a. F. très adv. ‘very’:—L. trans beyond; formerly in occasional Eng. use prefixed to adjs., properly French (or identical in form with French), as treschristien [= mod.F. chrétien Christian], tresgrand (very great), tresnoble, trespuissant, tres-royal; sometimes to English adjs., as tres-sacred, tres-splendent. Hence rarely in derived sb., as trespuissance.
1572. Satir. Poems Reform., xxxviii. 19. Thy style was *Treschristien, maist Cristen King.
1605. Broughton, Corrupt. Handl. Relig., 104. The trespas is doubtles *tresgrand.
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1977/1. Of this *tresnoble and *trespuissant monarch, I find these few verses.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., I. 181/1. The *trespuissance of Cnute, the amplenesse of his dominions.
1647. Ward, Simp. Cobler, 57. *Tres-Royall Sir, I once againe beseech you.
1600. W. Watson, Decacordon (1602), 49. The same *tres-sacred bodie … was both dead and buried.
1648. Petit. East. Assoc., 12. To behold … our *Tres-splendent Crown carried into a desolate Wardrope.
