adminish

English

Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle English amenusen, from Old French amenuisier; compare French amenuiser (“to make thinner”).

Verb

adminish (third-person singular simple present adminishes, present participle adminishing, simple past and past participle adminished)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To reduce in size or magnitude; to diminish. [1300s-1600s]
   • 1579, Joannes Rivius, translated by William Gace, A Guide unto godlinesse, moste worthy to bee followed of all true Christians, page 120:

     Helth of the body is muche to be vviſhed, yet it is diuvers and ſundry wayes mutable: ſtrength of the body is of many much made of, yet is it by ſicknes abated, by age adminiſhed & vvaſted.

   • 1680, The Charters of the City of London, page 117:

     […] theſe our Letters Patents or any Thing contained in them, ſhall not be interpreted or conſtrued to the taking or adminiſhing the Force of Effect of any Proclamations publiſhed hereafter […]

   • 1681, Johann Jacob, Institutiones Medicinæ Rationalis, page 68:

     In a Malignant Pleuriſy Bleeding cannot be adminiſhed without danger; tho we are ſometimes forc'd to give way to cuſtom.

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “variant form of 'administer'?”)

Verb

adminish (third-person singular simple present adminishes, present participle adminishing, simple past and past participle adminished)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To administer or govern. [1700s]
   • 1751, A Pupil of Alexander the Copperſmith, A Visionary Letter to the Freemen of the City of Bagdad, on a Late Election of Cailiff and Scapins, page 11:

     The chief Magiſtrate in the adminiſhing Relief out of the publick Bounty, was greatly defrauded and deficient in his Accounts.

   • 1768, Edward Cavendish Drake, A New Universal Collection of Authentic and Entertaining Voyages and Travels: From the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time, page 266:

     Calis exceeds Dover in begneſs; the market place is a ſpacious ſquare, and the government is adminiſhed by a mayor, and four aldermen.

   • 1781, John Adams, Principles of Law and Government, volume 1, pages 125–126:

     The great art of good government, when adminiſhed by the few, or a part of the community, is to make that, the inclination of the people, which is for the intereſt of the people; and by wiſe regulations, to make every one act, in the manner moſt ſubſervient to the public good, while he may intend only, his own private advantage.

References

• “adminish”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.