adown meaning (archaic): definition, etymology and quotations

adown

adv

/əˈdaʊn/

Etymology From Middle English adoun, from Old English adūn, earlier ofdūne (“down”), from of dūne (“off the hill”) (compare Latin ad vallum > Old French à val, used in the same way).

Archaic Down, downward; to or in a lower place.

Thrice did she sink adown.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 24:
[S]o / Do these upbear the little world below / Of Education,—Patience, Love, and Hope. / Methinks, I see them group'd in seemly show, / The straiten'd arms upraised, the palms aslope, / And robes that touching as adown they flow, / Distinctly blend, like snow emboss'd in snow.1830, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “[Sibylline Leaves.] Love, Hope, and Patience in Education.”, in The Poetical and Dramatic Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge […], volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1880, →OCLC, page 334:

1 more example

Many a family circle wept as they looked upon the familiar places, which would know their lost ones no more; but ah, chide me not, kind reader, in thus leading you adown to the coldness of death, in setting before you that which causes your tender heart to shudder.1859, Ferna Vale, Natalie; or, A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds:

adown

prep

Etymology From Middle English adoun, from Old English adūn, earlier ofdūne (“down”), from of dūne (“off the hill”) (compare Latin ad vallum > Old French à val, used in the same way).

Archaic Down.

I fell from one dream into another; found myself wandering through impossible places; […] peering out into the darkness, to catch a sight of a vague figure standing somewhere in the shadow, and looking, with the sun streaming into my eyes and blinding me, adown long white roads filled with a multitude of people […]1875, Charlotte Riddell, The Uninhabited House:
Before yon field of trembling gold Is garnered into dusty sheaves, Or ere the autumn’s scarlet leaves Flutter as birds adown the wold, […]1881, Oscar Wilde, “[Rosa Mystica.] Rome Unvisited.”, in Poems, London: David Bogue, […], →OCLC, canto IV, page 47:

1 more example

The policeman on the beat moved up the avenue impressively. […] Trying doors as he went, twirling his club with many intricate and artful movements, turning now and then to cast his watchful eye adown the pacific thoroughfare, the officer, with his stalwart form and slight swagger, made a fine picture of a guardian of the peace.1906 April, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “After Twenty Years”, in The Four Million, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co, →OCLC, page 214:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.