mickle
Language: English
Part of speech: det
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmɪk(ə)l/
ipa: /ˈmɪkəl/
rhymes: -ɪkəl
Etymology: From Middle English mickle, michel, mikel, mochel, muchel, mukel (“much; many; large, tall; great”), from Old English miċel, myċel (“big, large; great; much”), from Proto-Germanic *mikilaz (“great, large; many, much”), from Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s (“big, great”). The word is cognate with Faroese mikil (“large, great, much”), Icelandic mikill (“large in quantity or number; much; great”), Middle High German michel (“large, much”). Doublet of much and muckle.
For the adverb and noun forms, compare Middle English muchel (“extensively, greatly, much”, adverb) and Middle English muchel (“large amount”, noun).
The noun sense “a small amount” was due to the proverb many a little makes a mickle being incorrectly rendered as many a mickle makes a muckle, leading to mickle being thought to mean “a small quantity” and muckle to mean “a large quantity”, even though muckle is a variant of mickle and both mean “a large quantity”.
Senses: examples: text: There was mickle melody at that Childës [Jesus Christ's] birth, / All that were in heaven's bliss, they made mickle mirth.
ref: 15th century, “O Jesu Parvule”, in Edith Rickert, compiler, Ancient English Christmas Carols: MCCCC to MDCC (The New Medieval Library), London: Chatto & Windus; New York, N.Y.: Duffield & Co., published 1910, →OCLC, part I (Carols of the Nativity), page 67:
text: Full many wounds in his corrupted fleſh / He did engraue, and muchell blood did ſpend, / Yet might not doe him die, but aie more freſh / And fierce he ſtill appeard, the more he did them threſh.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 32, page 503:
text: Hees forc't to trot with fardle at his backe, / From houſe to houſe, demaunding if they lacke / A poore yong man that's willing to take paine, / And mickle labour, though for little gaine.
ref: 1597–1598, T[homas] M[iddleton], “Satyre 2. Prodigall Zodon.”, in Micro-cynicon: Sixe Snarling Satyres. […], imprinted at London: By Thomas Creede, for Thomas Bushell, […], published 1599, →OCLC; republished as [Edward Vernon Utterson], editor, Micro-cynicon: Sixe Snarling Satyres, [Ryde, Isle of Wight?]: Reprinted at the Beldornie Press, by G. E. Palmer, for Edwd. V. Utterson, 1842, →OCLC:
text: Becauſe they did not faithfully believe, and hope that he / Could alwaies help and ſuccor them in their neceſſitie. / Wherefore he did command the clouds, forthwith they brake in ſunder, / And rain'd down Manna for them to eat, a food of mickle wonder.
ref: 1675, Thomas Sternhold, John Hopkins [et al.], “The Whole Book of Psalms: Collected into English Meeter”, in The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments: […], Oxford: At the Theater, →OCLC, Psalm lxxviij:22–24:
glosses: Much; a great quantity or amount of.
examples: text: [H]e that tellt me saw wi' his ain ee'n, an' heard wi' his ain ears, the mickle part o' what I'm gaun to say—an' what he didna see or hear hissell, he learned frae those wha'd kent a' frae the beginnin'
ref: 1861, “Puir Grizel: A Tale o’ Scotland”, in Mrs. S. C. Hall [i.e., Anna Maria Hall], editor, The St. James’s Magazine, volume I, London: Published for the proprietor by W. Kent and Co., Paternoster Row; New York, N.Y.: Willmer and Rogers, →OCLC, page 74:
glosses: Most; the majority of.