Grammar

Random-ise: Thomas Nashe, mummianize, tympanize and other -ize verbs

This is part of an investigation I've been doing into the use and spelling of -ize suffix verbs and their spelling (-ize or -ise) in British English. For more details, related posts and the methods I've used, see the -ize / -ise page.

Background

The earliest -ize verbs to enter English did so from Latin verbs ending in -izare, which had in turn often got them from Greek verbs with the suffux -izein. Some of the very earliest, like recognise, appear to have originally adopted the Old English suffix -isen, as the letter z hadn't yet been adopted into English (from French). Some came directly from Latin, others via French, for example realise.

If we look at the most common -ize verbs today, however, many of them don't owe their derivation to Latin or Greek verbs, but simply started by somebody adding the -ize suffix to existing nouns and adjectives, whose own derivation may or may not be Latin. Examples include stabilise, finalise and a raft of business buzzwords, including incentivise.

This practice seems to have started quite early on. By the late 16th century, such verbs as equalise, memorise, epitomize and apologise had appeared, all of which seem to have originated by merely adding the -ize suffix to existing words.

Thomas Nashe 1567 - c.1601

Traditionally, or at least according to the OED (and perhaps also the gentleman in question), the first person to do this was Thomas Nashe (or Nash), a pamphleteer, playwright, poet and satirist in late Elizabethan England, who, writing about reactions to his own writing style, said:

'The ploddinger sort of unlearned Zoilists about London exclaim that it is a puffed-up style, and full of profane eloquence; others object unto me the multitude of my boisterous compound words, and the often coining of Italianate verbs which end all in -ize, as mummianize, tympanize, tyrannize'

Epistle to the Reader, introduction to the 1594 second edition of Christ's Tears over Jerusalem

The word ploddinger seems to be an invention of Nashe's, Zoilists were imitators of Zoilus, a Greek grammarian, Cynic philosopher, and literary critic from Amphipolis in East Macedonia famous for his carping cryticism. Nashe seems to be claiming tyrannise as one of his neologisms, but Online Etymology Dictionary has it as late 15c., from Middle French tyranniser (14c.).

I'm pretty sure, however, that we can credit him with mummianize and tympanize, as well as alchumise and paradize from The Unfortunate Traveller (1593), which don't seem to appear in any dictionaries.

For the late William Safire, writing in the New York Times, Nashe seems to have been held single-handedly responsible for the modern tendency of creating new verbs and their derivatives by adding -ise/-ize to existing nouns and adjectives, which, far from being something new, has been going on for four hundred years or so. You can read more about this at the New York Times and Language Log links at the end of the post.

You can find lots of information about Nashe, with a complete list of hs works and links to other websites, encyclopedias etc at Luminarium.org - 'An Anthology of English Literature'. They also have links to the title pages of his books. (Link below)

Here I look for -ize suffix verbs and French-based -ise verbs in just three of his works:

The Unfortunate Traveller 1594
Christ's Tears over Jerusalem 1593
Pierce Penniless 1592

Nashe's prolific use of -ize verbs

As well as apparently inventing quite a few -ize verbs, Nashe seems to be have been very fond of using existing ones as well. The use of -ize verbs was quite rare at the time. Shakespeare only uses about thirty, and there is only one, baptize, in the King James Bible.

Yet in Christ's Tears alone, we have more than in the whole of Shakespeare, and in The Unfortunate Traveller, the number of -ize suffix verbs is almost equal to that of French-based -ise verbs, which was highly unusual for that time. This delight in -ize verbs doesn't seem to appear again until the middle of the eighteenth century.

Here are some of the stranger -ize verbs he uses. Those asterisked are probably his own invention. Links are to OneLook Dictionary (A dictionary of dictionaries, and even then some don't appear):

alchumize *** - The Unfortunate Traveller
carrionized - Christ's Tears
citizenized - Christ's Tears
diagorized *** - Christ's Tears
disparadized - Christ's Tears
epicurize - The Unfortunate Traveller
eternizing - The Unfortunate Traveller
gurmandize - Pierce Penniless
mirmidonized *** - Christ's Tears
monarchizing - Christ's Tears, Pierce Penniless
mummianize *** - Christ's Tears
oblivianize - Christ's Tears
oraculized - Christ's Tears
paradize - The Unfortunate Traveller
palpabrize - Christ's Tears
signiorizing - Christ's Tears
soldierized - Christ's Tears
tragedize - Christ's Tears
tympanize - The Unfortunate Traveller, Christ's Tears
unmortalize - Christ's Tears
warrantized - Christ's Tears

Other words attributed to Nashe

Nashe is also listed in the OED as being responsible for the earliest occurrence of the word jobbernowl - A stupid or foolish person; an idiot, a numbskull.

