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a-mothering; see mothering.

amphiboly, an ambiguity, a sentence that can be construed in two different senses. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, ii. 1 (Compass). L. amphibolia; Gk. ἀμφιβολία, ambiguity.

amphisbæna, a serpent fabled to have a head at each end, and hence capable of advancing in either direction. Milton, P. L. x. 524. Gk. ἀμφίσβαινα, a kind of serpent that can go either forwards or backwards (Aeschylus).

amrell, admiral. Skelton, How the douty Duke of Albany, 55. See ssss1.

amuse, to distract, bewilder, puzzle. B. Jonson, Sejanus, v. 6 (Macro); ‘I am amused, I am in a quandary, gentlemen.’ Chapman, Mons. D’Olive, ii. (D’Olive). See Dict.

an, if (freq. in Shaks.); in old edds. mostly written and. Of very freq. occurrence in the phrase an it please you, 2 Hen. VI, i. 3. 18; an if, if, Othello, iii. 4. 83. See ssss1.

anadem, a wreath, chaplet. B. Jonson, Masque of the Barriers (Truth); Drayton, The Owl, 1168. Gk. ἀνάδημα, a headband; from ἀναδέειν, to bind up.

analects, pl. scraps, gleanings. ‘No gleanings, James? No trencher-analects?’ (lit. gleanings from trenchers), Cartwright, The Ordinary, iii. 5 (Rhymewell). Gk. ἀνάλεκτα, things gathered up; from ἀναλέγειν, to pick up.