Chapter Account to Achitophel of A by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Account to Achitophel

Account To open an account, to enter a customer's name on your ledger for the first time. (Latin, accomputare, to reckon with.)

To keep open account is when merchants agree to honour each other's bills of exchange.

A current account or account current, a/c. A commercial term, meaning that the customer is entered by name in the creditor's ledger for goods purchased but not paid for at the time. The account runs on for a month or more, according to agreement.

To cast accounts. To give the results of the debits and credits entered, balancing the two, and carrying over the surplus.

A sale for the account in the Stock Exchange means: the sale of stock not for immediate payment, but for the fortnightly settlement. Generally this is speculative, and the broker or customer pays the difference of price between the time of purchase and time of settlement.

We will give a good account of them - i.e. we will give them a thorough good drubbing

Accurate means well and carefully done. (Latin, ad-curare, accuratus.)

Accusative (The) Calvin was so called by his college companions. We speak of an "accusative age," meaning searching, one eliminating error by accusing it.

"This hath been a very accusative age." - Sir E. Dering.

Ace (1 syl.) The unit of cards or dice, from as, the Latin unit of weight. (Italian, asso; French and Spanish, as.)

Within an ace. Within a shave. An ace is the lowest numeral, and he who wins within an ace, wins within a single mark. (See Ambes-As.)

To bate an ace is to make an abatement, or to give a competitor some start or other advantage, in order to render the combatants more equal. It said that the expression originated in the reign of Henry VIII., when one of the courtiers named Bolton, in order to flatter the king, used to say at cards, "Your Majesty must bate me an ace, or I shall have no chance at all." Taylor, the water poet (1580--1654), speaking of certain women, says -

"Though bad they be, they will not bate an ace
To be cald Prudence, Temprance, Faith, and Grace."

Aceldama A battle-field a place where much blood has been shed. To the south of Jerusalem there was a field so called; it was purchased by the priests with the blood-money thrown down by Judas, and appropriated as a cemetery for strangers (Matt. XXVII. 8; Acts 1. 19). (Aramaic, okel-dama.)

Accephalites (4 syl.) properly means men without a head. (1) A fraction among the Eutychians in the fifth century after the submission of Mongus their chief, by which they were "deprived of their head." (2) Certain bishops exempt from the jurisdiction and discipline of their patriarch. (3) A sect of levellers in the reign of Henry I., who acknowledged no leader. (4) The fabulous Blemmyes of Africa, who are described as having no head, their eyes and mouth being placed elsewhere. (Greek, a-kephale, without a head.)

Acestes (3 syl.) The Arrow of Acestes. In a trial of skill Acestes, the Sicilian, discharged his arrrow with such force that it took fire. (Æ. 5, line 525.)

"Like Acestes' shaft of old,
The swift thought kindles as it flies."
Longfellow.

Achæan League A confederacy of the twelve towns of Achæa. It was broken up by Alexander the Great, but was again reorganised B.C. 280, and dissolved by the Romans in 147 B.C.

Achar in Indian philosophy means the All-in-All. The world is spun out of Achar as a web from a spider, and will ultimately return to him, as a spider sometimes takes back into itself its own thread. Phenomena are not independent realities, but merely partial and individual manifestations of the All-in-All.