Gaffer Iobbernoule,..how dost thou? (Strange Newes 1592)

The Unfortunate Traveller 1594

In the opening phrases of his dedication of the The Unfortunate Traveller to the poet, the Lady Elizabeth Carey, Nashe includes a word apparently of his own making - mummianized. The word preludately also seems pretty well unique to Nash:

Excellent accomplished court-glorifying Lady, give me leave, with the sportive sea-porpoises, preludiately a little to play before the storm of my tears, to make my prayer before I proceed to my sacrifice. Lo, for an oblation to the rich burnished shrine of your virtue, a handful of Jerusalem's mummianized earth, in a few sheets of waste paper enwrapped, I here, humiliate, offer up at your feet.

As well as somewhat strange -ize verbs, Nashe uses niggardise (meaning niggardliness) a couple of times. This is now listed as obsolete, and is usually referenced to Nashe's contemporary, Spencer. Nashe possibly also coined armourwise and siring-wise, as they don't appear in any of the dictionaries at OneLook.

and another that had bent a couple of yron dripping pans armourwise
& charged siring-wise with searching sweet water,
were for meere niggardise
He was dame Niggardize sole heyre

A note on the Project Gutenberg version

The Project Gutenberg version is taken from an edition published in 1892, with an essay on Nashe's life and times by Edmund Gosse, and published in London by C.Whittington. It appears to keep to the spelling of the original.

Searchable editions at Google Books

Unfortunately there don't seem to be any Full View versions at Google Books, but there are at least four versions with a limited search function. Occasionally the word shows up in search but isn't visible.

Facsimile by Percy Reprints, 1920
Included in the Complete Works, 1885, ed.Grossart
Together with with Pierce Pennyless, 1892 ed Grosse, C. Whittington, London
With Christ's Tears, The Tragedy of Dido, 1904, ed. McKerrow

Suffix -ize verbs - 18 instances of 14 verbs

OneLook Dictionary, which links to hundreds of other dictionaries, finds no definitions for alchumize or paradize.

		1920 Facsimile		1885		1892
		-ise	-ize	-ise	-ize	-ise	-ize
alchumize	(1)		1		1		1
anatomize	(1)		1		1		1
authorize	(1)		1		1		1
authorized	(3)	3	2		1	1	4
canonize	(1)		1		3		1
canonized	(1)	1			1		1
epicurising	(1)	1		1		1
epitomize	(1)		1		1		1
eternize	(1)		1		1		1
exorcized	(1)				1		1
memorize	(1)		1		1		1
organizing	(1)		1		1		1
paradized	(1)		1		1		1
particularize	(1)		1		2		1
temporizers	(1)		1		1		1
tyranize	(1)		1		1		1

French -ise verbs - 19 instances of 10 verbs

		1920 Facsimile
		-ise	-ize
aduertised	(1)
characterise	(1)	1
chastise	(1)	1
despise	(1)	1
despised	(2)	2
deuise	(2)	1
deuised	(2)
deuising	(2)	2
disguised	(2)	1
exercised	(1)
exercising	(1)	1
supervising	(1)	1
surmise	(1)	1
surprized	(1)		1

