast.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, II. 5. This antique expression has been … ridiculed by some moderns.
1847. Longf., Ev., I. i. 74. There stood the broad-wheeled wains and the antique ploughs and the harrows.
1879. McCarthy, Own Times, II. xxiii. 188. His loyalty to the Sovereign had something antique and touching in it.
b. Out of date, behind the time, stale. rare.
1755. H. Walpole, Lett. H. Mann, 261 (1834), III. 89. This will come to you as very antique news.
4. Of, belonging to, or after the manner of the ancients (of Greece and Rome).
1734. J. Richardson, in Birch, Milton’s Wks., 1738, I. 54. All his Images are pure Antique, so that we read Homer and Virgil in reading him.
1819. Byron, Juan, II. cxciv. And thus they form a group that’s quite antique, Half naked, loving, natural, and Greek.
1842. Mrs. Browning, Grk. Chr. Poets, 160. The Apollo of the later Greek sculpture-school … placed in a company of the antiquer statues.
5. Of or after the manner of any ancient time, archaic.
1753. Hogarth, Anal. Beauty, vi. § 6. 37. The antique lappets belonging to the head of the Sphinx.
1853. C. Brontë, Villette, i. Looking down on a fine antique street.
1870. F. Wilson, Ch. Lindisf., 76. A stiff, stilted, modern bell-cot … breaks the antique charm.
6. Bookbinding. See ANTIQUE v.
Mod. Bookseller’s Catalogue. Æneids of Virgil … wants title, Antique calf extra.
7. Typogr. ‘A popular style of display type in which all the lines are of uniform thickness.’ Ringwalt, Encycl. Print., 1871.
B. sb. [the adj. used ellipt.; sc. man, thing.]
† 1. A man of ancient times; pl. the Ancients. Obs.
1563. J. Shute, Archit., A iij a. Vitruuius one of the most parfaictest of all the Antiques.
1578. T. N., trans. Conq. W. India, 170. The soles were tied to the upper parte with latchets, as is painted of the Antikes.
1598. W. Phillip, Linschoten’s Trav. Ind. (1864), 201. Their Shooes they weare like Antiques with cut toes.
2. A relic of ancient art, or of bygone days.
1530. Palsgr., 487/2. If this antique were closed in golde, it were a goodly thing.
1665. Bp. Patrick, Par. Pilgr. Consider that old Fashions are wont to come about again, and that we are much in love with Antiques.
1766. Goldsm., Vic. Wakef., xx. His own business … was to collect pictures, medals, intaglios and antiques of all kinds.
1850. Leitch, Müller’s Anc. Art, § 36. By far the greatest number of antiques, especially statues, were found between 1450 and 1550.
3. The antique: ancient work in art, antique style.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., We say an antique building, or a building after the antique.
1859. Gullick & Timbs, Paint., 312. The course of drawing from the ‘antique’ is then entered upon.
