Chapter Emeute to End of E by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

walls some sacred relic, which so awed the assailants that they would desist rather than incur the risk of violating such holy articles. This, he says, is the origin of enchanters, enchantments, and enchanted castles. (Historical Essays.)

Enchanter is one who sings incantations. (Latin, in-canto, to sing over or against some one.)

Encomium The Greek komos is a revel in honour of [Bacchus], in which the procession marches from komi to it kome: i.e. village to village. En-komion is the hymn sung in these processions in honour of Bacchus; hence, praise, eulogy

Encore (French). Our use of this word is unknown to the French, who use the word bis (twice) if they wish a thing to be repeated. The French, however, say encore un tasse (another cup), encore une fois (still once more). It is strange how we have perverted almost every French word that we have naturalised. (See English French.)

Encratites (4 syl.). A sect of the second century, who condemned marriage, forbade eating flesh or drinking wine, and rejected all the luxuries and comforts of life as "things sinful." The sect was founded by Tatian, a heretic of the third century, who compiled from four other books what he called a Diatessaron - an heretical gospel. (See Eusebius, book iv. chap. xxix.) (Greek, egcrates, self-mastery.)
    This heretic must not be confounded with Tatian the philosopher, a disciple of Justin Martyr, who lived in the second century.

Encroach means literally to put on a hook, or to hook on. Those who hook on a little here and a little there. (French, en croc, on a hook.)

End (Ang.-Sax, ende, verb endian.)
   At my wits' end. At a standstill how to proceed farther; at a non- plus.
   He is no end of a fellow. A capital chap; a most agreeable companion; an A 1 [A one] (q.v.). He is an "all round" man, and therefore has no end.
   To be [one's] end. The cause or agent of [his] death.

This apoplexie will be his end."
Shakespeare: 2 Henry IV., iv. 4.

   To begin at the wrong end. To attempt to do something unmethodically. This is often done in education, where children are taught grammar before they are taught words. No one on earth would teach his child to talk in such a manner. First talk anyhow, and when words are familiar, teach the grammar of sentences. The allusion may be to thread wound on a card or bobbin; if anyone attempts to unwind it at the wrong end, he will entangle the thread and be unable to unwind it.
   To come to the end of one's tether. To do all that one has ability or liberty to do. The allusion is to an animal tied to a rope; he can graze only so far as his tether can be carried out.
   To have it at my finger's end. To be perfectly au fait; to remember perfectly, and with ease; tanquam unguis scire. The allusion is to work done with the fingers (such as knitting), which needs no thought after it has become familiar.
   To have it on [or at ] the tip of my tongue. (See Tip Of My Tongue.)
   A rope's end. A short length of rope bound at the end with thread, and used for punishing the refractory.
   A shoemaker's end. A length of thread pointed with a bristle, and used by shoemakers.
   My latter end. At the close of life. "At the latter end," towards the close.

"At the latter end of a dinner."
Shakespeare: All's Well, etc., ii. 5.

   On end. Erect.
   To put an end to. To terminate or cause to terminate.
   West end, East end, etc. The quarter or part of a town east or west of the central or middle part.