Showing all instances of -ize and -ise as shown in Project Gutenberg

get mee, to canonize your name to

nutriment of whose authorized commendation they may

quart pots to authorize it, it were

pots, I came disguised vnto him in

men Roman histories canonised, was not borne

they must liue despised and in miserie

sparke of Adams paradized perfection yet emberd

none more contemned. Despised they are of

it is that exercising his empire in

my eyes, hath exorcized and cleane coniured

continued deserts will eternize me vnto thee,

a knight arrant, exercised in the affaires

into their kandes, deuised the meanes to

For in deede they were meere temporizers

he determined to tyranize. Nere a line

blushing Sabine maids surprized on the sodain

my defence lesse authorized. It will be

it did he anatomize these bodie-wanting mots,

when hee was aduertised of to the

this did hee characterise a man desirous

he could not deuise which waie to

Florence yelded. To particularize their maner of

passe. Should I memorize halfe the myracles

their heeles againe. Disguised as they go,

were all those organizing implements obscured in

a notable Bandetto, authorized by ye pope,

her braine doates? Deuise with your selues

pure deceasing spirite despise me when we

chastisement, is to chastise our selues in

the art of epicurising, the art of

off, hee would alchumize an oyle, that

vnder my side, deuising what a kinde

little did I surmise that fortune reserued

discontentment, and other supervising espialls, to plye

for me to epitomize his impietie, as

as I stood deuising how to frame

my selfe I deuised how to plague

Christ's Tears Over Jeruasalem 1593

First search was done with a plain text at EBooksRead and checked with an 1815 version at Google Books.

In an effort to bestow some gravity on Christ's Tears, Nashe clutters its style with huge and compound words, with coinages ending in -ate or -ize, and with alliteration. Readers must make their way among preludiately, mummianized, gross-brained formallity, purely pacificatory suppliants, assertionate, oblivionize, and luciferious passionate-ambitious.

PoetryFoundation

Suffix -ize verbs - 47 instances of 44 verbs

		1815
		-ise	-ize
adulterised	(1)	1
agonizing	(1)		1
anatomize	(1)		1
authorise	(1)	2
authorized	(1)		1
baptized	(1)		1
canonized	(1)		1
canonizing	(1)		1
carrionized	(1)		1
chastised	(1)
christianized	(1)		1
citizenized	(1)		1
covetise	(4)		4
diagorized	(1)
disparadised	(1)	1
equalize	(1)		1
eternizing	(1)		1
memorize	(2)		2
mirmidonized	(1)		1
monarchizing	(1)		1
mummanized	(1)
nectarized	(1)		1
oblivionize	(1)		1
oraculized	(1)		1
palpabrize	(1)		1
re-tranquillized	(1)
royalize	(1)		1
rumatize	(1)		1
scandalized	(1)		1
signiorizing	(1)		1
soldierized	(1)		1
spiritualized	(1)		1
superficialized	(1)		1
tragedize	(1)		1
tympanized	(1)		1
tyrannise	(1)		1
tyrannizing	(1)		1
unauthorised	(1)		1
unmortalize	(1)
unparadised	(1)	1
warrantized	(1)		1

French -ise verbs - 33 instances of 18 verbs

		1815
		-ise	-ize
chastise	(3)	3
chastised	(2)	4
chastising	(3)	3
circumcise	(1)	1
comprise	(1)	1
despise	(8)	8
despised	(3)	3
despising	(3)	3
devised	(1)	1
disguised	(2)	2
disguising	(1)	2
enfranchise	(1)	1
exercise	(1)	1
surprise	(1)	1
surprised	(2)	2

Showing all instances of -ize and -ise as shown in the EbooksRead version, with links to the edition published in London in 1815

words might not comprise thy fame.

a handful of Jerusalem's mummanized 1 earth (in

you. To the eternizing of the heroical

supportive perpetuating of your canonized reputation wholly this

must and will memorize more especially, for you

soever I have scandalized the meanest. Into

not to be despised or disannulled. Next this,

tribulation that shall exercise or try thee,

hath his texts to authorise him. Nothing doth

for pride of despising the preaching of

repent and be baptized, but thou wouldst not

thou hast been chastised but with wanton whips;

woman, child, he shall unmortalize and mangle ;

her gall, all are carrionized and contaminated with

let thy deep-entering dart oblivionize their memories.

fast-fortified prayer, and ear- agonizing invocation, I have

impressive heart, and mirmidonized mine eyes, that

Seneca I should tragedize myself, by bleeding

a subject to royalize your Muses with. Of

seminarized this hope of signiorizing and freedom amongst

perplex pale paper, rumatize my reader's eyes, with

had repining victual-scanting masters, tyrannizing nevertheless for their

already slain Til anatomize and embowel, the more

re-tranquillized and rejoiced it,

sin shalt thou clean circumcise, by this one

yet, that it may memorize against you ;

Two thousand by this covetise slept their last.

