At 09:42 AM 11/7/2006, Stewart McCoy wrote: >In Thomas Campion's song, "Author of light", there is the line > >"Sunne and Moone, Starres and underlights I see". > >What are "underlights"? I can't find the word in any of the >dictionaries I have at home.
Hmmm. My first thought was that this is a reference to the planets, whose sphere is under that of the stars. Consulting the OED, there is one citation for underlight: 1876 <http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-g.html#gladstone>G<http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-g.html#gladstone>LADSTONE in Morley Life (1903) II. 550, I see that eastward sky of storm and of underlight. It points to the prefix under-, definition I. 5. c.: Denoting position below a surface or covering, or at a depth. Examples of this occur from the 17th century, but are not common until the 19th. 1892 <http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-m3.html#meredith>M<http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-m3.html#meredith>EREDITH Poet. Wks. (1912) 325 There chimed a bubbled *underbrew With witch~wild spray of vocal dew. 1913 Love Poems & Others 27 And even in the watery shells that lie Alive within the oozy *under-mire, A grain of this same fire I can descry. Many more quotations. I actually think the quotes under meaning II. "Denoting inferiority in rank or importance" fit better with this lyric. The underlights are the lesser lights of the sky. 6. b. With other nouns, in the sense of subordinate, subsidiary, minor'. An early instance of this is underhelp (1579); others, such as underaccident, -action, -cause, -ministry, etc., occur in the 17th cent. 1598 <http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-f.html#florio>F<http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-f.html#florio>LORIO, Sottodistintione, an *vnder-distinction, or subdistinction. 1691 <http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-n.html#norris>N<http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-n.html#norris>ORRIS Pract. Disc. 205 The Desire of Happiness..governs all the *under~motions of the Man. 1711 <http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-s5.html#swift>S<http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-s5.html#swift>WIFT Jrnl. Stella 28 Apr. (1901) 203 All the *under-hints there are mine too. Or, he could simply mean the lights both lower and lesser of human making which are visible at night on the earth's surface. Caroline **************************************** Caroline Usher DCMB Administrative Coordinator 613-8155, Room B343 LSRC Mailing address: Box 91000, Duke University, Durham NC 27708 -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
