pyx
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɪks/
homophone: picks
homophone: pics
homophone: pix
rhymes: -ɪks
Forms: form: pyxes
form: pyxing
form: pyxed
form: pyxed
form: pix
Etymology: The noun is derived from Late Middle English pix, pixe (“vessel for holding a host, pyx; hip bone socket, pyxis”) [and other forms], from Late Latin pyxis (“vessel for holding a host”), Latin pyxis (“small box for medicines or toiletries; box holding sample coins for testing; hip bone socket; sailor's compass”), from Koine Greek πυξίς (puxís), Ancient Greek πῠξῐ́ς (pŭxĭ́s, “box; box or tablet made of boxwood; cylinder”), from πῠ́ξος (pŭ́xos, “box tree; boxwood”) + -ῐς (-ĭs, suffix forming feminine nouns). Doublet of box, piseog, and pyxis.
The verb is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: Than was yt boxed pyxed and tabernacled & so borne forth in processyon with torche lyght banner crosse candelstyck.
ref: 1545, Iohan Bale [i.e., John Bale], A Mysterye of Inyquyte Contayned within the Heretycall Genealogye of Ponce Pantolabus [John Huntingdon], […], Geneva: […] Mycheal Woode [actually Antwerp: A. Goinus], →OCLC, folio 34, recto:
text: The bread that was left of this consecration or breaking, which was so holy as the other, was neither housed nor churched, boxed nor pixed, but remained there still to the householders, to be eaten of whomsoever lusted.
ref: 1545, John Bale, “[The Image of both Churches, Being an Exposition of the Most Wonderful Book of Revelation of St John the Evangelist.] The Twenty-second Chapter.”, in Henry Christmas, editor, Select Works of John Bale, […] (Parker Society for the Publication of the Works of the Fathers and Early Writers of the Reformed English Church; 1), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] The University Press, published 1849, →OCLC, page 628:
text: Christ ordained the supper to be a taking matter, an eating matter, a distributing and remembering matter: contrary our mass-men make it a matter, not of taking, but of gazing, peeping, pixing, boxing, carrying, re-carrying, worshipping, stooping, kneeling, knocking, with "stoop down before," "hold up higher," "I thank God I see my Maker to-day," etc. Christ ordained it a table-matter: we turn it to an altar-matter.
ref: 1583, John Foxe, “The Preface to the Reader”, in Josiah Pratt, editor, The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe. […], 3rd edition, volume VI, London: George Seeley, […], published 1870, →OCLC, book X (The Beginning of the Reign of Queen Mary), page 361:
glosses: To place (the host) in a pyx.
examples: text: Here lies poor Artedi, in foreign land pyx'd / Not a man nor a fish, but something betwixt, / Not a man, for his life amongst fishes he past, / Not a fish, for he perished by water at last.
ref: a. 1814, George Shaw, “In Humulum Artedi”, in Theodore W[ells] Pietsch [III], The Curious Death of Peter Artedi: A Mystery in the History of Science, New York, N.Y.: Scott & Nix, published 2010, →ISBN:
text: There pyxed in alabastrine cell, / All uncorrupt his shade shall dwell, / While waves his memory chime; […]
ref: 1888, James Saunders, “Raygarth’s Gladys”, in Raygarth’s Gladys: And Other Poems, London: Thomas Laurie, […], →OCLC, stanza VI, page 37:
glosses: To enclose (something) in a box or other container; specifically, to place (a deceased person's body) in a coffin; to coffin, to encoffin.
examples: text: After the said moneys shall be by the said warden and the assaymaster tried and pyxed as ordered by the said indenture, the said master worker shall make true deliverance and payment of the same to every person by weight by the same balance and weight whereof he shall receive the same bullion, taking again his said bills; […]
ref: 1578 October 7 (Gregorian calendar), “Commission to Richard Martyn”, in Calendar of the Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office: Elizabeth I, volumes VII (1575–1578), London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, published 1982, →ISBN, part IV (20 Elizabeth I, C. 66/1167), paragraph 2885, page 437:
text: [W]hen the money is coined it is not allowed to go out of the mint until pixed; that is, until it had been ascertained, by the assay of one piece taken out of each journeyweight of coin, that it is of standard purity: […]
ref: 1842, “ASSA′Y”, in W[illiam] T[homas] Brande, assisted by Joseph Cauvin, editors, A Dictionary of Science, Literature, & Art: […], London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], →OCLC, page 95, column 2:
text: The ascertaining whether coin is of the proper standard is in England called "pixing" it; and there are occasions on which resort is had for this purpose to an ancient mode of inquisition called the "trial of the pix," before a jury of members of the Goldsmiths' Company.
ref: 1891, Henry Campbell Black, “PIX”, in A Dictionary of Law […], St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Co., →OCLC, page 899:
text: Among the incidental operations [in manufacturing coins] are […] "pyxing" the finished coin, or selecting specimens to be weighed and assayed; […]
ref: 1911, Thomas Kirke Rose, “MINT”, in Hugh Chisholm, editor, The Encyclopædia Britannica […], 11th edition, volume XVIII (Medal to Mumps), New York, N.Y.: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company, →OCLC, page 559, column 2:
text: It appears that, in this instance, the coin had to wait a certain time for what is called the regular pyxing day; would it not be possible for you to fix the time for pyxing as soon as the coin was delivered to you, without waiting for the regular days?
ref: 1837 June 27, Henry Labouchère, “Select Committee on the Royal Mint”, in Reports from Committees: […], volume 12, [London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office], →OCLC, paragraph 2564, page 178:
text: Arrived per tramway before alluded to, they [the coins] are now "pyxed" by the senior officers. […] The pyxing at the Mint is a short operation, and after it the coins are ready for delivery to the Bank.
ref: 1859 July 15, “Money-making at the Royal Mint. No. VI.”, in R. J. Brooman, E[dward] J[ames] Reed, editors, The Mechanics’ Magazine and Journal of Engineering, Agricultural Machinery, Manufactures, and Shipbuilding, volume 2, number 29, London: Richard Archibald Brooman, […], →OCLC, pages 38–39:
text: From hence arises myriad serpent brood / Of varied shape,—men, snakes and devils mixed. / Persuade or hiss according to their mood, / But inward grovel all, decretal-pyxed.
ref: 1915, T. K. E. [pseudonym; attributed to Le Roy Bliss Peckham], edited by W. G. Sette, Sin, Original and Actual: The Plain People’s Plaint, Boston, Mass.: Richard G. Badger; Toronto, Ont.: The Copp Clark Co., →OCLC, stanza XXXV, page 46:
text: If the random sample pyxed passed the tests, all was well, and the Master was entitled without charge to a quittance under the great seal of England; but if the moneys did not pass, then he was liable to an unlimited fine.
ref: 1981, George C. Boon, Cardiganshire Silver and the Aberystwyth Mint in Peace & War, Cardiff: Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Cymru = National Museum of Wales, →ISBN, page 75:
text: Coins marked '2' were pyxed on 7 June 1603.
ref: 1986, Joe Cribb, editor, Money: From Cowrie Shells to Credit Cards: […], London: British Museum Publications for the Trustees of the British Museum, →ISBN, page 62:
glosses: To deposit (sample coins) in a pyx; (by extension) to test (such coins) for the fineness of metal and weight before a mint issues them to the public.
Derived terms: word: pyxed
word: pyxing