into his hands unauthorised. Thou sufferedst him

substance of, by canonizing such a multifarious

ere this hast disparadised our first parent

that the spirit of monarchizing in private men,

; as riches or covetise there is nothing

at sea, or disasterly soldierized it by land,

us, than the nectarized aqua calestis of water-mingled

; learn to despise the world, despise

despise the world, despise vanity, despise thyself,

world, despise vanity, despise thyself, to despise despising,

vanity, despise thyself, to despise despising, and, lastly,

despise thyself, to despise despising, and, lastly, to

and, lastly, to despise no man. If

a man is so tympanized with prosperity, and

they cannot grossly palpabrize or feel God with

kings to walk disguised amongst their subjects. He

and yet is Diagorized 1 , will

will never be Christianized. University men, that are

of Terence is oraculized, Patres aquum censer e

blessing hath he warrantized.

senses, he will despise you and flout you.

their eyes with spiritualized distillations? Why tip

suck up that adulterised sinful beauty, wherewith she

our royalty, we cannot equalize one of the

await, for wanton disguising thyself against kind,

covets nought but gold covetise. None, in a

into thee and surprise thee. Watch and

thou be not surprised. In vain is

a form-shifting devil, disguised in man's likeness. Utterly

their cheeks you behold superficialized, is but Sir

The devil to enfranchise them of hell,

Awake, you wits, grave authorized law distributors, and

in her apparel citizenized, she is the

any price. God is despised in comparison of

mortality but to covetise.

Let covetise be enlarged out

sleep, so we ( surprised with a lethargy

the apostle, " despise not the chastisement of

V The Lord's chastising we think to

to escape by despising it. Quod in

of all is despised. Est tentatio adducens

us not to despise the chastising of God,

to despise the chastising of God, so he

Hath God chastised or scourged such

for in his chastising, he hath shewed more

a few days chastise us at their

and chastise us, yet cannot

transitory chaff, they tyrannise and reign over

is to be chastised of the Lord

wherein Adam was unparadised, and the fruit-fostering summer

pleasant sportive wits have devised to gull them

in thine anger, neither chastise us in thy

Pierce Penniless 1592

I did my original search in an HTML version of the 1592 original available at Luminarium, an excellent website for early English literature, and then checked it with a reprint of this edition at Google Books, as well as a later reprint (1964).

The 1592 version at Google Books is reprinted in a later edition of 'Miscellaneous Tracts' (date unknown), which also includes the much longer 'Pierce's Supererogation, or a New Prayse of the Old Asse' of 1593, a critique of Nashe by Gabriel Harvey, as well as a piece by Harvey critical of Nashe called 'A New Letter of Notable Contents'. This accounts for the greater number of instances of some -ise words.

Nashe and Harvey had a long-standing literary quarrel, which you can read about in an article at Elizabethan Authors and in the entry for Gabriel Harvey at Wikipedia, both linked to below.

Spelling idiosyncracies and discrepancies

There is another problem, in that the s in -ise words sometimes shows up in search as an s and sometimes as an f, and in the case of devise, both (in the Google Books version).

At this time the letters u and v were often interchanged, for example the full title of the piece is printed in both the Luminarium version and the 'Miscellaneous Tracts' version of the 1592 edition as:

Pierce Penilesse
HIS SVPPLICATION
to the Deuill

But there are also spelling discrepancies between the two versions of the same edition, with Luminarium going for s rather than f, but also for u instead of v and the Miscellaneous Tracts version doing the opposite, which is shown by what follows the title:

Luminarium	Miscellaneous Tracts
printed by Abell Iesses, for I.B. 1592.	Printed By Abell Jeffes, for Iohn Busbie. 1592
A priuate Epistle of the Author to the Printer	A Private Epiftle of the Author to the Printer

This all makes searching and checking rather a hit-and-miss process.

