diverb meaning (obsolete): definition, etymology and quotations

diverb

noun

Etymology Latin diverbium (“the colloquial part of a comedy, dialogue”).

Obsolete A proverb or set phrase.

By this means you many define ex ungue leonem, as the diverb is, by his thumb alone the bigness of Hercules […]1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 2, member 4:

Obsolete, Rhetoric An antithesis.

Italy, a paradise for horses, a hell for women, as the diverb goes.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC: