Chapter Amyclæan Brothers to Ancient Mariner of A by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Anachronism An event placed at a wrong date; as when Shakespeare, in Troilus and Cressida, makes Nestor quote Aristotle. (Greek, ana chronos, out of time.)

Anagnostes (Greek) A domestic servant employed by the wealthy Romans to read to them at meals. Charlemagne had his reader; and monks and nuns were read to at meals. (Greek, anaginosko, to read.)

Anagrams

Dame Eleanor Davies (prophetess in the reign of Charles I) = Never so mad a lady.
Gustavus = Augustus.
Horatio Nelson = Honor est a Nilo (made by Dr. Burney).
Queen Victoria's Jubilee Year = I require love in a subject.
Quid est Veritas (John xviii. 38)? = Vir est qui adest.
Marie Touchet (mistress of Charles IX of France = Je charme tout (made by Henri IV).
Voltaire is an anagram of Arouet l(e) j(eune).

These are interchangeable words: -

Alcuinus and Calvinus; Amor and Roma; Eros and Rose; Evil and Live; and many more.

Anah a tender-hearted, pious, meek, and loving creature, granddaughter of Cain, and sister of Aholibamah. Japhet loved her, but she had set her heart on the seraph Azaziel, who carried her off to some other planet when the flood came. - Byron: Heaven and Earth.

Anana The pine-apple (the Brazilian ananas).

"Witness thou, best Anana! thou the pride
Of vegetable life." Thompson: Summer, 685, 686.

Anastasia (St.) Her attributes are a stake and faggots, with a palm branch in her hand. The allusion is, of course, to her martyrdom at the stake.

Anathema A denunciation or curse. The word is Greek, and means to place, or set up, in allusion to the mythological custom of hanging in the temple of a patron god something devoted to him. Thus Gordius hung up his yoke and beam; the shipwrecked hung up their wet clothes; workmen retired from business hung up their tools, etc. Hence anything set apart for destruction; and so, set apart from the Church as under a curse.

"Me tabula sacer
Votiva paries indicat uvida
Suspendisse potenti
Vestimenta maris deo."
Horace: Odes (v. 13--16).

Horace, having escaped the love-snares of Pyrrha, hangs up his votive tablet, as one who has escaped the dangers of the sea.

Anatomy He was like an anatomy - i.e. a mere skeleton, very thin, like one whose flesh had been anatomised or cut off. Shakespeare uses atomy as a synonym. Thus the hostess Quickly says to the Beadle: "Thou atomy, thou!" and Doll Tearsheet caps the phrase with, "Come, you thin thing; come, you rascal." - 2 Henry IV, v. 4.

Anaxarete (5 syl.) of Salamis was changed into stone for despising the love of Iphis, who hung himself. - Ovid: Metamorphoses, xiv. 750.

Anaxarte (4 syl.) A knight whose adventures and exploits form a supplemental part of the Spanish romance called Amadis of Gaul. This part was added by Feliciano de Silva.

Ancaeos Helmsman of the ship Argo, after the death of Tiphys. He was told by a slave that he would never live to taste the wine of his vineyards. When a bottle made from his own grapes was set before him, he sent for the slave to laugh at his prognostications; but the slave made answer, "There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip." At this instant a messenger came in, and told Ancæos that a wild boar was