Suffix -ize verbs - 5 instances of 5 verbs

		1592		1964
		-ise	-ize	-ise	-ize
anatomizing	(1)		1		1
canonized	(1)		1		1
gurmandise	(1)		1		0
monarchizing	(1)		1		1
moralizing	(1)		1		1

Nouns ending in -ize and -ise

		1592		1964
		-ise	-ize	-ise	-ize
cowardize	(1)		-ize		-ice
niggardize	(1)		1	2
sumise	(1)	0		0

French -ise verbs - 27 instances of 14 verbs

		1592		1964
		-ise	-ize	-ise	-ize
aduertised	(2)	1		3
aduise	(1)	1+(5)		0
comprise	(1)	1		1
aduise	(1)	1+(5)		0
despise	(3)	1 + 1		3
despised	(1)	1		3
deuise	(7)	5+(12) + 2		11
deuised	(2)	2+(11)		2
deuisers	(1)	1		1
deuising	(1)	2		2
enterprise	(2)	2+(6)		2
exercise	(3)	3		3
surmise	(1)	1		3
surmize	(1)		0		0

Showing all instances of -ize and -ise as shown at Luminarium

that if any such lewde deuise intrude it selfe to their

Other news I am aduertised of, that a scald triuial

is odious, specially, in this moralizing age, wherein euery one seeks

vnfruitfull studie, or seeme to despise the excellent qualified partes of

a most false and iniurious sumise. There is nothing that if

losse, my vulgar Muse was despised & neglected, my paines not

young maisters doe nothing but deuise how to spend and aske

vpon, and he could not deuise how to wrest an odde

On the other side, Dame Niggardize his wife, in a sedge

walls of Roan. Hee will despise the barbarisme of his own

Latine. You that bee wise despise it, abhorre it, neglect it;

all points as might be deuised; and the grunting Dogge somewhat

lookes? The Poets were ill aduised, that fained him to be

soules would not need bee canonized for Martyrs, that on the

not. Be aduertised Master Os fœtidum, Bedle of

the Blackesmithes, that Lawyers cannot deuise which way in the world

of vices, and mother of cowardize, alledging many examples, how there

much encouragement, as hee should surmize his superficiall arguments had shaken

Smithi. the Muses, queintlie couldst thou deuise heauenly Ditties to Apolloes Lute,

water, or beene at the anatomizing of the Skies intrailes in

And whereto tends all this gurmandise, but to giue sleepe grosse

Drinking super nagulum, a deuise of drinking new come out

long doth not amisse to exercise the eies withall. Fat men

Vinterns, Alewiues, and Victuallers, who surmise if there were no Playes,

sits melancholie in his Chamber, deuising vpon felonie or treason, and

degrees greater than he was, aduised him to digge a pit

so customablie practised, that often exercise had quite abrogated the opinion

wife, but first askt their aduise, nor pare his nailes, nor

one daie, as these two Deuisers were plotting by themselues how

in force fraile men to enterprise all wickednesse that maie be,

maleuolence and enuie. Such a monarchizing spirit it was, that said

to be such as first deuised cards and dice, and I

was licensed by God, nor exercise his tyranie ouer Iob till

to steale a horse, should deuise by the waie as he

my vnable pen should euer enterprise such a ccontinuate taske of

Because few words might not comprise thy fame.

Links - Thomas Nashe - biographies etc

Wikipedia
Luminarium
Poetry Foundation
Dictionary of National Biography (1885-1900) - at Wikisource
The Cambridge History of English and American Literature (1907–21) - at Bartleby.
Luminarium - List of Works by Nashe

Links - Thomas Nashe - controversies and a quarrel

Language Log - Faults "intollerable and euer vndecent" - Nashe and -ize verbs
Language Log - Centuries of disgust and horror? - Nashe and -ize verbs
William Safire - New York Times - Nashe and the use of -ize to invent new words
Gabriel Harvey - Wikipedia
Elizabethan Authors - The Harvey-Nashe quarrel

The Unfortunate Traveller

Wikipedia
Project Gutenberg (from the 1892 Gosse edition)
Facsimile of original edition, 1920 Edited HFB Brett-Smith, Blackwell, Oxford 1920
At Google Books
London 1920 Facsimile of the original edition published by Percy Reprints
London 1885, ed.Grossart Included in the Complete Works
London 1892, ed.Grosse C. Whittington, Together with with Pierce Pennyless,
London 1904, ed. McKerrow With Christ's Tears, The Tragedy of Dido, 1904

Christ's Tears

Christ's Tears - Google Books (London 1815 - reprinted from 1613 edition)
Ebooksread - from an edition published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, which suggests that it was published between 1811 and 1824 (see Wikipedia).
Archive.org
Christ's Tears PDF 1 (Oxford-Shakespeare)
Christ's Tears PDF 2 (Oxford-Shakespeare)

Pierse Penniless

Piers Penniless - Luminarium
Pierce Penilesse - London , Google Books

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